Ensoniq ESQ1 (1986–)
Eight voices, three oscillators apiece, and a sequencer built in. The workstation that made a whole generation of players leave their tape decks at home.
Overview
Three oscillators per voice is the number that matters on this synth. The ESQ1 is an eight-voice polyphonic, polytimbral synthesizer built around that architecture. Each of the three oscillators has its own Digitally Controlled Amplifier, and they feed a resonant low-pass filter and then a dedicated output stage. Sound on Sound (July 1996, p.218) laid out that signal path plainly, noting that the three-oscillator-per-voice arrangement was the reason the ESQ1 could pull off textures that thinner designs couldn't reach.
The oscillators draw on 32 multisampled waveforms. This isn't a synth with three sawtooths and a square. Each of the three oscillators can pick from a library of sampled and synthesized waves, which makes it a hybrid rather than a straight digital or straight analog design. Recording Engineer (February 1986, p.128) described the ESQ-1 as an eight-voice polyphonic, polytimbral synth with three oscillators per voice drawing on 32 multisampled and synthesized waveforms. It also flagged the RISC architecture behind it, a reduced instruction set chosen so the processor could execute a small set of commands very quickly.
Then there's the sequencer. The ESQ1 is a synthesizer and sequencer in one chassis. Sound on Sound (July 1996, p.218) pointed out that before instruments like this, multitrack or multitimbral operation usually meant each part was strictly monophonic. The ESQ1 let players build arrangements without a separate hardware sequencer and a rack of modules. Eight voices, split across multiple timbres, with an onboard sequencer to capture them - that is why it earned a reputation as a workstation rather than just a keyboard.
Then there's the expansion path. Studio Sound (April 1989, p.24) reported on an ESQ1 wave expansion unit, a ROM cartridge that added 32 new waveforms and provided refined samples on top of the stock set. With a cartridge slot, the voice library wasn't frozen at purchase. Owners could extend it later. Cartridges are also the kind of accessory that goes missing over three and a half decades, so treat any included cartridge as a bonus rather than a given.
The instrument was introduced in 1986. Anyone cross-shopping the two should understand that the SQ80 is not simply an ESQ1 with a different badge. The keyboard subsystem alone is different.
On the used market, the ESQ1 sits in a middle tier. Clean examples move, and they haven't been priced out of reach. Reader listings in the UK press from the mid-1990s show the instrument at figures like £350 for a unit described as being in perfect condition, and £495 for a new, boxed example (Sound on Sound, October 1995, p.182; Sound on Sound, April 1995, p.198). Those are period prices from a decade after the synth's production run ended, so they're context rather than a current valuation.
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