Mirage-Net was started in January of 1991. It is pretty minimal and consists of:
One nice feature is that subscriptions to the list are done via a web page. Follow the link below and you're on your way to joining the list. That web page is:
Or you can send mail to:
If something goes wrong, try contacting the list administrator at:
and I'll try to fix whatever might be wrong.
It can be a week sometimes before I check my mail - please be patient. Besides, the answer to your question may well be in this FAQ you're reading, check it out.
The Mirage-Net web page is hosted by Webcom, courtesy of your friendly, local Mirage-Net benefactor (me).
Documentation on the Mirage includes the Musician's Manual - the red book that was shipped with it, and the Advanced Sampler's Guide (ASG). The Musician's Manual is a basic owner's guide and is not a bad reference for using the Mirage's basic functions. The ASG is pretty much required to do any serious sampling or other work. It includes MASOS 2.0 which is an alternate OS for the Mirage that eliminates the sequencer and adds in additional sample manipulation functions. The ASG also includes the necessary information for accessing the Mirage via MIDI SysEx messages.
The original Mirage was a steel cased beast designated the DSK-8.
The following is a list of the different models of the Mirage through the years:
DSK-8 Original black steel case mirage w/user port
and mono output. The DSK-8 used a Pratt-Reed
keyboard assembly (not exactly the Mirage's
strong point, this) and had MIDI in and MIDI
OUT/THRU connectors, and the serial port. The
serial port allowed for connection of the SQX-1
sequence expander (expanded the sequencer from
333 events to 1000), and also for connection of
the ISF-1 input sampling filter - (see M.U.G.
below for more on the ISF-1).
Pretty early on the DSK-8 went through a minor
revision to reduce the noise output. With the
update were updated versions of the Mirage
operating systems: Mirage OS 3.2 and MASOS 2.0
- these are still the current revisions.
Not clear if the upgrade is still available, but
if you can boot OS 3.2, you should be in good
shape.
DSK-8+ Not really a designation, but this refers to
DSK-8 keyboards with serial numbers 14731 and
above. The DSK-8+ used an improved keyboard
assembly and a case similar to the original
ESQ-1 case (gray instead of black).
DMS-8 This is the rack mount mirage. Basically a
DSK-8 without the keyboard.
DSK-1 ~1986. Newer case, stereo outputs - no more
serial port. Another keyboard, this one
was an unweighted, "synth" style.
MUG (MIDI Users Group, formerly Mirage Users Group) had a 700 floppy collection, but they are gone.
6. Where can I get samples
There are several locations, but they change too often to keep the list here. Your best bet is to look at the Mirage-Net link site at: http://webcom.com/~jawknee/Mirage/links.html.
Links with samples are marked in green.
Still with us:
Defunct, so far as we know:
Let's start with the big one. Note, the area code changed sometime back
so you may find an old phone number with the (215) area code - don't use it.
For Musical Instrument Customer Service you can send e-mail to:
music-support@ensoniq.com
Syntaur was founded by long time Transoniq Hacker contributor Sam Mims.
They're probably the best source for Mirage commercially released sounds;
they have all three ten disk sets from Ensoniq, as well as the K-Muse series
(at much more reasonable prices than back in the old days) as well as
MASOS, SoundProcess and others. Check 'em out.
You can contact them at:
MIDICaster is available from:
You can learn more at Tim's MIDICaster web site:
http://www.bassontop.com
or email him at midicaster@bassontop.com.
As of April, 2001, Tim is quoting $25 US for MIDICaster and manual, $40 US
for the same with a second, backup disk.
I'm happy to be able to announce that his products are once again
available. Check the Upward Concepts page at:
http://webcom.com/~jawknee/Mirage/UPWARD/ for more information.
You can contact them at:
The M.U.G. has lots of Mirage Users, as well as others. They are a
source for stuff Mirage users are often looking for: samples,
SoundProcess and the ISF. They still carry a huge collection of sounds
available individually or in roups - you can buy a set of 700 if you
want - however you might pay more than you did for you Mirage. So what.
You can get back issues of the Transoniq Hacker, sound disks, and (when
available) hard to find items like the Input Sampling Filter, Sequence
Expander Cartridge and Sound Process.
One year membership is $20, a lifetime membership is $65 - last I checked.
