Ensoniq
| Ensoniq | |
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| Founded | 1982 or 1983 |
| Closed | January 1998 |
| Headquarters | Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Other Names |
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Ensoniq was an American company that produced audio hardware such as keyboards and synthesizers.
Bruce Crockett, Al Charpentier and Bob Yannes had recently designed the Commodore 64 home computer. They had a lot of fun, but very little time and faced pay freezes shortly after release in mid-1982, so they left to found Peripheral Visions. First, the company designed a computer keyboard for the Atari 2600 which was shelved due to the video game crash of 1983. Commodore sued the company for making the keyboard, and the company subsequently renamed itself to Ensoniq, and started creating musical hardware. They are best known for several models of keyboards including the Mirage, ESQ-1, and ASR keyboards.
While the company never developed video games, they did design the ES5503 DOC chip for the Apple IIGS computer, and the Soundscape soundcard for DOS-based machines. Also, many video game musicians used their workstations for creating video game audio, including Bobby Prince, Peter Stone, and Paul Webb.
In January 1998, Creative Technology acquired Ensoniq for $77 million.
