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59-541: 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. The TS series had 32- note polyphony , integrated 24- bit effects engine, (with 48 bit accumulation) a 30,000 note sequencer (expandable to over 100,000 via memory chips ) which featured up to 24 tracks, full MIDI capabilities. The design

118-540: A Bes or B ♭ in Northern Europe (notated B [REDACTED] in modern convention) is both rare and unorthodox (more likely to be expressed as Heses), it is generally clear what this notation means. In Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Romanian, Greek, Albanian, Russian, Mongolian, Flemish, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Turkish and Vietnamese the note names are do–re–mi–fa–sol–la–si rather than C–D–E–F–G–A–B . These names follow

177-566: A difference in this logarithmic scale, however in the regular linear scale of frequency, adding 1 cent corresponds to multiplying a frequency by √ 2  (≅  1.000 578 ). For use with the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) standard, a frequency mapping is defined by: where p {\displaystyle p} is the MIDI note number. 69 is the number of semitones between C −1 (MIDI note 0) and A 4 . Conversely,

236-416: A musical scale is the bottom note's second harmonic and has double the bottom note's frequency. Because both notes belong to the same pitch class, they are often called by the same name. That top note may also be referred to as the " octave " of the bottom note, since an octave is the interval between a note and another with double frequency. Two nomenclature systems for differentiating pitches that have

295-501: A power of 2 multiplied by 440 Hz: The base-2 logarithm of the above frequency–pitch relation conveniently results in a linear relationship with h {\displaystyle h} or v {\displaystyle v} : When dealing specifically with intervals (rather than absolute frequency), the constant log 2 ⁡ ( 440 Hz ) {\displaystyle \log _{2}({\text{440 Hz}})} can be conveniently ignored, because

354-403: A central reference " concert pitch " of A 4 , currently standardized as 440 Hz. Notes played in tune with the 12 equal temperament system will be an integer number h {\displaystyle h} of half-steps above (positive h {\displaystyle h} ) or below (negative h {\displaystyle h} ) that reference note, and thus have

413-607: A controller of other instruments or connected to a computer. The EPS was superseded by the EPS-16 Plus which upgraded the sample size to 16 bits and added a 24-bit effects system. Other improvements include CD-ROM support in the optional SCSI interface and FlashBank storage for the OS and favorite sounds. The keyboard is of thick plastic construction of a dark gray color with 61 weighted keys. There are assignable pitch, modulation wheels, and two patch select buttons. The interior of

472-534: A dedicated sound engine so that playing can be done whilst loading another sample. The main processor handles the I/O while the sound engine is responsible for keeping the audio running without interruption — this made the EPS especially useful for live performance situations. The interface, although operating through a single-line fluorescent display, offers rapid access to all functions by the intelligent way that functionality

531-481: A feature quite unique at the time. The user can boot the EPS and load some sounds while playing the ones that are already loaded. Then sample in a new sound, only to find that you're out of floppies to save your new sample to — the EPS OS will allow you to go ahead, format another floppy disk, and save your new sound without the system function getting in the way of playing the audio. True to their user-oriented approach,

590-421: A frequency of: Octaves automatically yield powers of two times the original frequency, since h {\displaystyle h} can be expressed as 12 v {\displaystyle 12v} when h {\displaystyle h} is a multiple of 12 (with v {\displaystyle v} being the number of octaves up or down). Thus the above formula reduces to yield

649-549: A half step. This half step interval is also known as a semitone (which has an equal temperament frequency ratio of √ 2  ≅ 1.0595). The natural symbol ( ♮ ) indicates that any previously applied accidentals should be cancelled. Advanced musicians use the double-sharp symbol ( [REDACTED] ) to raise the pitch by two semitones , the double-flat symbol ( [REDACTED] ) to lower it by two semitones, and even more advanced accidental symbols (e.g. for quarter tones ). Accidental symbols are placed to

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708-439: A large 40 x 92 vacuum fluorescent display, easier to read onstage than conventional LCD displays. 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

767-580: A number of discrete samples which are patched into Layers - each with their own ADSR-like envelopes and keyboard ranges. A loop editor allows you to define envelopes, cross-fades, and sample start-end, and loop points in real-time. It is possible to modulate the loop start with any source to give complex evolving sounds. On the EPS-16 Plus, the Transwave loop mode allows the start point to be modulated in exact "single-cycle" steps, giving effects similar to

826-453: 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. The TS suffered from limitations including

885-426: A specific vertical position on a staff position (a line or space) on the staff , as determined by the clef . Each line or space is assigned a note name. These names are memorized by musicians and allow them to know at a glance the proper pitch to play on their instruments. The staff above shows the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C and then in reverse order, with no key signature or accidentals. Notes that belong to

