Ensoniq ASR-10

I am using 3.53 O/S -

Presets are what you make them to be - as sampling is very easy to do.... Ease of use can be intuitive for the most part.

Editing is right there in front of your face with the EDIT button

The manual is good however, sometimes it doesn't cover things exactly how they should be... It's almost as if the manual starts out good then quickly jumps to the middle or the end of an explaning a point -

The Poly = is 31 at 33khz and 24 at 44khz something to that effect

OK - I have a couple of great keyboards in my little studio and
My ASR-10 with can hold its own any day of the week...

It's basically a complete produciton studio that was way ahead before it's time - I have sampled some of my modules and you cannot tell the difference in quality - Amazing sampler - And I have owned alot of samplers in my day...

The built in effects are excellent amazing even by today's standards - with on board SCSI and digital I/O - I would easily rank this keyboard in the $600.00 to $800.00 range - Simply for the reason that's it's fun to play and you can make music/song with almost instantly....

Midi - is good, but does act quirky sometimes - I use other sequencers for what I need but I do use the ASR-10 sequencer quite a bit - only because it's fast to use...

The sequencer is good for the simple fact that it is soooo easy to use - to make songs quickly...

I give it a 9 because sound quality for its age!

The instrument sounds are great if you sample correctly - Basically the ASR-10 does everything for you - and It is very easy to use for the most part.

Is it outdated - well yes and no - Quality was NO and sound Wise NO -
As far as memory and disk recording capablities - Yes some on memory, but actually you can get pretty much anything you want to capture and memory is good - for sampling voices, keyboard, records, CD's and anything you can think of...

IF you sample at 44khz in stero of course you're going to chew up lots of memory...

But the 33khz mono is great and you can sample with alot of memory left and the quality is excellent.

The effect processor is simple to use and you probably don't have to by another effects processor as this one is fantastic... It's the only one I use for the most part - for everything...

You sample and then assign whatever effects you want to it - you can change effects on a sample - It's excellent

The keyboard is good - qaulity and very heavy for its size...

The velocity aftertouch is not too bad, but you have to know how to use it...

Yes you can - I would run a fan underneath it - as that's what I am going to do to mine -

Remember This keyboard - Runs very hot...

Basically they should have forgotten about asthetics here and put the heatsink on the back of the keyboard like they did with the EPS line of keyboards...

Out of business - but you can find lots of resources for it

I have 16mb sample ram - no never been repaired

Yes I would buy another one if it were damaged, lost or stolen...

I have been playing over 20 years...

I love the simplicity of the keyboard - It's so quik to make music on!

Honestly - if I had one keyboard to pick from and stranded on a deserted Island - It would be this one - or My Korg Triton LE - But I would probably go for the ASR-10

The ASR-10 is relatively intuitive and understanding its architecture simple to use but I suggest reading at least the first few chapters to get the most out of the ASR-10.

The sequencer has 16-tracks and provides 31 voices of polyphony, real time and looped recording modes, 96 PPQ clock resolution, an auto-locate function, punch in/out, and other useful features. The ASR can also support up to seven simultaneous hard disks and/or CD-ROM drives and is compatible with Akai (S-1000/1100) and Roland CD-ROM sound librarys. A high-density (HD) 3.5" disk drive comes standard.

There's also 62 high quality effects (including vocoding), based on Ensoniq's DP/4 effects processor, that do wonders for sample manipulation or polishing. A whole range of reverbs, chorus, flange, phaser, distortion, digital delay, speaker effects, etc. are available.

The timing of the sequencer is rock solid. Anything you feed through the ASR gets a "live" sound to it (similar to MPC series samplers but w/more bottom end). The filters sound very musical and warm and not digital aliased sounding.

This thing is built like a tank and has never given me any problems.

N/A

I own an ASR-88 which is my Main Sampler, Sequencer and Master MIDI controller that controls the rest of my synths. I've owned quite a few samplers + workstations but this one is definitely one of the most versatile.

