ENSONIQ SQ-R
Sound Examples
Update 12/7/06: Jim's contribution
A reader Jim gave me his SQ-2 .mp3 sounds. They show the potential and the quality of SQ series as workstation synths.
Center of Light (261KB)
Pad (177KB)
Polyphony (159KB)
Update 2/7/06
New .mp3 sound examples added to compare with ENSONIQ FIZMO's 2nd-generation Transwaves. The sounds are first edited with my SQ-Rs editor, and then modified using other parameters. All sounds are recorded without external effects, usinq SQ-R plus 32 voice.
See also DigiTech DSP128 page for SQ-R's sound with some additional effects.
Formant Transwave (428KB)
Resonant Transwave piano (680KB)
Pad with sine portamento (590KB)
Kalimba with All-Wave noise (281KB)
Deep resonant Transwave (616KB)
Piano hammer (175KB)
Digital Piano (759KB)
Reverb organ (382KB)
Saw pad (761KB)
PWM Transwave (175KB)
Sound Demo
Here are examples of the sounds made with the SQ-Rs editor.
All sounds are recorded without external effects.
SQ-R plus 32 voice is used except where indicated.
Basic sounds
Analog emulation (164KB)
Rim shot synthesized (228KB)
Portament with auto bend (324KB)
Expansion ROM waveforms
The expansion ROM of SQ-R plus 32 voice is occupied with
workstation-oriented accoustic instruments and percussions.
I mostly used the original 1MB synthetic waveforms throughout this demonstration.
Here is an example of the expansion ROM waveforms synthesized.
808 kick waveform with "Synth Kiss" (160KB)
Transwave
Resonance emulation (204KB)
"Electro-X" wave (100KB)
Transwave pads (512KB)
Played with polyphonic aftertouch (232KB)
All-waves
Noisy transients (324KB)
Jam loop musical effects (560KB)
Jam loop pads (576KB)
Chained short loops create high frequency like CASIO CZ's Octave Modulation (280KB)
Octave Modulation turned into aliasing noise (304KB)
Polyphonic aftertouch
Polyphonic aftertouch is a useful modulation source
that can control the sounds independently
(See Roland MC-303 page
and Roland SoundCanvas page
for various examples of polyphonic control).
I used two YAMAHA MEP4 to generate polyphonic aftertouch messages,
and modulated the transwaves, filter, pitch etc.
It seems that SQ don't respond to aftertouch in the release segment,
while SoundCanvas does.
Polyphonic aftertouch (716KB)
Version comparison
Here are the sounds of SQ-R original and SQ-R plus 32 voice compared.
Basically, there's no audible difference in their sound quality.
The first segment is made with SQ-R original, and the latter SQ-R plus 32 voice.
Saw pad (136KB)
Only difference I could find is portamento.
SQ-R original makes more complex pitch movement.
I'm not sure but it may be due to the 21 voice limitation of the original -
overflow more readily takes place than the 32 voice version.
Portamento pad: first original, next 32 voice (664KB)
SQ-R original's piano sample is inherited from VFX.
It may be among the ones that consumes least memory in the PCM synth's history,
but it has its own character.
1MB of "16 bit piano" waveform is added since the plus version.
VFX piano synthesized (260KB)
Mega piano synthesized (260KB)
Back
Next 
SQ-R
Deep Synthesis: Home
8. 25. 2004
2. 7. 2006 new .mp3 sound examples added
12. 8. 2006 Jim's .mp3 contributions added