Anybody familiar with Ensoniq samplers? Need advice

[StarClout]

What’s good brehs

I’m familiar with the legendary ASR-10, but does anyone have hands on experience with Ensoniq samplers and can give tips on them?

I’m looking to buy an EPS-16 Plus this week sometime and wondering if anybody can give me the need to know about it and how it holds up against its successor: the ASR-10

Thanks in advance brehs

 

[360dagod]

Lmao damn I haven't touched/made anything in YEARS, but if it comes with floppy disks, you in good shape as far as percussion /drums go..

Of course you gotta account for age of equipment etc, so you shouldn't go too crazy...


It's perfect if you want to run low bit rate sounds thru it and then transfer

 

[StarClout]

Lmao damn I haven't touched/made anything in YEARS, but if it comes with floppy disks, you in good shape as far as percussion /drums go..

Of course you gotta account for age of equipment etc, so you shouldn't go too crazy...


It's perfect if you want to run low bit rate sounds thru it and then transfer

Repped

 

[MurderToCassette]

What’s good brehs

I’m familiar with the legendary ASR-10, but does anyone have hands on experience with Ensoniq samplers and can give tips on them?

I’m looking to buy an EPS-16 Plus this week sometime and wondering if anybody can give me the need to know about it and how it holds up against its successor: the ASR-10

Thanks in advance brehs

The EPS 16 works exactly the same as an ASR, its just stripped down in some ways (though it does have advantages in others). The 16 Plus samples in mono rather than stereo, has more available sample rates than the ASR (and can sample at a higher sample rate than the ASR can), and has less effects. It also has the Turbo option available so you don't have to boot from floppy (I have this on my rackmount), the ASR never got this option.

I have also found it to be more stable than the later iterations of the ASR OS because they tried to put so much stuff in it. The ASR gives a lot of error 44's and crashes while the EPS has a leaner/more stable OS. The 16 plus only ever crashed on me once. You might get random pauses while it says shuffling data or whatever but it'll come back eventually.

They are beautiful sounding samplers. I have an OG EPS keyboard, one 16 plus keyboard and a rackmount, 2 ASR keyboards and 2 rackmounts, and 2 ASR X's. They are my favorite sampler series of all time along with the SP 1200. It took me a while to get my head around the routing and architecture, but when you do, I'd have to use a DAW to rival what they can do as far as stacking sounds and mangling them.

The ASR has a little more bass, but the 16 plus has a nice high end, especially on drums. True Master is a great example of what the EPS 16 Plus can sound like when you sample at a low sample rate and play your sounds with the keys. Also, cats give the sequencer a bad name. No, it doesn't have the automatic swing an old MPC does, but you can dial it in and its dead simple to use.

This guys channel is essential, I learned tons of stuff from him. I've owned an ASR over a decade and I'm still learning new tricks.

When I found out you can adjust your start and end points using the modwheel and play out chops with the keyboard with start/end adjusted via modulation

Sidenote: buy an OEX6 or OEX6SR if you can find one at a resonable price. They are expensive as hell now and it sucks tracking your beats out without one.

 

[StarClout]

The EPS 16 works exactly the same as an ASR, its just stripped down in some ways (though it does have advantages in others). The 16 Plus samples in mono rather than stereo, has more available sample rates than the ASR (and can sample at a higher sample rate than the ASR can), and has less effects. It also has the Turbo option available so you don't have to boot from floppy (I have this on my rackmount), the ASR never got this option.

I have also found it to be more stable than the later iterations of the ASR OS because they tried to put so much stuff in it. The ASR gives a lot of error 44's and crashes while the EPS has a leaner/more stable OS. The 16 plus only ever crashed on me once. You might get random pauses while it says shuffling data or whatever but it'll come back eventually.

They are beautiful sounding samplers. I have an OG EPS keyboard, one 16 plus keyboard and a rackmount, 2 ASR keyboards and 2 rackmounts, and 2 ASR X's. They are my favorite sampler series of all time along with the SP 1200. It took me a while to get my head around the routing and architecture, but when you do, I'd have to use a DAW to rival what they can do as far as stacking sounds and mangling them.

The ASR has a little more bass, but the 16 plus has a nice high end, especially on drums. True Master is a great example of what the EPS 16 Plus can sound like when you sample at a low sample rate and play your sounds with the keys. Also, cats give the sequencer a bad name. No, it doesn't have the automatic swing an old MPC does, but you can dial it in and its dead simple to use.

This guys channel is essential, I learned tons of stuff from him. I've owned an ASR over a decade and I'm still learning new tricks.

When I found out you can adjust your start and end points using the modwheel and play out chops with the keyboard with start/end adjusted via modulation

Sidenote: buy an OEX6 or OEX6SR if you can find one at a resonable price. They are expensive as hell now and it sucks tracking your beats out without one.

Repped breh

I got a preconfigured (for the EPS 16 Plus) floppy usb emulator with a flash drive full of sounds and effects the seller included with it and it actually has the entire Waveboy effect suite

 

[Whatupdoe?]

