Broken Ensoniq mirages (DMS-8) on ebay

[PPG_HOSHII!]

I've been looking to buy a rackmount Ensoniq Mirage for several months now. The overwhelming majority of them on ebay don't work, or you hear the seller say: "Well, I just don't know how to test it, so I can't offer returns" (a chickenshit excuse by the way). Anyhow, I would like to hear from the Ensoniq Mirage owners, what are the common problems you have had with the Ensoniq Mirage? I would like to know if there is anything I should be watchful of before I drop a doller on one of these classic samplers.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

[nathanscribe]

Actually the only real problem I've had is the ancient floppies giving up.. If you contact Syntaur they can provide replacement system disks, and for saving your own samples, you should be able to find DD floppies on eBay or similar.

[PPG_HOSHII!]

I love Syntaur!

I have all of their floppies for my SQ-80, and their programming is top notch.
Not to mention their stuff arrives in just a few days (usually 2-3).
I hear the floppy drive on the mirage can be replaced.

What is inside the mirage anyway? Is it basically just a board and a floppy drive?
I'd never seen inside one.

[nuketifromorbit]

I have a broken first generation mirage keyboard in my closet. I only payed 30 for it, and I wrongly believed it would be an easy repair due to it just needing a new disk drive. I actually purchased a fairly modern floppy drive off ebay that had been modified to work with the mirage, but later found out that the problem was not due to the disk drive. I actually called the tech who is selling the modified drives, and apparently either the power cable connected to the drive, or the chip that reads the drive can break. I later sold the Modified drive to a VSE member who verified that the drive was indeed functional, so chances are the tech was correct. Just keep in mind that a malfunction drive will not always be due to the drive itself.

[Hide]

I bought the EPS16 Rack at eBay recently but the FD drive has problem. (can't load data from FD)
So, I think mostly the problem cause is FD drive.
If you will buy UN-tested used machine, be aware of the FD drive...
By the way, you can find the replacement of workable FD drive on the internet.
You can buy it and replace it,
but... they are a little bit expensive.
For example, I found the FD drive of EPS16 but it is $70... Can't believe it...

What is inside the mirage anyway? Is it basically just a board and a floppy drive?
I'd never seen inside one.

And, the power unit.

[Resonant Serpent]

The DSK-1, the second version of the Mirage, is actually a much more reliable machine than the DSK-8. It's relatively the same, except it has an improved keyboard, and the samples are actually 10-bit instead of 8-bit. It's also stereo, and has this crazy function where it will randomly pan between eight different positions. You have to constrain it using the pan on your mixer of hard right for the right and hard left for the left if you want a 'normal' output. Nowhere to pan when in mono, so that works normally. But yeah, usually the floppy will fail, but you can get new ones for around 75.00. Personally, I love the Mirage. One of the coolest things about the Mirage are the Soundprocess disks:

"Triton's powerful Soundprocess operating system turns the Mirage into a digital synthesizer, adds full 16-channel multi-timbral capabilities, gives each sound up to 4 oscillators per voice, and accesses 32 sound programs at once. Each disk contains three banks of 32 programs each, as well as a run-time version of the Soundprocess operating system."

http://www.syntaur.com/mirage.html