You can contact them at:
The first upgrade for the Mirage was to reduce noise, as well as a
couple of other changes. This change required a boot ROM change and also
required version 3.2 of the MirageOS. If your Mirage boots 3.2 you have
the upgrade. The upgrade also came with updated OS disks. Before the ROM
upgrade, the revision of MirageOS was 2.1 (near as I can tell), MASOS was
1.2. After, and since MirageOS is 3.2, MASOS is 2.0.
There are two do-it-yourself articles in old issues of Electronic
Musician. The first, by Don Slepian is in the January 1987 issue. A
second article written by Ensoniq engineers Bob Yannes and Tom Metcalf,
is a bit safer to implement and provides a fuller stereo field. This
article is in the June 1987 issue - I highly recommend this one. If
you're going to get back issues, it wouldn't hurt to get both. Back
issues of Electronic Musician are available from:
Don Slepian's modification is also available on his web page:
http://www.DonSlepian.com/Mirage.html
At one point (when the "Ensoniq" article appeared) Alan Gary Campbell's
company Musitech, had a board and full kit available. You should check
with him first at:
Both modifications involve taking the eight voices of the Mirage, which
are actually eight separate signals inside the Mirage, and arranging
them in a stereo field. The Slepian article describes a rather brute
force method of wiring four of the voices to the left, and the other
four to the right. The Yannes/Metcalf article uses active electronics
for better signal matching and a resistor network that pans each of the
eight voices to a different location in the stereo field. This second
method can produce some beautifully full pads and can give motion to
other types of sounds (a piano tends to bounce around too much, but
panning the channels towards each other compensates nicely).
Note the following correction to the Yannes/Metcalf article on page 38:
in figure 2, make the following corrections:
I have no address for Musitech, though Alan Gary Campbell does still
write regularly for Electronic Musician. If anyone has an address -
please send it to me or post it to the list.
The format is specific to the Mirage and is documented somewhere in a
Transoniq Hacker article - though I do not know which one.
A Bit of History
One slightly odd thing about the formatting OS is how you start it.
You first boot from the floppy and the display shows "Fd". To format a
disk, insert a blank disk and press, no, not Enter, but Seq Save.
Pressing Enter tells FMT-1 to reboot. The way you'll know you messed
this up is if you get "ud" on the display. You just tried to reboot
from an unformatted disk.
One problem with the FMT-1 method is that you can't make a bootable
floppy - handy for gigs where you want a particular setup. For this
you need a third party formatter. For that you'll need one of the
other, commercial available formatters:
I can recommend MIDICaster. It will let you format a floppy and copy
a non-protected OS onto it (like MASOS or MirageOS). It also has many other
handy features. (See above)
Ensoniq also produced the FMT-2 OS. It adds the capability of putting
MirageOS 3.2 on the newly formatted floppy, in addition to the FMT-2 OS.
It is available from Syntaur - $12.95 US, last I checked.
There are also programs that run on computers that can format a Mirage
floppy in the computer's drive. At this point I do not have a lot of
information on this. Help is appreciated.
They are:
7. What third parties support the Mirage?
Let's face it, we're talking about a machine that hasn't been made for,
what, ten years? Still, stuff is available, especially if you know where to look.
What's Listed Below:
Ensoniq
Ensoniq Corporation
155 Great Valley Parkway
Malvern, PA 19355
(610) 647-3930 (voice)
(610) 647-8908 (fax)
You can contact their web page: http://www.ensoniq.com
Syntaur Productions
As mentioned above, Syntaur is the repository for all of the products
that Ensoniq used to sell, but doesn't anymore.
Syntaur Productions
1418 N. Walnut Ave.
New Braunfels, TX 78130
Info and Product Support: 830-627-1530
Orders: 800-334-1288
Fax: 830-627-1531
email: syntaur@juno.com
You can also access their web page at: http://www.syntaur.com/
MIDICaster
A must! MIDICaster turns your Mirage alternately into:
MIDICaster is an alternate form of OS 3.2 that replaces sampling functions
with new capabilities. One nice feature is that additional functions can
be loaded into the sequencer memory, allowing lots of different functions
to be used without having to reboot.
Tim Martin
1510 S 5th W
Missoula, MT 59801
(406) 542-0280
Upward Concepts
Dick Lord did some amazing work on the Mirage. I believe he was the
first to take OS 3.2 (A very stable OS - still current on the Mirage
after all these years), and modify it to do other things. Dick sold
alternate versions of OS 3.2 that could process volume and other MIDI
controllers, a couple of disks that could give your Mirage alternate
tunings (temperament) and transposition, as well as a monitor disk that
allowed you to get into the 6809 processor code on the Mirage, and
patch it or modify it for your own purposes.
