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Patches and discussion for Ensoniq VFX family

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Re: [Ensoniq-VFX-SD] VFX-SD vs SD1

2012-03-04 by james meagher

As Christian noted the SD-1 has a few minor upgrades over the VFX-SD . . . but they are minor upgrades that frankly, for the most part, aren9;t even all that noticeable. I have one of each (the VFX-SD is 21 Voice and the SD-1 is 32 Voice) and truly, I don't think I've ever been in a situation where what I was playing on the SD-1 I couldn't have been playing on VFX-SD - it's possible for the situation to arise, but it would be very rare and only due to the use of some very specific parameters or the number of voices at play at once. For the most part the two boards are interchangeable.

The VFX-SD is prone to a common keyboard failure problem. It's not a complicated fix, but if you can find one that's already had the fix done to it you're better off. With both boards you'll be better off finding one that has had a new battery installed recently.

All this said, I would actually consider selling one of my two because for me and how I use them it's like having two of the exact same board. If you interested, message me off-list and let me know where you're located. I'm open to trades as well.

Cheers,
James



On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 9:03 AM, Christian Brunschen <cb@...> wrote:

On 4 Mar 2012, at 14:20, fddi wrote:

> Hello which One of the two is better in your opinion? I have to buy one of those. Thank you.

To the best of my understanding:

Fundamentally, the SD-1 is a somewhat upgraded VFX-SD - whilst still remaining fully backwards compatible. Everything you can do on a VFX-SD you can also do on an SD-1; but there are things you can do on the SD-1 that you can't do on the VFX-SD: there are some waveforms that are only on the SD-1 but not on the VFX-SD, and so on. Also, the software in the SD-1 is newer / better than in the VFX-SD. Add of course the 32-voice version of the SD-1 obviously has more voices available and this can play more sounds simultaneously.

But, this doesn't make the VFX-SD 'not good' any more. I still have the VFX-SD I bought in 1990; but I also bought a second-hand SD-1/32 as an 'extended backup', so to speak. Both still sound amazing.

I know, I've not actually been much help ;)

// Christian Brunschen




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