I also own a ASR-10 with the Rare Blue Screen, the SCSI port already Installed w/RAM Fully Maxed out! If anyone is interested in taking that off my hands, drop me a line.

This is a machine that with just a basic hardware understanding is simple to use. I never once had to open the manual, altho i flipped thru it just to see.. and like most its a bunch of useless none sense devouring the stuff that is actually important. The fact that the screen gives you just what you need is nice as well. Unlike the touch screen lcd computer monitor built in that can also make you a cup of coffee but is also filled with crap to make it look like its more then it really is... not the asr, str8 to the point.

the features are pretty simple as well...16 bit sampler with one of the best sequencers ive ever heard it supplies the perfect amount of "lazyness" to add texture to your lowend that the punchyness of the mpc couldnt with the accurecy that many lack. i know people who use this as their midi master for everything i myself had problems with the midi but its just my unit. the floppy drive is a pain now n days you can upgrade it to a zip but zip disk arent simple to find anymore either but patience is a vurture and the asr is a prime example of this.

this is a sampler so the sounds are as realistic as you make them. It can be true to the sound or add one of the many effects as make it as crazy as you like. i dont think their are many samplers out including an mpc that can truly match the color and texture of the asr and the key reaction is beautiful

ive had mine now for about 8 years with out replacing anything.. the ram has recently crapped out but thats a simple replace. ive had to reboot it a handful of times which deleted what i was workin on...but o well..the unit it self is a work horse ..the housing is steel you could beat some one with it and it would be fine( altho i would suggest doing that)

ensoniq is capoot.. but you can still find parts here and their on the internet..
just hope you know how to work on em

i love it ... im lookin to buy another just to have as a "just in case". if it was stolen i would track em down and deliver the buddist palm. Ive yet to hear another piece of equipment to match the tone of the asr and till then it will stay the center piece of everything i do.

I have owned Kurzweil K2600, K2000r and found my self lost lost lost.. but this machine is much more easy to use with a good manual.

I found this for $200 and Id not sell it for any price!
Its my "go to" machine.

Its SCSI, get a glyph SCSI rack or Solid state SCSI floppy for 4 gigs, I think this is 2gb max per SCSI ID.
I own NI kontakt Komplete and the sounds are no where near the "tone" of actual hardware! I'm told the Effects are from Lexicon so you know your getting vibe.I own NI kontakt Komplete and the sounds are no where near the "tone" of actual hardware! I'm told the Effects are from Lexicon so you know your getting vibe.

The sequencer is capable of driving an entire studio, several synths and a drum machine.

Can you guys say "playing live" ? This is the unit.

The sequencer is capable of driving an entire studio, several synths and a drum machine.

Can you guys say "playing live" ? This is the unit.

I'm doing classic rock and the Hammond B3 sounds are great, put a CV pedal for rotation, edit your effects, set the mod wheel to distortion and my god.. o my freaking god... I was able to bang out Hammond riffs better then I have ever before. Its got polyphonic after touch, something unheard of now days.

I understand this is a dance/techno/Hip hop machine but I'm getting old school newage and classic rock TONE after one page of reading and I'm back to working... try that with a kurzweil..

Dont hotplug ANYTHING and its good for decades.

I took this on an international flight as carry on under the TSA act for acoustic guitars and band members.

Ill never sell it for any price because the huge drama of running two football fields in the Atlanta Int airport with a 45 pound synth.
Everyone thought I was NUTS!!! It had no case but the gods took care of me.

If you can get this on ebay, DO IT and then brag all day how knowledgeable you are because any guy with $5,000 at guitar center cant get something as powerful and LUSH as this.
You can stack several and chain them together for added voices.

Guys no plastic, this is brutal brushed steel.
Walk into my studio and its a beautifully brushed black steel beast.
its truly a dramatic effect.

At last I can quit searching for a Synth as I have found the holey grail of tone, performance and playability, yes I think the synth action keys are responsive and fast compared to semi weighted.

