The SQ-80 the refined successor to the popular mid-eighties analog/digital hybrid ESQ-1. The synth features digital oscillators with an expanded waveform offering and analog filters and VCAs. The unit has numerous envelopes and LFOs, with a great number of modulation destinations. The overall sound is pretty beefy, and like the ESQ-1 can range from DX-like bell sounds to moog leads to evolving pads. The floppy disk drive is an added benefit allowing easy storage of patches and sequences. The digital oscillators feature 28 different cyclic sounds, which tend to alias at the high and low ranges of the keyboard. I actually find this to be a great feature, and not a hindrance. The three oscillators can be modulated from many sources including the four envelopes and three LFOs. The three envelopes are mixed and then routed to the analog VCF. The VCF is nothing stellar, but is resonant and has the typical "single CEM IC" sound. A final VCA provides voice panning and overall level control. Where the unit really excels is in modulation capabilities. With four envelopes and three LFOs the possibilities are endless. The synth is capable of soft evolving pads, to bell like timbres and really zaney effects. The unit stores forty patches in internal memory and eighty on a RAM card. The SQ-80 features an eight track sequencer, considered rudimentary at best by today's standards. Sequences may be edited by step entry or overdubbed and while program changes, tempo changes, time signature changes and volume changes may be programmed there is no event list editing. Sequencer capacity is 20,000 notes, however sequences can easily be stored to floppy disk for a limitless amount of sequences and songs. Aaron Rodden's ESQ-1 Page