Ensoniq MR/ZR Archive

In December 1997 Emu/Creative acquired Ensoniq Corp., an innovator in the design and development of electronic musical instruments. Ensoniq discontinued manufacturing the MR and ZR series synthesizers, and over the years it has become increasingly difficult to locate information and resources for the hardware.

This Unofficial Ensoniq MR/ZR Archive page is dedicated to preserving information about the Ensoniq MR and ZR series synthesizers:

Ensoniq MR-61 and MR-76 64 voice expandable performance/composition keyboard
Ensoniq MR-Rack 64 voice expandable synthesizer
Ensoniq ZR-76 64 voice expandable stage and studio keyboard

Some of the following items are locally archived on this site. Many of the items are links to external sites. Where the external sites or pages no longer exist, I tried to link to the Internet Archive or wayback machine.

Ensoniq MR/ZR Documentation

MR-Rack Musician’s Manual (English/pdf)

MR/ZR Getting Started Guide (English/doc)

ZR-76 Data Sheet (English/pdf)

ZR-76 Musician’s Manual (English/pdf)

ZR-76 Supplemental Information (English/pdf)

MR MIDI System Exclusive Specification (English/txt)

MR Sysex Notes (English/txt)

Ensoniq MR/ZR Patches and Sounds

MR/ZR Flash Sounds (zip)

MRC-1 Sounds (zip)

MR Demo Disk (zip)

MRD100 Disk (zip)

ZRD100 Disk (zip)

Snapshot of file downloads from the defunct Unofficial MR-Web site (zip) contains many patches in Unisyn and other formats.

Ensoniq MR/ZR Software

MR/ZR Rythym Builder utility for Windows (zip)

MR MIDI utility for DOS (zip)

Ensoniq Sysex Utilities for DOS (zip)

Ensoniq MR/ZR Tips

Ensoniq MR/ZR Tips

Ensoniq MR TipFinder by kaleb69

Transwave Links

Waveboy Transwaves

Chickensys FAQ on Transwaves

Tranzilon freeware for generating Transwaves

Ensoniq MR/ZR Microtonal Tuning Links

Just Intonation Tutorial

Microtonal Synthesis

NonOctave

Scala

World Music Menu

Youtube Videos Featuring Ensoniq MR

Ensoniq MR-61 Demo
More distorted guitar with Ensoniq…

More Ensoniq MR search results on Youtube

Ensoniq MR/ZR Other Related Links

ASRXCITE

ChickenSys ASR-X Tools

Crosswalk.com review of Ensoniq ZR-76

Digital Piano Shootout (includes MP3 of ZR-76 Perfect Piano)

Ensoniq EXP-3 Hacking

Ensoniq Q&A Page

German Ensoniq Archive (German manuals for download)

Harmony Central Ensoniq Reviews

Harmony Central Ensoniq Press Releases

Keyboard Online Archive ZR-76 sounds

John Seboldt’s Synth and Organ page with MR patches

Not MR but amazing technical info on older Ensoniq synthesizers

On Board with Keith Emerson (MR-Rack mention)

SonikMatter interview with Scott Peer, designer of MR sound engine

SonicState Ensoniq Reviews

Sound on Sound April 1996 Ensoniq MR-Rack Review

SynthZone Ensoniq page

William Coakley’s Perfect Piano

Yahoo Ensoniq MR/ZR forum discussion list

Ensoniq MR/ZR Accessories, Parts, Software and Products

emagic sells Soundiver librarian that supports the Ensoniq MR family.

MOTU sells Unisyn librarian that supports the Ensoniq MR family.

Route66studios sells batteries and some other MR/ZR replacement parts.

Sound Quest sells MidiQuest librarian that supports the Ensoniq MR family.

Starr Labs sells microtonal MIDI keyboards and controllers compatible with the Ensoniq MR family.

Syntaur Productions sells some MR/ZR sounds, manuals and a few repair parts.

THESONIQ repairs and sells Ensoniq parts.

Vikant Corporation still sells 512K SRAM cards for MR-Rack.

Someone is selling Ensoniq parts here. There appears to be a decent inventory, but the page owner or address are not identified on the web page.