Ensoniq EPS 16+ Sampling Tutorial

[@isoldeisobelle552]

7 years on and still the best EPS/ASR tutorials out there!

[@damjanwpls]

I WILL PAY YOU TO MAKE MORE TUTORIALS LIKE THIS ! Thank you. You are helping a whole Ensoniq community out there.

[@cellarseer]

I'm glad you got something out of it. I wish I had the time to do more.

[@damjanwpls]

It would be cool if you can make a small video for your favorite tips, tricks, and workarounds. Especially if you can touch on the MIDI functions and implementing the EPS with the rest of the gear. Peace

[@saltybeatz1]

Your videos definitely help people. I’m very glad you took the time to do this. I just purchased an ASR 10 for the third time in the last 20 years so I’m trying to reacclimate myself with everything.

[@matti8717]

These are absolutely priceless tutorials for new users of this device. The steps are very thorough and help to understand this machine much better than the manual itself. One of the best tutorials I've ever seen anywhere.

[@isoldeisobelle552]

Thanks for these great tutorials. The EPS 16+ is still my most favorite Ensoniq sampler - the ASR 10 has more power, but the 16+ has got 'that' sound.

[@HanHuman]

Please do more 👍 There's so few tutorials on the EPS 16 plus online, it takes forever to learn from the inside out.

[@Thought-Forms]

Awesome overview! Just picked one up in mint condition, this was helpful in addition to the manual. thanks!

[@beemthemechanic]

excellent tutorial. I wish all vintage gear tutorials were as thorough and clear as this. thanks again!

[@cellarseer]

If you have the keyboard version then give it a shot and see what happens. It only takes 5 seconds to turn it on and give it a go. But to answer your question: The keyboard version has the same OS, so yes, it does translate. It also translates to both the ASR-10 rack and keyboard version, with the occasional difference (the sample rates of the ASR-10 won't drop as low as the EPS 16+, for example).

[@totaltwit]

I use this sampler a lot, it is good you go though some of the functions showing how to sample. I have a large sample library from Ensoniq/PD, I have found the EPS16+ to be a great sound muncher/manipulator/designer I seldom use the official library now because as you suggest I now tend to make my own samples, including transwaves and that is when this sampler shows it's pedigree.

[@edzerbeats1608]

best sampler tutorial ever. thanks a ton for this.

[@saidinstru]

hello please i bought a bespoke eps 16 plus it shows nothing but numbers. no sound or nothing. please do you need a program or what?

[@cellarseer]

First: A lot of the charm of this sampler is in the converters. Using sounds that have simply been dropped on disk will bypass the converters and your own personal touch. Start creating your own personal sample library and make your own instruments. Second: PM my user.

[@wojciechrutkowski2623]

That is type of tutorial that really helps! Thanks alot man! Keep making those!

[@Route696]

Thank you, very useful tutorial!

[@migraine516]

I am considering buying one of these.

[@cellarseer]

Of course it sounds different, but whether it matters or not is something else. The Akai S1100 had newer converters than the older Akai stuff (S950, etc.), so it's cleaner sounding even within the same brand. Then Ensoniq vs. Akai is going to be another factor. Is any of that going to matter in the end result of what you're trying to do with it? I don't know. It's all arguably subtle.

[@dulow]

Thank you my good man, for this sweet video.

[@reddfredde]

thanks for a great tutorial

[@FunkigaMoses]

It just through the internal floppy. I have used the right disks. I have ordered a floppy emulator instead, I believe it's good for live use! ;)

[@InspectaMorze]

i have just got an eps classic, when i sample.. i have AMP flash up when the input signal reaches half way, is that normal?

[@cellarseer]

***** Let me guess... you're trying to sample drums, right? The problem with drums is that they have huge transients, meaning a very, very loud momentary peak. So the AMP light catches the overload (of the snare crack, let's assume) but the meter only shows the "body" of the snare, or its average volume. Things with sharp attacks throw meters WAY off, EPS or otherwise.You can't trust meters to determine headroom, in general, and you really want to stay on the side of caution with it in the digital domain. You don't have to bring in recordings super-hot. Shoot a little lower and then just normalize the sample later, if needed.Of course, maybe you'll get interesting results with what you've got.

[@InspectaMorze]

yeah it was a drum break i was trying to sample, but it was no where near as loud as the kick drum you was sampling so it just bugged me out.. im gonna try out some other sounds and see what happens.. thanks for the quick reply!

[@cellarseer]

***** Make sure you've selected line-in, not mic in. If you've got it selected to mic, then you're going to find a LOT more hiss and you'll also have to turn down whatever you're sampling from (vinyl, tape, CD) quite a bit to prevent overloading the input. That will make it a lot more "fiddly". EPS classic is only 13-bit, so you DO want to try to capture samples at their loudest, ideally. But if it's clipping then it's clipping, so just back off until it doesn't. If you only notice a very slight increase in volume after normalizing, then you've got the sweet spot.

