Ensoniq Mirage

[@stevecoscia]

Interesting video - brought back many memories. I worked at Ensoniq starting in 1984 - they were fun years. That first Mirage was a groundbreaking keyboard and it required a different skill set than synthesizers of that era. The hexadecimal display confounded many, but it wasn't too hard to learn. Mirage owners were eager to learn about the internal wavesample memory. Eventually, I published a technical article for Mirage owners. My wavesample segmentation article helped hundreds of Mirage owners better understand how to partition the internal wavesample memory to multiple keyboard zones.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you for the great insight, Steve! I have several original "Transoniq Hacker" copies somewhere in storage, I'd like to find your article

[@stephenlennartz3466]

Cool Steve! Did you work on the EPS? Love it. Related ... do know of any resources available for the EPS OS and/or samples? Many thanks! ; )

[@gsxerwhite]

Steve Coscia that's cool as shit.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

@@stevecoscia Steve, thank you! Reading it now

[@bicycleninja1685]

Thank you for your contribution!

[@AndrewTSq]

incredible how a little reverb makes thesse old aliasing sampler come alive.

[@DrTune]

The guy who made the sound chip used in the Mirage (Bob Yannes) - his previous project before this was the Commodore 64 sound chip (!)

[@gower1973]

Holy crap that pipe organ sounded massive, my favourite patch :)

[@alexandertwose2581]

Indeed. Very beautiful and powerful sound.

[@supercompooper]

In highschool playing this at the music store just BLEW my mind. It was so expensive I couldn't believe anyone could make enough money to own it!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

We must be of similar age :D

[@supercompooper]

@@SynthManiaDotCom we are :)

[@anonymoushuman8344]

It was slightly on the expensive side compared to my Juno-6, but it was a digital sampler that didn't cost as much as a house! You could actually get your hands on it, maybe buy one if you had a job. Like a first car, for some.

[@_P_M_]

I remember the day I first heard the Mirage at my local music store. A guy was playing that piano sound and I was stunned at how full and real it sounded. Then he released the sustain pedal and the sound stopped so abruptly, reminding me that this wasn't acoustic, it was digital! I felt I'd just witnessed the future.

[@elsongs]

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis used the Mirage on Janet Jackson's "Control" and "Rhythm Nation" albums! The clunky metallic bass sound on "Nasty" was "Rack Bells" from the Mirage Factory Library layered with an Oberheim OB-8 bass sound, and the horn blasts on "When I Think Of You" were also from the Mirage library. They also used the factory Snare Roll sound on the intro to New Edition's "If It Isn't Love" (as well as the Rack Bells bass and Kalimba).

[@oholm09]

And Alexander o Neal hearsay project s.o.s band human league herb Alpert

[@eazyEHouX]

Yes, I read that too. And then right after they wrapped up "Control" they went straight into production with the Human League. Ive always loved their work on "Human" and "Love is all that matters." I think thats what really got me into synth music.

[@oholm09]

​@eazyEHouX me too I'm a musician

[@DarkSideofSynth]

The good old days when we marvelled about ah's and do's ;)

[@benjamindminor1983]

Maybe you did.

[@DarkSideofSynth]

@@benjamindminor1983 Maybe... surely I could and still can take a joke

[@MrKeys57]

@@benjamindminor1983 so....what do you have to present for yourself..?..

[@alexmansion7518]

I carried one of these for 3 miles to my home when I was 18...my arms ached for a whole week.

[@saulocisneros]

Totally worth it!

[@ralfjung4156]

OMG The pipe organ is so fantastic, i am speachless. Thx for this video.

[@DjNikGnashers]

LOVED the way you just played 'strings of life' like it was the vinyl playing, awesome mate !!! Then good life, too, wow, two of the tunes that had an impact on my life, and now I know where the sounds came from. Thank you.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thanks so much!

[@toddglacy1161]

This keyboard was such a game changer when it first came out....the first digital sampler that was even remotely affordable for young struggling musicians back in the '80's. Synclavier, Fairlight, Kurzweil and Emulator were all way out of most people's price range, and then came the Mirage! (and the Casio SK-1 LOL)

[@eaglechildkeys]

Love Ensoniq synths. We hope someday the engineers they get together and create new stuff again. :))

[@captmcgravy2669]

Bensoniqs coming soon lmao

[@jadelion11]

@@captmcgravy2669 That's right lol. Those engineers are probably long gone or well into retirement. Bensoniq is a possibility but those "old engineers" probably aren't going to be coming up with anything new but colon polyps at this point (I hope they don't).

