reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations . please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations . april 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message ensoniq corporation type corporation industry musical instruments and technology fate acquired by creative technology january 1998 founded 1982 headquarters malvern pennsylvania key people bruce crockett al charpentier and bob yannes founders website www.emu.com ensoniq corp. was an american electronics manufacturer best known throughout the mid 1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments principally samplers and synthesizers . contents 1 company history 2 musical instruments and digital systems 2.1 timeline of major products 3 sound cards and semiconductors 3.1 soundscape 3.2 audiopci 3.3 transoniq hacker 4 references 5 external links company history edit ensoniq was founded in 1982 by former mos technology engineers robert bob yannes designer of the mos technology sid chip for the commodore 64 home computer bruce crockett and al charpentier . their first product was a software drum machine that ran on a home computer . in january 1998 ensoniq corp. was acquired by creative technology ltd. for 77 million and merged with e mu systems to form the e mu ensoniq division . the fusion with e mu sealed ensoniq s fate . after releasing an entry level e mu mk6 pk6 and ensoniq halo keyboards in 2002 essentially keyboard versions of the proteus 2500 module the e mu ensoniq division was dissolved and support for legacy products was discontinued soon afterward . musical instruments and digital systems edit mirage dsk 1 c. 1985 esq 1 1986 ensoniq entered the instrument market with the mirage sampling keyboard in 1985 . at the price of usd 1500 it cost significantly less than previous samplers such as the fairlight cmi and the e mu emulator . starting with the esq 1 they began producing sample based synthesizers . following the success of these products ensoniq established a subsidiary in japan in 1987 . ensoniq products were highly professional . strong selling points were ease of use and their characteristic fat rich sound generally thought of as being an american quality as opposed to the japanese sound which was more digital and somewhat cold . after the mirage all ensoniq instruments featured integrated sequencers even their late 80s and early 90s samplers providing an all in one digital studio production concept instrument . these were often called music workstations . starting with the vfx synthesizer high quality effects units were included in addition most synthesizer and all sampler models featured disk drives and or ram cards for storage . the manuals and tutorial documents were clearly written and highly musician oriented allowing the users to quickly get satisfactory results from their machines . in 1988 the company enlisted the dixie dregs in a limited edition promotional cd off the record which featured the band using the eps sampler and sq 80 cross wave synthesizer . the company had much success with the sq product line starting in the early 1990s . this was a lower cost line that included the sq 1 61 keys sq 2 76 keys and sq r rack mounted with no keys or sequencer . later versions were produced with 32 sound generating voices . vfx 1989 asr 10 1992 the company s heyday was in the early 1990s when the vfx synthesizers offered innovative performance and sequencing features and terrific acoustic sounds along with the asr series of 16 bit samplers which also integrated synthesis effects and sequencer into a single unit digital studio . the ts synthesizers followed the legacy of the vfx line improving several aspects such as the polyphony effects engine sample loading capabilities and even better synth and acoustic sounds . the dp series of effects rack mount units offered parallel processing and reverb presets on a par with lexicon s offerings but at affordable prices . dp 2 1995 despite these strengths early 1980s ensoniq instruments suffered from reliability and quality problems such as bad keyboards mirage dsk 8 under developed power supply units early esq 1 or mechanical issues eps polypressure keyboard . through the early and mid 1990s much effort was focused on improving the reliability of the products . the company didn t manage to reinvent its workstation concept in order to survive the mid and late 90s and no lower budget versions of their keyboards were offered to replace the aging sq line . excellent synthesizers like the vfx or ts models lacked cheaper rack mount counterparts . finally while the competition s products were continually evolving and newer technologies such as physical modeling were introduced ensoniq failed to follow the late 90s market orientation often recycling old concepts on their new products . during this time much of the engineering effort and company resources were focused on computer sound cards which offered more profit for the company . timeline of major products edit mirage dsk 8 1985 esq m 1986 eps 1988 eps 16 1991 1985 ensoniq mirage 1986 ensoniq esq 1 1986 ensoniq sdp 1 sampled digital piano 1988 ensoniq sq 80 1988 ensoniq eps 1989 ensoniq eps m 1989 ensoniq vfx 1990 ensoniq sq 1 1990 ensoniq sq 2 1990 ensoniq sq r later ensoniq sq r plus 1990 ensoniq eps 16 plus 1990 ensoniq sd 1 1992 ensoniq ks 32 1992 ensoniq asr 10 1993 ensoniq ts 10 1993 ensoniq dp 4 1995 ensoniq dp 2 1996 ensoniq mr61 1996 ensoniq kt 76 ensoniq kt 88 1997 ensoniq asr x 1997 ensoniq e prime fizmo 1998 1998 ensoniq fizmo 1998 ensoniq zr 76 1998 ensoniq asr x pro 1998 ensoniq paris digital audio workstation 2002 ensoniq halo e mu product using ensoniq brand sound cards and semiconductors edit ensoniq was known not only for their innovative musical instruments division but also for their computer audio chips . in 1986 after making an agreement with apple computer the same ensoniq 5503 