Someone I know has an Ensoniq Mirage they want to sell. Should I?

I guess my question is if anyone has experience with actually using this or something similar. Is the disk drive problematic? Is it hard to keep up? Are you able to change the parameters on the fly?

How much is the seller asking for it? I picked one up for $100 a few years ago and I wouldn't pay more than that. Forget about changing parameters on the fly (too many many screens to fuck about with), and you have to load the OS disk a lot and it's not the most user friendly sampler. That said, it could have some pretty cool, if limited, applications. Are you getting it with any disks?

He was asking about $100, but I'm not if he has any disks. I dunno if it's really what I'm looking for (want something with more digital synthesis and not so much a sampler).

not sure* if he has any disks

"(want something with more digital synthesis and not so much a sampler)."

try the ensoniq esq-1. some really weird grainy pad sounds and incredibly easy to program

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncIoh2CP3Lc

i'd go for the mirage though. seriously 8-bit sampling will blow your mind. kind of a bitch to program at first (uses hex and has a tiny 2 parameter screen) but you'll learn it in no time

Wow that ESQ sounds great! (But wtf is with the screaming around 1:30? I thought a video was open in another window!)

I'll see how my finances are later this month and ask him about it!

cool thing about the esq-1 is how cheap you can find them. for the price, considering it has a pretty good analog filter and that the modulation possibilities are very deep, you can't really go wrong

other cool and cheap digital synths worth checking out:

yamaha sy-77/tg-77 (complex combination of 6-op fm and awm samples, very deep synth)
yamaha tg-33 (incredible and completely bizarre little tabletop unit partly designed by dave smith of sequential circuits. combines grainy 12-bit awm samples with 2-op fm, you use a little vector joystick to mix in and out of 4 different "elements" to create evolving sounds. i got mine for £40 and love it so much. it looks like a sega master system or colecovision or something and is built like a tank)
korg wavestation (kinda like the big brother of the the tg-33)
casio cz-series (bit of a cult classic among synth heads, kind of a twist on the dx-7 sound using a slightly different synthesis technique)

so much great 80s digital technology can be had for next to nothing nowadays since everybody is still so obsessed with analog stuff

only problem with ensoniq stuff is they often suffer from reliability problems during old age, particularly the esq-1. you'll likely have to open it up at some point to change the internal battery if it hasn't been done already (it's really easy). the later ensoniq synths like the sq-80, vfx and fizmo are all pretty cool and might be more reliable. on the other hand, yamaha synths from that era are built like tanks and don't seem to fail as much. i think its a us/japan thing -- loads of us built 80s synths that have the most innovative synthesis engines are let down by poor build quality

Huge help, thanks! I know the SY-77 from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II (IIRC the entire album was recorded using just that? Not sure about this).

i always heard that saw ii was mostly an oberheim matrix-1000, but he may well have used the sy-77 for some of the more rompler-y sounds