[@Brumairevideo]

Love them too but my VFX SD2 had decided to die too early, it was really a problem on this model. The temperature was too high after few minutes in use.

[@SamSine]

Love the mirage. I had the chance to play with one in a studio in Los Angeles and each sound I played was reminding me of songs from the 80/90’s. Such a distinct sound.

[@paulmanningremixes6408]

I love the loop points on the strings. Obviously back in the day, such looping clicks would be smoothed out and buried in the mix of whatever song is using them. Us old timers remember such limitations with great fondness I’m sure you’ll agree Paolo

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Definitely agree

[@adub303]

Those loop imperfections basically spelled house music for me back in the day. I remember using modedit on my 486 and trying to get those mid-rangy, wonky looping strings, pads and choirs. Later got to do that with my Mirages, an ESI-32 and a W-30. Memories. :-D

[@ebutuoytm7560]

The pipe organ sample made my hair stand on end, great upload as usual Paolo!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you!

[@bd594]

That was the reason why I bought the Mirage.

[@Meteotrance]

It's really hard to have an amazing sample from a real wind organ, it's even better than what i have on my nord electro, i wonder where can i get good pipe organ sample.

[@brianglock3099]

Nice demo, love seeing the Teac 3440 in the background. Recorded many synth tracks on it. Thought of the Mirage but wound up with a S50 and S550 in the early 90#s

[@5argetech56]

I think the name Mirage was a perfect moniker for this instrument. Remember what a mirage is what you see but it's not really real. They applied this effect to sound..♥️♥️♥️

[@exitritual]

Brings back memories hearing these sounds again. I had this one in the early '90s. A few years later I moved up to the ASR-10, which I still have.

[@michatroschka]

surely that guy is trained in classical music! verry nice! wowww that organ sound is crazy! also love ensoniq

[@chaidizm1430]

Another great Video! So happy especially about the Strings of Life piano, thanks a lot!!!

[@notor0075]

Love your shows especially on ensoniq equipment.

[@grizcuz]

One of my cousin's jobs [when working for a famous band who were daft enough in the 80's to drag an Emulator around the UK and the world when touring] was to remember to pack the lump hammer. Because when the Emulator crashed/hung up [as it frequently did] one sure fire way to get it to to reboot was to smack it on its metal legs with the lump hammer.

[@AutPen38]

About half an hour ago I read that New Order used to kick the leg of the Emulator II to bring it back to life.

[@EgoShredder]

So many great sounds but boy that Pipe Organ with the reverb added was MAJESTIC!

[@dykodesigns]

This is the Inner City sampler, good life is such a great track. A lot of game developers must have also used it a lot back in the day, I recognize the bass sound from various SNES and amiga tunes. The Ensonique company was founded by the creator of the Commodore 64’s SID chip. That barbershop style reminds me a lot of the more contemporary Super Mario tunes from recent years.

[@MonsieurC64]

I had one back in the late 90's. Same model, build (and heavy) as a tank. It was a cheap way for me to play live with samples with my band. I used the acoustic and electric piano quite a lot. One of my favourite sounds was one I made from the string samples (soft attack) with filter and resonance. There was also a monophonic mode. Interesting because, when you played legato, the looped sample would play continuously, not restarting on each keypress.

[@mcmike100]

I always enjoyed programming sounds in hexadecimal. I used to work at a music store that sold them. We sold a ton of them, and every one had to go back to the factory for repair. We had them stacked in the back room waiting to go back. Someone would bring one in and explain the problem. I'd say, "Boy I've never heard of that happening before." And I'd add it to the stack in the back room.

[@adub303]

Thanks for presenting an absolute buffet of musical styles! You also wrung out every last bit of polyphony and musicality that the Mirage had to offer!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Yes, I'm amazed at how well the voice allocation responds, given it's from the mid '80s!

[@thebmxband1t]

Brilliant to see one of these again❤️ When i was studying HND music tech one of my friends had this. It weighed a frekin ton! At the time we scoffed because the college studios had just acquired some big Akai rack samplers. But clearly we were wrong to scoff. That sounds just great. Another superb video from you. Thank you so much😘 Jb xx

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you!

