Recent Acquisitions

[Indeterminacy]

Reel to reel

That is badass.

[crochambeau]

Yeah 15/16 to 7.5 ips is a hugely useful range, very cool deck.

[crochambeau]

Pending acquisition:

Viewed 1524 times

[¾ dead]

Doepfer recently announced they are making a new version of this module in 4hp. I already knew about it when I bought this, and still chose to pay too much for the discontinued original when one finally (inevitably) popped up on Reverb following that announcement, simply because I've wanted one for about as long as I've been buying modular crap:

I've seen old listings for significantly less than what I paid, but I was tired of waiting for another sub-$100 listing. I do have a thing for older Doepfer stuff, as well as their more obscure/oddball modules. Same reason I paid too much for the original joy sick module next to it.

Making up for lost time.

[Phogmasheeen]

I have an ESQ-1. The battery that maintains the memory is out, so every time I turn it on it is a new adventure. Good filters. It is a good synth in partially working condition. Easy to open and work on. It harkens to a different age... Oh, it does weigh a metric ton...
phog

I had an ESQ1 for a bit in the early 90's unfortunately it got fried during an electrical storm when I was living in this really shitty formerly condemned house in Chicago. I took it to a repair shop and couldn't afford the repair so I just abandoned it. I recently cruised ebay for one recently and the prices were a bit much. I recall it being a total nightmare to program but it had some good stock sounds and a decent sequencer for the time.

[NoiseWiki]

I have an ESQ-1. The battery that maintains the memory is out, so every time I turn it on it is a new adventure. Good filters. It is a good synth in partially working condition. Easy to open and work on. It harkens to a different age... Oh, it does weigh a metric ton...
phog

I had an ESQ1 for a bit in the early 90's unfortunately it got fried during an electrical storm when I was living in this really shitty formerly condemned house in Chicago. I took it to a repair shop and couldn't afford the repair so I just abandoned it. I recently cruised ebay for one recently and the prices were a bit much. I recall it being a total nightmare to program but it had some good stock sounds and a decent sequencer for the time.

The battery is probably soldered to the board but it shouldn't be hard to replace.

It's been so long I don't really remember what programming it was like but I don't recall it being easy. It does have the ability to use a tape deck to save patches and probably also via sysex and a library editor

There's also an storage expansion cartridge but I font know if that works if the battery in the synth is bad

[Phogmasheeen]

I found the keyboard fascinating on the ESQ-1. It is velocity sensitive in a strange way. Springs I think. I had to clean the contacts on one that was used in bars before the smoking ban. If the keyboard is an issue, you can route midi info into the ESQ-1 and just use it as a sound module. It will work in this manner even with a dead battery.
Enjoy,

PS you might be looking for this...

The Ensoniq is on the bench now that I'm in a holding pattern on the Korg until I have a backup battery installed.

I'm discovering proper service data for the ESQ-1 is scarce. Their official service manual essentially amounts to a flow chart to determine which board needs replacing.

I had a VFX for a while, never fell in love with it. I read that the ESQ-1 has more grit and character, so maybe it will pull its weight (which is substantial).

[crochambeau]

While I hate to dole out unsolicited advice, replacing back-up batteries is pretty simple. Though I get the aspect of being adept at a synth enough to willingly go the discovery route every time you use it.

There's also an storage expansion cartridge but I font know if that works if the battery in the synth is bad

I don't think a low back-up battery state will impact being able to write to the cart (so long as the OS loads enough to allow editing to begin with), but sometimes the carts have batteries of their own - depending on type of RAM (I've never been inside one of this type, so I don't know (and while I could look it up, I see no point)). That said, as I understand it, the ESQ-1 OS is "fragile" enough that chaos reins, and going in with nothing each run is a testament to fortitude. My hat's off to you!

[Soloman Tump]

I haven't acquired anything new in about 5 months now, and have even sold a couple of pedals. Feels good actually.

[NoiseWiki]

PS you might be looking for this...

Img links to dropbox don't work but you can either upload the image or copy and paste the actual image (instead of a link) into the post.