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32-487: Towards the end of the 1990s, Ensoniq was struggling financially. Their cards were very popular with PC OEMs , but their costs were too high and their musical instrument division was fading in revenue. Pressure from intense competition, especially with the dominant Creative Labs , was forcing audio card makers to try to keep their prices low. The AudioPCI, released in July 1997, was designed primarily to be cheap. In comparison to

64-636: A PLL, resampling is often used with all its potential problems. Creative Labs Malvern (which was the former Ensoniq company that had been acquired) later released the Ectiva 1938 (EV1938). This single chip PCI audio controller was based on the ES1371/ES1373 and was register compatible with these previous chips. The main difference between the EV1938 and previous chips was the inclusion of a built-in AC'97 codec (hence producing

96-581: A cheaper, single chip audio solution). The EV1938 was also used for both integrated audio on laptops/motherboards and on cards, such as the "Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V" (CT4730). The AudioPCI ES1370 was developed by Ensoniq . One important feature of this chip was that it used the PCI bus, instead of the ISA bus commonly used by sound cards at that point. It was one of the first PCI sound card solutions to offer MS-DOS legacy compatibility without special hardware extensions to

128-631: A computer keyboard for the Atari 2600 , but the video game crash of 1983 canceled the project and Commodore sued the new company, claiming that it owned the keyboard project. Renaming itself as Ensoniq, the new company instead designed a music synthesizer. Ensoniq grew rapidly over the next few years with the success of the Mirage and the ESQ-1. The plant in Great Valley, Pennsylvania employed nearly 200 people and housed

160-490: A par with Lexicon's offerings, but at affordable prices. Despite these strengths, early (1980s) Ensoniq instruments suffered from reliability and quality problems such as bad keyboards (Mirage DSK-8), under-developed power-supply units (early ESQ-1), or mechanical issues (EPS polypressure keyboard). Through the early and mid-1990s, much effort was focused on improving the reliability of the products. The company did not manage to reinvent its workstation concept in order to survive

192-513: Is also disappointing considering the incredible popularity and longevity of the Ensoniq ES1370 chipset and its descendants, some of which were still in use six years after the original AudioPCI board, and the fact that DOS drivers for the far newer Sound Blaster Audigy still use ".ecw" wave sets. These newer cards are unable to use SoundFonts in DOS, limiting them to the three official .ecw wavesets from

224-454: Is also emulated as a piece of virtual hardware in QEMU and VMware . Ensoniq/Creative ES1371 and ES1373 (AudioPCI 97) are AC'97 -compatible versions. The CT5880 chip is a relabeled ES1371, may be found on some cheap cards i.e. SB Creative VIBRA 128 PCI. Creative EV1938 (AudioPCI 64V) is virtually identical to ES1371/ES1373 and is a later (cost reduced) product. Ensoniq Ensoniq Corp.

256-563: The Gravis Ultrasound card. In 1994, production began on PC sound cards for home computers. The design of the video-game console Atari Panther also included the OTIS chip, though the product never reached series production. A dedicated version of OTTO, ES5530/35 OPUS, was developed for AT-bus sound cards, featuring built-in joystick and CD-ROM interface. Ensoniq's sound cards were popular and shipped with many IBM PC compatibles . Many games in

288-681: The Sound Blaster 64/128 in the device manager. ES1370 was one of the first audio chips to support the Microsoft DirectSound3D audio API . When programs took full advantage of the API's capabilities, the ES1370 was capable of both global spatial and localized 3D sound effects, in both 2 and 4-speaker mode. The chip was capable of spatializing all audio automatically, but still required DirectSound3D usage for specific localization of sounds. The ES1370

320-632: The "Japanese" sound which was more "digital" and somewhat "cold"). After the Mirage, all Ensoniq instruments featured integrated sequencers (even their late '80s and early '90s samplers ) providing an all-in-one "digital studio production concept" instrument. These were often called "Music Workstations". Starting with the VFX synthesizer, high-quality effects units were included, in addition most synthesizer and all sampler models featured disk drives and/or RAM cards for storage. The manuals and tutorial documents were clearly written and highly musician-oriented, allowing

352-860: The CPU into Virtual-86 mode, conflicting with games that utilized a modified form of protected mode , called 'flat mode'. This mode allowed fast, direct access to the system's entire RAM without requiring a memory manager or memory protection mechanism. This is not a requirement exclusive to AudioPCI, however, as a number of ISA sound cards used it as well, including the Creative AWE ISA series. The AudioPCI DOS driver included Ensoniq Soundscape 16-bit digital audio and sample-based synthesis support, along with support for Sound Blaster Pro , AdLib Gold , General MIDI , and MT-32 . However, without actual hardware for FM synthesis , FM music and sound effects were simulated using samples, often with unacceptable results. Therefore, it