[@maxmatson1578]

Dwayne Gettel of "skinny puppy" was the master of the ensoniq Mirage!🎹🎧💫💀😵👌👍 rest in peace🙏✋✌

[@Horizontedesucesos_]

I was checking for some comments about Dwayne ;)

[@maxmatson1578]

@@Horizontedesucesos_ puppy people always legit👌 FUCK yeah!!!👍BrAp oN!!¡!✌

[@adub303]

Hell yes! Long live Aduck! Full disclosure: Skinny Puppy = reason that I know keyboards exist

[@maxmatson1578]

@@adub303 hell yeah!👍 for me, Dwayne was the master of digital synthesis!🎹🎧💫😵👌

[@rogerfelez7478]

The Mirage sounds amazing even today, almost 35 years after its release. I'm thinking of getting an Oberheim DPX-1, it's quite an underrated machine but very powerful as it can load Mirage, EII, S900 and P2000 samples

[@NewAllianceEastMastering]

get both. they sound different. the DPX is cleaner sounding and the filter is less warm in a way. certain disks sound bad on one or the other but they always shine on one specifically if you know what i mean... and the DPX can play Emulator patches

[@cresshead]

Back in the 80's i got the Casio FZ1 sampler...ahh the old days!

[@museonfilm8919]

That thing was HEAVY - it actually broke a friend's keyboard stand!

[@ChazSeamus28]

Always great videos .. keep em coming

[@antelephant2511]

Wow how much i respect this dude in the space of one video when it's my first time on the channel, you can just tell the depth of his musical knowledge from what he chooses to play. I am sitting a few inches from my mirage and I have yet used it since checking it out when I bought it, So glad I watched this.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you and welcome to the channel!

[@OscillatorCollective]

🤯, I’m blown away, I don’t really like the actual dx7 type sounds, but they sound incredible on this.

[@rolandgerard6064]

Good to hear this instrument again! Thanks.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Very welcome!

[@ASH-ou4cg]

What a great surprise this video was. I had no clue what to expect going in and didn't expect much, but had a big smile brought to my face, realizing it was going down oldskool road with all the classic house sounds we love, but had no history on. I am so glad to know I am going to bed less stupid tonight, yet again. Thanks Paolo!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Very welcome, Andrew!

[@boboscurse4130]

Oh man, that brings back memories. I had an EPS 16+ rack-mount. That thing cost $2000. I also talked an Ensoniq engineer into giving me beta software that allowed the unit to load sounds in the background while other sounds played.

[@andreasboll5984]

Great nostalgia! You explained it great. Thanks for your nice video! Nice greetings from Germany🤗

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Andreas, thank you! Big hello to Germany!

[@64jcl]

Two of the creators of this synth is Albert Charpentier and Robert Yannes, and both worked as chip designers at Commodore before starting Ensoniq. While Charpentier was a graphics chip developer, Yannes was the creator of the famous SID chip for the Commodore 64 which still today is used by many hobby musicians looking for the old chip sound.

[@DaveLennonCopeland]

I miss my old Mirage from 1988... Great video, brought back some good memories.

[@sn00ch]

Paulo you NEVER cease to amaze me! Keep up the great work! I love what you do!!!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thanks so much! Any suggestion, just let me know...

[@MRicciardi]

Thanks for the video. I remember no way I could afford it in the 80s. Today I own a ESQ1 and I love it.

[@eedleate]

Had an ESQ1 and EPS. They were great boards!

[@excessofficialTV]

Impressive sound quality for an 8 bit sampler ! The pipe organ is just masterful.

[@stevehofer3482]

This is my favorite Mirage demo on youtube. I love the pipe organ.

[@BonesJovi]

Synth looks stunningly elegant!

[@MrSomersault]

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that's "giddy" about the Mirage. I bought a Mirage DSK back in the 80's for $1100.00 from Guitar Center. My farvorite diskette (Sound Disk 100) is the one with: 1.Acoustic Piano, 2.Ah Voices, and 3.Bowed Strings. That piano sound alone is my fave!! It reminds me of The Beatles at Abbey Road in the 60's. I'm not a fan of modern day "perfect" piano samples.This has a certain character that is so unique, like a piano recorded in the 60's. The piano sound punches through in a mix - perfect. My Mirage still works to this day, including the sustain pedal!! I believe the keybed is made by Fatar. So, it has a feel similar to a Hammond organ. I know, because I owned a Hammond M3 back in the 70's - 80's. Recently, my favorite diskette #100 died, and I searched the internet for a replacement. After about a year, I found "syntaur.com". I paid around $100 for a set of 10 disks. I only wanted the one disk. I called them and they said they can't sell me just 1 disk. So, I paid the full price just for the 1 disk. Well worth it!! I love it!!

[@65marlin327]

I had an ESQ-1 and a Mirage for many years. Loved them both!

