ENSONIQ SQ-80 User Manual

SQ-80 — Musician's Manual
A Word About the ENSONIQ SQ-80
Welcome to the
ENSONIQ SQ-80, the first studio synthesizer designed 'for live performance. In a
world of synthesizers, sequencers, MIDI controllers and MIDI disk drives, the SQ-80 is something
different. It is all of those things and more, in one easy-to-use device. Here's what you get:
• An eight-voice, polyphonic, poly-timbral synthesizer, capable of playing eight different sounds at
once, with dynamic stereo panning for each voice.
• Voice section employing state-of-the-art CrossWave
TM
synthesis techniques; combine different
attack and sustain segments to create a rich variety of complex, dynamic sounds.
• 256k bytes of synthetic, sampled and multi-sampled wavedata
in ROM — 75 different Waves.
• Dynamic Voice assignment — each Track/MIDI Channel has access to all eight voices.
• An integrated eight-track
MIDI sequencer with 20.000 note capacity and features you would expect
to find on stand-alone or computer-based Sequencers.
• A full-featured MIDI controller keyboard capable of sending eight MIDI Program and Volume
changes at once.
• Key (Poly) Pressure keyboard — Polyphonic Pressure (or After-touch) affects
only the note or notes
you press down on, allowing a whole new level of expressiveness. Of course, for sending to
instruments which only recognize Mono (or "Channel") Pressure, the SQ-80 can send that too.
• A 3.5" disk drive for fast and reliable storage of up to 600 Sequences and up to 1,728 Programs on a
single disk.
• Disk storage for all your MIDI devices —the ability to receive and save to disk any System Exclusive
message of up to 64k bytes from any device.
• An eighty-character fluorescent Display and user-friendly "Page-driven" programming scheme to
help you keep track of it all.
• Stereo Headphone jack for private listening at home or in the studio.
• Program and Sequence formats which are upwardly compatible with the
ENSONIQ ESQ-1, so
sounds and sequences created for the ESQ-1 can be played on the SQ-80.
By combining all of this in a single integrated unit, the
ENSONIQ SQ-80 makes the perfect nerve center
for any MIDI rig. You'll find that you can take most of your other MIDI Instruments, run MIDI cables
to them and then stow them away in a closet somewhere — most of the time, you won't need to touch
them. You can control everything right from the
SQ-80's front panel.
Whether you plan to use the
SQ-80 by itself or as the master controller in your MIDI set-up. for
composing pop tunes or performing as a one-person orchestra. we suspect that you'll soon wonder what
you ever did without it.
A Word About the Manual
We realize that many people don't particularly care for reading manuals. You bought the
SQ-80 for its
ability to make music, not for a graduate course in applied computer technology. Still, the fact remains
that you have in your possession an extremely sophisticated computer device (disguised as a keyboard
instrument) which is capable of performing an enormous number of tasks. It may be necessary. when
all else fails, to look in the book to find out how to do something. But because of the SQ-80's friendly
user interface and intuitive operation, you'll probably only have to look once.
The odds are that whatever you need to know to get the most out of your
SQ-80 is right here in the
Musician's Manual. Every effort has been made to present the material in a way that is neither too
technical nor too pedestrian. Take some time to look through it. and you'll find lots of hints and
operational advice that will enhance both your enjoyment and your productivity. But enough of this
serious stuff. Fire up your new SQ-80 and have some fun.
2 Section 1 — First Things First

ENSONIQ SQ-80 Specifications

General

Brand	ENSONIQ
Model	SQ-80
Category	Synthesizer
Language	English