doc digital oscillator chip utilized in the mirage sampler dsk 8 dsk 1 dms 1 esq 1 esqm and sq80 synthesizers and sdp1 piano module was incorporated into the apple iigs personal computer . the ensoniq es5505 otis otisr2 es5506 otto ottor2 and es5510 espr6 ensoniq signal processor were used in various arcade games . they were all manufactured on the cmos process . the otto was licensed to advanced gravis for use in the gravis ultrasound card . in 1994 production began on pc sound cards for home computers . the design of the video game console atari panther also included the otis chip though the product never reached series production . ensoniq s sound cards were highly popular secured numerous oem wins and enjoyed good compatibility throughout their lifetime with virtually every newer dos era game supporting the ensoniq soundscape either directly or through general midi . in addition ensoniq devised an isa software audio emulation solution for their new pci sound cards that was compatible with most dos games . it is speculated that this was an important factor in creative lab s acquisition of ensoniq because creative e mu was struggling with legacy dos compatibility at the time with their higher performance pci audio solutions . according to one source because of the wide range of patents ensoniq had involving the pci bus support for the sound cards and the fact that ensoniq wanted e mu s technologies the buyout of ensoniq became the best of both worlds . soundscape edit soundscape s 2000 soundscapedb ensoniq soundscape s 2000 the original soundscape was ensoniq s first direct foray into the pc sound card market . it was a full length isa digital audio and wavetable sample based synthesis audio card equipped with a 2mb ensoniq built rom based patch set . ensoniq soundscapedb the ssdb was a wavetable daughterboard sample based synthesis daughterboard upgrade for pcs with a sound card bearing a wave blaster compatible connector . it was based upon the s 2000 chipset but was without the digital sound effects section or any dac . the ssdb would use the host sound card for final output . esp db ensoniq soundscape elite the elite was ensoniq s high end isa offering . it offered the highest midi quality of any pc sound card they ever made including the newer audiopci . the elite was based mostly around the s 2000 with some additional features that set it far apart from its progenitor . soundscape opus ensoniq soundscape opus this card was a gateway 2000 oem and possibly was used by other oems but was never sold to ensoniq s customers directly . it was a soundscape like board using the ensoniq opus multimedia sound chip a chip that was only used on these oem boards . ensoniq soundscape vivo90 was ensoniq s generational step forward from the ensoniq soundscape s 2000 based boards . it was first produced in 1996 . vivo90 had similar specifications to the older boards but was built to cost less to manufacture . audiopci edit audiopci ensoniq audiopci the audiopci was designed to be a low cost yet feature rich audio solution which could be integrated on computer motherboards as a value added option . it consisted of little more than a small host cpu driven audio chip one of the following s5016 es1370 es1371 and a companion dac . despite its small size and low cost audiopci still offers nearly all of the audio capabilities and functionality of the soundscape elite card . the audiopci line utilized an nmi based emulation tsr program ensoniq developed to provide a reasonable level of legacy dos compatibility without requiring any signals from the isa bus though the tsr could cause problems with games that relied on custom flavors of protected mode . transoniq hacker edit the transoniq hacker was an independent monthly newsletter that was published from july 1985 through november 1998 . the newsletter was originally published as a means for owners of the ensoniq mirage to exchange ideas but was eventually expanded to cover the entire line of ensoniq synthesizers . references edit ensoniq corp. dixie dregs off the record ens 1000 1988 . case loyd . in search of the ultimate ... sound card . computer gaming world dec. 1994 138 148 . ensoniq corp. soundscape s 2000 manual ensoniq 1994 . ensoniq corp. web site by ensoniq corp. multimedia division product information and support pages 1998 retrieved december 25 2005 ensoniq faq by ensoniq corp. multimedia division product information and support pages 1997 retrieved december 27 2005 prince bobby . in search of the ultimate ... wavetable daughtercard . computer gaming world dec. 1994 156 164 . weksler mike & mcgee joe . cgw sound card survey . computer gaming world oct. 1993 76 84 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to ensoniq . creative labs home page e mu ensoniq home page ensoniq in the internet archive 2 14 1998 ensoniq audiopci s5016 user manual archive of ensoniq manuals at synthmanuals.com v t e creative technology limited sound blaster brand dsps yamaha opl2 ensoniq es1370 ensoniq es 5506 otto e mu 10k e mu 20k sound core3d sound blaster pro 16 awe32 awe64 audiopci live audigy x fi recon3d ensoniq soundscape s 2000 soundscapedb soundscape elite soundscape opus audiopci software eax openal a3d list of games with eax support divisions and brands divisions cambridge soundworks ensoniq sensaura ziilabs brands creative muvo creative nomad creative zen sound blaster soundfont retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ensoniq & oldid 737573442 categories synthesizer manufacturing companiessound cardscreative technology limited acquisitionshidden categories articles lacking in text citations from april 2009all articles lacking in text citationspages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscommons category with page title same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom 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