The Ensoniq ES-5506 "OTTO" was a chip used in implementations of sample-based synthesis. Musical instruments and PC sound cards were the most popular applications.
OTTO is capable of altering the pitch and timbre of a digital recording, and is capable of operating with up to 32 channels at once. Each channel can have several parameters altered, such as pitch, volume, waveform, and filtering. The chip is a VLSI device designed to be manufactured on a 1.5 micrometre double-metal CMOS process. It consists of approximately 80,000 transistors. It was part of the fourth generation of Ensoniq audio technology.
Major features:
Real time digital filtersFrequency interpolation32 independent voicesLoop start and stop positions for each voice (bidirectional and reverse looping)Motorola 68000 compatibility for asynchronous bus communicationSeparate host and sound memory interfaceAt least 18-bit accuracy6 channel stereo serial communication portProgrammable clocks for defining serial protocolInternal volume multiplication and stereo panningADC input for pots and wheelsHardware support for envelopesSupport for dual OTTO systemsOptional compressed data format for sample dataUp to 16 MHz operationImplementations of OTTO:
Taito Cybercore/F3 SystemEnsoniq TS10/TS12 SynthesizersEnsoniq Soundscape S-2000Ensoniq Soundscape EliteEnsoniq SoundscapeDB daughterboardGravis UltrasoundWestacott Organs DRE (Digital Rank Emulator)Boom Theory Corp 0.0 Drum Module Interface