Manual explains the basic and in depth concepts of the ASR 10 in simple terms.

The keyboard action is quite responsive. The built in effects does wonders for sample manipulation or polishing. The ASR 10 is a complex machine and when time is taken to learn all of the intricate workings of the machine, satisfaction of use will increase tremendously for the user. Creative flexibility used with what this machine has to offer will make the pocket book happy.

The sounds are top notch. In my opinion, all of the Ensoniq brands bring a more polished sound off the bat from samples when compared to Akai brands. I am an Akai owner as well.

Pretty dependable. I only use this for home studio use.

non-existent

I love this machine and out of all of the samplers I have owned or own (SP-1200, Akai S900, MPC 60,ASR-X Pro,MPC 2000xl) I wouldn't hesitate to hold on to this one if I could only have one sampler.

I posted a review of this back in 1999 as "Cloakboy." It was my first keyboard and the only real electronic music device I had ever used. Back then, I thought this was rather easy to use, and maybe it was in its day, but now-a-days it's a pain in the ass.

Here's why I'm posting a second review almost 8 years later - I have too much stuff. Too many guitars, too many synths, too many rack effects. I was trying to lighten the load and get some extra cash. I decided this beast needed to go, it's heavy, it's big, I barely use it now that I use Logic's EXS24 soft sampler... I remember coming to hate this thing after a few years because it didn't have a resonant filter so I couldn't make all those filter sweeps that are so popular in most electronic music.

Well, before selling this beast, I decided to give it one last hurrah, and I fell in love all over again. 1) Going back to the old way of looping a sample by ear was awesome... I'm not into "conventional" dance/electronica, tending more towards industrial, IDM and experimental electronic music, so I like making asymmetric loops, and, boy did I have fun with this thing. 2) Modulation matrix - so many parameters can control soooo many other parameters, it's exhilirating. 3) Transwaves. I bought a Fizmo soon after this, because I had a positive opinion of Ensoniq based on this board and wanted something I could make my own pads with. The Fizmo had been my main board for years, but then I realized it was really just a gimped ASR-10 with limited, pre-set wavetables and my oh-so-coveted resonant filter. So fuck that synth, I can literally spend hours recording any non-musical sound and making a transwave out of it... I'll be building a PAiA 9700s soon, so once that's done I can just route the ASR-10 through that guy's resonant filter. =P

Yes, it's only 16megs, and yes its max sample rate is 44.1kHz. It's still fucking awesome. I use an old 100meg Zip Drive via the SCSI port and sample loading times are a lot more bearable than the old floppy days.

I went over a lot of this in the features section... Great for glitch, experimental, avant-garde. Might make a decent drum sampler for somebody out there, but there's much better options for that. I wouldn't bother for acoustic or "real" instrument samples. Oh, I guess rappers love this board too, it really does have a great low end to its sound.

LOL - it's a tank and weighs as much as one too. You could probably beat someone to death with it and it'd come out okay.

Ensoniq is dead dead dead dead dead. I doubt Emu would do anything for it. There's a guy out there who goes by the handle Prosoniq, a former Ensoniq tech who I guess fixes the old Ensoniq boards.

So, I was going to sell this, played with it for a while, and decided to start using it again. Now, a few years back, these things went for around $700. I'd probably sell it for that, but lately they seem to be fetching between $400 and $500. For that price, I'd rather just sit on it. Maybe in another year or two I'll get tired of it again, but right now I'm making some great music with it. Sure, I can "emulate" a lot of what it does with something like Reaktor or PureData, but neither of those give it the color or tone that the ASR-10 has.

If it was lost or stolen, I wouldn't rush out to get a new one, but I'd seriously consider trying to pick up the rackmount version off of ebay, especially for the prices they've been going at lately.

Original software - never worked out how to upgrade it, or why I would need to.

The manual is great. About the best manual I have ever used for anything.

