2021/03 - Synth Controller for Ensoniq Mirage

1985 #Ensoniq released the #8-bit #Sampler "Mirage". Great features and sound but a nightmare to edit. In 2021 - just 36 years later - Stereoping offers a little #Midicontroller making things a little easier. For technical reasons, the Controller only works with #MASos - the "Mirage Advanced Sampling OS". It can not tune in absolute values as we are used to today. The Controller simulates button-presses on the frontpanel. When moving a knob it sends commands to the #Mirage like "press PARAM, press 3, press 6, press VALUE" to select Cutoff and show it's value on display. Moving the knob outside the 12 o'clock deadzone starts to send consecutive presses of INCREASE or DECREASE in 3 different speed grades to adjust the value itself. Sounds complicated but it works quite well. This demo shows how to build a complete program with 11 samples and their upper and lower memory assignments in 5 minutes! Without Controller it would most probably take much longer (i must admit, i did not try it). The video uses a speedup to prevent sending spectators to sleep, hopefully. The background shows a real-world clock to proove it's not fake-demo. From 3:27 the defined memory areas are filled with samples... choosing wavesample slot, adjusting external volume, starting sampling, adjusting sampling time for long samples etc. From 6:57 the complete Program is used for a little Drum and Bass mockup - even with realtime adjusting of "AMP Release time" - kind of stutter effect :-) Unless you own or know the Ensoniq Mirage, this video will be quite boring. Maybe you enjoy the background music, Tabla and Sitar are played by the Mirage.