ENSONIQ FIZMO
Overview

Transwave

FIZMO is a PCM synth that uses the special waveforms called Transwaves. A Transwave is a series of short loops with loop segment modulation, which gives movement in sound. The concept is basically the same as those of Wavetables in PPG Wave and Waldorf Microwave, etc.

ENSONIQ had long used Transwaves since VFX in 1989, until they released their last synth, FIZMO. (see Transwave history for ENSONIQ SQ-R page).

FIZMO's waveforms are called second-generation Transwaves. While VFX's first-generation Transwaves produced much looping noise, and seems to be made of single-point samples, the second generation Transwaves are very well scaled and nearly noiseless.

FIZMO has 55 Transwaves, 3 synth waveforms and one drum kit in 4MB ROM. The drum kit is a non-editable one with simple PCM playback.

Architecture

FIZMO inherits its architecture from ENSONIQ MR Series PCM synth workstation.
One FIZMO's great advancement from MR is the new resonant filter. MR had no resonance, as other ENSONIQ Digitals did.

Layer

A Layer is made of 2 Oscillators. Fizmo can have 4 pairs of Layers (8 Oscillators) within a single voice.

Oscillator

One oscillator waveform is simply processed with the filter and the amplifier. Multi-sample key-map shifting is available, and it's useful for creating slightly softer/harsher sounds.

Filter

The filter section is made of 2 multimode filters (2LP/2HP, 3LP/1HP, 2LP/2LP, 3LP/1HP, RES-LP, RES-BP). Only the last 2 have resonance. The 2 filters can be linked for easier editing.

Envelopes, LFO, Noise

FIZMO has 3 four-stage loopable envelopes. ENV1 is mainly for modulating the pitch, ENV2 for the filter and ENV3 for the amplifier. The speed is not very fast.

FIZMO has one LFO and one Noise generator. The Noise generator is a kind of slow random LFO. It produces a stepped waveform and a smoothed waveform.

Pan and Effects

The pan parameter can be set and modulated in realtime.

FIZMO has one multi-effect and one reverb. The multi-effect has 41 types including Vocoder, and it can process the sound from the audio input. One effect parameter modulation is available.

Modulations

Though modulation is important when using Transwaves, FIZMO's modulation capability is rather limited.
For example, the Transwaves can be modulated by only one source, and the cutoff frequency can be modulated by ENV2 and only one selectable source. Also ENV2 does not affect the cutoff deeply enough.

Sound character

The second generation Transwave sounds very smooth, especially compared with the first generation ones like VFX.
More variety in waveforms could have widen the possibility - especially a white noise could have been very useful. FIZMO has no noisy waveform - it seems that ENSONIQ went Transwave purist in creating FIMZO.
The filter sounds rather digital to me, but the resonance is clearly an advancement for an ENSONIQ synth.

The name FIZMO

FIZMO originally meant Physical Modelling. It seems ENSONIQ was planning an even newer generation of digital synths, but it was when ENSONIQ was soon to be acquired by Creative Labs. The new phisical modelling synth did not materialize, but the name FIZMO was given to the Transwave synth, which became their last synthesizer.



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1. 16. 2006