Great polyphony. I have produced entire songs using this piece of kit, including 3 vocal traks, two guitar tracks, drums, bass, and various string, synth and ambient effects with this synth. The keyboard action is one I have grown intimately familiar with. For a non piano weighted keyboard it is great. I have owned and played quite a few brands. My first Ensoniq was the EPS 16+ and the action was quick to get the feel of and I have loved it since. For example, hooked up to a piano module I can play Chopin's Nocturne in C# minor (Film: The Pianist) to quite a respectable result that has brought tears to a listener. I can't afford a Steinway, so I have to make do with what I have.

The built in effects are brilliant for a synth of its age. Of course technology has advanced and therefore left it behind however since it is more than a decade old it is still passionately remembered. That means something.

Expanding the memory was a mission since Ensoniq was taken over by Emu. If you're keen enough you can find some. I bought some spare once i finally found it at a good price. I still can't bring myself to sell my spare RAM, even though it might fetch a good price to another appreciator of this great synth.

MIDI has velocity, after-touch and release. I have mainly used it as a stand alone machine, with a few modules occasionally. It drove those acceptably, which leads nicely onto the sequencer...

Considering this synth is sample based and every wave is fully editable and resamplable through the effects processor, its 16Mb RAM can produce a lot. Each key can trigger a sample. This means a lot of 'tracks'. The sequencer has 8 tracks and is a pattern sequencer. You can use loads of patterns so if you want to vary anything slightly you can either copy the pattern and use it again seperately or use its mute/play function in a 'song' to use or not use a track.

Through 8 years of using this machine I have always found a way of doing what I want - I only long for higher sample rates, more RAM and a bank of ROM sounds to save loading stuff to get started/muck about. Step back 10 years and it was a standard setter - standard creator maybe. A synth we should all be grateful for.

Since owning it I have explored a few phases of creativity, mainly classical piano, dance, house, lounge electronica. Once you know how to get what you want from it, there is always a way of achieving the result you want - occasionally surprising yourself.

For realistic sounds its sample quality is now surpassed but it is still capable of putting together a powerful and moving mix - if you like a rough edge. I used to sneak into leading stores with my minidisc set to record-pause and lift samples off the latest synths so I could create dance/house tracks with modern dynamic filtered effects. I never had ??2,000 to spend on a top notch analogue synth to get that part sorted, so I made do with what I had (a ??500 second hand ASR!)

You can create any type of music you want. The onboard effects are good and you can re-sample through effects, therefore you can effect a wave as much as you want.

The playability is great. Plus you can manipulate the keyboard or any part of it to react how you like. If you want the treble to be more sensitive than the bass, you can make it that way -with any sort of blend you want. Layer up a sound with stacks of individual waves if you wish, creating a multi set. You can manipulate these on the fly with the patch buttons above the pitch bend and modulation wheels

Because you have to boot it up with an OS it gives me the jitters using it live. I used it live for an amateur play and really had to organise my setups well - using floppy disk only, before I had ZIP. I got through but I wouldn't rate it as a live machine. Have you ever carried one?

My ASR has recently given up. It keeps blowing an internal fuse after 9 years of thorough use. Maybe I can find a solution to keep it on life support if I trawl the internet hard enough but I think I'll finally say goodbye to this icon... and sell that spare RAM.

Long since lost. Its down to the enthusiasts to keep this thing alive...

It is well worth what I paid. 9 years of thorough use from a second hand machine is commendable. I love its versatility and concept, I hate its out of datedness and lack of ROM sounds (none).

I wish it had 88 piano weighted keys, stacks of high res instruments preloaded, modern day quantity of RAM and easy interface with modern PC/Macs. Most of all I wish it came with a voucher for a suitable replacement!

It certainly helped me to make music, until tonight when its fuse blew again and I decided I can't be arsed unscrewing all those screws (again).

If you're an ASR user you will know what I mean about maximum use of only 16Mb, a few buttons and a simple screen to achieve something much more. If you're looking to buy one (second hand of course) take a little time to learn it and it will deliver almost anything you want it to. Don't expect crystal clear production however - it is over a decade old. Still worthy of a salute...

