Ensoniq Mirage - Citizendia

Mirage by Ensoniq
Synthesis type:		Digital Sample-based Subtractive
Polyphony:		8
Oscillators:		none
Filter:		Low-pass VCF
Keyboard:		61-key
External control:		MIDI
Produced:		1985 - 1988
Original price:		$2000 new

The Ensoniq Corporation's Mirage was an 8-bit sampler introduced in 1985. Ensoniq Corp was an American Electronics manufacturer best known throughout the mid 1980s and 1990s for its Musical instruments principally Basics of sound When any mechanical collision occurs such as a fork being dropped sound is produced A digital synthesizer is a Synthesizer that uses Digital signal processing (DSP techniques to make musical sounds Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either Subtractive synthesis or Additive synthesis. Subtractive synthesis is a method of subtracting Harmonic content from a sound via Sound synthesis, characterised by the application of an Audio filter Polyphony is the property of an Electronic musical instrument which describes how many notes it can sound at one time Oscillation is the repetitive variation typically in Time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of Equilibrium) or between two or more different states An audio filter is a type of filter used for processing Sound signals. A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a Musical instrument, particularly the piano Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Ensoniq Corp was an American Electronics manufacturer best known throughout the mid 1980s and 1990s for its Musical instruments principally A sampler is an electronic musical instrument closely related to a Synthesizer. Priced below $2000 with features previously only found on more expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI, it became a best seller. The Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument was the first polyphonic digital sampling Synthesizer.

The Mirage featured a 5-octave velocity sensitive keyboard, a two digit LED display, extensive MIDI implementation and a 333 note sequencer. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers It included a built-in 3. 5 inch floppy drive, which was used to boot the operating system as well as store samples and sequences. Each disk had a copy of the operating system and could be used as a boot disk, obviating the need for a separate boot disk. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Each disk stored three samples and up to eight sequences. The Mirage had 144 Kilobytes of internal RAM.

Using a feature called multi-sampling, the Mirage was capable of assigning multiple samples to different keys across its keyboard. Using this technique, the Mirage essentially turned into a polyphonic mult-timbral MIDI sound module complete with a velocity sensitive keyboard that could be used to drive other MIDI sound modules as well its own sound engine.

The Mirage sampler has become a minor sought-after item due to its low bitrate converters, being somewhat second place in the quest for Akai MPC60's and S900's due to its complex programming system which is based on HEX coding. In addition, as of 2005, a software-based sampling synthesizer such as Native Instrument's Kontakt or Tascam's Gigastudio can load a 1 gigabyte instrument on a properly configured new personal computer without placing too many demands on the hardware. Despite this, many industrial producers have championed the Mirage for its abrasive sound qualities.

The Mirage was the brain child of Bob Yannes, the man responsible for the MOS Technology SID (Sound Interface Device) chip in the Commodore 64 and the Ensoniq Digital Oscillator Chip (Ensoniq ES5503 DOC) used in the Apple IIGS computer (actually it is the same chip as used in the Mirage and ESQ-1). The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device was the built-in Programmable Sound Generator chip of Commodore 's CBM-II, The Apple, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer.

There were three versions of the Mirage. The first had a spongy feeling keyboard and large square black buttons. The second had a better weighted feel keyboard and small calculator like buttons. The third was shorter and in a plastic case, had a non-weighted keyboard and sold for about $1300 USD. A 2U rack-mounted version was also produced.

In 1988, Ensoniq followed the Mirage up with the more advanced EPS (Ensoniq Performance Sampler), and later the EPS-16+. Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) The EPS ( Ensoniq Performance Sampler) was one of the first few affordable samplers on the market

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
network: | |