[@NNJ-fb4mn]

cellarseer Just curious, is there a release feature on this thing? If so how do I use it so I don't have to hold the keys down every time.

[@cellarseer]

NNJ9000 I'm not 100% sure what you're asking, but watch this video from 16:00 onward and it might answer your question. If you're asking something else, please rephrase. But I cover a very wide range of topic between all the different EPS16+ tutorials I've done. If you haven't watched them all, I suggest you do so.

[@jirahelejorde9180]

Hi, i just want to ask if where can we buy ensoniq floppy disc aside online? We had that same keyboard and once we turned on it says insert disc. We had it long time ago and it's used already. We can't find a disc for it. I hope you could help me. Thanks.

[@cellarseer]

Jirah Elejorde I would highly suggest that you acquire an old desktop PC with a floppy drive instead of purchasing disks. You can find tons of disks online and then you can make your own library of floppies. You just need to get something from the XP era or older, and make sure it has an internal 3.5" floppy drive (NOT USB!). There are plenty of places (thrift stores, Freecycle, etc.) to get one for free or VERY cheap these days.

[@cellarseer]

cellarseer The only other practical solution is to buy a SCSI Zip drive (to connect to the EPS16) and also a USB Zip drive which you'd connect to your computer. Use a special utility to copy some disk images to the Zip disk through USB, eject the disk, then put it in the SCSI Zip (or vice-versa).

[@cellarseer]

Is this through SCSI, floppy, or both? If floppy, does this happen all the time? With all disks? Are you using true double-density disks (720K), or high-density disks (1.44 MB) with the hole taped over? Is this a new machine to you? Was it working properly before, and now all of a sudden is acting up?

[@FunkigaMoses]

Hello! Do you know why my EPS will load and save instruments/songs, but won't format disks? It says "Disk not responding".

[@K1TTENM1TTEN]

So I just bought the EPS 16+ Keyboard three days ago. It came with its OS disk and nothing else. I am 100% ignorant of how to load samples onto the floppy disks, even after watching this video... :( Do I need special software? Also... do you know where I could find and download the original Ensoniq sample disks (or disk images) for this? I wish I could be more knowledgeable, but I have done a lot of Google searches with no info. Thanks!

[@mindandsound]

Hi, I just started using the asr 10 & after normalizing some drum samples I tried boosting but it sounded too loud. While sampling the amp light never registered so I went by the input leds, do you think I set the input level too high?

[@djkaoz]

+cellarseer Thank you very much my friend ! Your Videos helped me a lot !!! ASR 10 user... Rock On !!!

[@cellarseer]

I already covered the boost parameter in the tutorial, and explained why this would occur. Boost is NOT enabled by default for that very reason -- to preserve headroom. The solution is simple though: If it's too loud then stop making it louder. Don't normalize it, or don't use boost.

[@sam3times1]

Right I'm having huge trouble trying to sample in sounds I can get the eps to play sound through , I then start recording and stop where is needed . It then says press key note and I can't manage to get my MPC or a keyboard to trigger the key note wtf can anybody understand what is need to be done ? I have a akai s900 and the MPC settings are surely the same

[@cellarseer]

+sam wray If you think it through then you'll realize there are only a few options here. Either you've got it connected improperly (MIDI out to MIDI out, etc.), your MIDI cables/ports are bad, or you're transmitting/listening on the wrong MIDI channels. My guess is that if you set the EPS to listen on all MIDI channels then you'll fix your problem. Hint: [Edit][System.MIDI][7] -- select OMNI mode.

[@SajoBkule]

THANKS

[@jimwates8047]

Hey, again, nice video... I have an irrelevant question though. I'm trying to use Reason as a Sound Module. Only problem is I have the Rack mount 16+ like you do.... See the keyboard 16+ already has the keyboard. So you just create an Instrument press edit instrument and assign it to the corresponding midi track and basically go. Making it a lot easier to do it with a keyboard version..(for me anyway). The Rack 16+, I can't get the sounds(From Reason) to play and record into the sequencer of my 16 + Rack using my midi controller keyboard. Thanks for your time and your answer, I hope I explained this clear enough too.

[@cellarseer]

+Jim wates I don't understand what you're trying to do. Are you trying to trigger Reason sounds using the EPS16 sequencer? The only plausible workflows I can see are either you're in love with the EPS16 sequencer and are trying to trigger Reason, or you want to piggyback EPS16 sounds onto your Reason projects and trigger the EPS16 sounds via a MIDI sequence from Reason. I don't know why you'd want to do the first, but that seems to be what I'm reading.

