Ensoniqs: SQ-80 and related #50

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opened 2026-10-12 23:14:16 +00:00 by bcox · 0 comments

bcox commented

2026-10-12 23:14:16 +00:00

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Ensoniqs: SQ-80 and related

Filled in on 2026-10-12 at Ben's asking, who filed it with the line above and no more. Everything below is from recollection, with no manual read; issue #20's list was wrong in several places for the same reason, so read the manuals first and correct this. The recommendation is Claude's and is Ben's to accept or not.

Recommendation: one new instrument for the ESQ-1, the ESQ-M and the SQ-80, but not started until the DW-8000's copyright questions are taken up. It passes the rule of 2026-10-12 (#26): made from 1986 to about 1990, by a firm that is gone. It cannot sound without Ensoniq's waveform ROM, exactly as the DW-8000 cannot without Korg's, and CLAUDE.md's open decisions say not to widen that arrangement until the owner has looked at it again. So this is the owner's to unblock.

The instruments, as recalled

ESQ-1 (1986), with the ESQ-M, its rack. Eight voices, 61 keys with velocity.
Oscillators. Three for each voice, digital, all from one chip that plays 8-bit waveforms out of ROM: 32 of them, some single cycles and some sampled across the keyboard. Each oscillator has an octave, a semitone and a fine tune, two modulations of its pitch, and an amplifier of its own with two modulations. Sync, and amplitude modulation of one oscillator by another.
Filter. Analogue, one a voice: a four-pole low-pass with resonance (recalled as a Curtis chip that is filter, amplifier and pan together), which does not sing.
Modulation. Four envelopes, each of four levels and four times, with velocity and keyboard scaling; three LFOs; and at every destination a choice of two sources from a list of about fifteen, each with a depth.
Also. Split and layer; an eight-track sequencer; 40 programs and cartridges; MIDI, with a mode that plays a program on each channel.
SQ-80 (1988). The same voice with 75 waveforms, the added ones mostly the attacks of sampled instruments; a keyboard that feels each key's pressure; and a disk drive.
"And related." The Mirage is a sampler and is out. The VFX, the SD-1 and the SQ-1 and 2 that followed are digital throughout, with far more ROM, and are another instrument if they are anything; not proposed.

What is already here to build on

The DW-8000 is the pattern: rom/dw8000/, --rom=PATH, a setup.h that loads the image before audio starts, a made-up image for tests and the bench. Its wave_rom.h and oscillator.h would move to engine/ for a second user, with what is Korg's layout left behind.
engine/four_pole_filter.h; zones and sounds for split and layer; each key's pressure in engine/midi.h, which the SQ-80's keyboard sends.

What it needs that is not here

An oscillator that plays tables of several lengths, and waves that are a different table for each stretch of the keyboard. How the chip steps through a table, and at what rate, decides how it aliases, which is part of its sound, and is to be learned from Ensoniq's published documents and the chip's data sheet, not from a disassembly (rule 3).
An envelope of four levels and four times. engine/envelope.h is the Korgs' six stages and is another shape.
Its modulation by choosing sources, which is #7's matrix in a fixed form; it should wait for #7 or be the reason to do it.

Provenance

The waveform ROM would go in rom/esq/copyrighted/, gitignored and never committed, with no free image to fall back on unless one of our own is made.
Its program, its factory sounds and anything worked out from a dump are off limits in the sources, as for the DW-8000; and the questions listed there under "Copyright and the DW-8000" apply to this one whole.
Its sequencer is a production sequencer of several tracks, which #56 leaves out.

> Ensoniqs: SQ-80 and related Filled in on 2026-10-12 at Ben's asking, who filed it with the line above and no more. **Everything below is from recollection, with no manual read**; issue #20's list was wrong in several places for the same reason, so read the manuals first and correct this. The recommendation is Claude's and is Ben's to accept or not. **Recommendation: one new instrument for the ESQ-1, the ESQ-M and the SQ-80, but not started until the DW-8000's copyright questions are taken up.** It passes the rule of 2026-10-12 (#26): made from 1986 to about 1990, by a firm that is gone. **It cannot sound without Ensoniq's waveform ROM**, exactly as the DW-8000 cannot without Korg's, and CLAUDE.md's open decisions say not to widen that arrangement until the owner has looked at it again. So this is the owner's to unblock. ## The instruments, as recalled - **ESQ-1** (1986), with the **ESQ-M**, its rack. Eight voices, 61 keys with velocity. - **Oscillators.** Three for each voice, digital, all from one chip that plays 8-bit waveforms out of ROM: 32 of them, some single cycles and some sampled across the keyboard. Each oscillator has an octave, a semitone and a fine tune, two modulations of its pitch, and **an amplifier of its own with two modulations**. Sync, and amplitude modulation of one oscillator by another. - **Filter.** Analogue, one a voice: a four-pole low-pass with resonance (recalled as a Curtis chip that is filter, amplifier and pan together), which does not sing. - **Modulation.** Four envelopes, each of four levels and four times, with velocity and keyboard scaling; three LFOs; and at every destination a choice of two sources from a list of about fifteen, each with a depth. - **Also.** Split and layer; an eight-track sequencer; 40 programs and cartridges; MIDI, with a mode that plays a program on each channel. - **SQ-80** (1988). The same voice with 75 waveforms, the added ones mostly the attacks of sampled instruments; a keyboard that feels each key's pressure; and a disk drive. - **"And related."** The Mirage is a sampler and is out. The VFX, the SD-1 and the SQ-1 and 2 that followed are digital throughout, with far more ROM, and are another instrument if they are anything; not proposed. ## What is already here to build on - **The DW-8000 is the pattern**: `rom/dw8000/`, `--rom=PATH`, a `setup.h` that loads the image before audio starts, a made-up image for tests and the bench. Its `wave_rom.h` and `oscillator.h` would move to `engine/` for a second user, with what is Korg's layout left behind. - `engine/four_pole_filter.h`; zones and sounds for split and layer; each key's pressure in `engine/midi.h`, which the SQ-80's keyboard sends. ## What it needs that is not here - **An oscillator that plays tables of several lengths, and waves that are a different table for each stretch of the keyboard.** How the chip steps through a table, and at what rate, decides how it aliases, which is part of its sound, and is to be learned from Ensoniq's published documents and the chip's data sheet, not from a disassembly (rule 3). - **An envelope of four levels and four times.** `engine/envelope.h` is the Korgs' six stages and is another shape. - **Its modulation by choosing sources**, which is #7's matrix in a fixed form; it should wait for #7 or be the reason to do it. ## Provenance - The waveform ROM would go in `rom/esq/copyrighted/`, gitignored and never committed, with no free image to fall back on unless one of our own is made. - Its program, its factory sounds and anything worked out from a dump are off limits in the sources, as for the DW-8000; and the questions listed there under "Copyright and the DW-8000" apply to this one whole. - Its sequencer is a production sequencer of several tracks, which #56 leaves out.

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