944-555: A total of 2 Mwords RAM. Extra RAM allows for longer and higher quality samples. The "2x" expander contains one 1x256Kbit and three 4x256Kbit chips, for a total of 13x256Kbits in addition to the onboard memory. The EPS is unusual in having a 13-bit sample memory word length, left-justified into the most significant bits of a 16-bit word. The EPS uses double-sided, double-density 3.5" disks, formatted to 800k with ten 512-byte sectors per track. It can also read (but not write) Ensoniq Mirage sample disks. The EPS uses MIDI and can be used as

1003-627: 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. Musical note In music , notes are distinct and isolatable sounds that act as

1062-429: Is a 22-character, single-line vacuum fluorescent display . It boots from an integrated floppy disk drive (sourced from Sony or Matsushita ), or from a SCSI drive connected to the expansion bay. The EPS has 256 Kwords of RAM on board. Ensoniq offered both a 2x (512 Kword) Memory Expander and a 4x (1 Mword) Memory Expander with SCSI interface. A company called Maartists offered both 4x and 8x memory expanders, allowing

1121-439: Is broken into Modes and Pages . Modes are: Load, Command, and Edit. Pages are: Instrument, Sequence, MIDI, and System. In addition to eight soft instrument buttons, it has a number pad (0-9), four cursor buttons, a value slider, and 'Yes' - 'No' buttons. The vast majority of functionality can be accessed with less than three clicks: Mode - Page - Number Pad. There is also a dedicated button for Sampling, and three for

1180-511: Is capable of storing the OS in the optional FlashBank, which removes the need for a boot disk. An optional Output Expander module allows access to eight discrete mono outputs on the machine, allowing to separately mix levels and effects for each loaded sample. The key limitations of the EPS were its proprietary disk format, and later a lack of support from Creative Technology , the current owner of Ensoniq. A 19" rack-mount version of both machines were also available in limited numbers. This model

1239-512: Is still used in some places. It was the Italian musicologist and humanist Giovanni Battista Doni (1595–1647) who successfully promoted renaming the name of the note from ut to do . For the seventh degree, the name si (from Sancte Iohannes , St. John , to whom the hymn is dedicated), though in some regions the seventh is named ti (again, easier to pronounce while singing). Ensoniq EPS The Ensoniq Performance Sampler ( EPS )

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1298-400: The A minor scale. Several European countries, including Germany, use H instead of B (see § 12-tone chromatic scale for details). Byzantium used the names Pa–Vu–Ga–Di–Ke–Zo–Ni (Πα–Βου–Γα–Δι–Κε–Ζω–Νη). In traditional Indian music , musical notes are called svaras and commonly represented using the seven notes, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni. In a score , each note is assigned

1357-507: The MIDI standard is clear, the octaves actually played by any one MIDI device don't necessarily match the octaves shown below, especially in older instruments.) Pitch is associated with the frequency of physical oscillations measured in hertz (Hz) representing the number of these oscillations per second. While notes can have any arbitrary frequency, notes in more consonant music tends to have pitches with simpler mathematical ratios to each other. Western music defines pitches around

1416-487: The PPG Wave . The Ensoniq manuals were famous for including quality tutorials for sampling and editing new sounds. The Sequence pages allow you to define sequences and songs. Simple quantization is available, along with a crude, but effective, step-editor to tweak individual sequence elements. Sequences (with up to eight instruments playing simultaneously) can be assembled into Song Steps. In assembling songs, you can define

1475-403: The diatonic scale relevant in a tonal context are called diatonic notes . Notes that do not meet that criterion are called chromatic notes or accidentals . Accidental symbols visually communicate a modification of a note's pitch from its tonal context. Most commonly, the sharp symbol ( ♯ ) raises a note by a half step , while the flat symbol ( ♭ ) lowers a note by

1534-515: The difference between any two frequencies f 1 {\displaystyle f_{1}} and f 2 {\displaystyle f_{2}} in this logarithmic scale simplifies to: Cents are a convenient unit for humans to express finer divisions of this logarithmic scale that are 1 ⁄ 100 of an equally- tempered semitone. Since one semitone equals 100  cents , one octave equals 12 ⋅ 100 cents = 1200 cents. Cents correspond to

1593-411: The longa ) and shorter note values (e.g. the two hundred fifty-sixth note ) do exist, but are very rare in modern times. These durations can further be subdivided using tuplets . A rhythm is formed from a sequence in time of consecutive notes (without particular focus on pitch) and rests (the time between notes) of various durations. Music theory in most European countries and others use

1652-528: The solfège naming convention. Fixed do uses the syllables re–mi–fa–sol–la–ti specifically for the C major scale, while movable do labels notes of any major scale with that same order of syllables. Alternatively, particularly in English- and some Dutch-speaking regions, pitch classes are typically represented by the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F and G), corresponding to

1711-416: The song " Happy Birthday to You ", begins with two notes of identical pitch. Or more generally, the term can refer to a class of identically sounding events, for instance when saying "the song begins with the same note repeated twice". A note can have a note value that indicates the note's duration relative to the musical meter . In order of halving duration, these values are: Longer note values (e.g.