The ASR was my first sampler. It was between that and the mpc2000xl. It was the right choice for me. I copped it from a pawn shop with no manual so it took a while to learn. I loved it's warm sound which I find myself trying to emulate it to this day.

One thing to keep in mind is the age of the tech. Things you do in a snap now days take an effort on the ensoniq range. Because I no longer have the same amount of time I once had to make music, I don't think I could stomach the load times. Hopefully the new drive helps with that. I also found having and external rompler via midi helped with the workflow in a DAWless setup.

I wish I knew then what I know now I would've had even more fun with the great effects.

Overall sounds great, decent sequencer, and very capable sound mangler. However minus the cool factor nothing you can't achieve in the box.

 

[StarClout]

The ASR was my first sampler. It was between that and the mpc2000xl. It was the right choice for me. I copped it from a pawn shop with no manual so it took a while to learn. I loved it's warm sound which I find myself trying to emulate it to this day.

One thing to keep in mind is the age of the tech. Things you do in a snap now days take an effort on the ensoniq range. Because I no longer have the same amount of time I once had to make music, I don't think I could stomach the load times. Hopefully the new drive helps with that. I also found having and external rompler via midi helped with the workflow in a DAWless setup.

I wish I knew then what I know now I would've had even more fun with the great effects.

Overall sounds great, decent sequencer, and very capable sound mangler. However minus the cool factor nothing you can't achieve in the box.

Repped

 

[MurderToCassette]

How you like it breh? This thread inspired me to dig out my EPS over this past weekend. She’s still going

 

[StarClout]

How you like it breh? This thread inspired me to dig out my EPS over this past weekend. She’s still going

The one I got a few weeks ago had some issues

-when sampling, the volume meter was maxed out
-the EPS wouldn’t play audio out of the jacks on it

These aren’t too terribly bad issues cause I was able to get the contact of a repair man who specializes in Ensoniq keyboards and is an hour away (this is a godsend cause most folks won’t even touch Ensoniq stuff these days, and the ones who will live on the west coast). Plus the eBay seller refunded my money back since it didn’t work. I ultimately decided I didn’t want to put any more time/money into it (got fuses/caps for it and all, but I am horrible at soldering )

I ended up taking a chance on another EPS I saw that had expanded ram and all the bells and whistles, it just needs a boot disk (which I have). When it arrives tomorrow I’m gonna take the disk drive out and put the Gotek USB Floppy emulator in it so I can avoid the disk problem entirely

And the other EPS is going off to get repaired by the repair man so I can turn it into a parts machine cause the price of parts on the Internet have me like and most of those parts come from perfectly working units anyway

If all goes well and it works, I’ll be putting an ASR-10 in the budget now that I got a lil raise at work effective next check and can swing it

Wish me luck breh

 

[MurderToCassette]

The one I got a few weeks ago had some issues

-when sampling, the volume meter was maxed out
-the EPS wouldn’t play audio out of the jacks on it

These aren’t too terribly bad issues cause I was able to get the contact of a repair man who specializes in Ensoniq keyboards and is an hour away (this is a godsend cause most folks won’t even touch Ensoniq stuff these days, and the ones who will live on the west coast). Plus the eBay seller refunded my money back since it didn’t work. I ultimately decided I didn’t want to put any more time/money into it (got fuses/caps for it and all, but I am horrible at soldering )

I ended up taking a chance on another EPS I saw that had expanded ram and all the bells and whistles, it just needs a boot disk (which I have). When it arrives tomorrow I’m gonna take the disk drive out and put the Gotek USB Floppy emulator in it so I can avoid the disk problem entirely

And the other EPS is going off to get repaired by the repair man so I can turn it into a parts machine cause the price of parts on the Internet have me like and most of those parts come from perfectly working units anyway

If all goes well and it works, I’ll be putting an ASR-10 in the budget now that I got a lil raise at work effective next check and can swing it

Wish me luck breh

All the best g

And yo, ge that ASR you won't regret it

 

[StarClout]

All the best g

And yo, ge that ASR you won't regret it

I def am looking for that turbo flashbank to boot the OS internally, and exploring SCSI options for the EPS

Also looking for an Output Expander too

I’ve watched so many vids on the EPS and ASR I’m too hype

 

[Bugzbunny129]

Im a s950 man myself

 

[MurderToCassette]

Im a s950 man myself

Love my S950 too, it is the one other sampler I will never part with

 

[Bugzbunny129]

Love my S950 too, it is the one other sampler I will never part with

It slowed me down considerably, but the bass sounds in it is second to none. I just used it to color the samples really.

They have s950 vst which is pretty good tho if ya dont feel like dealing with the slow down.

 

[MurderToCassette]

It slowed me down considerably, but the bass sounds in it is second to none. I just used it to color the samples really.

They have s950 vst which is pretty good tho if ya dont feel like dealing with the slow down.

Word it’s def dope I have it for my iPad and pc