Ensoniq TS-12 (1993) synth sampler workstation

[chrisNova777]

Ensoniq TS-12 (1993) synth sampler workstation
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/feb94/ensoniqts12.html
http://www.vintagesynth.com/ensoniq/ts10_ts12.php
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/feb94/ensoniqts12.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20150607013149/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/feb94/ensoniqts12.html

IN A NUTSHELL...

The Ensoniq TS12 has been designed to fit a particular niche of the synthesizer market. It has been superbly crafted to provide a true musician's instrument, and goes a long way to solving the programming problems manifested by so many of today's 'black boxes'.

Ensoniq call this the 'TS12 Performance/ Composition Synthesizer', a somewhat unnecessary embellishment. However, if you choose to label an instrument 'TS12', then I suppose you need something extra to add a bit of sparkle. The TS12 is closely related to the TS10 that Martin Russ reviewed in Sound On Sound's July '93 issue. They are both synthesizer/sample replay workstations with a leaning toward performance applications. In terms of features, the two machines are fairly similar, but there are some important differences, the most obvious being the TS12's 76-note weighted keyboard (similar to the one found on Ensoniq's earlier KS32).

The TS12 offers 300 'sounds', arranged such that 120 are user-programmable and 180 are fixed. There is a pretty good 30,000 event sequencer. And this is all controlled with reference to a large, brightly-lit, vacuum-fluorescent display with six 'soft keys' actually built into the perspex display cover.