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Ensoniq VFX | |
Article from Micro Music, December 1989 |
Paul Wiffen tinkers with the synth/workstation that has made the competition sit up and listen
Paul Wiffen heralds the Ensoniq VFX a new classic.
(Incidentally, there has been much speculation as to what VFX stands for. Monty Python fans will of course insist it comes from the famous Learn Norwegian sketch: Question: F.U.N.E.X.? (Have you any eggs?) Answer: V.F.X. (We have eggs) and it certainly seems like Ensoniq have put all the different synthesis eggs in one basket. Brash East Coast types in the States are convinced by Very F***ing eXciting (which seems an appropriate way of describing the more outrageous patches). Rather more mundanely, I suspect that the FX refers to the onboard signal processing and the V sounds high-tec and rolls off the tongue nicely).
There are three distinct types of synthesis offered on the VFX. Those on the verge of buying a Roland D-series, a Korg M- or T-series or an Emu Proteus might do well to take a look at the VFX, as it features 63 multi-sampled acoustic sounds, divided into 6 categories, String (15 multi-samples), Brass (8), Bass (6), Breath (5), Tuned (13) and Untuned (16) Percussion. String refers to all instruments that produce sound through the vibration of a string, and includes Piano and Guitars, as well as bowed and pizzicato String Sections. Brass features the usual complement of Trumpets, Trombones, Saxes and French Horns as well as a Unison Section. Bass covers acoustic and electric basses as well as synth bass samples. Breath includes both human Vocal (Oohs and Aahs) and various types of Flute samples. Tuned Percussion is all the sounds which can be used to play a melody, Marimba, Bells, Kalimba, etc, plus other percussion sounds which need to be looped, eg. Cymbals. The other Percussion group includes standard Kick and Snare drums as well as more esoteric things like Woodblocks (the only real omissions seem to be open hi-hat, ride cymbal and tom-toms).
The tuned percussion sounds are all very realistic and play well. The drum sounds are very acoustic and natural sounding, because they are recorded dry, which isn't so impressive as reverbed and gated monsters, but don't forget that you have the onboard effects to process the drum sounds with, the way most modern drum sounds are created!
Patches like Drums 'n' Stuff and Kick + Snare show just how far you can go with these basic sounds. If these were only sounds in the VFX, it would be an excellent sample player along the lines of the Korg M1 or Proteus, but it would hardly merit the term synthesizer. However, it has the means to produce all the sounds of the traditional analogue synth, plus some revived techniques from the early days of digital, German-style.
Once you have chosen from the hundreds of different waveforms in the machine (be it multi-samples, analogue or digital waveshapes), then you can run each of them (and not just the synth waveforms like on the D-50) through its own dual-filter triple envelope voice structure, just like on the EPS sampler. Each of the two filters can be various types of Low or High pass and can have its own cut-off, modulator and envelope amount. This allows you to create all kinds of filter contours including Band pass (combining Low and High Pass Filters in tandem).
Envelope 1 is preset to pitch, 2 to filtering and 3 to amplitude, but you can use these envelopes to additionally modulate anything you fancy courtesy of the Mod Mixer (more of this later). Each Envelope is six stage (Attack, Decay 1,2,3, Sustain, Release) with Initial, Peak, and two Break levels programmable. Velocity can of course be used to modulate levels and times complete with independent curve for each envelope, and keyboard tracking and envelope cycling are also user programmable. I know of no more comprehensive envelopes. Pitch on each voice is far more comprehensive than just tuning and interval parameters. You can create a custom pitch table for each patch and then decide which parts of the sound use it and which use the standard equal temperament. This is particularly useful for inharmonic components in the sound which do not necessarily need to change pitch at the same ratio as the harmonic components, as you play up and down the keyboard. You could for example set a breath noise as part of a flute patch to transpose by just one octave over the whole keyboard. Or you could set up the whole patch to a standard alternative tuning like Werkmeister or Kirnberger (for those who want authenticity in their harpsichord patches). You only need to set up the tunings for one octave and the VFX will extrapolate these over the whole MIDI range. You can also set ratios of pitch to the number of keys, say 7 semi-tones per octave and the VFX will interpolate all the intervening pitches. Hours of endless fun and several avant-garde albums could result from the use of just this facility.
As you will see if you press the Select Voice button with any sound selected, each program can use up to six voices. No mean feat when you consider that the voice architecture described above, represents as much as most synths offer in an entire patch. This means you can take a voice based on a multisample and layer it with an analogue sound and a digital one. This would mean that you are playing three voices per key, and as there are 21 voices on the VFX, it would mean that that particular program would be seven note polyphonic. Of course, you don't have to use more than one voice per patch and indeed many of the sample-based programs are this economical. The average for synth-type sounds is two voices per patch (giving ten note polyphone) and it is only the really big Play-1-Note type patches which uses all six voices simultaneously. Any voices you are not using can be muted by pressing the button above or below it, causing brackets to appear around the name in the display.
