Cherry Audio ESQ-1 Review

I am actually happy to see a non classic analogue synth plugin for a change, it has been a while for me…
I missed the original Ensonig ESQ-1 when it came out, played a couple and they were a bit meh to me as they pretty much all sounded similar. I think, looking back, that the presets were a bit insipid, but that quite often was the case with a lot of these digital synths back in the day – I can only remember the M1 and the D-50 having some presets that made me think wow! This doesn’t mean I thought badly of them, you could do a lot more with a few decent digital synths back then because they were often cheaper and had more polyphony than a big analogue beast – which is why I guess we see a raft of clones of those old classics. I’m just not convinced we need yet another Prophet-5 vst (sorry GForce)

Cheery Audio though have done a decent job with this – it sounds good, in a digital way, it’s not vastly overpriced, especially with the price of $69, and it performs well. Plus it has a great arp, decent fx and a natty little sequencer which I found fun and liked a lot! It’s still a digital synth with analogue filters though, but with the fx and some nifty tricks up its sleeves I had fun going through the presets – and I have to say, as a synth to add to your sonic palette, it does a great job. Is it a brilliant synth? Probably not, but it is a bloody useful synth and can add some different textures and noises into your tunes. Clanging bells, vocal sounds, digital basses are all there. You can get some real motion with the arp and fx plus that sequencer. Routing is excellent for changing sounds over time. I just don’t get that big grin as often as a powerhouse analogue synth can give me yet though…

Please note though Arturia – this is around how much I feel you *should* charge for your products, not the £149 they seem to be nowadays. I know you do the V-Collections for better value for money, but if you just want a single product in 2026 your prices are outrageous!