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384-510: The EPS sampler) and ES5505 OTIS (used in the EPS16+ sampler and the VFX line of synthesizers featuring 21 voices). Finally, ES5506 OTTO drove all subsequent 32-voice machines (SD-1/32, TS10/12, ASR-10/88) and the dual-OTTO machines (KT, MR, ZR). The latest incarnation, ES5548 OTTO-48, was used in the final line of Ensoniq studio products (ASR-X, FIZMO). Ensoniq also developed an effects DSP, ES5510 ESP, that

416-939: The driver and removed the Ensoniq SoundScape support. AudioPCI itself was re-branded as several Creative Labs sound cards, including the Sound Blaster PCI 64, PCI 128, Vibra PCI, and others. The Ensoniq ES1370 audio chip was renamed Creative 5507 and revised into AC'97 -compliant variants, the ES1371 and ES1373, and used for several more years on card and as integrated motherboard audio. Cards with ES1370 run natively at 44 kHz sampling frequency, meaning that 12, 24, 32 and 48 kHz become resampled. Resampling means lower sound quality, worse synchronization and possibly higher CPU utilization. Cards with ES1371 run at 48 kHz conforming to AC97, so 11, 22 and 44 kHz become resampled. For few soundcards feature multiple quartzes or

448-534: The late MS-DOS era supported the Ensoniq Soundscape either directly or through General MIDI . In addition, Ensoniq devised an ISA software audio emulation solution for their new PCI sound cards that was compatible with most contemporary IBM PC games. It is speculated that this was an important factor in Creative Lab's acquisition of Ensoniq, because Creative/E-MU was struggling with legacy compatibility at

480-552: The late '90s and one incomplete unofficial waveset. The AudioPCI supported DOS games and applications using a software driver that would install during DOS, or the DOS portion of Windows 9x. This driver virtualized a Sound Blaster -compatible ISA sound card through the use of the PC's NMI and a terminate-and-stay-resident program . This allowed the AudioPCI to have more compatible out-of-the-box DOS support than some of its PCI competitors for

512-406: The manufacturing facility. A number of successful products followed which all included the full-custom ICs for music and effects which were developed in house. While the core keyboard products were generally successful, there were some quality problems and increasing competition from Asian companies. An attempt to diversify into hearing aids was unsuccessful and put the company in financial peril. In

544-481: The mid and late '90s. In 1986, after making an agreement with Apple Computer , the same ES5503 DOC (Digital Oscillator Chip, marketed as "Q-Chip") used in the Mirage sampler (DSK-8, DSK-1, DMS-1), ESQ-1, ESQ-M and SQ-80 synthesizers, and SDP-1 piano module, was incorporated into the Apple II GS personal computer. Later engines, with 16-bit sample playback and internal digital filters, were ES5504 DOC-II (used in

576-543: The mid-nineties, they developed a line of very cost-effective sound cards which sold millions of units. In January 1998, ENSONIQ Corp. was acquired by Creative Technology Ltd. for $ 77 million. The acquisition was focused on the sound-card technology of the Ensoniq Audio-PCI. The musical products division, which was in financial trouble, was merged with E-mu Systems to form the E-Mu/Ensoniq division of Creative. Over

608-635: The next three years the Ensoniq operation in Pennsylvania was gradually dismantled and shut down. After releasing an entry-level E-mu MK6/PK6 and Ensoniq Halo keyboards in 2002 – essentially keyboard versions of the Proteus 2500 module – the E-Mu/Ensoniq division was dissolved and support for legacy products was discontinued soon afterward. Ensoniq entered the instrument market with the Mirage sampling keyboard in 1985. At

640-698: The price of USD$ 1695 it cost significantly less than previous samplers such as the Fairlight CMI and the E-MU Emulator . Starting with the ESQ-1 , they began producing sample-based synthesizers . Following the success of these products, Ensoniq established a subsidiary in Japan in 1987. Ensoniq products were highly professional. Strong selling points were ease-of-use and their characteristic "fat", rich sound (generally thought of as being an "American" quality, as opposed to

672-451: The standard PCI slot. When paired with a capable codec , such as the AK4531 (pre-AC'97), the ES1370 supported the then-latest in 3D audio positioning through 4-speaker surround sound. The chip was also a PCI bus master device that was designed to provide high-speed access to system RAM and resources, for sample synthesis data and effect processing. Depending on the drivers, it may also be called

