Overview
The card's layout is quite similar to the Soundscape S-2000, and uses the same synthesizer chips and codecs. Changes include a revision of the 2 MiB patch ROM equipped with new sounds, and the addition of a powerful digital signal processor (DSP) daughtercard. This DSP, called the Ensoniq Signal Processor (ESP), allows popular enhancement effects to be applied to the Elite's patch sounds. The ESP was used on Ensoniq's musical instruments as well, such as their ASR samplers, TS synthesizers, and the DP Series effects processors. The most popular effects used are reverb and chorus, which are enabled by default on the card. The ESP is also fully configurable through a Windows utility (the "ENSONIQ Effects Tool Kit") and through standard sysex commands which can be issued in various ways (i.e. DOS utilities). Unfortunately the Effects Tool Kit never progressed beyond the beta development stage and is, as a result, not entirely stable or functional.
Soundscape ELITE, like the original Soundscape, has several connections for the proprietary CDROM interfaces of the time. However, instead of the Soundscape S-2000's Mitsumi, Matsushita, and Sony interfaces, the Elite gained a new IDE ATAPI interface which was a new standard implemented to improve the ease of utilizing CD-ROM drives. The board's chipset consists of Ensoniq's OTTO and Sequoia synthesizer chips with the Motorola 68EC000 8MHz controller, the ESP board, and an Analog Devices 1848KP codec for digital audio.
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