Ensoniq. The world of music has moved past the once major player in the synth biz, and along the way it doesn’t seem to have looked back. Maybe here on r/synthesizers there’s a few other fans still lurking about, but you won’t find any skeuomorphic warm fluorescent glow of an Ensoniq display in the V collection, or really any Ensoniq emulators/vsts of any sort anywhere. They don’t fetch any real money in resale avenues. Nobody who’s hung around my studio ever asks what the TS10 is when there’s Junos and Mellotrons afoot.
But they were a big player for a long time. I bet a lot of oldheads’ first sampler was something by Ensoniq. They basically invented the concept of a workstation keyboard with instruments that had polyphonic sequencers, layers, splits, whole arrays of sounds and engines, and fx all built in. And that’s exactly what we've got here in the TS10: a do-it-all (with polyphonic aftertouch!) from 1993 that tried to be all things to all keyboard players.
This particular one has been with me for quite a long time. A lawyer who was involved with the first label I ever signed with back in ~2010 had it collecting dust in their closet, and they gave it to me on the condition it actually got played. The thing is still in such nice shape should probably be in an Ensoniq museum instead of my studio, but I still enjoy taking it down every so often and putting it through its paces. It’s capable of about any sound you could imagine from the early 90s, but here I’ve got it on a juiced out EP worthy of your favorite Bonnie Tyler b-side. All the effects are onboard.