Cherry Audio Ensoniq ESQ-1 review: a hybrid Lo-Fi synth rebirth for your DAW

Ensoniq ESQ-1, a blast-from-the-past hybrid synth, arrives in your DAW via Cherry Audio’s first and only officially endorsed emulation.

Looking back, time has brought us a multitude of synthesizers, hardware digital, and hybrid. Some of them are true legends, like the Juno, Prophet-5, Jupiter-8, and Minimoog. Others were less famous but are now classics that people would love to see revived in a modern form.

Many of these vintage synths are available as emulations today, while other pearls are still waiting for their rebirth. Cherry Audio has revived one of those special synths from the late 1980s as software: the 1986 Ensoniq ESQ-1. And yes, it’s the first proper emulation ever made. 

This emulation was created in collaboration between Cherry Audio and Creative Technology, the current owner of the Ensoniq intellectual property.

Thanks to official endorsement and license, the new CA virtual instrument can bear the name Ensoniq ESQ-1, and also offers the original waveforms.

Disclaimer: I don’t own an Ensoniq ESQ-1, nor have I ever had the chance to play one for long. It’s one of those synths that I rarely get my hands on. For these reasons, I can’t say how accurately the emulation compares to the original.

Cherry Audio Ensonsiq ESQ-1 Review Summary

Positive

• sound quality
• the only ESQ-1 emulation that exists
• advanced features (multi-FX, motion…) 
• presets 
• new programming experience vs the original hardware
• patch import from and export to the Ensoniq ESQ-1 hardware

Neutral 

• cannot confirm 100% authenticity (I don’t have the hardware) 

Negative 

• patch/engine levels 
• One-parameter modulation in the FX

A User Interface Transformation

The original Ensoniq ESQ-1 from 1986 certainly didn’t win any awards for the most intuitive user interface. Knobs were nowhere to be found. It was all about numerous buttons, two data sliders, and a central display that manages the menu diving. 

Perhaps that’s why the synth never really appealed to me or made it onto my wish list. That’s different in the Cherry Audio emulation. The software user interface completely changes the programming experience of the ESQ-1.

It brings every control to the surface, organized into five sections: play, edit, modulation, envelopes, and sequencer. There are actually 7, including a keyboard and a multi-FX section. And, as with the other CA plugins, you can easily hide the keyboard.

Analog Meets Digital 

The Ensoniq ESQ-1 software is a stereo dual-layer instrument that supports up to 32 polyphonic voices per layer, with split and stack modes and independent controls. Compared to the hardware’s 8-voice polyphony, this is a big boost.

Each layer features a replica of the Ensoniq ESQ-1, with three oscillators with a sample-based DNA. No waveform generation through an algorithm. Like the hardware, it uses sample-based waveforms, ranging from analog-style to raw digital. 

They were stored in the EPROM and contributed significantly to the overall sound character. Through their partnership with Ensoniq’s current owner, Cherry Audio can offer all these iconic waveforms in the ESQ-1 plugin.

The tweaking options per oscillator are quite limited: octave, semitone, and fine. Additionally, there are two oscillator modulation slots and a modeled VCA (DCA), also with two mod slots. Sync is possible between OSC1 and OSC2, as is AM modulation, but not PWM.

Where other synths offer various modifier options, here you have to work a lot with combining waveforms or with the mod slots to achieve more complex results. Many waveforms have a distinct character, and by mixing them, you achieve very gritty, Lo-Fi results.

Each oscillator has a modeled DCA (digital VCA) that also affects the sound. This also acts as a mixer from where the signal then goes to the filter.

The Curtis Filter 

Cherry Audio meticulously modeled the Curtis CEM3379 analog lowpass filter with all its special sonic nuances. It combines a filter, an amplifier, and panning into a single chip.

It is known for its bright, brassy, cutting, and aggressive sound that works well on these sample-based waveforms. The plugin goes further than the original by incorporating a 2-pole lowpass, and options for a high-pass and band-pass filter.

The controls are quite basic, with cutoff, resonance, key tracking, and two modulation slots. Even though I can’t perfectly compare the filter down to the last detail, the emulation gives me back this famous bity character.

Modulation That Goes Beyond The Standard

Many vintage synths from this era used classic ADSR envelopes or slightly modified versions. The Ensoniq ESQ-1 took a different approach, going a step further by offering four envelopes per voice with eight adjustable stages.

It offers four different levels (L1, L2, L3, L4) and times (T1, T2, T3, T4), letting you build complex, evolving sounds that change dramatically over time. This is not possible with ADSR envelopes, which only allow fading in and out.

Alongside these, the Cherry Audio Ensoniq ESQ-1 also features three multi-wave LFOs (tri, saw, square, noise) with two adjustable levels and delay. Again, no ordinary LFOs are used here.

Additionally, you have performance-oriented modulators such as velocity, channel aftertouch, polyphonic aftertouch, and MPE that can be used to animate parameters.

An easy-to-use vintage-inspired 4-slot modulation matrix manages the modulation engine with 41 sources and 85 destinations. A click-to-assign function allows you to quickly map parameters to the respective modulators.

For more advanced modulation experience, you can even place a modifier in between the destination and the source. Four macros, one per mod channel, also give you hands-on control over them.