[@Colaholiker]

I want that barbershop music to be played to people I've got on hold on the phone... :D

[@DarkLightProjector]

Colaholiker Lmao my automated voicemail prompt

[@NicholasBryantBonzaiSequoias]

Have had mine for 20+ years. Still one of my favourites. Especially the release velocity. It has some quirks.. loops can be made to shift and change playback points. The dual oscillator mode is best, one trick I've used is to have the same sample played by both oscillators with different loop lengths and slight detune for VERY slow phasing effects.

[@5meohd]

Now this sounds very useful! thx

[@russd.522]

17:28 Pretty sure THIS EXACT pipe organ sound was used in the original London cast recording of "The Phantom of the Opera". It is also almost definitely being used to this day since it's no secret that this track is prerecorded and on a click-track that the orchestra then joins.

[@kimdiez2681]

wow, yeah 8 bit sounds so very real !! I just discovered that my Ensoniq ESQ-1 is 8 bit and along with an analog filter,,,thats about as real as it gets !! Super good video bro !!

[@kevrenshaw6177]

Hey there.. I bought an Mirage and went touring with a band in the south of France. Using the famed "floppy disk" lol. SO many great memories and forgot how good it sounds after all this time.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Very cool!

[@polmorgan3533]

I had a mirage back in the day and i cant remember at all what happened to it. wish i had i now. it was a lot of fun.

[@TheGreatPizzaMasterpiece]

Mind blown when you played Strings of Life !

[@deslomeslager]

Thanks for making this video, really cool!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thanks!

[@5argetech56]

Watching this in April 2020. The sound of the Organ patch was unbelievably realistic. I closed my eyes and I was in a cathedral. All those Dynamics with 8 bit resolution.

[@winstontk]

This was really cool! Plus, the playing itself was excellent for each patch demonstration. I did a session on one of these back in the late 80s. We used it for brass and strings. Definitely a cool machine that obviously still sounds great. Thanks for this!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you, Tony!

[@AutPen38]

The 'bum-do' barber shop acapella tune is hilarious and charming. It brought a big smile to my face.

[@NeutroWorld]

That Barbershop section was amazing to watch!

[@mattmorris5001]

Man, I had lost you and couldn't remember your channel name. Glad you popped up in my feed, subscribed!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thanks for the sub!

[@TheRiotousMind]

Ensoniq stuff has a ton of character. I love my ESQ-1.

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

Yeh I had the SQ80 never realized it had a partly analog signal path. Sold it for peanuts .

[@harmonicres]

Agreed Ive recorded multiple ambient albums 2 in fact most ESQ-1! If you take the time to program and know the trick of that sequencer some interesting music can be made with one machine and a limited one too compared to todays mega GB romplers.

[@SoDope29]

Still got my SQ-80 and TS-12

[@harmonicres]

@@SoDope29 Hold on to them! I miss all my Ensoniq gear had to sell for $$ reasons but at the least I made recordings with the sweet sounding machines! The TS10 is an amazing piece of tech btw.

[@adub303]

Still have my TS-10, though admittedly I use it more for poly-AT these days. Beautiful evolving pads and some of the freakiest sound effects out there. Tons of character :-)

[@chriskelvin248]

I've heard of the term aliasing when used in the digital sound sense since I was a teenager. But now I know what it sounds like thanks to you. I thought it was just distortion of the speakers due to the powerful digital signal...

[@jacey714]

Wow~ Those organs sound MASSIVE!!!

[@musiquito2010]

LOVE the Ensonic , the pianos were so pure !!!

[@12spin]

I never knew the Mirage sounded that good! Thanks for sharing.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

You bet!

[@redpillredemption8583]

Big fan of Ensoniq! I loved my TS-12. The acoustic guitar played great.

[@gwEmbassy]

Love the sound of that sampler

[@kellymerrill5294]

That sitar patch, wow!

[@DennisCaunce]

I had an Ensoniq ESQ1, and a mirage rack version. Great setup!

[@thebmxband1t]

My gawd!!! That Pipe Organ almost blew my headphones off!!! MASSIVE😳😮😬😜

[@sweepersmusic]

DUDE. I was just using program 27 on the Midiverb when i was recording today ! On a Drumtraks rimshot sample i have loaded onto my MPC. I love that preset...it sounds so great

[@DX5]

02:08 That is what I was thinking about when I first read the video title. Iconic piano sound (appart from all those other riffs and sound).

[@naoyukisasanami]

Somehow low bit samplers with an analog filter had tonality of frequencies

[@williammchugh4361]

Mirage was the First keyboard I purchased. But many of us sold the Mirage and upgraded to one of the Ensoniq EPS models. The EPS was like having 8 mirages in one keyboard. I still own that EPS. it’s an amazing workhorse. 4x memory upgrade, 10 outputs and scsi HD.

