Introduced in 1984, the Ensoniq Mirage was an eight-voice polyphonic digital sampling instrument that played a major role in bringing sampling technology within reach of working musicians. Initially released as the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 keyboard and followed in 1985 by the Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 rack-mount Digital Multi Sampler, the Ensoniq Mirage combined digital sampling, analogue filtering, velocity-sensitive performance control, MIDI, floppy disk storage and an onboard sequencer in a comparatively affordable instrument. At an advertised price of $1,695 for the keyboard version, the Ensoniq Mirage dramatically undercut the professional sampling systems that had dominated the early years of digital sampling.
The Ensoniq Mirage was also the first commercial musical instrument produced by Ensoniq. The company had been founded by engineers with extensive experience in integrated circuit design, and that expertise was fundamental to the Ensoniq Mirage. Its custom Q-Chip consolidated circuitry that would otherwise have required a considerably larger and more expensive collection of components. This highly integrated approach was central to Ensoniq’s ability to offer a professional polyphonic sampler at a price substantially below established sampling instruments.
At its core, the Ensoniq Mirage was an eight-voice, 8-bit sampler with 128KB of sample memory divided into two 64KB areas corresponding to the Lower and Upper halves of the instrument. Sampling frequency was variable from approximately 10kHz to 33kHz. At the highest sampling rate, each 64KB memory half provided approximately two seconds of recording, while lower sampling rates could extend this to approximately 6.5 seconds per half.
The Ensoniq Mirage could therefore contain separate Lower and Upper sounds simultaneously. These could occupy separate keyboard regions or be configured in more sophisticated arrangements, allowing different samples to be distributed across the keyboard. Ensoniq provided a growing disk library containing digitally recorded instruments including piano, brass, strings, percussion and synthesizer sounds, while users could sample and store their own material.
The 61-note keyboard of the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 was velocity sensitive, allowing playing dynamics to influence the behaviour of sampled sounds. Ensoniq promoted the instrument as considerably more than a simple sample playback keyboard, with control over 77 sound parameters including filtering, envelopes and modulation.
Digital samples were passed through analogue processing that gave the Ensoniq Mirage a synthesis architecture extending well beyond straightforward replay. Each voice incorporated a 24dB/octave analogue low-pass filter with adjustable cutoff frequency, resonance, filter envelope modulation and keyboard tracking. The filter could be adjusted from approximately 50Hz to 15kHz and was implemented using Curtis CEM3328 filter circuitry.
The Ensoniq Mirage provided separate amplitude and filter shaping, with five-stage envelope control available for its sound-processing architecture. An LFO provided modulation, while velocity could be assigned to parameters including amplitude and the balance between digital oscillators or wavesamples. Two different wavesamples could consequently be combined within a sound and their relative balance altered according to performance velocity.
Sample editing extended far beyond simply recording and replaying audio. Samples could be positioned within the available memory, looped and tuned, with parameters controlling such functions as sample start and end positions, loop points and playback characteristics. Advanced software expanded the editing facilities further, providing additional sample manipulation functions and giving technically inclined users much greater access to the internal sampling system.
One of the most unusual aspects of the Ensoniq Mirage was its programming interface. Rather than using a large screen, the instrument employed a two-character LED display accompanied by parameter buttons and a single value control. Parameters were identified numerically, with many values displayed in hexadecimal notation. This allowed Ensoniq to provide extensive digital control without the cost of a sophisticated display system, although programming depended heavily on understanding the parameter structure and reference documentation.
The built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive was fundamental to the operation of the Ensoniq Mirage. Disks stored sampled sounds, programs and sequences, while the operating system itself was loaded from disk when the instrument was started.
A disk could contain three Upper-bank sounds and three Lower-bank sounds, giving six sounds in total, with four immediately accessible programs associated with each sound. Up to eight sequences could also be stored on a disk.
This disk-based architecture enabled musicians to build substantial sound libraries despite the Ensoniq Mirage’s limited internal RAM. Factory sound disks provided ready-to-use acoustic and electronic instruments, while user-created samples and edited programs could be stored alongside sequences for later recall.
