Mo Says...

The VFX SD is pure late-’80s Ensoniq sorcery: huge digital textures, expressive performance control and a proper onboard sequencer. This veteran shows its years, but remains a wonderfully characterful music-making machine.

Notable Particulars

• 61-key keyboard with Ensoniq’s expressive polyphonic pressure, giving sounds an unusually lively, playable response.
• Digital wavetable synthesis delivers evolving pads, glassy bells, punchy synth tones and unmistakably atmospheric late-’80s and early-’90s textures.
• Integrated sequencer turns the VFX SD into a genuine music production workstation, ideal for composing and arranging without a computer.
• Extensive sound programming with envelopes, LFOs, filters, modulation and performance controls for creating complex, animated patches.
• MIDI connectivity, pitch and modulation wheels, pedal control and multiple audio outputs make it equally at home in a vintage studio or modern MIDI setup.

The Details

The Ensoniq VFX SD is a classic American digital music production synthesiser from the turn of the 1990s, combining Ensoniq’s distinctive synthesis architecture with an onboard sequencer and a particularly expressive keyboard.

Its sound sits beautifully apart from the cleaner digital instruments that followed. The VFX SD excels at broad cinematic pads, shifting digital landscapes, metallic timbres, bells, punchy hybrid sounds and gloriously period textures. There is plenty of programming depth beneath the wonderfully retro control panel, making this considerably more than a preset machine.

This example is visibly well used and carries substantial cosmetic ageing. The white keys have yellowed considerably, while the control panel and casing show marks, wear and general signs of a long musical life. Please study the photographs carefully for the cosmetic condition.

Included with the synthesiser are the pictured Ensoniq VFX SD Musician’s Manual and foot pedal.

A splendid choice for collectors, soundtrack makers, synth explorers and anyone seeking the unmistakable character of vintage Ensoniq hardware. Not a museum piece cosmetically, certainly, but rather the sort of seasoned electronic vessel that looks as though it may already know several songs you haven’t written yet.