KVR Audio

Jake Jackson · Post by **Jake Jackson** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:55 pm

I'm trying to determine the file-name extension used for the names of sample in an Ensoniq ks-32 or SQ-2. Not the extension used for an instrument or a preset--just the extension put at the end of each sample's file name.

It isn't just a wave file, is it, with a .wav extension?

chickeneps · Post by **chickeneps** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:33 am

The KS-32 and the SQ-2 are closed systems; they don't use files for their samples. Their samples are in the ROM chip inside the instrument.

Now, someone could have SAMPLED those instruments and made a WAVE file out of each note (or series of notes). That would be ".wav", but you can't load that into those instruments.

Did that answer your question?

Jake Jackson · Post by **Jake Jackson** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:29 am

Maybe I'm getting lost in the nomenclature. The manual, and some companies, say that you can load "sounds." Are these just programs that rely on the internal sounds--so that when you load a "sound" into the keyboard, you are really just loading a program that combines ROM "voices" (the internal sounds) with envelopes, etc?

On the other hand, the RAM cards that Ensoniq sold had actual samples on them. So it has internal sounds in the two blocks (ROM and INT blocks), both of which are just ROM sounds with different names, for some reason, and it can load files from one of the cards? Are the files it can load into RAM just wave files? Or are they another format with another extension?

chickeneps · Post by **chickeneps** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:40 am

Jake Jackson wrote:Maybe I'm getting lost in the nomenclature. The manual, and some companies, say that you can load "sounds." Are these just programs that rely on the internal sounds--so that when you load a "sound" into the keyboard, you are really just loading a program that combines ROM "voices" (the internal sounds) with envelopes, etc?

That's exactly correct.

Jake Jackson wrote:On the other hand, the RAM cards that Ensoniq sold had actual samples on them. So it has internal sounds in the two blocks (ROM and INT blocks), both of which are just ROM sounds with different names, for some reason, and it can load files from one of the cards? Are the files it can load into RAM just wave files? Or are they another format with another extension?

No, the RAM memory these keyboards have are just to store the patch information. It may be true that those cards have ROM sound data in them. RAM means writable, ROM means read-only.

There is no user-memory that holds sampled data. Now, models like the MR-61/76/XR-76, which are closely related to the KS32, DID have memory and the architecture that supported loading of WAVE files and accessing them. But not the SQ-2 nor the KS-32.

Jake Jackson · Post by **Jake Jackson** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:45 pm

Thanks for the information and insight.

(I'm still trying to track down why one site says that some of the cards are only programs, implying that others do have sound data. Strangely, after several hours of searching using Google, the Harmony Central reviews, the Sonic Synth site, and many other places, I can't find any ads or overviews of the original Ensoniq cards that may have had some additional samples. This and the SQ-2 were fairly popular keyboards at the time. Hard to believe there's no data about them at all, anywhere. If anyone has any information about these cards, a post would be appreciated.)

Another reason to regret the death of Ensoniq.

olepro · Post by **olepro** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:17 pm

The first Ensoniq synth that loaded sample data(EPS/ASR sounds) was TS10/12.
They are soundwise the same synths where the difference is the keyboard.
As standard they load two megs of samples but the sample ram can be increased to eight megs.

Name of samples on an Ensoniq instrument?