Ensoniq subsequently developed more advanced software for the Ensoniq Mirage, including the Mirage Advanced Sampling Operating System, commonly known as MASOS. This provided additional facilities for users who wanted to go considerably deeper into sample creation and manipulation than was possible with the standard operating software.
The Ensoniq Mirage combined digital sample playback with analogue filtering in a way that was characteristic of several important instruments from the transitional digital and analogue designs of the mid-1980s. The sampled waveform acted as the sound source, but filtering, envelopes and modulation allowed the source material to be transformed rather than simply reproduced.
The analogue low-pass filter offered a 24dB/octave slope together with resonance and keyboard tracking. Filter cutoff could respond to its envelope and performance controls, providing conventional subtractive synthesis techniques using sampled audio instead of an analogue oscillator.
The amplitude and filter envelopes allowed the attack, decay and release characteristics of sampled material to be reshaped. Percussive samples could be given different amplitude contours, sustained sounds could be shortened or extended within the limitations of their loops, and filter movement could be used to create dynamically changing timbres.
The instrument’s architecture consequently blurred the distinction between sampler and synthesizer. Users could record an acoustic source and subsequently process it as raw synthesis material, an approach that became increasingly important as sampling developed during the remainder of the 1980s.
The Ensoniq Mirage incorporated a built-in sequencer with a capacity of 333 events. It could record performances and support overdubbing, allowing basic arrangements to be created directly within the instrument.
The sequencer recorded performance information including notes and supported synchronisation through MIDI. Sequences could be saved to the same 3.5-inch disks used for sounds and programs, allowing a complete working setup to be stored and subsequently restored.
An optional sequence expansion increased the available sequencer memory to approximately 1,000 events on compatible models.
MIDI was an important part of the Ensoniq Mirage from the beginning. The instrument supported MIDI note information together with performance controls including velocity, pitch bend, modulation and sustain information. MIDI clock could be used for synchronisation of the internal sequencer with other equipment.
The Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 rack version incorporated separate MIDI In, Out and Thru connections, making it particularly well suited to integration within increasingly MIDI-based studio systems.
Compatible versions of the Ensoniq Mirage also provided an expansion interface that could accommodate additional hardware including Ensoniq’s optional Input Sampling Filter and sequence-memory expansion.
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 keyboard
The original Ensoniq Mirage appeared as the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 Digital Sampling Keyboard. It used a substantial metal chassis with a five-octave, 61-note velocity-sensitive keyboard, pitch and modulation wheels, the front-panel programming controls, two-character display and integrated 3.5-inch disk drive.
The earliest Ensoniq Mirage keyboards used a different keyboard mechanism and physical construction from later production instruments. During 1985 Ensoniq revised the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 substantially. Units produced from serial number 14731 incorporated a weighted-action keyboard, redesigned internal module layout, a revised case and additional noise-reduction circuitry. Earlier units could be updated with Ensoniq’s noise-reduction modification.
The revised Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 also adopted a colour-coded keypad with smaller buttons and changes to the positions of some controls. Despite the mechanical and layout changes, the fundamental sampling and synthesis architecture remained the same.
Later Mirage keyboard production included the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-1. This used a more compact enclosure, repositioned the disk drive and changed aspects of the keyboard and connection arrangement. The Ensoniq Mirage family therefore existed in several keyboard revisions rather than as a single completely unchanged instrument throughout its production life.
Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 rack version
In 1985 Ensoniq adapted the Mirage architecture into the rack-mount Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 Digital Multi Sampler. The Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 placed the sampling engine, disk drive, display and programming controls into a 2U rack enclosure, removing the keyboard while retaining the core sampling and processing system of the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8.
Ensoniq’s own service information confirms that the electrical characteristics of the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 and Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 were fundamentally the same. The Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 therefore provided the same eight-voice sampling architecture, memory arrangement, analogue filtering and disk-based operating system in a form designed for external MIDI control.
The Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 front panel retained the characteristic two-character display, parameter controls and integrated 3.5-inch floppy drive. Audio sampling input and mono audio output were provided, together with the expansion interface used by compatible Ensoniq accessories.
One practical improvement was the provision of three separate MIDI connectors. The Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 main board carried MIDI In, MIDI Out and MIDI Thru, whereas contemporary service documentation notes that the keyboard Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 main board used two MIDI connectors.
The rack format made the Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 particularly appropriate for sequencer-driven studios, where a dedicated keyboard was unnecessary. Its introduction also demonstrated how quickly sampling was moving from being primarily associated with expensive integrated keyboard systems towards the modular MIDI studio configuration that became common during the second half of the 1980s.
The historical importance of the Ensoniq Mirage lies primarily in the economics of sampling. Digital sampling itself was not new in 1984. Systems including the Fairlight CMI and E-mu Emulator had already demonstrated that recorded sounds could become playable musical material. The barrier was cost.
The Ensoniq Mirage changed that equation. At $1,695, the original keyboard was advertised at a fraction of the price associated with many existing professional sampling systems. For the first time, a self-contained polyphonic sampler was realistically within reach of a far broader group of musicians, project studios and working performers.
This price reduction was not simply the result of removing features. Ensoniq’s expertise in custom semiconductor design allowed the company to integrate functions that would otherwise have required much larger collections of conventional components. The Q-Chip was central to that strategy and established an engineering approach that would remain important to later Ensoniq instruments.
The Ensoniq Mirage was also significant because it was Ensoniq’s first commercial musical instrument. Its success established the company as a major electronic instrument manufacturer and created the foundation for a series of later Ensoniq sampling products including the EPS, EPS-16 Plus and ASR-10.
The Ensoniq Mirage arrived at precisely the point when MIDI was beginning to transform studio and performance equipment. Its combination of sampling, disk storage, MIDI, velocity response and sequencing meant that sampling no longer had to exist as a specialised high-end studio process. A musician could sample a sound, assign it across a keyboard, process it, sequence it, save the complete result to disk and integrate the instrument with other MIDI equipment.
The introduction of the Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 in 1985 strengthened this role. A rack-mounted sampler could become another MIDI-controlled sound source within a studio rather than requiring its own dedicated keyboard. This approach would become increasingly common as rack samplers from several manufacturers became central to professional and project studios later in the decade.
The extensive Ensoniq Mirage disk library was equally important. Sampling instruments were becoming not only devices for creating original recordings but platforms for distributing recorded instruments. A musician could purchase a disk containing professionally prepared piano, orchestral, percussion or synthesizer sounds and immediately use those recordings as playable instruments.
Its technical limitations became part of the history of early affordable sampling. The Ensoniq Mirage offered only 8-bit conversion, 128KB of sample memory, short sampling times and a two-character display. Yet those limitations have to be viewed against what the instrument achieved economically. The Ensoniq Mirage brought a technology that had previously been associated with extremely expensive systems into a price range much closer to conventional professional keyboards.
The Ensoniq Mirage consequently represents an important transition in recording history. It sits between the pioneering high-cost sampling systems of the late 1970s and early 1980s and the increasingly sophisticated rack and keyboard samplers that appeared from manufacturers such as Akai, Roland, E-mu and Ensoniq itself during the second half of the decade. Its contribution was not that it invented digital sampling, but that it helped make digital sampling accessible.
Features
- Eight-voice polyphonic digital sampling
- 8-bit sampling with variable sampling frequency
- 128KB sample memory divided between independent Upper and Lower memory areas
- 24dB/octave analogue low-pass filtering with resonance and keyboard tracking
- Five-stage envelope control and LFO modulation
- Velocity-sensitive performance control on keyboard versions
- Built-in 3.5-inch floppy drive for operating system, sample, program and sequence storage
- 333-event onboard sequencer with overdubbing and MIDI synchronisation
- MIDI integration for external sequencing and performance control
- Available as the Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8 keyboard and Ensoniq Mirage DMS-8 2U rack-mount Digital Multi Sampler