Kaysound Imports, Inc.
Guy Bergeron of Kaysound imports announced in May of 2002 that
they have a number of Ensoniq parts and accessories available.
Check out:
http://www.members.tripod.com/ensoniqparts
(but may be found used)
Transoniq Hacker
The Transoniq Hacker was a monthly newsletter with articles of interest
to users of Ensoniq products - Mirage articles were pretty few and far
between towards the end. Unfortunately, a subscription is no longer an
option, the Hacker left us at the end of 1999. I believe some back issues
are available at $2.00 a copy.
Transoniq Hacker
1402 SW Upland Dr.
Portland, OR 97221
(503) 227-6848
trnsoniq@teleport.com
And of course Eric and Jane have a web page too:
http://www.teleport.com/~trnsoniq/subinfo.html
M.U.G. (MIDI Users Group, formerly the Mirage Users Group)
M.U.G. has a web page at http://www.nowopen.com/mug.
M.U.G.
c/o G-4 Productions
P.O. Box 615TH
Yonkers, NY 10703-0615
email: G4Prod@aol.com
Fax: (914) 961-0785
Human: (914) 961-1797
BBS: (914) 683-3665
voicemail: (212) 465-3430 / (800) 569-5232
SoundProcess OS (available through Syntaur and M.U.G.)
SoundProcess turned the Mirage into a multitimbral synth. It could
receive on more than one channel at a time with different sounds
produced on each channel. There is a fair amount of "fourth party"
software available for SoundProcess, though with SoundProcess no longer
available, this doesn't exactly look like a growing market.
8. What web pages are available?
There are a few, and more every day. You should be able to find answer
to lots of questions at one of these sites:
Johnny, the list manager for the Mirage-Net has a page with pointers
and stuff.
Don is arguably the premier Mirage artist, featuring the old black beast on
many of his recordings. This web page contains some of his Mirage related
articles, a discography and more.
9. How can I upgrade my Mirage?
There are a couple of different upgrades available. In almost every
case, you're on your own.
Double-Sided Drive Conversion
In early 1997, Art Entlich graciously agreed to allow the Mirage
community web access to his Transoniq Hacker article on the Mirage
Double-Sided Drive Conversion - instructions on how to install said
drive in your trusty old beast.
The Stereo Mirage
The Mirage DSK model introduced a stereo Mirage. That upgrade is
possible for older Mirages if you're willing to open it up and make
some changes. (I guess none of us have to worry about voiding our
warranties, eh?)
ACT III Publishing
6400 Hollis St #12
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 653-3307
Musitech
P.O. Box 3717
Chatanooga, TN 37404-0717
Voice 6-C118 should be C130
10. What's the deal with formatting?
The Mirage stores sounds on Single-Sided, Double Density (SSDD), 3-1/2"
floppy disks, though DSDD are much more common and work just fine - it's
just that the Mirage only uses one side. High Density (HD or if your
soul is reversed like mine: CH) floppies are not recommended. They
appear to work sometimes, but failures are common and that sort of
defeats the purpose.
When the Mirage was first introduced, blank floppies had to be purchased
from Ensoniq at about ten bucks a pop for a "pre-formatted" (but
otherwise blank) floppy, in a blister pack. Outrageous even then, when
blank floppies were quite a bit more than they are now. To their
credit, Ensoniq saw the error of their ways and solved the problem by
sending out the FMT-1 floppy. This floppy had a new Mirage OS that
would format any floppy AND (this is the key) it would put the FMT-1 OS
on the new floppy. This way you could take a regular floppy down to the
store or to a Mirage-owning friend's house and come away with your own
floppy that would let you do your own formatting with your own Mirage.
11. My Mirage is broken - HELP! - what do I do?
Check out the latest on fixing your Mirage at the troubleshooting page:
http://webcom.com/~jawknee/Mirage/TroubleShooting.html
12. How do I know what revision my OS is?
Beyond looking at the printing on the floppy, the value of parameter 97
is the revision of the OS. Boot the disk in question, press PARAM, 97,
VALUE. For the current Mirage OS, you should see: 3.2
13. Can I reboot without turning the Mirage on and off again?
Yes. For MASOS 2.0 and Mirage OS 3.2 use the sequence:
It will reboot. For the FMT-1 disk, the Enter key will reboot. For
the FMT-2 disk, use "0 ENTER".
