Ensoniq ASR-10 Rackmount

OK in the beginning, you need a little practice, but beyond this, everything is simple and logical and this is very attractive for live gigs.

Yeah there could be a better display, than this cheap lcd letters, but retro style is in (lol).
Manual is clean and easy to understand.

The buildin FX are outstanding in terms of quality. Nowadays I would buy a ASR-10 just for the FX (I bought mine for 100 Euros). It has everything you need: Aftertouch, SCSI for HDs, Digital I/O and a maximum of 16MB (wich is enough to make good songs)

Superb sound quality. No initial noise at all. Very deep Bass. The Basedrums sounds much better, than on any other hardware sampler. Excellent hardware components inside. The FX are derived from the legendary DP-4, they are very clean and highly adjustable.

It hangs sometimes, when you try to load samples while playing. It gets hot, but the rest is fine.

The company doesnt exist any more and because of the special components like the floppy disc, its hard to get one nowadays.

I bought a second one, after the first crashed because of beer at a live gig. I bought a third one, after the second was totally abused over the years, what else should I say. This machine sounds fantastic and till today, I wouldnt like to use any other Hardware-Sampler

Latest and last software version.

Presets n/a. Included Box sounds (disk) are good to excellent.

Editing is very comprehensive. World class. Even today. The learning curve is as steep as the user wishes to go.

The manuals are excellent and lead the user to the heart of the instrument. Few people would find the manuals confusing.

Polyphony is 32 notes Mono and 20 notes Stereo.

50 built in effects. 250 onboard template variations. DSP externally programmable via floppy disk. FX engine derives from legendary ensoniq DP/4

ASR10 Keyboard can be expanded to 16mb memory (over 2 minutes stereo sampling). SCSI expandable on non SCSI units. Output expansion (6 stereo outs) available for keyboard, standard on rackmount. Digital in/out expansion available for keyboard.
ASR can address 7 scsi hard disk drives.

MIDI capabilities are very good.
ASR10 Keyboard is semi weight and very pleasant in use but noisy.
Polyphonic expression from keyboard to MIDI is unsurpassed.

The onboard sequencer allows ASR10 the name 'Workstation'.
Track recording and internal 2 track RAM recording available.
Sequencer is productive but quirky/annoying. Excellent as an idea scratchpad and should be vieved as a great onboard tool, but not as a central sequencer in any instance.

Unsurpassed expresiveness.

Instrument sounds can be very realistic. The ensoniq ASR10 is the worlds most expresive hardware sampler. Full stop.

The ASR10 can be used to forge the right sounds for any music genre.
If the question is 'can I ?' the answer is 'yes'

Onboard effect are drived from the ledgendary ensoniq DP/4.
50 onboard effects 250 onboard variations. Effects DSP is stereo with extra effects available via disk drive/scsi

Reaction to playing is unsurpassed. Two unique expression buttons allow the user to change/evolve a sound in real time in many ways.

Velocity/aftertouch is unsurpassed. The most expressive hardware sampler ever made.

Reliability is questioned.
Ensoniq instruments used specialised circuits/bespoke components.

ASR10 was designed for the stage and studio.
The most expressive stage keyboard you could imagine, but too old these days to risk it? I would.

Company deceased. EMU now own Ensoniq name. Support non existant.

Absolutely the best hardware sampling keyboard ever made.

Wouldn't advise anyone to buy one.

this peice of gear has to be one of the easiest samplers to use! It was the first major peice of equipment I ever bought and learned a lot about sampling and midi with it. Very, very intuitive and well designed.

It is great for drums believe it or noti use mine with recycle quite a bit. The best and the worst thing about it is the sequencer. It has a very lazy swing because the timing clock is kinda goofy. However,it is the easiest sequencer around. If you want to make a beat without having to use a computer and don't like spending hours editing your sequences this sampler if for you. The effects are mediocre but easy to use and edit. doesn't have any good real time controlls like a resonant filter or LFO, but remeber this thing was made in the early nineties... music production was not like it is now. this peice is just simple and straight foreward memory expansion is adequate. great for hip hop production. easy to loop edit sequence and punch sounds in and out of a mix. loding sounds sux unless you have a zip drive to use with it. floppy takes foreverwith large loops and sounds.

i wouldn't recommend most of the sounds that this peice can load. however the sound of the sampler is very, very warm and mushy. this piece rocks for hip hop, dub and dark downtempo. this piece is used heavily by: THE RZA, THE ROOTS, PORTISHEAD, AIR, many other people. If you want to hear what this sampler sounds like just listen to PORTISHEAD or any old WU-TANG stuff (all of 36 chambers). I love the way it sounds, drums are big and crunchy!

everyone I know who has an ASR 10 loves it and hates it only because the buttons do tend to fall apart. but by the time it is totally screwed up you won't be using as much as you used to. I bought a used one at guitar cengter about three years ago and mine is falling apart but I can still use every feature on it. not a huge deal.

repairing is very difficult so buy one in as good gontition as you can find or afford. parts are nearly impossible to find.

I would reccomend tghis piece to any one who wants to sound different than the next guy. Everybody and thier cousin has an MPC 2000 this piece is awesome overall. I love mine and am currently looking for another one. I use it almost every day and would be lost without it.
If you want to get into hip hop production and don't know anyhting about beats looping and sampling this is the first thiong you should buy. You won't rregret it

i have the rare rack mount asr which came equipped with 16 meg's to start.the rack mount also eliminates the use of the 8-out expander and having to buy a scsi port by providing them on the board.i think i use the v3.0.there is nothing simpler than the asr-10.although,all traditional asr keyboard users have a difficulty remembering where the buttons are as they have changed them around.

you can do anything to any sound.the keyboard offers about 50 onboard fx that are varied 4 different ways(not to mention that you can totally change the parameters of all fx)but my os also included about 20 more.i can TOTALLY control any sampled sound and make it sound however i want to(if i cant,i have a korg sound module!)the sequencer is always on time,no millisecond skips, and the sampler has real time sampling(not like the 1 sec. wait like the eps-16+)i use a yamaha keyboard for midi control.also a korg sound module running thru.

i have the greatest sounds.why buy a $5,000 keyboard when you can sample all sounds,old or new?i sample clean samples(sound module,keyboard,or cd)at 44.1khz (this takes more sample time,but it makes all the difference from sounding like a professional industry standard song or that flat 33kz sound(hum) that ensoniq is famous for

man....here's the bad part.if you dont put a little fan on your asr..DONT LEAVE IT ON FOR HOURS,IT'LL BLOW OR CUT OFF ON YOU!!!be very careful how you treat her,shes a VERY jealous gal!!

i had no problem with repairs.....well the floppy drives are a rip off because theyre so old.everything else was ok