The ESQ 1 is an eight voice, poly-timbral Digital Synthesizer with a flexible eight-track MIDI Sequencer. This page contains thousands of patches (sounds) and several PC applications to use with the keyboard.

ESQ-1 Librarian v1.0 Patch Editor/Librarian for Windows. Contains over 80 Midiex(mdx) files. (Make sure poly mode and enable ... +SX are set on your ESQ-1 when using).

hackpat.zip DOS utility to send sysex format and 8 files of sysex(esq) files.

2kesqmdx.zip About 2,000 patches in mdx format. (README)

esqpatch.zip 29 banks of sysex ESQ-1 files.

hacker.zip 7 banks of sysex ESQ-1 files and patch sheet listings.

aix97.zip A couple sound banks e-mailed to me.

esq1smp1.zip A collection of ESQ-1 sounds in WAV format.

ERASE ALL MEMORY AND REINITIALIZE - Hold down Record and press the top left button above the display.
DO A SOFT RESET - Hold down Record and press the bottom left button above the display.
SHOW SOFTWARE & HARDWARE CREDITS - Hold down Record and press Modes.
FILTER TUNING - Hold down Record and press Filter.
SHOW SOFTWARE VERSION (screen that comes up when turned on) - Hold down Record and press Master.
ANALOG TESTS - Hold down Record and press Compare.
(If you have an old software version in the ESQ-1 some of these may not apply)

Synth Zone's Ensoniq Page - A place to start for Ensoniq sites.

Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. - They have MIDI related software and hardware for Windows and Mac computers. Unisyn, by MOTU is a universal MIDI device editor/librarian software package for numerous synths, including the ESQ-1. If your into creating new sounds for the ESQ-1 or nearly any other synth Unisyn is a must have.

Edirol Corporation North America - sells MIDI related software for the computer user and hardware as well (mainly Roland). Check out their page and get their free catalog.

Syntaur Productions - They sell sounds for most of the Ensoniq line.

Cakewalk Music Software - Looking for some excellent MIDI sequencing software then check out Cakewalk Pro Audio. Allows for WAV embedding and all sorts of sequencer features. They have demo downloads available.

Daddy's Junk Music - Used Gear By Mail - Lookin for some used gear. World's largest dealer of used musical equipment - over 8,500 pieces of used gear in stock.

Kraft Music - This is the place to checkout for all your MIDI hardware needs. They also have used gear.

zZounds -  has general information on MIDI, music and computers and sound synthesis, and also offers great deals on lines including Roland, Alesis, Korg, Yamaha, EMU, Event, AKAI and more.

Syntaur Productions now has the ESQ and SQ-80 manuals in stock; they are no longer available directly from Ensoniq.  The availability of these has been in limbo for some time, after Ensoniq shut down their accessories department, but we have now basically taken over that department.  The manuals are $19.95 plus shipping.

    We are the distributor for Ensoniq's sound libraries for their out-of-production keyboards such as the ESQ.  We have all of the 880 sounds they created for the ESQ, the 160 sounds for the SQ-80, and 5 banks of sounds that we have created here for those keyboards.  We even just finished a new(!) bank of sounds for the ESQ, our Soundset 5, mostly in response to the large number of hip-hop artists now using these keyboards.

    Sam Mims
    Syntaur Productions

If you have any question, comments, or additions to this page that may be helpful to others. Feel free to mail me at aaron@olemiss.edu

PS. I don't support Macs so don't waste your time e-mailing me asking about it.