ESQ-1
Digital Wave Synthesizer
Ensoniq ESQ-1 audio demos in .mp3
(FACTORY PRESETS ver. 3.50 - latest version)
Stream all audio examples below
| Preset name with audio demo | My comments |
| INT1 | |
| PIANO1 | A nice piano tone, suitable for many genres. Now probably deemed thin and lifeless, back in 1986 it would have been considered very good. |
| ORGAN1 | Good Hammond sound, with percussion and warm tone. |
| 3TRUMS | Three trumpet combo. Interesting digital sample, with obligatory aliasing due to the early technology. Still, charming. |
| VELBAS | Classic '80s bass!! Similar to the FM-based DX7 bass preset. |
| SLDRUM | Solo drum. Useful for '80s music, new age/ethnic. |
| SLOSTR | Beautiful analog strings, typical of the era. |
| MIXED | Mixed choir. Very, very interesting, spacious and moving choir - of course unrealistic, given the length of the samples and the bit rate, but "vintage cool" nonetheless. |
| SINPAD | Outstanding, powerful, analog synthesizer! |
| WAVBEL | One of the best sounds on board!!! Hypnotic, complex, rich in character... |
| 4XFADE | Showing off the envelopes of the machine, and the three oscillators. |
| INT2 | |
| BL PNO | Ballad piano. A good DX7-style electric piano sound. |
| CLAV 1 | Gritty Clavinet sound |
| HEVBRS | Heavy Brass maybe? - perhaps the name of the patch is in reference to the fact that many '80s heavy-metal/hard-rock/hair-metal bands used these kinds of analog brass in their songs - i.e., the famous "Jump" and "Final Countdown". |
| SYNBAZ | Excellent synth bass, very Moog in the low register, but capable of more in the mid and high. |
| SNAPS1 | Cool sound that utilizes the velocity and filter programming. |
| BRASTR | Very nice and regal analog ensemble. |
| SAX 1 | Typical mid-80s saxophone sound = sounds more like a duck who's about to die. But vintage-sounding! ;-) |
| MOODS | Great, broad, moving and majestic synthesizer pad. |
| HI-RES | Thin type of tone, heard often in the '80s. |
| ECHO1 | Very interesting envelope programming |
| INT3 | |
| PIANO2 | Variation on the main piano tone - this one is actually better than preset 1. |
| ICYORG | Very digital-sounding organ sound. |
| ANABRS | Typical '80s. |
| PLKMTL | Plucked metal - actually an interesting tone. |
| SHAKER | Yep. |
| MRIMBA | Distinctive, woody marimba emulation. |
| HARP2 | Very nice chorused harp!!! |
| MINI M | Easily one of the best sounds on board!!! A killer Minimoog emulation! |
| BOTTLS | Haunting, glassy sound |
| NOISTR | Ana-strings mixed with a bit of noise. |
| INT4 | |
| DIGPNO | Another DX7-type electric piano. Very beautiful and moving, great for ballads. |
| ISLAND | Standard steel drum sound. |
| PLKBRS | Pluck brass - very 1980s. |
| KLUNKS | These are the '80s! Typical comp synth of the era. |
| KICK | Reminds me of New Order's "Blue Monday" bass drum sound (Oberheim DMX) |
| KALMBA | Beauty - an enchanting Kalimba sound. |
| +KOTO2 | A great ethnic sound, this Koto is well-programmed. |
| 2 COOL | Uber-cool sin/tri wave sound - similar to Lyle Mays Oberheim with the Pat Metheny band. |
| TRIBEL | Nifty envelope programming, typical in synths of the '80s. |
| K+SIMS | Kick + Simmons toms = this is the "Miami Vice theme" in a box!!! Ian Hammer would be proud. |
Ensoniq ESQ-1 pictures
(click on thumbnails to enlarge them)
Ensoniq ESQ-1 manual
PDF Manual found on line: Ensoniq ESQ-1 manual.pdf
Ensoniq ESQ-1 factory patches
in sysex data
Ensoniq ESQ-1 3rd Party Sounds
Here's a picture of a book from great synth-programming house Valhala ('80s) containing patches for the ESQ-1:
source: eBay#7301297034
Books containing patches were popular during the '80s, when computers weren't mainstream yet. Nowadays, we are so much better off uploading sysex patches from a computer sequencer than copying parameter settings from a book. But again, in the '80s, this was the popular way to do it - and many books for various synthesizers (the Yamaha DX7 jumps to mind) were published. I still have two patch books for the great Casio CZ-line.
Resources:
- Review in "Keyboard magazine" Janfebmarch 198___
Features
- great, gritty early sampled waveforms
- powerful analog sounds
- three oscillators
- on-board sequencer
| Features at a glance | |
| Year of release: | 1986 |
| Polyphony: | 8-voice |
| Sound generation method: | analog, 3 DCOs |
| Preset memories | 40 + 80 on cartridge |
| MIDI: | in, out |
| Sound expansion capabilities: | cartridge |
| Sequencer | yes |
| Arpeggiator | no |
| Effects | no |
| Touch sensitivity | yes |
| Aftertouch | no |
The "Song made only with this instrument" trial: _________ The ESQ-1 sounds great. Note in particular..
Links
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
| Home page | website. | |