1990 Ensoniq SD-1 VFX Synthesizer Workstation /61 Keys 24 bit EFX /Sustain Pedal

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I bought this VFX/SD1 new in 1991, after seeing, playing and being really impressed with its incredible sound and versatility. It employs 3 types of synthesis: Transwave Wavetable, Sample Playback, and Subtractive Synthesis. American made, solid case, very advanced and modern sounding, both then and now.They put in amazing 24 bit effects that came with this thing out of the box! The chips used in the sound processing of the VFX are still to this day on par with anything out there, if not better. When not being used in sessions, this keyboard has been covered and stored in our climate controlled non smoking studio. This SD-1 is very clean and in great shape. All the original internal patches are still there. All keys, buttons, mod and pitch wheel, sliders, and disc drive are working smoothly. Includes Full Manual, AC Cable, plus a Sustain Pedal.Note** Auction winner, please wait untill I can invoice you with packaging details. It generally adds a bit more to the flat Ebay UPS quote...The VFX/SD series is one of the most important synth series ever created. The VFX combined "ahead of its time"-sounds and technology and the performance aspect of the VFX's was (is, almost!) second-to-none. With addition of a very intuitive Performance/Sequencer-mode with the SD models, arguably, they are one of the finest hardware sequencers ever produced in a synth.At the time, the market was flooded with cheaper $2000-and-under synthesizers. The Ensoniq Corporation, an American company created by computer programers and chip designers wanted to put out a keyboard with all the bells and whistles with no expense spared.The VFX is a true synthesizer, not just a reprogrammed keyboard that plays sampled sounds or a simple workstation, and with the addition of the sequencable SD models made them the very first true marketed Music Production Synthesizers.The VFX was the first synth ever to offer oscillators with which the actual waveform can be modulated making the sound sequence more alive, ever changing with complexities of natural sound and dynamic synthesized soundscapes.So how does it work and what's so speciel about it???In 1980, Wolfgang Palm introduced a new concept, dubbed "wavetable" synthesis. These digital synthesizers expanded upon the capabilities of Palm's earlier synthesizers by expanding the sound creation tools with limited samples, which were compiled together in lists called wavetables. The first PPG synthesizer to implement this algorithm was the Wavecomputer 360, released in 1980 in two versions - the 360A, with 4 oscillators, and the 360B, with 8. However, the synthesizer sounded relatively thin, a consequence of having only one oscillator per voice and the typical limited polyphony of most synthesizers of its era.PPG soon found success with the release of the Wave 2, which debuted in 1981, priced at around US$10,000. It contained analog envelopes, LFO and filters, with digital oscillators. Where traditional analog synthesizer were only capable of 5 or 6 waveforms per oscillator, the PPG Wave 2 offered 64 waveforms in 30 "wavetables". One selected a wavetable and then one of the 64 waveforms it contained - a total of 1,920 waveforms per oscillator available for use. In total, around 1,000 Waves were manufactured between 1981 and 1987 with two different updates to the model (the PPG Wave 2.2, which added more waveforms and samples, and the 2.3, which added multitimbrality and MIDI), making it the most successful product PPG manufactured. The PPG wave also found a place onstage with artists such as David Bowie, Electronic Dream Planet, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Depeche Mode, Jean Michel Jarre, Rush, Gary Numan, Missing Persons, Robert Palmer, Talk Talk, Ultravox, Steve Winwood, Stevie Wonder, and many others.In 1986, Wolfgang Palm, designed and began work on a prototype for his most ambitious project yet - the Realizer, an all-in-one studio machine which combined production, recording, sequencing, and mixing tools into one machine in addition to a sophisticated sampling and synthesis sy... read more

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