Ensoniq Mirage - couple of questions

hey guys,

i got a mirage this week and had an hour with it today.

sampling with it sound better than i hoped for and it will surely be used. i dont want to hype it but it really is gritty in a nice way, and ads some punch too.

i can get around with the parameter editing but couple of stuff i cant find an answer to:

- is there any way to monitor the sampling?

- can i start the sampling with a input treshold?

- if i sample across both the upper and lower parts - what is the max sampling time?

- i read that one needs a disk specifically for formatting.
that is a bit of a bummer but i think my library disks might have the formatting software onboard. when i powered mirage with a library disk in it it said FD.
i guess that might work?

running masos 3.2

i will surely have other questions but if someone can help me out a bit i would be very grateful.

thanks

- is there any way to monitor the sampling?

Dont know of a way myself, except for having the signal pass through another device (mixer, sampler, etc) to monitor before patching into Mirage.
For example: Use the Aux Out of a mixer to the Mirage.

- can i start the sampling with a input treshold?

Sampling threshhold is set with parameter #76
Just have to try different settings until silence doesnt automatically trigger the sample start..

- if i sample across both the upper and lower parts - what is the max sampling time?

2 seconds at 33kHz (Highest Sampling Rate)
1 second for each region (lower & upper)

6.5 seconds at 10kHz (Lowest Sampling Rate setting)
3.25 seconds for each region

- i read that one needs a disk specifically for formatting.
that is a bit of a bummer but i think my library disks might have the formatting software onboard. when i powered mirage with a library disk in it it said FD.
i guess that might work?

Sounds like that disk(s) may just have the formatting software on it, you wioll just have to give it a shot.. Im just not sure, I cant remember as my Mirage is put away for now.

When you see the display say "FD", take the disk out, put in a good disk & press Save Seq.



Have Fun!

thanks for the information insomniac.
i am very grateful for the straightforward reply.

so can the regions be merged?
the idea is to resample breaks and i could really use the whole 2 secs rather then split the break in two parts and merge them.

btw how hot are you sampling into the mirage? i find that it easily distorts but just had a minute with it...

cheers

Regions cannot be merged.

You could just sample half the break in one region and the other
half in the other. Then trigger with midi sequencer since Mirage has
no quantize.

Also, an old, long time trick that SP-12/1200 & other memory limited
sampler users do, is to pitch your sample up an octave (or whatever
amount you need/like) then pitch it back down after sampling.

My Mirage is put away for now so I can't experiment right now
so I'm not sure the pitching thing would be great due to the very
low bit rate/sample rate but old samplers tend to color the sound
beautifully from this technique due to older/simpler pitch interpolation
algorithims.

Yeah, sampling hot didn't seem to sound too good on the Mirage which
is a shame (& unexpected as well due to older gear usually providing
benefit from that).

I've also thought mine has a possible issue(s) because it looks
pretty bad and has a very loud hiss in anything I sample.

It's been hell tryin to get it out. Even tried the input filter along
with the one for after you sample. Only luck I've had was after
having filtered out so much high end, it's no good for drums (hardly).

Don't have the dough to have it looked at/fixed, so she's in the closet..

hey insomniac, thank you for sharing your experiences.

it actually confirm my impressions.

it is a bit of chore triggering a loop on both octaves but i guess there is no other way.
naturally i would pitch it to get more mileage and i do like the artefacts.

i also noticed alot of noise but seemed to me that it is more prominent with certain samples/input levels, so i think there are workarounds for that.

i too had to put it aside for space reasons, but i love the sound and the filter.
some of the limitations are odd though. its certainly due to the price point back then but no sample monitoring? first sampler i encountered that.

if anyone else has some tricks or suggestions, please drop a line.

d