Bad Gear - Ensoniq Fizmo 

Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel* Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz

I love the fact that Creative Labs managed to fuck up two great synth makers - Ensoniq and EMU. Well done guys!

Ensoniq was such a cool company, started by the developers of the SID chip on the Commodore 64. It was hard to see them fall so hard after their early classics. Same with E-mu. Creative was where cool companies went to die.

That gradient splatter paint job puts the Fizmo firmly above any Moog, Prophet, or Roland. It's peak synth. It's untouchable.

Screams to me, product that came out at the completely wrong time. 10 years earlier, it would have been a classic among the early digital wavetable synths. If it was released in the ‘10’s, it would have been a hit with the vaporwave crowd (and not just for the color scheme). Instead it hit in the middle of VA mania and 80’s nostalgia hadn’t hit yet.

I was so lucky to grab my Fizmo back in the very early 2000s, when the cringe factor of the colour scheme, tiny display and rumors of hardware unreliability still kept the price down. A very poor choice for a first synth for a beginner but considering where I live any synth at all was a rarity back then and I was desperate to get my hands on a "real" synth. Never regretted my purchase and it is a very prized member of my synth menagerie.

My theory: this keyboard was purposefully designed to be made for the 2020 nostalgic Internet =D

I used to work at Ensoniq in Tech Support. I admit that I was confused by Fizmo's sound and its looks. And yet, that may have been part of its appeal. It is a "out of left field" piece that people are still trying to understand. While not being much a fan, I did make a long lost set of synth pads, basses and leads sound pack that Ensoniq offered. Having read some of the comments, I agree that Fizmo was simultaneously born 20 years too late and too early. I also think that the synth would have benefitted from a less provocative sound set. Had we offered the factory sounds and some Nord Lead-ish "meat and potatoes" synth sounds, I think Fizmo would have done well. I would also add that I approached some individuals from Ensoniq to resurrect some of the synths in software. Got a nibble, but no bites. I only feel slightly vindicated in that others have found the value in our synths and done just that. Thanks Arturia for the SQ-80 and UVI for DZmo. I like this guys vieos and I appreciate the Fizmo video.

Awww, they made the perfect 2020’s John Carpenter-esque nostalgia-wave synth but managed to be both 20 years too late AND 20 years too soon to be trendy. Even the paint job would look perfect in a bi-lighting RU-vid synthfluencer set with some Greco-Roman statues and neon palm tree desk lamps :(

Couldn't be happier you got an Ensoniq on the show. I've only owned an EPS, but the machine was so WEIRD. I'm still sad I sold it as it's to this day the only instrument I've ever had that kind of did it's own thing... Almost like it would suggest a better sound or workflow than what I was trying to do. I've owned an MPC, Electribe 2s, and now a Digitakt and none have been able to compare to the weird easter eggs the Ensoniq had. It's clear the Fizmo also goes above and beyond on the weird... We need more designers and engineers willing to make something like this, and less companies that cut them off before they can finish these masterpieces ;)

Thanks for including mention of Fauxmo! Though I really thought you of all people would have gone nuts with its randomization features to get even more whacked out sounds from the Fizmo... 🙂 One other point that you touched on briefly - the effects in this unit ARE incredible - essentially the same ones as in the Ensoniq DP4 series. And you're right - the lack of control from the front panel sucks big time. But again - Fauxmo to the rescue! You can fully edit all of the effects there, and honestly the effects PLUS the transwaves are what make the synth what it is....

I had one for about 10yrs and found it was best used for Christmas sounds

I totally dig the design and the black and puple colour sceme of the Fizmo! Gothic approved colour scene: check! Makes Darkwave sounds: check! 128 shades of midi: check! C64 SID chip designer involved: maybe? It was made by the company that he once founded.

FINALLY featured an Ensoniq Unit! Bravo! ... and what a way to start - one of their rarest specimens.

This is the most 90s sounding thing you've ever had on here. That last jam reminded me of playing OG Unreal Tournament

We had one unit at Mars Music around 2000 that basically was unsellable. After I left it sat for another two years and was repaired once. They ended up being blown out for like $400. If someone was smart enough to buy up the stock they would have basically set up their retirement.