However, the six voice capacity of each program is not just for building mega-sounds. It can also be used in conjunction with the Patch Select buttons. So you may have just two voices sounding in normal playing, but then when the left Patch Select button is depressed, the two voices you were playing are muted and two other voices (variants on the first two) are unmuted to give you a different playing style with basically the same timbre. Or you could have the right Patch Select button bring in a couple of completely different voices to change to a totally different sound. Both buttons held together might give you all available voices. The possibilities are endless.
Once you have selected your combinations of voices, it merely remains to decide which effects algorithm you want, which voices you want routed through which busses and (unique to the VFX) which performance parameters you want to modulate the effects.
There are 5 reverb only algorithms, an 8-voice chorus, 2 chorus and reverb combinations, 2 flanger and reverb, 2 delay and reverb, 2 flanger/reverb combinations and finally a rotary speaker with delay. Each effect algorithm has two busses, FX1 and FX2, which allows voices to be routed differently in the single effects this usually controls this like reversing the stereo image on the second buss. In the multiple effects, FX2 normally by passes the other effect and just sends any assigned voices to the reverb, whereas FX1 sends it voices first to the chorus, flanger and/or delay and then on the reverb.
Here are some algorithms worthy of special mention: the Dynamic Reverb which set the decay time according to the velocity of keystrokes is most often used on the pianos, it creates a very realistic large hall performance effect with quiet notes hardly reverberating, whilst big hard chords ring on; in stark contrast is the Rotary Speaker + Delay algorithm used on the organ patches which recreates the effect of a leslie speaker. The speed of the rotation effect can be controlled directly by a modulator (say the mod wheel or timbre slider) or it can be toggled by a switch (foot-pedal for example) or most usefully, a gradual speed up and slow down can be triggered from any controller. Generally speaking, each of the algorithms can have various parameters which can be modulated from the usual list of modulators referred to above and this makes the effects an integrated part of the sound rather than the sweetener tacked on at the end of the audio chain, which they are on so many of todays synths.
While you are in the Sounds mode just playing individual Programs either from the 60 internal ROM sounds, the 60 memories or the 60 sounds on each cartridge, you can at any stage layer a second, or even a third program on top of the one you are currently playing simply by double-clicking on its associated button. In this way you can quickly and easily create a Preset. There is room for twenty presets to be stored on the VFX. Once in preset mode, you can call up any of the following parameters Volume, Pan, Timbre, Key Zone, Transpose, Release, Track, Pressure, MIDI and Effects (each has its own button for speed) and see and adjust them for each of the three Sounds in the Preset. Everything is designed for quickness in the performance situation, so for example Key Zones are set by playing low, then high note on the keyboard, volumes are adjusted by slider and so on. MIDI decides whether the Sound is played locally or from MIDI or both, which MIDI channel it responds to and what patch selects are sent when the Program is selected. This means that you could call up external sounds to double in different Key Zones or alternatively another player could access one Sound you are not using via MIDI in (say from drum pads or a MIDI guitar/Wind Instrument).
There is only one effects chip in the VFX, so only one algorithm can be active at any one time. This voice is designated the Control and this is the first one selected in the Preset creation. However you can change any voice to be the control. When playing from the keyboard, three Sounds simultaneously is probably all you will be able to control. If you are using a sequencer however, then three Sounds at once is probably not going to be enough. For this reason Ensoniq's Multi Mode allows you to access Sounds at once on different MIDI channels.
Once chosen, these sounds can be set up with exactly the same parameters as in Preset Mode although obviously there are more of them so the parameters for all 12 cannot be visualized at once. You can toggle backwards and forwards between the first and last 6 by using the Multi A and B buttons. Then you select the required parameter, Release say, or Pan for example and you vary the values of six at a time. Clearly with all these parameters available and the Effects (one of the 12 Sounds is designated Control again and all the sounds use its algorithm), you can produce a finished sub mix of all the VFX Sounds you are using.
The dynamic allocation of the VFX works superbly in this Multi-Mode and you can do a lot before you notice voices dropping out. I have tried the VFX with a variety of sequencers, Akai MPC-60/ASQ-10, ST running C-Lab Notator and the EPS's sequencer and it works splendidly. My only reservation is that the Multi-Mode set-up cannot be saved to cartridge, so you have to use System Exclusive dumps to your sequencer. This is fairly quick and hassle-free with both the EPS and Notator, but I couldn't get it to work with the Akai's even with the latest version of their operating system. Still this is hardly Ensoniq's fault.
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Review by Paul Wiffen
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