ericg@tekigm.UUCP (Eric Geislinger) (03/26/85)
We're starting an independent user's newsletter for the Mirage digital
sampler. Ensoniq has offered technical support. If you have questions,
bugs, problems, comments, etc., we'd be happy to hear them & we have a
pretty good chance of even being able to help. (We're also looking for
articles, reviews, news, etc.)
For info or whatever, write:
Transoniq Hacker
5047 SW 26th Dr.
Portland, OR 97201li63sgy@sdcc7.UUCP (glenn little) (04/17/85)
I noticed some discussion a while back about the Ensoniq Mirage. I was extremely close to buying one, but after thinking about it a bit, and hearing the instrument itself, I am no longer so sure. I have been hearing a lot of complaints from people who have dealt with the company. They complain about poor customer relations, and an unhelpful attitude. I think there is a strong possibility that this is due to them being a new company swamped with orders, and trying to get their feet off the ground. But after hearing it, I am not so sure it is for me. I admit, I did hear an Emulator II, and that may be biasing my opinion. And I know that the E II costs 4 times as much. But the full bandwidth sampling time is 4 times more on the E II, and I understand that there will be no memory expansion (at least not for sample memory) for the Mirage. I think that the extra sampling time may be essential for some sounds. Has anybody heard a GOOD sample of a full throated choir... the kind used by Genesis and Strawbs with their Mellotrons? (I don't mean the sound Tony Banks had on his Emulator I on Genesis' last tour... that didn't have that characteristic Mellotron Choir Body.) I suspect that you would need very long samples, spaced very close to one another to get a good approximation to that sound. Any comments on any of this? Experience with any of the sampling machines? Know of any others coming out with a price tag somewhere below the Emulator II? I hope to hear from some of you. Glenn Little
jf4@bonnie.UUCP (John Fourney) (04/18/85)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** I went to check out this board the other day. I was looking for something with a good piano sound. No dice. I feel it's worth about $500. Most of the sounds are really trashy. The only one I liked was an acoustic bass sample that was labelled sax/bass. The strings aren't too bad. The music store made the mistake of putting this thing next to a Kurzweil! Absolutely no comparision. Kurzweil is planning on a consumer version for around $3000. I know the Japanese companies are going crazy trying to figure it out. So I figure the market is going to heat up real soon. Therefore, it's best to wait for awhile before getting a mirage. Although the Kurzweil purportedly uses AI in their $11,000 baby, I have a feeling that Ray is using this buzzword as part of his advertising stunts. The man is a master of the media, but hey, the dude is high-powered. So how does it work? Ray hints in High Tech that it's simply a very accurate mathematical algorithm for generating the time/frequency domain of a sound. Maybe the AI part is knowing how to generate the algorithm for a new sound. He says he doesn't use memory for table lookups, but simply generates the sounds on the fly. What a guy! John
nelsonc@fluke.UUCP (Curtis A. Nelson) (12/12/85)
I am considering buying the Mirage by Ensoniq. I have not been on
the net long so I do not know if a discussion concerning this instrument
has already taken place.
The only information I have is a few Keyboard articles and the in-depth
sales pitch from a dealer. Anyone out there who owns one or knows a lot
about them?
Thanks in advance for any information.