OS Version 3.63
Presets: I still use the Pop horms from the original EPS. Other than that, most of sounds I use are one I made. Which leads to editing patches...This keyboard (once you learn it) is the easiest and most flexible--most intuitive too--that I've ever used. The manual was written in english and, althogh it is over300 pages long, it was good reading. yes, I used to sit on the beach and read it....
My rating of a "7" is only for initial users. I'd give it a "10" once you learn it's logic--which is very intuitive. I find that I get lost on most other keyboards--wishing they were as easy to use as the ASR. I always joke that I'd feel sorry for a person if they were to steal an ASR-10; however, because they probably wouldn't be able to even load a sound if they;ve never used it before.

Polyphone is dependent on sample rate: max is 31 voices. The Effects are beautiful--I have used the ASR-10 as an effects box in a studio session. Seriously. This led me to buy my favorite all time effects processor the Ensoniq DP-4. The ASR-10 uses the same chip. I dearly miss Ensoniq.
Expansion at the time it was released (1993) was considerable (16MB) but by today's standards, it is very minimal. The extra 6 outputs has come in very handy. The MIDI implemetation is deep. After touch per key (as opposed to many other keyboards which send the aftertouch per channel). The multi-mode is great too.
The sequencer is BY FAR!!!! the best onboard sequencer I have ever used and I've been sequencing since 1985. I've used it to record entire albums (minus lead vocals--but incliding background vocals). The Method is intuitive: sequence sections of a song (Intor, verse, chorus...and put them in order). Contrast this with sequencers that "enable" you to sequesnce each track independently ("kick drum for bars 1-32" then Kick pattern 2 from bar 33-124..." yuck! Extremely well organized keyboard. Great Logic--I miss Ensoniq.

I loand my ASR-10 Tom Constantain (Grateful Dead) several years ago. The Harpsichord has a release sound per note after the release of each note--just like a real harpsichord. Very few keyboards have that level of flexibility. i also love the two envelopes: low velocity envelope crosfading with a high velocity envelope. You can do things like change the attack time based on velocity. For example: a slap bass can sound like a fingered bass at low velocity by the amplitude envelope with a slower attack, but also the sound can start later in the sample at the low velocity to start after the sharp attack sound at the begining of the sample. The ASR-10 also has several velocity curves to adapt to your playing style. I sometimes make it very sensitive when sequencing fast hi hat patterns. This makes it more responsive.

I bought the keyboard new in 1993. It has travelled over seas numersoud times and travelled around the US by van for years. The only troubles were harware issues: the edit button has broken twice. This is because I use that button very often.

I have dealt with Ensoniq. I owned the EPS in 1987. A year after the warrantee was up, the mother crapped out. I learned (from Ensoniq) that the reason for the problem was the lead solder process used to be done with a freon wash, but to be more environmental, Ensoniq changed the process away from freon voluntarily. This, as it turned out, was a less reliable solder. They insisted on fixing it under warrantee (a year after it had expired) because they knew it to be a manufacturing defect. One casued by trying to be more environmentally friendly. Did I say I miss Ensoniq?

here, 12 years after buying the ASR-10, I'm considering buying another in case mine goes bad. I can't imagine a concert without it. Most of my sounds are original samples, and honestly, I don't wantto remake them or go through the hassle of converting them. In fact, I found this site while searching for a used ASR-10. I've been playing since 1984. Have owned Roland Juno 1, JV-80, Juno 106; Ensoniq, EPS, ASR-10; Chroma Polaris (analog synth); Kork M1, 01-W. The only one I cannot do without is the ASR-10. I love everything about it except the weight. With my case, it us 72lbs--(2 over the max for most airlines--shoot--have to pay extra on occasion).

I bought it used with the latest OS, 3.53 and SCSI with Zip drive. It's easy to learn the principles of sample loading, sampling, looping, dialing up and editing effects, etc. The manual is very extensive and easy to understand.

