The Ensoniq VFX/VFX-SD: THE Old-Tunes-And-Beyond Era Sound

[oliveoil22]

This synth, or at least one from the lineup (VFX, VFX-SD, SD-1) is for sure what they used in a handful of Old Tunes tracks (199X to 1996?). A completely digital synth. Nothing pops out to me enough that I can say it has been used in any of the studio album tracks beyond EYDIAB.

Everything You Do Is A Balloon (Saw-O-Life preset, "-x" patch selection):


Xander 2 (Saw-O-Life preset, "--" and "xx" patch selection):


Mukinabaht (Saw-O-Life preset, "-x" patch selection:


Mansel/Skimming Stones (Either Lush-Strngs or Swellstrngs presets):


A14 (custom patch using the "Ocarina" wave sample):

[TheStatPow]

We did it!! Well ... you did it. You did it!!

[belchmaster]

Holy smokes oliveoil... this is great. What a nice synth.

[Quadrivium]

Great uploads! Thank you.

[mGardener]

EYDIAB live remake when?

[Cohesion]

Very cool. 3:11 in this video sounds just like 5d.

[rodox_head]

Now this is the stuff I like to see

[ParticleGhost]

Cool to hear the EYDIAB sound! It blew me away when i discovered the mansel patch while messing around with the VFX i had for a little while.

[Sherbet Head]

Love this. Thanks for sharing!

[bungler666]

Woah! Great find!!

[dana]

Everything You Do Is A Balloon synth is half-square, half-saw with a low-pass filter if you want to recreate it in modern synths

[niknak]

I know nothing about synths or creating music, but this is very cool. Well done.

[dana]

Just wondering if you found the skimming stones synth sound on this synth?

[oliveoil22]

Just wondering if you found the skimming stones synth sound on this synth?

If you're talking about the lead, that one is probably an SH-101 being passed through flanger, delay etc.

[Wildfire]

Holy god damn fuckin shit, I've been wanting to know what synth they used for the EYDIAB strings since the day Hi Scores was released in 1996. Thanks so much for posting this.

Could this be the 'secret weapon' I wonder.

[ParticleGhost]

Holy god damn fuckin shit, I've been wanting to know what synth they used for the EYDIAB strings since the day Hi Scores was released in 1996. Thanks so much for posting this.

Could this be the 'secret weapon' I wonder.

Nah, the VFX wasnt released until 1989, a year after they supposedly bought the secret weapon for 100 quid on a bus. (sh-101? )

[oliveoil22]

Holy god damn fuckin shit, I've been wanting to know what synth they used for the EYDIAB strings since the day Hi Scores was released in 1996. Thanks so much for posting this.

Could this be the 'secret weapon' I wonder.

Nah, the VFX wasnt released until 1989, a year after they supposedly bought the secret weapon for 100 quid on a bus. (sh-101? )

I think it is in fact the CZ-101. By that time I think it would have been at the value that it could've bought off of someone on a bus to be honest, lol. Will make a post about that synth down the line, I own it as well and it has the flute preset used in a lot of places:

[NorthernPlastics]

Holy god damn fuckin shit, I've been wanting to know what synth they used for the EYDIAB strings since the day Hi Scores was released in 1996. Thanks so much for posting this.

Could this be the 'secret weapon' I wonder.

Nah, the VFX wasnt released until 1989, a year after they supposedly bought the secret weapon for 100 quid on a bus. (sh-101? )

I think it is in fact the CZ-101. By that time I think it would have been at the value that it could've bought off of someone on a bus to be honest, lol. Will make a post about that synth down the line, I own it as well and it has the flute preset used in a lot of places:

Chiming in to say that I've always had a suspicion that the Casio phase distortion synths are the true secret weapon. They confirmedly own a CZ-101, as it's been seen at live gigs being used as a controller. In my own findings, the CZ-101 produces some of the saddest sounds of all time...like a cheap broken toy that wants so desperately to be a real synth. Not to mention, the flute sounds it's capable of producing are legendary, and through a couple iterations of resampling, I've previously achieved some very Geogaddi-esque tones with ease.

[northernlite]

Chiming in to say that I've always had a suspicion that the Casio phase distortion synths are the true secret weapon. They confirmedly own a CZ-101, as it's been seen at live gigs being used as a controller. In my own findings, the CZ-101 produces some of the saddest sounds of all time...like a cheap broken toy that wants so desperately to be a real synth. Not to mention, the flute sounds it's capable of producing are legendary, and through a couple iterations of resampling, I've previously achieved some very Geogaddi-esque tones with ease.

the CZ-5000 on the other hand...

[scottp014]

this is awesome! I have an esq-1 being delivered today, hope to get some similar sounds out of it