Ensoniq EPS - keep or sell?

[Morgan777]

Hey I have had my EPS for years and use it all the time just for quick samples. The sequencer has a steep learning curve like most Ensoniq stuff but works really well once you understand it... Actually, one of the best sequencers I have used. A very strong workhorse! I'll buy it for a backup if you don't want it... Morgan

[raymondmaxwell]

Hello, all. Its seems I have had alot of activity on line recently on this synth. Its funny how when this thing was made computers had not come as far. Now Samples are unlimited in quantity. Hundreds of Terra bytes of samples. So We take them and record them onto the sampler, Each with a potential to do it's own destruction. The key is having just the right software. I love to DIY, Creating new different sounds! When there gone well tell our children & Grand children what it was like to own a keyboard with a memory so minuscule! Pawn Stars 2020!!!!! If you record from your computer to your synth (Ableton live-------There are great Vst's out there that can be recorded, add effects to the Vst'i Record, and layer, 4 or five from your computer to your keyboard. But when recording drum map's it's harder, long pad's , bells, drones , strings, great to start with.

[Liquid360]

Originally Posted by alexp

EPS has no character???...

Ok then, I'm stepping out of this convo.

alexP

The EPS is all character. 12 bit grunge is an awesome tool in the right hands, just like an Emax 1. It's the ONLY reason to keep it, as a lo-fi processor.

And if you decide to sell it, grab all those classic libraries and re-sample them into a software sampler.

[mp3]

Just as a general note, the EPS is 13 bit...

Carry on!

[bluegreengold]

The EPS has heaps of character. There is no reason to circuit bend one, it's already the ultimate glitch sampler. I really like the sound of how it does pitch transposition.

There are many many reasons to keep an eps keyboard around, even if you don't use the audio output at all.

It has a very good quality keyboard with polyphonic after touch and a useful sequencer. I use it as master keyboard and scratch/startup sequencer all the time.

....

It may convert/ store at 13 bit, but I believe it'll output 16 bit. You can load ASR10 / eps16+ instruments and they'll playback just fine, and sound rather good.

The weakspot in audio quality with the eps is in the preamp of the sample input. If you put a preamp/eq in line on the way in you can make remarkably hifi samples, especially if you use the higher sampler rates.

[robot gigante]

Nice grit machine. It's been a long time, I still miss it and would use it again.

[acreil]

Originally Posted by bluegreengold

it's already the ultimate glitch sampler.

No kidding. Here's what I got with no samples loaded:



Autechre got plenty of fun out of theirs (well, 16+ and ASR-10) too. Seems like it was responsible for most of Chiastic Slide.

It may convert/ store at 13 bit, but I believe it'll output 16 bit. You can load ASR10 / eps16+ instruments and they'll playback just fine, and sound rather good.

The memory is actually 13 bits wide. To the extent that it's compatible with the 16+ and ASR-10, it's probably just storing them on the disk as 16 bit words, and truncating the last 3 bits of whatever is loaded. The actual DAC does some quasi-floating point thing, I think 13 bits for the wave data (per voice) scaled by 10 bits for the amplitude envelope. I don't really remember though.