I think we've all been waiting for this one. And you titling it "The Unicorn," in the thumbnail hits it on the head. It's a rare one we don't see often. Nice work!

One of the best sounding intros and finales in my opinion. Also, James Bond time bomb display haha, good one

I have one of these and I adore it. It sits alongside a Waldorf XTk and honestly, if there was a fire, I think I would grab the Fizmo. It has a glassy gooeyness that I have never heard anywhere else, and it just sends shivers down my spine every time.

Awesome! I've been waiting for the Fizmo episode since this channel launched!

Love this channel so much. Thank you for the time and effort you put into your vids. Very humourous too.

Whoa! This one is so rare that I never really thought you’d cover it. This is one of a handful that I very strongly want to own one day.

I always felt like the BloFeld was the 'true successor' to the Fizmo. As well, it's worth noting that the Transwave stuff was also present on the TS-10, the 'rompler cousin' to the ASR (though it could load samples from the ASR as well, it just didn't have any sampling capabilities on board). You could only use the special 'xwave' voices for it, if I recall (it's been decades since I used the TS), but you COULD also chain internal waveforms to make almost like custom sequences that play with one key using the same menu. It had a couple of these as demo sounds. Anyway, RIP Ensoniq. They were cool, they were neat, they will not be forgotten...at least until this generation dies out. :)

The jam towards the end was absolutely awesome! I’d love to hear a full track of that. Well played, sir!

I can stare at that paint-job whole day. And those pads. Lovely!! Also glad that the country I'm from (Singapore) got a mention (indirectly). Thank you creative labs!

You did a great job at showing off the potential that this instrument has. Loved all the jams, especially the second one

First time viewer. I love your content, especially when watching your keyboards as you play. I'm a beginner in music and it really helps to watch a master at work. Thanks very very much!

Getting a coffee and muffin from speedway and watching bad gear on my break. Makes the day that much better 🔥🔥🔥

Nice to see an Ensoniq. I have the ASR-10 which implemented a rudimentary version of the Fizmo’s transwaves, except you could load your own and do unexpectedly wild sound mangling to any poor unsuspecting sample.

Really like the sounds of the fizmo and the tracks you did. It somehow reminds me of the microfreak soundwise.

Man, youre really diggin up all of the 90''s + Stuff out of the graves. Love it.

This is the one i was waiting for. Thanks

I bought what I guess was the Benelux' last shop display unit when they went out of sale in the early 2000s, with a good discount 😁 Weird machine, but I'll never sell. It's indeed very, very easy to get lost in those unmixable weird nonsense sounds you hear on many demo's. One technique to avoid that is indeed focusing on 1-key atmospheric pads, I made a few good ones of those. But another, underreported technique is to use the more regular sounding waveforms to make classic lead sounds, and then add a layer of those ultraweird fizmo Transwaves, not too loud, possible 1 or 2 octaves higher. It's far from just an atmospheric pad machine... ☝️👍

nice one, I love my Fizmo - took me many years to find one I could afford then they suddenly doubled in price 😛 Fauxmo is a great app to control the FIzmo, and it's much needed since the unit is very deep like the E-mu Proteus 200o and Command Stations needing the Prodatum app to reveal the complex patch cords system inside (yes a software modular inside the unit) - no control surface would be big enough unless you made a Deltronics DT-7 type box for it like the DX-7 can use 🙂 There are many other Ensoniq transwave synths but the tables in the Fizmo are unique but fixed. The TS-10/TS-12 can load custom transwaves made with Tranzilon and you can do cool things like mapping the wavetable sweep to the mod wheel. 🙂

Nice pi clip! You always have the best edits. Happy Friday

Awesome video, and jam tracks. Loved the multi screen one

My first synth was an Ensoniq TS-12, and I loved it. It had transwaves, and the ability to make wavesequences, if you were patient enough. When the Fizmo came out, I thought it looked like a badly-packaged sliver of what my 12 could do, with more hands-on control (and a resonant filter), but also a *lot* of 'hands on a mouse only' control. I knew Ensoniq was going to no longer be 'Ensoniq.' This is the late '90s. They had one of these in the very store I bought that first TS-12. The Fizmo was priced at $400. I still don't regret not buying it, and I don't see why it's so sought after. Sorry for the rant; Ensoniq is close to my heart, but the Fizmo was born of really bad corporate circumstances, and I see it now (like I did in the late '90s) as the death-knell of a company I really liked.

