Ensoniq TS-10
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Ensoniq TS-10 was a
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
and
music workstation A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of: *a sound module, *a music sequencer and *(usually) a musical keyboard. It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment. Or ...
introduced by
Ensoniq Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally Sampler (musical instrument), samplers and synthesizers. History In spring 1983, former MOS Technol ...
in 1993. It provided synthesis, user sample playback, sequencer,
effect unit An effects unit, effects processor, or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with el ...
s and performance facilities in a 61-key package. Another version, the TS-12, had the same features plus 76 weighted keys and channel aftertouch courtesy of a Fatar keybed, whereas the TS-10 had polyphonic aftertouch and 61 unweighted keys.


Main features

The TS series had 32-
note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...
, integrated 24-
bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...
effects engine, (with 48 bit accumulation) a 30,000 note sequencer (expandable to over 100,000 via memory
chips ''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. After the final first-run telecast on NBC in May 1983, the series went into reruns on Sundays fr ...
) which featured up to 24 tracks, full
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
capabilities. The design was a direct evolution of Ensoniq's previous VFX and SD synthesizers. While the synthesis structure lacked a resonant filter, which limited the sample+synthesis possibilities, the TS could read ASR wavesamples directly. This feature allowed musicians to play sounds from a vast library of sample disks and
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
s (via
SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices, best known for its use with storage devices such as hard disk drives. SCSI was introduced ...
expansion option). The front panel offered plenty of buttons for dedicated functions, and a large 40 x 92 vacuum fluorescent display, easier to read onstage than conventional LCD displays.


Synthesis structure

The TS offered up to 6 oscillators per patch or sound. Each oscillator was processed by its own pitch, filter and amplifier blocks, with dedicated LFOs and envelope generators for each block. The architecture allowed various modulation sources, such as keyboard velocity, modulation and pitch wheels, etc. to modify several instances of the sonic chain. Despite the well-specified architecture, the filter didn't feature any kind of resonance. This limited the possibilities of emulating analog and heavily-filtered sounds. However, this was a common omission from several manufacturers of the early 1990s. The total 32-note polyphony was reduced when using more than one waveform per patch. The user patches could be stored in one of 120 memories, or saved to
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
.


Hyperwave

It was an attempt to offer a kind of basic wavesequencing, it essentially was a series of user-defined waveforms, taken from the internal
ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
or sample
RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...
area, and played in sequence with definable playback step times, pitch and other parameters. Clever use of this facility could produce complete rhythmic patterns. One big limitation was the wavesequencing timing, which was fixed at patch level and not tempo-dependent.


Effects

An integral component of Ensoniq
synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
s, the TS' effects were first-class and well specified, at 24-bit and 32 kHz engine. The effects block was arranged in several fixed algorithms, which allowed up to three simultaneous effects at once, plus a
dry signal path Dry or dryness most often refers to: * Lack of rainfall, which may refer to **Arid regions **Drought * Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages * Dry humor, deadpan * Dryness (medical) * ...
. The effects list was comprehensive, including
reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...
s,
flanger Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and ...
s,
chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...
,
compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Many compressors can be staged, that is, the gas is compressed several times in steps o ...
s,
delays Delays are an English indie band formed in Southampton, which consisted of brothers Greg Gilbert and Aaron Gilbert, Colin Fox and Rowly until Greg Gilbert's death in 2021. The band's sound combines guitar and synths and featured Greg Gilbert ...
. While adequate at
single patch level Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
, the effects block had to be shared by all instruments when the sequencer was used.


Sequencer

Ensoniq's approach for sequencing was somewhat different from other manufacturers. Instead of offering a linear set of tracks for recording, the TS required the user to record short sequences (12 tracks each) to use as a base for song structure, then chaining them and optionally layering another 12 linear tracks on top of the chained blocks. The sequencer editing options included quantization with audition, controller editing and scaling and
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
functions per track, as well as copying whole or parts of tracks to anywhere else. The keyboard could store up to 30 songs with 100 sequences per song, memory-permitting, and everything was kept in memory when the synth was turned off. Modern synthesizers, with larger and better sequencers, demand the user to save their work before power down, since the sequencer memory is not backed up.


Sample playback

In addition to the machine's internal 6 MB ROM sampled waveforms, the user could install up to 8 MB (divided into two banks of 4 MB) sample RAM (volatile), via 30-pin
SIMM A SIMM (single in-line memory module) is a type of memory module used in computers from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. It is a printed circuit board upon which multiple random-access memory Integrated circuit chips are attached to one or ...
s. The samples could be loaded from the floppy disk drive, or via a SCSI hard drive or CD-ROM attached to the machine, containing an ASR-format disk. The synth even remembered the mapping of samples and sounds used, and requested the appropriate disks for loading in power-up. The TS couldn't import WAV or AIFF format samples as the disk format used was Ensoniq's own, first developed for the
EPS An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
sampler, and it wasn't
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
compatible, so the user was limited to loading samples available in the extensive EPS/ASR library.


Performance features

The TS offered the ubiquitous pair of modulation and pitch wheels, polyphonic aftertouch, and 'patch select' buttons for easily changing tonal variants of a patch. It was very easy to layer up to three single sounds, or split the keyboard in all zones for internal or MIDI playing control, without cumbersome menu editing. It was also possible to layer up to six single sounds by taking advantage of the live-auditioning feature of the sequencer (without actually recording or playing back anything), but this was less easy to manage in a performance environment.


In use

The TS suffered from limitations including the non-resonant digital filter, or the proprietary format used for floppies, which was incompatible with anything else. This prevented Standard MIDI Files to be read by the machine, and the strange track arrangement of the sequencer limited the MIDI multitimbral parts of the TS to 12 instead of the standard 16. The vacuum fluorescent display, although unique and very easy to read, was prone to malfunction after much time of use and very hard to replace or repair. Even Ensoniq acknowledged this problem by creating a variant called the TS-10 Plus, which used a conventional LCD display instead of the vacuum one. This model also had the SCSI expansion installed and the full sample memory expansion also installed. The TS series were well received by musicians and producers, mainly because of the rich, professional sound they offered, the enormous ASR sample library that it could load, and the live performance features that offered.


References


The ensoniq TS12 Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ensoniq TS-10 T Music workstations