*******
Phone: (206)-356-6409 work
(206)-347-5649 home
UNIX mail: decvax\
ihnp4 >!uw-beaver\
allegra >!fluke!nelsonc
ucbvax >!lbl-csam /
U.S. mail: Curt Nelson
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., M/S 275-G
P.O. Box C9090
Everett, WA 98206dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o) (12/14/85)
In article <1550@vax3.fluke.UUCP> nelsonc@fluke.UUCP (Curtis A. Nelson) writes: >I am considering buying the Mirage by Ensoniq. Sorry I don't have a owner's point of view, but a potential customer's. From what I have learned from sales pitches, articles, ads, etc., it looks to me like the Mirage IS the thing to get for its type and price class. Namely, it is the most reasonable, low priced sampler/keyboard. For $300 less ($1395 list), you can get the Mirage in a box (the Multisampler) if you don't need the keyboard. There are three alternatives I know of for a lower price, a Korg delay/sampler box SDD-2000, the Akai S612 and a sampling program for a personal computer. The Korg IS cheap ($695 list) but not a serious sampler, good for occasional monophonic sampling. The Akai is not much cheaper than the Mirage Multisampler when the Akai is purchased with its disk drive ($995+295). I don't think it is reasonable without its disk drive. Neither would have a keyboard. The screw on the Akai is that only one sample can be held and played back at one time. This means louse keyboard emulations of most acoustic instruments including piano, since several (ideally 88, or 2*88, or...) samples spread across the keyboard are required to obtain a decent emulation for several octaves. For a little more money, the Mirage offers alot more. Eight voices, 16 stored samples, velocity cross fade, a small sequencer, a large user community, etc. The only pluses I see for the Akai are the 12-bit vs 8-bit sampling and larger memory (8 secs vs 4secs max). But I hear the 8-bit does quite well (the Emulator II is only 8-bit) and from actually hearing a Mirage it sounds great. At $1000 more, the Sequential Prophet 2000 also has 12-bit sampling and more analog synth features. I'm not convinced its worth the extra $$ and other opinions concur. Everything else is alot more expensive. My remaining questions on the Mirage are: does it have sample split point crossfade (the Emulator II does), i.e. cross smoothly between various samples of one emulated instrument across the keyboard. If not, it must be difficult to match sample sounds at the split points. And does the Mirage respond (reasonably) to keyboard notes outside the 5 octave range, otherwise, for example, playing a Mirage or a Multisampler from, say, a 88 key KX88 would yet much wasted keyboard space. Cheers, Dan Ts'o Dept. Neurobiology Rockefeller Univ. 1230 York Ave. NY, NY 10021 212-570-7671 ...cmcl2!rna!dan rna!dan@cmcl2.arpa
peterb@pbear.UUCP (12/15/85)
I bought a Mirage back in March, and got one of ther earlier ones (SN 10115) and have been extremely pleased. The OS for the mirage has continually gotten cleaner and better. And the sounds disks contain some real dynamite sounds. The price is about 1695$, and for what you get, its real nice. The dynamics of the sounds is extensive. Each EG contains 5 parts(Attack, Peak, Decay, Sustain, Release), and one exists for both the Filter and Amplituede. The envelope modulation section is based on the velocity of the key. It contains five parts, Attack time(shorter for faster hits), Peak(higher for fasters hits), Decay(Keyboard scaled based on key number; This allows paster decay for higher keys[like the sound of a piano]), Sustain(higher for paster hits), and release(shorter for faster hits). A modulator exists for each both Filter and Amplitude. The keyboard can be split at any key, and each half can have seperate sounds. The best feature is the ability to "Mix" two different samples based on the velocity of the key. This is very useful for instruments whose sound paarameters change with velocity (such asn a Rhodes). Overall I have been pleased, and now I want to get a better keyboard and the keyboardless box so I can have TWO Mirages. Peter Barada ihnp4!ima!pbear!peterb
keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) (12/19/85)
In article <5400024@pbear.UUCP> peterb@pbear.UUCP writes: > >I bought a Mirage back in March, and got one of ther earlier ones (SN 10115) >and have been extremely pleased. The OS for the mirage has continually gotten >cleaner and better. And the sounds disks contain some real dynamite sounds. > >The price is about 1695$, and for what you get, its real nice. The dynamics This is the list price, does anyone know if many places will deal on this one? I've never paid list for a musical instrument, and I don't know why I should start now, yet I haven't heard much about getting it for a little better price. And, might it be better to get the keyboardless box and a good keyboard? If so, what's a good keyboard only device out there that would keep me going for awhile? Keith Doyle # {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!keithd # cadovax!keithd@ucla-locus.arpa
ron@BRL.ARPA (Ron Natalie) (12/20/85)
I know of three 88-key weighted MIDI controllers: Yamaha KX-88: (this is what I own) $1200, has two wheels, inputs for two foot controllers and two pedals, four slide pots, plus breath controller and aftertouch. All these channels are assignable to nearly anything. Control layout familiar to a DX-7. Roland Midi Keyboard (Not sure of the number, is probably MKB-1000): $1600 Slightly nicer feel than KX-88. Velocity sensativity is adjustable. Much heavier. Pitchbender/modulation control is a kludge. Can only be transposed over one octave. Somewhat easier to set up, more memories to store various configurations of keyboard. Kurzweil Midiboard: Not sure of price or features. The regular Kurzweil keyboard is fairly good, although not as nice as the Roland. The modulation levers feel kludgy. -Ron