1770-456: The English and Dutch names are different, the corresponding symbols are identical. Two pitches that are any number of octaves apart (i.e. their fundamental frequencies are in a ratio equal to a power of two ) are perceived as very similar. Because of that, all notes with these kinds of relations can be grouped under the same pitch class and are often given the same name. The top note of

1829-514: The Gothic ; 𝕭 resembles an H ). Therefore, in current German music notation, H is used instead of B ♮ ( B  natural), and B instead of B ♭ ( B  flat). Occasionally, music written in German for international use will use H for B  natural and B for B  flat (with a modern-script lower-case b, instead of a flat sign, ♭ ). Since

Ensoniq TS-10 - Misplaced Pages Continue

1888-479: 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 . The effects list was comprehensive, including reverbs , flangers , chorus , compressors , delays . While adequate at single patch level , the effects block had to be shared by all instruments when

1947-538: The built-in sequencer. The EPS-16 Plus also has a dedicated button for configuring the effects DSP. Easter Egg: There is a hidden menu in the Command-ENV1 page which contains Software Information, the names of the designers, a DC Offset Adjustment, and a keyboard calibration command. Instrument pages are prefixed by clicking a Mode (Load, Command, or Edit) -- yielding functions relating to loading, editing, and tweaking EPS sampled instruments. Instruments can contain

2006-428: The chained blocks. The sequencer editing options included quantization with audition, controller editing and scaling and MIDI 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

2065-452: The chromatic scale (the black keys on a piano keyboard) were added gradually; the first being B ♭ , since B was flattened in certain modes to avoid the dissonant tritone interval. This change was not always shown in notation, but when written, B ♭ ( B  flat) was written as a Latin, cursive " 𝑏  ", and B ♮ ( B  natural) a Gothic script (known as Blackletter ) or "hard-edged" 𝕭 . These evolved into

2124-420: The formula to determine frequency from a MIDI note p {\displaystyle p} is: Music notation systems have used letters of the alphabet for centuries. The 6th century philosopher Boethius is known to have used the first fourteen letters of the classical Latin alphabet (the letter J did not exist until the 16th century), to signify the notes of the two-octave range that

2183-442: The lettered pitch class corresponding to each symbol's position. Additional explicitly-noted accidentals can be drawn next to noteheads to override the key signature for all subsequent notes with the same lettered pitch class in that bar . However, this effect does not accumulate for subsequent accidental symbols for the same pitch class. Assuming enharmonicity , accidentals can create pitch equivalences between different notes (e.g.

2242-559: 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 sampler, and it wasn't MS-DOS compatible, so the user was limited to loading samples available in the extensive EPS/ASR library. The TS offered the ubiquitous pair of modulation and pitch wheels, polyphonic aftertouch, and 'patch select' buttons for easily changing tonal variants of

2301-621: The modern flat ( ♭ ) and natural ( ♮ ) symbols respectively. The sharp symbol arose from a ƀ (barred b), called the "cancelled b". In parts of Europe, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Finland, and Iceland (and Sweden before the 1990s), the Gothic   𝕭 transformed into the letter H (possibly for hart , German for "harsh", as opposed to blatt , German for "planar", or just because

2360-540: The most basic building blocks for nearly all of music . This discretization facilitates performance, comprehension, and analysis . Notes may be visually communicated by writing them in musical notation . Notes can distinguish the general pitch class or the specific pitch played by a pitched instrument . Although this article focuses on pitch, notes for unpitched percussion instruments distinguish between different percussion instruments (and/or different manners to sound them) instead of pitch. Note value expresses

2419-521: 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

Ensoniq TS-10 - Misplaced Pages Continue

2478-426: The note B ♯ represents the same pitch as the note C). Thus, a 12-note chromatic scale adds 5 pitch classes in addition to the 7 lettered pitch classes. The following chart lists names used in different countries for the 12 pitch classes of a chromatic scale built on C. Their corresponding symbols are in parentheses. Differences between German and English notation are highlighted in bold typeface. Although

2537-431: The number of repetitions of each sequence that comprises a song step. This makes it relatively easy to score and arrange a song. Sequences depend on having instruments loaded into one of the eight instrument banks in the right order. Banks of instruments can be saved which can be loaded in by a song sequence so that loading the song loads all the appropriate sounds into the right places so everything will play when you start

