Ensoniq
More info
- Creator
- Bob Yannes, Al Charpentier, Charlie Winterble
- Released
- 1983–1998
- Successor
- acquired by Creative Technology
The audio company founded by the man behind the Commodore 64's SID chip.
Ensoniq was founded in 1983 in Malvern, Pennsylvania, by three engineers who had left Commodore — among them Bob Yannes, designer of the SID chip in the Commodore 64. The company first made affordable samplers and synths (the Mirage, the ESQ-1) and then turned to PC audio with its Soundscape cards and, above all, the AudioPCI (ES1370) — one of the first genuinely cheap PCI sound cards.
In 1998 Ensoniq was acquired by Creative Technology, which wanted the low-cost PCI design. It resurfaced as entry-level Sound Blaster cards, while the Ensoniq name disappeared.