I actually got to play with one of these glittering aubergine-tinted beauties at the turn of the millenium, and loved it. For DnB it was weird and wooshy enough to cover a multitude of badly sampled sins. I never bought one because I'd seen so many Ensoniq synths fall to pieces mid-show in the previous 15 years. Love the sounds, hate the build quality. I bought a Virus B instead for general soundmangling duties, and I don't regret it. For people who can't afford 10 gigabeans for a restored fizzikle Fizmo, UVI have parked a decent sampled emulation inside their Digital Synsations 2 soundbank, along with a Kawai K5000 clone and a JD800-alike. The layering possibilities, even in UVI's free Workstation are pretty splendid, but if you own or rent Falcon, it can wig out and tweak for days, just like the original Fizmo hardware. So you can safely spend your gigabeans on Volcas and Boogs.

That synth is so dope !! Well done sir ! 👏 Great find , well played. 😁😊

every time we get a new video its a bright spot in my week

Wow! Now I am impressed that you got your hands on one of these😳. Thanks so much for covering this- best overview I’ve seen 👍. Ensoniq were such an amazing & innovative company minor tragedy that it was allowed to disappear. I always had impression Fizmo was bit a concept synth released before it was not quite finished; could have further developed into genuine digital super synth. ( also bit surprised this has never been modelled in a vst).

I miss mine. It was just wildly different than anything I'd ever used. Certainly not a jack of all trades, but it was very good at the very unique things it did.

Absolutely perfect video for the finale.

Man Jams are amazing as always, especially Jam 2 You step up your game every time with new bad gear

As usual you managed to squeeze some awesome music out of the gear reviewed. I agree that it wouldn't be my first choice either! Next you should do the Radikal Technologies Spectralis 😃

I remember these being in the clearance pages of Musicians Friend catalog, for $500, for quite some time. Makes it all the funnier now that they’re collectors items

Nice to see your channel growing. Big Fan, great Music

thank you for weekly episodes!!!!

The Fizmo was expensive 17/18 years ago when I was thinking about getting one. No surprise they're even more ridiculous now!

Well, that is one of the most interesting synths I'd never heard of. I can see why you have been on the hunt. PS - Your compositional chops peeked out in places in this one.

I've been wanting to get my hands on one of these for a decade... I'm glad you got to do it first, I'm satisfied now 😂

This was so good! This is definitely one of the most unique sounding protagonists we've had in a while on bad gear!

This synth will stay my favorite eternally. It’s a drug trip in itself. Maybe that’s why I bought two of them. Playing both together will send you out of this world.

How have I never heard of this synth? It looks so gorgeously retrowavy synthpoppish

I enjoyed this video , very informative . Well done audiopilz 👍

Ooooh ensoniq you have a special little place in my heart. I have spent many happy hours with you. ❤️

Interesting. I spent the whole episode thinking, "That sounds awesome," but also, "It looks like it might be approximately as frustrating to program as my Korg Trinity, which also sounds awesome... hmm". And then in the back of my mind were more modern beasts like the Hyrasynth, Blofeld, and Iridium, which could all achieve similar results and probably without driving me up the wall with exasperation to do it.

I owned an ESQ-1 and a Mirage (at the same time!!) and I loved them dearly. Didn't know about this one.

The 1 key strategy thing with this unit is the trick that seems to work. I must say that this channel is on another level. The playing skills to milk great sounds out of these bad gears is only rivaled by the skills and time required to put together the background video clips. I do not know how you do it so well, Mr. Bad Gear. Thanks again. May there be unlimited bad gear in our future for you to review!

Had a fizmo for a long time. Fun synth, ah the days of sound diver. I love the sound of it’s vocoder. Another ensoniq classic. Great episode. Keep up the great work.

