Big Ensoniq ESQ-1 and SQ-80 program collection - free to download

[MarkP]

Over the last year or so I have been collecting and organising programs for the vintage Ensoniq ESQ-1 and SQ-80 synths. I made an earlier version of this collection available in November 2021, but since then I have:

• added a few hundred more programs (there are now 5,762 in total)
• improved the three-level categorisation
• simplified the packaging of the banks
• added an individual sysex file for every program
• added an SQL database of all programs

This collection is now available at: https://app.box.com/s/odqcbczbs8xjhgw9k2v2bna0tcxyx1v7

Please see the file 'Ensoniq Programs.pdf' for more information.

The banks can be fairly easily loaded into the Arturia SQ80 V, though this doesn't preserve the categorisation completely. Since the programs are sorted by category, the bank numbers and program position numbers give clues regarding category, but that is all that is possible with the bank sysex import. It might therefore be easier to use the single-program sysex files for upload to the SQ80 V, providing you sort them into folders prior to upload. The file names contain all the information required to do so.

Incidentally, the SQL file loads directly into the KnobKraft Orm, a free open-source, cross-platform, multi-synth sysex librarian that works with the ESQ-1. A link to the Orm site is included in the notes. Using the Orm by-passes any need to work with sysex files; just download and set-up the program, load the entire collection in a single .db3 file, and start sending programs to your synth. You could be up and running in under 20 minutes.

[MarkP]

By the way, is anyone in Arturia interested in helping to get this collection into the SQ80 V? Obviously it can be done already, but there is still a discouragingly large amount of manual work involved, particularly if one wishes to retain the hierarchy of categories. And as I understand it, the SQ80 V still only imports single programs or banks of 40, not sysex files of arbitrary size.

I am happy to provide the database file if someone in Arturia wants to do the conversion. I'd understand that you might not want to, for fear of copyright infringements. An alternative might be to provide some simple way for others to import all the files.

[MajorFubar]

It's good of you to share but mostly Arturia staff do not visit here.

[MarkP]

... mostly Arturia staff do not visit here.

I've noticed that.

[francoise]

Thank you, Mark for this important contribution.

I just noticed that I had not responded to a previous post on some presets.

I could not answer many of your questions or thoughts on banks or presets. But I'll check for the SHIFT and CTRL options which I wasn't aware of. I simply went through many (not all) Gearspace sysex and selected some I liked sometimes adding a little something.

My first synth was a second hand ESQ in a summer of the nineties. I remember waking up and asking myself: what if I did this or that. Suddenly a cramp, it was supper time and I had not eaten a thing  . I also owned a VFX (and sampler ESP from Ensoniq). Great fun!

[MarkP]

When I opened up the ESQ.zip file, there were not 4200 files, but only 105 files in that one.
Can you explain what I'm not understanding?
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What you are seeing is 105 banks of sounds. Each bank contains 40 sounds.

105 x 40 = 4200.

However, you are referring to an older version of the collection that I released in Nov 2021. Use the link above in this thread to see the newer collection. It has 145 banks.

[MarkP]

by opening  ESQ.zip file the files were not accurate as mentioned. But limited files in a single row.     
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I am not sure what you mean, but you may be under the same misapprehension as deanelite. See my answer to them.

However, I think both of you may be looking at an earlier version of the collection. The latest version (July 2022) is here:

https://app.box.com/s/odqcbczbs8xjhgw9k2v2bna0tcxyx1v7

[MarkP]

Thank you, Mark for this important contribution.

...

My first synth was a second hand ESQ in a summer of the nineties. I remember waking up and asking myself: what if I did this or that. Suddenly a cramp, it was supper time and I had not eaten a thing  . I also owned a VFX (and sampler ESP from Ensoniq). Great fun!

I remember days like that too! What a great invention the ESQ-1 was!