I mainly wanted to put in a review because some of the other comments have perhaps been rather too exuberant and a bit misleading if you're a novice and thinking of buying a used ASR-10. First of all, hardware sampling as such is frankly a thing of the past - it must have been something quite special in 1992 but it's thirteen year-old digital technology today. For example, I suspect many users would like to transfer their trimmed wave files to use in their ASR-10. Well, bizarrely, the ASR-10 uses a completely different floppy format. You'll have to first use a file conversion program to convert to EFE format and then an ancient DOS floppy writing utility to get any sound file into your ASR-10 digitally (unless you have the rare I/O board). Clearly, the ASR-10 was intended for original sampling/recording through it's analog inputs and more or less stand-alone operation. Unless you're 1) really strapped for cash and 2) doesn't have a decent computer I'd forget about buying this machine for use as a sampler - after all, sample editing becomes so much easier if you can see the waveform for example. If you still for some reason want a hardware sampler, I'd say get something that doesn't speak Swahili.
Some of the Ensoniq keyboards have been in vogue recently because they have the rare, by now apparently extinct, feature, polyphonic aftertouch. This is a nice expressive feature that some new softsynths support, the CS-80V and the Legacy Wavestation for example. However, I've never quite come to terms with the keyboard on my ASR-10 - while I'm a quite good piano/keyboard player, the key action is frustratingly light, making it very hard to control velocity properly. Even something like my old Roland JX-8P synthesizer is much better in this respect.
Polyphony is 31 voices at 32 kHz, 23 voices at 44.1 kHz - the fact that many effects are 32 kHz-only etc just shows that this is an old machine. I haven't used the sequencer so I can't comment on it.

The boxed factory sounds are mostly typical bread-and-butter sounds (piano, guitar, drums, etc) and sound decent considering their small size (max 1.4 MB) but are of course no match for larger modern sample libraries. There are (generally rather poor quality with a few exceptions) free samples on the internet in EFE format that you can tranfer to disc with the DOS utility. The effects are surprisingly good though, at least the reverb/chorus/delay section - the distortion/cabinet/rotary speaker effects sound much less convincing.

I bought mine two years ago and it's been extremely reliable - not a single crash or error message as far as I can recall and I wouldn't hesitate to use it live. (I haven't mainly because these days the factory sounds are hardly state of the art and the 10 MB RAM installed is frankly ridiculous compared to the 2 GB RAM and virtually limitless hard disc space of my computer. Who misses looped samples?)

I've never dealt with Ensoniq.

Would I replace it if stolen? In a word, no. Old digital technology is rather hard to love, especially when as incompatible with other formats as this. I mainly bought it as a keyboard MIDI controller because of the polyphonic aftertouch, but the light action bothers me, and would probably bother other keyboardists used to weighted or semi-weighted actions. It's fine for velocity-less organ playing though. Having said this, to me the unit exudes quality, it's heavy, built like a tank, completely reliable, has proper buttons (no membranes here) and a decent effects section.

1.6 version for fastest software response. Sound are very configurable ifyour into synthesis with the likes of asdr or filters.

Kinda heavy, just keep in production area if you can. Effects same as legendary DP4. Expander provides 6 additional outputs. Sequencer is a breeze once you get basic operation.

I always believed its not the keyboard but the creativity behind the sound. In this case you get best of both worlds. Sounds limited by your imagination. Its a sampler, what you expect. Good feel.

Reliable just like any other computer. But with keys.

if you need a Scsi for asr-10, contact a gentleman named Vick at Sound Logic. He is trying to gett a special batch of asr-10 scsi interfaces produced. And only 24 lucky people will be able to get their hands on them. So hurry, I need mine built now. This is for early 2005.

If you never studied the manual and keyboard inside out, you never appreciate its potential. If your not into a little bit of studying of architecture, just get an MPC. Or else look deep into this keyboard and reap the benefits!