...Imagine a Fizmo VST. I'd buy it, come on Arturia!

If you run out of synths, you should do Bad Gear Effects series for pedals, rackmounts and such!

Some of the sounds you showcased are underrated, great video as always!

Oh my goodness I was doing a deep dive on romplers and old samplers and rediscovered this synth this week, was gonna suggest it in the comments and here it is!

cool! I find this is one of the lushest sounding synths you ever reviewed.

Great video 😎👍. I wouldn't say no to one of these but I suspect your skills flatter this instrument. I do have a soft spot for Ensoniq and I'm surprised that Akai took so long to get round to releasing a sampling keyboard - not that I need one.

My week sucks, I had a headache and the world felt coming to an end - and then YOU came along this friday and changed all that, thanks! Never heard of the Fizmo, but after a few of your experiments with it I slowly changed to "I want one, gib me now!" - And then you went ahead and mention it was produced in limited numbers, and sells for more than most peoples used cars are worth and yeah, maybe not so much. (PS: Still want one, but those prices...urgh).

Love your channel and love this synth. Lusted for one and finally got one last year off craigslist for a reasonable price. The evoloving sounds are spectacular and make perfect backdrops and transitions. Weird to the max.

Pretty crazy soundscapes, but it feels like it was trying to go places people weren't exactly comfortable with yet. Great episode as usual.

Very fitting you’d mention Hydrasynth as an alternative. That’s what I immediately thought of - unabashedly digital sounding and capable of very similar experimental/left-field sounds. I think hydra’s interface will stand the test of time though - such a logical layout that doesn’t get in the way of sound design creativity.

Awesome video! Had one of these back in their time, paid 150 dollars for it (in 2000) and never really got into it, also back then I remember seeing ESQ-1's at almost every pawn shop often at under 100 bucks (I had like 4), those were the days, long gone now. RIP Ensoniq, one of the coolest synth, sampler, FX companies EVER!

Wonderful episode!

Berhinger need to recreate this. Even if it's one of their new mini-synths.

Never understood the Fizmo hate - everything I've heard from it I absolutely love. There again, I'm a bit of an Ensoniq obsessive and own four of their other keyboards. They always had their own quirky take on things, from the ESQ1 that did the Korg M1 and Roland D-50 sample based thing so much better, to the EPS and ASR samplers that were true workstations with great interfaces.

Beautiful thumbnail!! Love your videos, man. Bad gear, but great track!

You really nailed this one! I lusted after one of these rare synths for year, finally got one, discovered it wasn’t fully programmable from the front panel, and that it truly made my ears bleed - so I sold it. A unique sound, that said, the HydraSynth does come close.

This was actually the first hardware synth I owned. It was indeed made for creating evolving and layered sounds, which it did really well. Problem for me was at the time I mostly wanted more meat and potatoes sounds and in order to make them I actually had to work at it, since it wasn’t really suited for them. I ended up selling it a few years later for a couple hundred bucks, and now I’m absolutely gob smacked by how much they go for on the used market. Like the one that got away, I guess I just didn’t appreciate it for what it was at the time. Live and learn. 😆

I got this in 1998, then when I graduated school and the bills came in during 1999 my mom had forced me to sell all my gear, I had 3 ensoniq samplers and the fizmo and an original novation bass station, but then they were no more lol I was stuck with only a crappy laptop and sony acid.

Always very funny vids ; usually watching after a cider session so my comments don’t usually make much sense… I tend to buy most machines you slate as well , so far more than happy with my purchases ..

Finally! Always wanted to play with one of these...

Why is my boss not comprehending "Bad Gear joy and hearing my name through a Fizmo!!" as a perfectly valid reason to call out?? 🤷‍♂️

You hit the nail on the head - the Hydrasynth Explorer beats the Fizmo in pretty much all areas. Except as an investment opportunity!

Okay... Whew! I thought you were wrapping up without going through the Fizmo's vocoder, and I was getting upset. LOL! I've been waiting to see you get your hands on one of these ever since you started doing the vocoder shoutouts. It did not disappoint.

