“Excellent condition original model Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8. The Mirage preceded the revolutionary sampler workstations in the Ensoniq line-up; the Mirage was Ensoniq’s first commercial product. Historically, the Mirage was also one of the earliest affordable sampler/sequencer workstations, originally listing under $1,700. Compared with the much more expensive samplers of the time, the Mirage was a bargain! The Mirage was an 8-bit sampler capable of a maximum sampling-rate of 32kHz with a limited 128Kb of RAM. Those are pretty old-school specs by today’s standards and while it does mean your sounds will be somewhat lo-fi, that does not mean low quality. A built-in 3.5 inch DD disk drive was used to load and store samples, sequences – even the operating system. Each disk could hold up to 6 samples and 8 sequences. The keyboard is split in to two independent halves for an upper sound and a lower sound – great for playing two instruments at a time. Unfortunately, sample editing is done via hexadecimal-code manipulation which is not a simple to concept to master. Most users will just load-in sounds from the Mirage’s extensive sample library, or look for computer programs that can edit or convert Mirage samples. While the Mirage’s limited sampling specs, limited polyphony (8 voices) and limited sequencer (333 notes) may seem to knock it off anyone’s list when looking for a keyboard sampler, the Mirage still has a few hidden goodies under its hood. Most notably, it has analogue filters…a true, analogue VCF with low-pass filtering and keyboard tracking. In addition to that it has five-stage envelopes for the VCA and VCF and a nice LFO. This is the original model with the metal chassis and the weighted velocity sensitive keyboard. Sale will include custom wooden hardcase. ”
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