2596-424: The original names reputedly given by Guido d'Arezzo , who had taken them from the first syllables of the first six musical phrases of a Gregorian chant melody Ut queant laxis , whose successive lines began on the appropriate scale degrees. These became the basis of the solfège system. For ease of singing, the name ut was largely replaced by do (most likely from the beginning of Dominus , "Lord"), though ut

2655-439: The relative duration of the note in time . Dynamics for a note indicate how loud to play them. Articulations may further indicate how performers should shape the attack and decay of the note and express fluctuations in a note's timbre and pitch . Notes may even distinguish the use of different extended techniques by using special symbols. The term note can refer to a specific musical event, for instance when saying

2714-463: The right of a note's letter when written in text (e.g. F ♯ is F-sharp , B ♭ is B-flat , and C ♮ is C natural ), but are placed to the left of a note's head when drawn on a staff . Systematic alterations to any of the 7 lettered pitch classes are communicated using a key signature . When drawn on a staff, accidental symbols are positioned in a key signature to indicate that those alterations apply to all occurrences of

2773-562: The same pitch class but which fall into different octaves are: For instance, the standard 440 Hz tuning pitch is named A 4 in scientific notation and instead named a′ in Helmholtz notation. Meanwhile, the electronic musical instrument standard called MIDI doesn't specifically designate pitch classes, but instead names pitches by counting from its lowest note: number 0 ( C −1 ≈ 8.1758 Hz) ; up chromatically to its highest: number 127 ( G 9 ≈ 12,544 Hz). (Although

2832-567: The second octave ( a – g ) and double lower-case letters for the third ( aa – gg ). When the range was extended down by one note, to a G , that note was denoted using the Greek letter gamma ( Γ ), the lowest note in Medieval music notation. (It is from this gamma that the French word for scale, gamme derives, and the English word gamut , from "gamma-ut". ) The remaining five notes of

2891-422: The sequencer was used, meaning that only selected sounds could ported their effects to the mix. 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

2950-476: The sequencer. In the EPS-16 Plus, an effect is also assigned to a bank. The EPS supports polyphonic-aftertouch on its 61 keys, and therefore allows a fair amount of expression as a MIDI controller. Sys-ex messages are supported over MIDI, and can transmit and receive on multiple MIDI channels simultaneously. By using a dedicated sound engine in addition to the main processor, sound generation and disk I/O are handled separately. This allows so-called load-while-play,

3009-487: The seven octaves starting from A , B , C , D , E , F , and G ). A modified form of Boethius' notation later appeared in the Dialogus de musica (ca. 1000) by Pseudo-Odo, in a discussion of the division of the monochord . Following this, the range (or compass) of used notes was extended to three octaves, and the system of repeating letters A – G in each octave was introduced, these being written as lower-case for

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3068-443: 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 . It

3127-494: The unit is accessed by removing four hex screws under the front of the keyboard and swinging open the rear-hinged control panel. The whole unit is configurable through a custom operating system (latest version was 2.49 for the EPS and 1.30 for the EPS-16 Plus). After the system boots from the floppy drive, it flashes a "Tuning Keyboard - Hands Off" message while it calibrates its polyphonic after-touch keyboard. The EPS-16 Plus

3186-497: The user to save their work before power down, since the sequencer memory is not backed up. 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 SIMMs . 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

3245-419: 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-ROMs (via SCSI expansion option). The front panel offered plenty of buttons for dedicated functions, and

3304-470: Was an attempt to offer a kind of basic wavesequencing, it essentially was a series of user-defined waveforms, taken from the internal ROM or sample RAM 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. An integral component of Ensoniq synths ,

3363-529: Was in use at the time and in modern scientific pitch notation are represented as Though it is not known whether this was his devising or common usage at the time, this is nonetheless called Boethian notation . Although Boethius is the first author known to use this nomenclature in the literature, Ptolemy wrote of the two-octave range five centuries before, calling it the perfect system or complete system – as opposed to other, smaller-range note systems that did not contain all possible species of octave (i.e.,

3422-627: Was one of the first few affordable samplers on the market. It was manufactured from 1988 to 1991 by Ensoniq in Malvern, Pennsylvania , US. The EPS is a 13-bit sampler and replaced the Mirage - widely regarded as the first truly affordable sampling keyboard. The EPS has a straightforward interface that is easy to use, with configurable controls geared for live performance. Because it has two processors, it can load and play up to eight instruments simultaneously (with another eight on reserve). The display

3481-485: Was superseded by the EPS-16 Plus , released in 1991. The EPS-16 Plus is very similar to the EPS. Its main addition is integrated DSP effects and stereo audio routing. Due to the upgrade to 16-bit audio, the Output Expander on the EPS-16 Plus is different, instead providing three pairs of stereo outputs, two from before the new effects chip. The EPS is a performance sampler. Besides the main processor it contains

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