Okay, I actually really like this lol 😋 and the synth actually fit in the opening mix better than a lot of the gear you've had on here!

Yaaaaaas! I love the fizmo🤘almost bought one back in the day but I went with the Yamaha FS1r….

it would be cool to see a video on how you learn a new synth every week and create the jams you make to show off the qualities of the gear. you seem to have a very streamlined workflow to be able to cover obscure equipment every week, I'd love a look into that process.

thank you for the vocoder demonstration! I can now confidently scratch this off my want list.

You are really great at making little music videos for your jams 👍

Ohh you managed to get a hold on a FIZMO! Really great synth for bizzare and ambient sounds! I love it! :D A suggestion for another piece of gear would be the Boss Jam Station 5 (JS5). I've seen them go dirt cheap. Don't know if they have enough stuff in them for a whole video but perhaps having a couple of similar machines in the same video would suffice. Also the current Roland MC-101 would be a good contender for this show. While it is definetly a powerfull machine it is crippled in some really bizare ways, such as having linear envelopes on drum samples aswell as having alot of its deeper editing capabillities locked away behind the roland cloud paywall.

I always feel nostalgic but depressed by Ensoniq and Commodore. Both were based a few miles from me, but met a early and untimely demise.

The gated/arp/S&H kinda sound in Jam 2 is nice. I agree with your verdict and alternatives.

Hey Florian! It's always a treat on a friday afternoon after I come home from work, to watch a new episode of Bad gear before the weekend starts. Love the memes, the demo songs you make, and generally learning about new (bad) gear. Loving your new video as always! I've seen the Ensoniq Fizmo before, and I don't think the inflated price is worth it, but it has an interesting look and sound, so good to learn more about it. I was wondering if/when you are going to make an episode featuring the Arturia Polybrute. It's one of the few hardware synths I own (Alongside the Moog Subsequent 37, Yamaha MODX6 and Arturia Drumbrute Impact and some old arranger keyboards that don't count as synths). The Polybrute is my favourite synthesizer, but many people don't share my enthusiasm. They Say "It sounds like a VST", it has "bad oscillators", "can't do decent brass or string sounds", "The morphé is gimmicky", "the design is ugly" with 'too many knobs and buttons". I can see if i can collect screenshots of some of these comments if you like. I don't understand these points of criticism. Maybe people are using it wrong, don't understand how it works or whatever. I'd like a more objective point of view to find out what people mean and how to deal with any potential shortcomings of my synth. So, could you feature the Polybrute at some point?

Oooh. Another instrument that I probably would enjoy programming. Although I agree that it does seem to have trouble sitting well in the mix. Thanks for showing off such a rarity. I really love my VFXSD keybed with the poly aftertouch... Really a joy to play until it triggers a system error and I have to reload the OS... lol.

Oh Fizmo, You had a name that sounds like it could have been the most hated 90's movie sidekick or cartoon character.

This is one of my absolute favorites pieces of gear, along with the Ensoniq EPS and ASR

Gut gemacht AP! Ich hab etwas gelernt. I snagged a FIZMO for $500 (half the normal price, if I remember correctly) when it was announced it was discontinued. I was pretty frustrated it had a fair number of parameters that were hidden without a software editor, and I was never blown away with the core sound of the Transwaves. IMO, they just didn't sound that great without effects, and adding too much filter resonance fairly easily distorted the effects. Sold it about a decade ago for a bit more than I paid for it, not long after I picked up a used Access Virus C, which I thought was MUCH easier to navigate and use. And I still think the Virus C sounds better (at least for what I like in a synth). Had I been into long drone-y, ambient music, I might have kept it, but it didn't fit what I wanted at the time. Now I only wish I'd kept the FIZMO to let it appreciate in value a bit more.

Heck yes, something from Ensoniq! I'm a proud owner of an ESQ-M and a VFX-SD :)

One shop alone that I worked at in Cleveland had half a dozen 80s era boot from floppy disk ensoniq chassis in the junk pile. Every techs nightmare....

Love the bonus feature at the end

It's so hot to look at I feel like I need sunglasses. Thank you so much for the brand history in this video! Fascinating stuff!