[@haydnr1631]

Nice vid. I bought the rack version in '87. It was used for a couple of months and then put back in its box where it still remains along with its factory disks and 'easy' programming guide. Might give it another go after being inspired by this vid.

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

thanks

[@Denvermorgan2000]

I love ensoniq keyboards.

[@JobimSynthMusic]

that pipe organ is absurd!

[@AndyStochanskyMusic]

The Ensonique 16+ was my first sampler

[@thegood9]

loved this board! It, my DX7, then my Emax and Emax II HD---I was ROCKIN!

[@chevydude658]

I wanted this keyboard so badly. Ensoniq was such a great product. I had a KS32 that was so great to sequence on. They were great keyboards and the Mirage wade my mouth water because it had the drum loops on it that were so nice to work with.

[@Digithalis]

Its very cool format to learning from older instruments, especially presented from synthmania :-)

[@zamsden]

Damn, that is a great keyboard, and great playing BTW

[@MarshalArnold]

The doo bop (barbershop) samples and the organ are jaw droppingly awesome! What a cool synth, thanks for the overview Paolo, I had never heard of this!

[@CaseJams]

You know I found your channel from your Paolo comments! So glad I did!

[@MarshalArnold]

@@CaseJams very cool! Yeah, you'll find me commenting here, Paolo does awesome work! One of my favorite SynthTubers!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you, Marshal! Yes, amazing technology for the mid-'80s!!

[@meneerjansen00]

I remember "Good life" from Inner City. Always wondered where they got that sound from. :)

[@gordonjcp]

The chord stab was sampled on the Mirage too, off Nitro Deluxe - Let's Get Brutal :-)

[@meneerjansen00]

@@gordonjcp Thanks. I didn't mean a chord stab but the "Ah + Do" voices. And the Mirage is from 1984 and "Let's get brutal" by Nitro Deluxe from 1987. So the sample you refer to appeared on an after market Floppy one could use on the Mirage or Nitro Deluxe used a Mirage on their track...

[@AutPen38]

I always presumed Kevin Saunderson had sampled Paris Grey's voice for the la-las and doo-doos, so it was quite a revelation to hear it was a preset on this device. Hearing the 'Strings of Life' piano was cool too.

[@R---66---R]

Looks like some little part of Tangerine Dream (15:39 - 15:45)! Cool! What a brave machine, man...very fine upload, Paolo...

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you!

[@Johnsormani]

The mirage was so groundbreaking back then. I remember seeing it live with a band and the guy had sampled Peter Gabriel’s sledgehammer shakuhachi and brass sound. Absolutely nailed it. I’ve been an Ensoniq fan ever since and bought an esq1 sas soon as it came out. I now have many Ensoniq boards but still the mirage is missing in the collection.

[@andyjackson3891]

I NEED one of these. Amazing. Thank you, sir!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thanks, Andy!

[@triplebacon1]

I enjoyed this Paolo! very insightful and good to know thank you ;-)

[@NorskSokkel]

Such a great, physical, characterful, tangible sound. Certainly beats the shit out of any software sampler, including the ones that try to emulate DACs etc. The sound of those old hardware units is a different thing altogether, and for me, besides making a HUGE difference at the mixing stage, it has a different emotional impact. And that's more important than anything else.

[@artisans8521]

You are listening to it on a digital sample.

[@stevenconman2372]

indeed a great machine, i like the sounds very much !!

[@FdUpNews]

My first sampler was the Ensoniq ASR-X in 1999......I made entire albums on that machine before ever having a computer.

[@CapitaineSabor]

0:16 "November 13, 2019" Paolo Synthmania, are you a traveller from the future ? :p

[@ZipSnipe]

I remember passing up the Mirage and saving for the EPS16+ glad I did, it just didn't have the bells and whistles I was looking for at the time.

[@bd594]

My very first sampler. I loved the design and how it worked with yellow LED display. In order to save on manufacturing instead of three digits for 0 to 255 Ensoniq incorporated just two digits with a HEX display (00 to FF)

[@AndruJorj]

Very impressed with the "Indian instruments" at 12:58! They sound fantastic!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

I agree wholeheartedly!

[@CaseJams]

Hi Paolo. Hope to meet you at Knobkon next year. Thanks for keeping the old school samplers alive!

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

See you there next year!

[@panamaJ]

Love the bum do song! Haha

[@LouisSerieusement]

thank you so much Paolo that was very nice and interesting ! Almost some sort of cool documentary about history of late 80's music :p

[@SynthManiaDotCom]

Thank you!