The Quilcom RazorBlade
Posted: Sat May 16, 2020 11:42 am
Hello my good fellows!
The Quilcom RazorBlade has quite a history…
June 5 2018: This is where it all kicked off:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5258&p=42608&hilit=ensoniq#p42608
June 17 2018: About the Ensoniq DOC chip:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12389&start=0&hilit=ensoniq
June 26 2018: This is a topic about waveform extraction and conversion:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12471&hilit=ensoniq
Kevin started it with a simple question about getting the waveforms from the Ensoniq ESQ-1 and SQ-80. What followed is an unintentional collaboration between Tulamide, myself, Kevin Brown and eventually Manfred Plümer. I don’t very often collaborate because I like the freedom to do my own thing in my own way in my own time. But for this I just couldn’t help myself!
Tulamide did an incredible job of making an extraction tool.
I made a prototype synth, with a lot of very useful input and feedback from tulamide.
Kevin made a great GUI and added some of his own ideas to the schematic to add more functionality.
Tulamide and I did some more tweaking and improving, especially for ease of use and preset making.
Then our new friend Manfred Plümer offered to make preset banks which are included of course. He also made the intro and outro music and some slides for the video. Manfred is a member here but rarely visits because most of our topics are technical.
The resulting RazorBlade is not intended to be a clone or accurate emulation, but a synth inspired by the Ensoniq ESQ-1 and SQ-80. The architecture is straightforward and very similar to the hardware, but the 3 oscillators use exactly those original waveforms extracted by tulamide, so in my opinion this is a great sounding synth, as exemplified by the huge range and quality of presets made by Manfred.
Here’s the video:
https://youtu.be/nsZJ096gCOo
Here’s the download link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qd1jeomxpdvv1 ... 6.zip?dl=0
Most aspects of operation will be clear, but it’s worth looking at the User Guide to get all the details, some of which do need to be explained.
This has been nearly 2 years in the making, so I hope you’ll give it a whirl and have some fun with it.
And, of course, a big thank you to the people I mentioned who contributed to the project.
Cheers
Spogg
The Quilcom RazorBlade has quite a history…
June 5 2018: This is where it all kicked off:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5258&p=42608&hilit=ensoniq#p42608
June 17 2018: About the Ensoniq DOC chip:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12389&start=0&hilit=ensoniq
June 26 2018: This is a topic about waveform extraction and conversion:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12471&hilit=ensoniq
Kevin started it with a simple question about getting the waveforms from the Ensoniq ESQ-1 and SQ-80. What followed is an unintentional collaboration between Tulamide, myself, Kevin Brown and eventually Manfred Plümer. I don’t very often collaborate because I like the freedom to do my own thing in my own way in my own time. But for this I just couldn’t help myself!
Tulamide did an incredible job of making an extraction tool.
I made a prototype synth, with a lot of very useful input and feedback from tulamide.
Kevin made a great GUI and added some of his own ideas to the schematic to add more functionality.
Tulamide and I did some more tweaking and improving, especially for ease of use and preset making.
Then our new friend Manfred Plümer offered to make preset banks which are included of course. He also made the intro and outro music and some slides for the video. Manfred is a member here but rarely visits because most of our topics are technical.
The resulting RazorBlade is not intended to be a clone or accurate emulation, but a synth inspired by the Ensoniq ESQ-1 and SQ-80. The architecture is straightforward and very similar to the hardware, but the 3 oscillators use exactly those original waveforms extracted by tulamide, so in my opinion this is a great sounding synth, as exemplified by the huge range and quality of presets made by Manfred.
Here’s the video:
https://youtu.be/nsZJ096gCOo
Here’s the download link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qd1jeomxpdvv1 ... 6.zip?dl=0
Most aspects of operation will be clear, but it’s worth looking at the User Guide to get all the details, some of which do need to be explained.
This has been nearly 2 years in the making, so I hope you’ll give it a whirl and have some fun with it.
And, of course, a big thank you to the people I mentioned who contributed to the project.
Cheers
Spogg