[@cellarseer]

+cellarseer Are you trying to hook up a controller keyboard to the EPS, track that into the sequencer, and then pass that through to Reason to trigger Reason samplers/synths?

[@jimwates8047]

+cellarseer Hey man, how have you been? You'd I talked a while back about recording Ensoniq Midi Data... I have Reaper all figure out, but, I want to use Reason as a sequencer instead... I'm using Reason 4 and 5... I got Midi data recording into Reason "one track at a time" But I'm getting no playback... I have it setup basically the same way I do on Reaper too. Thanks in Advance..

[@cellarseer]

+Jim wates I still don't know what you're trying to do with this. Are you trying to get Ensoniq MIDI sequences recorded into Reason as MIDI so you can edit it further? Or are you trying to sequence with Reason and trigger the EPS16? Or trying to use the EPS16 MIDI out to trigger sounds in Reason?

[@jimwates8047]

cellarseer Are you trying to get Ensoniq MIDI sequences recorded into Reason as MIDI so you can edit it further? Or are you trying to sequence with Reason and trigger the EPS16? Both, I want to trigger the 16+/ASR 10 and be able to edit in Reason.. I got midi data going into Reason 5, But I think all the tracks are on one track.. I can Export the Midi data and Import it into Reason, but, When I press "Play" on Reason, the machine doesn't play. So yes, I wan't to use Reason as a Sequencer. I want to be able to use "Swing" edits on the drums for one. I know Reason a lot more for Midi editing... I sent someone a drum track and it took the person forever to loop and chop the beats.. Even with the BPM... I'm getting better at getting the Ensoniq data to "snap to the grid" basically. Its just something I could do faster on reason.

[@HalSamuel]

Does this all translate to the keyboard version? Are they the same?

[@LilHoss]

Does this tutorial work for an EPS-m?

[@cellarseer]

Yes and no. There are overlaps, but the EPS and EPS-m have a reduced feature set, and one of the biggest differences in workflow is the way wavesample keyranges are set.

[@JackboyRadio]

Sure needed this

[@cellarseer]

+Demane Williams Glad it helped.

[@smiljanicn]

Wow, HiQuality EPS tutorial, yes baby!

[@lordtoranaga]

awesome video, thank you for sharing.

[@2jakkel]

what a great video just what i was looking for thanks;)!!

[@donniecatalano]

I still have one of these with... a 40 mb external disk!

[@klmn.64]

awesome tutorial. even helpful for eps keyboard.

[@90sFlav]

So the EPS classic is 13bits and the 16+ is 16bits right ?

[@cellarseer]

Yes. The Mirage is 8-bit, EPS is 13bit, EPS16 is 16-bit, and ASR10 is 16-bit stereo as far how they store wavesamples.

[@90sFlav]

Thanks for the info Cellarseer!

[@JohnJones-tx6rt]

I've got an eps 13 bit I want to sell. I want to buy the 16 bit eps sampler if anyone has one to sell. However, I also want the samples from my 13 bit eps sampler to work on the 16 bit sampler. More importantly, I want the sequences from the 13 bit sampler to play on the 16 bit sampler. Can they?

[@Drivethebeat]

Yes they will.

[@DaTKify]

really cool dude good work

[@aFRoFx]

big thanks for your videos !!!! a midi part would be fine :)

[@cellarseer]

What sort of MIDI things?

[@aFRoFx]

i try to trigger my eps with my asr but it can´t trigger more than one sample .... no madder if i chose new sample ore no.

[@cellarseer]

You'll have to elaborate on your setup and what exactly you mean. Each instrument bin can be configured as a different MIDI channel, and each wavesample in each instrument can be set to a MIDI note range (either one key or a multi-key span). Either way, triggering more than one sample within an instrument is all dependent upon that wavesample's key mapping.

[@cellarseer]

Okay, I watched the video of your problem. My suggestion is to watch ALL my Ensoniq tutorials over again until you understand how the EPS works. The issue isn't MIDI, it's with not grasping the difference between instrument and wavesample.

[@aFRoFx]

ok it has nothing to do with the eps i trigger it with my mpc and all woks fine.must be a midi sad up problem in my ASR.

[@Redsnake_beats]

thank you very much, your videos are the very helpful. New EPS16+ keyboard user. PS: I love this sampler, it reproduces the real hip hop sound which I've been searching for years trying to imitate it in Ableton. Plugins can't make this sound, even Decimort, which is quite impressive though. But using plugins this way is like f*cking a rubber woman )))

[@cellarseer]

I'm very glad it was of benefit to you. Yes, there's something strangely satisfying about using the EPS16. I think its limitations and quirks suggest a different workflow and it can be a refreshing change from in-the-box.

[@RCutOffakavEM]

Сам хочу такой сэмплер себе. Прекрасный звук

[@samzircon7617]

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll tr