Ensoniq SQ80 Battery Replacement & Upgrade (Firmware + Floppy Drive)
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- Опубліковано 18 гру 2023
- In this video, I work on an Ensoniq SQ-80. The battery needs to be replaced, and I also decide to give it a bit of an upgrade. The floppy drive is swapped out for an emulator that accepts USB flash drives, which greatly expanding its patch memory. On top of that, the firmware is upgraded from 1.3 to 1.8.
Nice job, it's great to see people keeping these much loved synthesisers and samplers alive, I've just finished restoring a Roland W30 and I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Nice job, but I would have taken the time and trouble to do the battery holder install with the board out! Alway worth taking the time to do it properly, especially with these classic synths
Yeah, if I were to do it again now I would go through the trouble of taking it out. I really would have made it much easier at the cost of a little more time.
I'm curious if the floppy upgrade was worth it, and where you find patches or waveforms to load onto it? I've got one that came in a TS10, but never used it.
Honestly, I haven't made much time to utilize it yet. But I went through with the upgrade for a couple of reasons.
1. I wasn't given any floppies with it
2. I had no floppies that would work with it. (Double-sided Double-density aka DSDD, other kinds are prone to errors)
3. Floppy disks of the right kind are some what expensive. (Maybe $25 for a 10 pack of 720KB disks)
The emulator drive came with a 6 or 8GB flash drive which is more memory then I'll ever need. I did find a huge collection of patches online. A Google search for "Ensoniq SQ-80 Patches" should lead you to Gearspace post called "Ensoniq ESQ-1, SQ-80 - ultamate patch collection".
Now for the reason why I haven't really used it yet is because these patches can't simply be dragged and dropped onto the usb drive. They have to be loaded one by one via sysex on to the synth and then saved onto the drive. A bit of a daunting task considering there are hundreds of patches in that collection.
As for waveforms, the only way to get more is to access the "hidden" waveforms that come with a firmware upgrade.
If you have a floppy from a TS10 it may work in the SQ-80. I say maybe because the TS line also excepted DSHD on top of DSDD floppies. If it's a DSDD, you clear and format it, It should work for ya.
@@deltamumusic Thanks, I didn't realize the workflow for the emulator would be so time consuming. I've got that emulator in my TS-10. Now I wonder if it is the same sysex based workflow to copy patches. Thanks for the tips!
@@anonymous_friend Yeah, I wasn't aware of the hassle till after I got it. Kind of a bummer, but I'm not too upset about it. We aren't going to get the conveniences of modern equipment on old machines. Back in the day these were cutting edge tech, but they were also working with little to no standard format since the tech was so new which is why we have some the problems we do with older stuff.
The TS line came out maybe 5 years after the SQ-80 so maybe something was changed between that time period that would make the work flow easier. Hopefully that's the case because you can load samples onto it