ENSONIQ ESQ-M, Musician'S Manual, Page: 41 / 118

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Waveforms
ESQ-M – Musician's Manual
WAVEFORMS
DIGITAL WAVEFORM MEMORY
The same Digital technology that allowed the ENSONIQ Mirage to make Digital Sampling affordable
gives the ESQ-M its ability to play complex sounds from "the real world". Rather than just
producing simple sawtooth or square waves, the ESQ-M's three Digital Oscillators "read" from
memory whichever Waveforms they are instructed to play.
The ESQ-M has 32 different Waveforms stored in its Digital Waveform Memory. Some of
these Waveforms have been sampled (digitally recorded) from musical instruments; others have been
created synthetically.
WHAT'S A WAVEFORM?
The Waveforms are the "raw material" of the sounds that the ESQ-M makes. A waveform is a single
cycle of a sound wave. It is Digitized, or converted into a series of numbers, and stored in the
ESQ–M's Digital Waveform Memory. When you play a note, each of the ESQ-M's three Oscillators
"reads" the proper Waveform from the Memory, similar to the way a Compact Disc player reads the
music on the disc when you play a CD.
By rapidly repeating this single cycle over and over, the Oscillator can produce a pitched sound which
becomes a continuous Sound wave:
Unlike the sounds generated by analog oscillators, Digital Waveforms can be very complex, and can contain
any combination of harmonics — frequencies that are multiples of the wave's fundamental frequency. Every
Waveform has its own unique Spectrum, which is the number and amplitude of harmonics present in the
Wave. It is this Spectrum which gives every sound its own identifiable characteristics.
SYNTHETIC WAVEFORMS
Most of the Waveforms in ESQ-M's Digital Waveform Memory have been generated synthetically, using a
number of different techniques, to create a variety of Waves which contain specific harmonics in specific
amounts. By assigning different combinations of these synthetic Waveforms to the three Oscillators, it is possible to
create sounds with almost any timbral characteristics.
SAMPLED AND MULTI-SAMPLED WAVEFORMS
Other Waveforms are sampled — a single cycle of a sound wave from some real musical source has been
isolated and stored in Memory. By playing back these Waveforms in the manner described above, it is
possible to synthesize sounds that capture the character of the Source instrument in a way that no ordinary
synthesizer can.