The modulation in the Ensoniq ESQ-1 plugin is anything but simple. They are powerful and enable beautiful, evolving animations, but they take some getting used to. As mentioned, they are not bread-and-butter ADSR envelopes.

Refinements With Multi-Effects 

At the bottom of the synth is a multi-FX processor section with three independent channels: layer 1, layer 2, and global. Each one is independent, has five freely assignable FX slots, and one assignable LFO.

The FX menu remains unchanged, and Cherry Audio is once again using all the same algorithms as in previous plugins. There are 20 different effects modules, including digital delay, flanger & chorus, Cherry’s custom galactic reverb or the DCO chorus. 

There’s not much to say about them. This part repeats itself with every new CA release. They are convincing in both sound and functionality. I like that you can modulate parameters with a dedicated LFO per channel and save effects chains.

However, modulation is still limited to a single fixed parameter per FX. I have criticized this in other releases as well. The same mapping freedom as in the regular modulation would be great here.

Sounds In Motion

On the modulation side, the Ensoniq ESQ-1 plugin is a mighty beast with its four multi-stage envelopes, three LFOs, and more. For those who want to add even more dance to their sounds, it includes a built-in arpeggiator, sequencer, and motion sequencer.

The arpeggiator sits beneath the two synth layers and is freely routable. You can arpeggiate one part, or even both simultaneously, at different rates. It has the classic features, including various playback directions, hold, a 1-4 octave range, speed control, and swing.

Lovely extras like different arpeggio patterns, probability (chance), feel, and more bring a creative, organic, and more unpredictable vibe to the arpeggios.

To the right is the sequencer with 16 freely programmable steps, four patterns, playback directions, and additional creative features such as chance, feel, and more. Like the arp, you can have an independent sequencer per layer.

One highlight is the motion sequencer. It comprises four layers, each modulating a macro control. It certainly would have been more exciting to have four freely assignable parameters, including the macros.

Depending on how it is programmed, the motion sequencer brings subtle movements into the sound, making it more dynamic or a complete explosion of events. I’m more of a fan of subtle movements to make the sound more organic.

Of course, you can also easily go down the experimental, noisy route with this and animate up to four parameters at the same time.  A lovely addition that lets you go beyond the original ESQ-1’s capabilities.

Sound Design

Many buy the Cherry Audio Ensoniq ESQ-1 for the vintage, Lo-Fi rattle sounds, but many also buy it to build their own sounds. Compared to hardware, this is much more convenient and easier

Right out of the box, it comes with over 400 professionally-designed presets, including the original ESQ-1 factory patches, to inspire instant creativity.

In the presets, you immediately find yourself at home in the ESQ-1 world. There are basses, leads, pads, and FX that all have that special, gritty, rattling, lo-fi sonic quality. The soundscape, which many love, is offered here authentically.

You’ll also find dozens of presets that go far beyond what you know from the original hardware. Especially when the motion sequencer starts animating macros, or you simply work with two layers.

Don’t be too put off by the fact that these new advanced patches don’t sound like an ESQ-1 patch immediately. Remind that the new functions open new doors in sound design with that iconic character.

A big highlight is the ability to import patch and bank SysEx files via drag-and-drop patches from the original ESQ-1 or directly via MIDI from the hardware. That’s not all, you can also create patches for the hardware by exporting them as a SysEx patch file.

Something that bothered me in the sound design workflow was the engine’s very high volume. This isn’t new, though, and I’ve noticed it in other CA plugins as well. Even with relatively small volume amounts, you quickly reach clipping points. 

Thankfully, there’s been a limiter in place in recent CA plugins for some time now, which is usually active. Even with this, you have to be careful that the signal doesn’t overheat, which has happened to me quite often.

Volume differences are also noticeable when playing the sounds dry, without effects. It varies a lot depending on the preset. I wish that CA would use a more consistent level across all presets. As we know, loud doesn’t always mean better.

Cherry Audio Ensonsiq ESQ-1 Review Conclusion

With the Ensoniq ESQ-1 plugin, Cherry Audio has succeeded in reviving the hybrid classic from the late 80s. However, due to a lack of original hardware, I can’t verify its 100% authenticity.

Even without this, the plugin carries much of the original sound flair into modern music production systems. It has that charming, Lo-Fi, sizzling, warm sound that is still loved by many. 

The extra features, such as dual-timbrality or multi-FX, are perfect additions and clearly upgrade the original hardware’s feature set, making it a modern-day synth. And the fact that it’s in collaboration with the current owner is a nice bonus.

We have the Ensoniq ESQ-1 back. Not as hardware, but as a great-sounding emulation with a few minor compromises. 

Availability

Cherry Audio Ensoniq ESQ-1 is available now for $69. It runs as a standalone and VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows. 

Additionally, until June 30th at cherryaudio.com, customers can take advantage of Cherry Audio’s “Build Your Own Bundle” promotion. They can select the Pick 3 bundle for $99 (regularly $119) or the Pick 6 bundle for $149 (regularly $169).

The Soniq Odysseys preset pack by James Dyson for the ESQ-1, featuring over 100 new presets and 25 bonus MPE presets, is out now for $9,99. 

More information here: Cherry Audio 

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