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704-494: The time, in order to achieve DOS compatibility for their Sound Blaster AWE64 -variant PCI sound cards. SB-Link was also used by a number of other chipset vendors, such as ESS and Yamaha . While Ensoniq's approach generally worked with most games, some older games had problems detecting the virtualized hardware on some systems. In addition, the DOS driver required a memory manager such as EMM386 to be loaded, which not only required additional conventional memory space but also put

736-570: The time. For example, the competing Monster Sound from Diamond Multimedia was limited to running DOS games in Windows 9x -DOS command windows, meaning DOS compatibility was frequently only reliable through an additional ISA sound card. Creative was struggling with the challenge of legacy support as well, and had created the SB-Link , an interconnect that allowed access to the serial- IRQ and PC/PCI grant/request sideband signals offered by some PCI chipsets of

768-803: The users to quickly get satisfactory results from their machines. In 1988, the company enlisted the Dixie Dregs in a limited edition promotional CD Off the Record which featured the band using the EPS sampler and SQ-80 cross wave synthesizer. The company had much success with the SQ product line starting in the early 1990s. This was a lower-cost line that included the SQ-1 (61 keys), SQ-2 (76 keys) and SQ-R ( rack-mounted , with no keys or sequencer), as well as KS-32 with full 76-keys weighted piano-keyboard. Later versions were produced with 32 sound-generating voices. The company's heyday

800-458: The wide variety of chips on and sheer size of the older Soundscape boards, the highly integrated two chip design of the AudioPCI is an obvious shift in design philosophy. The board consists only of a very small software-driven audio chip (one of the following: S5016, ES1370, ES 1371) and a companion digital-to-analog converter (DAC). In another cost-cutting move, the previously typical ROM chip used for storage of samples for sample-based synthesis

832-523: Was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments , principally samplers and synthesizers . In spring 1983, former MOS Technology engineers Robert "Bob" Yannes , Bruce Crockett , Charles Winterble, David Ziembicki, and Al Charpentier formed Peripheral Visions . The team had designed the Commodore 64 , and hoped to build another computer. To raise funds, Peripheral Visions agreed to build

864-606: Was in the early 1990s when the VFX synthesizers offered innovative performance and sequencing features (and terrific acoustic sounds), along with the ASR series of 16-bit samplers which also integrated synthesis, effects, and sequencer into a single-unit digital studio. The TS synthesizers followed the legacy of the VFX line, improving several aspects such as the polyphony , effects engine, sample-loading capabilities and even better synth and acoustic sounds. The DP series of effects rack-mount units offered parallel processing and reverb presets on

896-464: Was never made open as had been hoped for by enthusiasts. Consequently, there are very few custom wave sets available, in contrast to the huge availability of home-made releases in E-mu 's SoundFont format. It was particularly unfortunate because the AudioPCI used system RAM for patch set storage which in itself offers tremendous potential for new patch sets over the traditional ROM storage previously used. It

928-648: Was one of the first cards to have Microsoft DirectSound3D 4-speaker playback support. The 4-speaker mode is only activated by software supporting the DirectSound3D quadraphonic mode. An oddity is that the rear channel was connected to the same output jack as line input. The jack switches modes if 4-speaker output became active. The DOS and Windows drivers support sample-based synthesis through Ensoniq's ".ecw" patch set format. Several patch set choices are available, varying in size and instrument quality (2, 4, or 8 MB ). The ".ecw" file format (Ensoniq Concert Wavetable )

960-517: Was practical to configure DOS games to utilize the General MIDI synthesizer and digital sound effects, whenever possible, for better sound quality. DOS MIDI utilizes the same .ecw patch set files as Windows MIDI. Part of the deal when Ensoniq was purchased by Creative Labs was to integrate the AudioPCI DOS driver into the upcoming Sound Blaster Live! . Creative added Sound Blaster 16 emulation to

992-615: Was replaced with the facility to use system RAM as storage for this audio data. This was made possible by the move to the PCI bus , with its far greater bandwidth and more efficient bus mastering interface when compared to the older ISA bus standard. AudioPCI, while designed to be cheap, is still quite functional. It offers many of the audio capabilities of the Soundscape ELITE card, including several digital effects ( reverb , chorus , and spatial enhancement ) when used with Microsoft Windows 95 and later versions of Windows. AudioPCI

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1024-489: Was used in the machines from VFX on and the standalone FX units DP/2 and DP/4. OTTO-48 generation uses its greatly enhanced successor, ES5511 ESP V2. A combination of OTTO and ESP, ES5540 OTTOFX, was also developed and sold. The Ensoniq ES5505 OTIS/OTISR2, and ES5510 ESP (Ensoniq Signal Processor) were also used in various arcade games . They were all manufactured on the CMOS process. OTTO was licensed to Advanced Gravis for use in

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