This Month’s Special: Ensoniq Mirage

The Mirage was Ensoniq Corporation's first product,[1] introduced in 1984. Priced below $1700 with features previously only found on more expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI, it became a best-seller. The mirage was one of the earliest affordable sampler-synths.

The Mirage is an 8-bit sampler featuring a 61 key velocity-sensitive keyboard, a two-digit LED display, extensive MIDI implementation, analog filters, a 333-event sequencer. It had 128kB of RAM (64kB for each keyboard half) and it was not expandable. Sample rate was variable from 10 kHz to 33 kHz with available sample time ranging from 2 to 6.5 seconds accordingly (for each keyboard half).[2] It included a built-in 3.5 inch SS/DD floppy drive, which was used to boot the operating system as well as store samples and sequences. Each disk had a copy of the operating system and could be used as a boot disk, obviating the need for a separate boot disk.