14. What do parameters 78, 79, 80 and 84 do?
What you have here are the parameters that were added in OS 3.2. They were
not documented in the original Musician's Manual or Reference Card.
| Keyboard/Program Parameters | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|
| 30/Local On/Off | [ON-OFF] | ON |
| MIDI Parameters | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|
| 78/LFO Modulator Source | [0-9] | 1 |
| 79/MIX Modulator Source | [0-9] | 1 |
| 80/After Touch Modulation Depth | [0-63] | 63 |
| 84/MIDI Function Enable | [0-3] | 2 |
The External MIDI Controllers for parameters 78 & 79 are:
| Controller Number | Controller | 0 | No External Controller | 1 | Modulation Wheel | 2 | Breath Controller | 4 | Foot Pdeal Controller | 6 | Data Entry Slider | 7 | Volume Pedal | 8 | After Touch | 9 | After Touch - Polyphonic |
|---|
NOTE: To use an external controller for MIX Modulation, you must also set parameter 35 on the Mirage to 0.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Only MIDI key information is transmitted or received. |
| 1 | Key information and controller information are both transmitted and received. |
| 2 | Same as value 1 with the addition that program changes are both transmitted and received. |
| 3 | Same as value 2 with the addition that to change a program on the Mirage you must also press the MIDI +1/yes button on instruments such as the DX-7. This setting allows you to change sounds on your controller instrument without changing sounds on the Mirage. |
Here is a table of MIDI program change numbers (1-128). Note: the actual datum transmitted (0x00-0x7F) is one less than the MIDI program number.
| Mirage Program Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Load All Sound 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | Load All Sound 2 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 11 | Load All Sound 3 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | Change Upper/Lower Program # | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Load Lower Sound 1 | 17 | 20 | 23 | 26 | Load Lower Sound 2 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 | Load Lower Sound 3 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 28 | Change Lower Program Number | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | Load Upper Sound 1 | 33 | 36 | 39 | 42 | Load Upper Sound 2 | 34 | 37 | 40 | 43 | Load Upper Sound 3 | 35 | 38 | 41 | 44 | Change Upper Program Number | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 |
|---|
The display would then show
" 3"to indicate program 3 is loaded. Note that if parameter 84 is set to 2 or 3 then the Mirage will also transmit a program change through MIDI as in the chart above.
http://www.fatsnake.com/syntaur/mirage.html#start
15. I just got a Mirage, now what?
Assuming the Mirage is in operating order, you're going to need a few
things to get you going. The Mirage requires a floppy disk with a bootable
operating system on it. You'll also need the Musician's Manual to get
started. A good way to start is with the Syntaur Starters Kit. You can
more about it at:
16. Is there a source for parts?
DSDD floppy drives
See Kerry Townson's note in his DriveReplacement article at:
http://webcom.com/~jawknee/Mirage/DriveReplacement/drive3.htm.
CEM chips
The Mirage has eight Curtis Electromusic CEM3328 VCF chips. Don't replace them casually, but
if you need a replacement, try these links:
- Data Sheets
- Chips for sale
Other Stuff
Watch the Mirage-Net Troubleshooting page at:
http://webcom.com/~jawknee/Mirage/TroubleShooting.html
for more up-to-date information on parts and repairs.
As well as this reply to a question on the mailing list from Tom Arnold:
http://www.hometown.aol.com/route66studios/media.html
They sell drives for many different older synths. They list the Korg DSS1
which I routinely swap drives of with my Mirage.
You have another option if you are good with a soldering iron or have a
friend who is. The Teac FD235HF drives can be jumpered for 720k DSDD
operation.
http://www.teac.com/DSPD/support/floppy_drives/720k_emulation.htm
These drives should run you under $20 at a good computer store. Just make
sure the drive you get is an FD235. If its a friendly place, take a printout
of the instructions with you and ask to look at the drive to make certain
you can find the jumper points. These drives are slightly smaller then
the drive in a mirage. I use a little strip of rubber weatherstripping stuck
along the top edge of the drive to plug the hole.
Good luck!
The html has been constructed such that if all tags (everything between
and including the carets) are removed, it will produce a reasonable
and readable ASCII text file.
-jk, June 25, 2000
17. Any hnts on replacing the floppy?
There are these articles:
The Floppy drive in a mirage is a DSDD 720k drive the likes of which havent
been made in a few years.
This FAQ was compiled by Johnny Klonaris. To the best of my knowledge
there is no copyrighted material here and is intended simply to document
and reference information about the Ensoniq Mirage Sampler.