UVI – USQ-1 v1.0.2

Digital-to-analog wavetable synth

• Inspired by iconic 80s workstation
• Explore 400 fully editable presets or create your own
• Vintage hardware sounds with modern sound shaping tools

The Ensoniq ESQ-1 is a special keyboard at UVI. Used by many on our team, including being a personal favorite of one of our founders, our USQ-1 had to be great. We’ve leveraged years of experience with this synth and put our hearts into creating a collection of sounds that we’re proud of and that we’re sure you’ll enjoy.

Released in 1986, the Ensoniq ESQ-1 was one of the first affordably priced workstation-class keyboards on the market, combining an 8-voice, multitimbral digital/analog hybrid synthesizer and a featured 8-track sequencer. The ESQ-1’s voice architecture allows customization of up to 3 digital oscillators, assignable to any one of 32 waveshapes, followed by a Curtis 4-pole 24dB/oct resonant low-pass analog filter and 15 routable modulation sources. The sound quality of the ESQ-1 is all-at-once digital, warm and unmistakably ’80s – a true gem of the time whose sounds still ring with a brilliant depth and character.

Instrument

USQ-1 offers 268 selectable layers made from over 22,000 samples. To showcase the sonic potential we’ve included 400 all-new patches including everything from rich bells, strings and leads to thick basses, textured pads and modulating atmospheres. The versatile design of the ESQ-1 allowed us to create both classic sounds that you’d expect from a vintage-era synth and also modern patches utilizing more contemporary sound design techniques. All-in-all these sounds ring with a special “vintage digital” vibe that synths of this era, and the ESQ-1 especially, do so well.

The sounds in USQ-1 are detailed and powerful. Every patch began with sound design on the original hardware and was recorded at our main studio through the highest-quality processors and converters available. You’re not just hearing the output jacks of the synth, the entire signal chain was thoughtfully considered to create a rich and professional “finished record” sound that’s both mix-ready and inspiring to play.

Included presets can easily be edited or you can build your own patches from scratch. Authentic sounds from the ESQ-1 are presented in a dual-layer architecture allowing for the design of two custom oscillators each with independent wave selection of 268 layers, ADSR amp, multi-mode filter with envelope, pitch, portamento, stereo, LFO, multi-step and modwheel modulation assignments and an arpeggiator. At the end of chain is a capable effect bus loaded with UVI’s own processors, including a 3-band EQ, drive, chorus (Thorus), phaser, delay and reverb (Sparkverb) all with excellent sound-quality and a featherlight CPU footprint.

Installation

1. The soundbank file with the .UFS extension can be located in any directory
2. Each soundbank has its own key with the .R2RUVI extension . It must be copied to the %ProgramData%\UVI\R2R\ directory
3. After opening Falcon, press Ctrl+P, in the menu that appears, go to the SoundBanks tab
4. Click the button with an ellipsis next to the line Click … to add a new Soundbank folder location and specify the path to the file(s) with the .UFS extension
5. Close the menu and restart Falcon. In the file browser, located on the right side of the interface, the installed soundbank(s) will appear in the Soundbanks menu