Ensoniq ASR-10

It came with the 2.51 O.S. Disc. Bought it in a case, looked brand spankin' new.
The freebies are always ish....(bogus).
Editing is pretty straight forward. That's the only plus about Ensoniq gear. If you learn something it's hard to forget.
Wow!!! WAR AND PEACE ring a bell? Unless your up on the jargon, it gets kinda confusing.

Keyborad action is cool for keyingup a nice melody or pounding out some drums. Yup. The efx are kinda cool and pretty straight to the point. Editing them can be a bit of bitch, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Oh yeah. Expansion. They upgraded to SIMM chips istead those cartridge looking things from the EPS days.
Sequencer is very cookie cutter. Easy as pie.

i loved ensoniq mr Well, whatever you sample. So do your homework on making it sound thick and powerful before sampling. No magic happens hear. What you sample is what you get. You can create any type of music on it it. It's a clean slate. The efx are pretty nice. The reaction timing is butta. you can set the sensitivity and all that.

here's still companies dealing out the parts for this thing. so far so good.I wouldn't gig with a sampler. A no no.

There's still companies dealing out the parts for this thing. so far so good. My EPS yes. This one, not yet. Hopefully not soon either

Let's put it this way, my EPS died and I didn't hesitate to pick up another ENSONIQ product. Some people are into Akai MPC's, I dig the shit outta my ASR 10. Been making tracks for about 7 years now. I have an ASR-X, Roland VS-1880, Yorkville ysm1p monitors, Technics SL1200,...etc.
It is easy to use and not monsterous. I hate angry people. I hate people who don't take the time to try and teach themselves something about the equipment they own. I also hate high priced gear.
Compared it to Korg Triton, Yamaha Motif? Check the pockets....hmmmmm
ASR-10 it is. I wish I had the Triton, Motif, MPC4000 (just becuz it's new) or Trinity for the sounds.
I wish I had more time to study this craft. Why can't artists just create and be merry..........(ugh...oh) WAKE UP!!! Back to the grind.......
Long live the creative process and free thought.

I had this machine from '94-2000, had to sell to pay off gambling debts (what a shame) I miss it, and trying to buy another one (this time with the newer blue lcd display)on E-bay. I could operate it in my sleep. I actually cried when I sold it (corny but true). I had the newest os system that ensoniq sent me in mail before they stopped making it. Manual was difficult, most of it I just learned by trial and error, it was fun.

Great keyboard action, I had it upgraded to 4mb, was 2mb stock, that's all I needed for hip-hop/rap sample based production. I only used midi for a Roland r-8mk2 drum machine, but then sampled all of the r8 sounds to asr disks and used the on board sequencer on the asr, and sold the r8. The sequencer on the asr is killer.

I generally sampled everything from cds, cassettes, vinyl or vhs tapes. I really only used bass patches, and drum kits over samples, so I'm not one to ask about instruments. Great for rap/r&b, and probably from alot of other types that I never got into. Back in the day I used to like the sound of the sp1200 (dj premier, house of pain, cypress hill, easy moe bee, etc. so I would always try to buy an effect disk to emulate the grainy 8 or 12 bit sampler on the sp1200 but could never find one. But generally, I like the hifi sound of the asr better. It was a "grimy sound" faze I was going through I guess.

I have to admit sometimes I would work on a project for like 10-12 hours at a clip (seriously) and come up with a masterpiece beat and go and try to save the bank, beat, song, etc. and the "data disk corrupted" message would come on and then tell me to re-boot. I would lose my mind and try to save the work by lightly tapping the disk eject button until the disk would almost come out and sometimes it worked and saved the project, but other times I had to bang my f***** head against the wall. So in a nut shell don't gig with it, and save as you go etc. as to avoid a total meltdown at the end. Maybe I just got a bad one out of the box, but when it worked I loved it.

I got my simms upgrade at Sam Ash Music where I bougt it in N.J. so I never really dealt with ensoniq. I never had it repaired.

Like I said before, I sold it to pay off gambling debts, it sold for 950 or 1000 in 2000, on e-bay. I got my life together again, and finances and am dying to replace it (this time w blue lcd display). Ive been beatmaking since '83 when I had like a silver metal Boss/Roland drum machine, a cheap radio shack mic, w spring reverb, and cassette deck. I was 13, and makin tapes for kids at middle school (one of the original white rappers/producers. Wish it had the sp1200 effect disk (for grainy horns, kicks, snares etc.) Overall the thing was like my best friend (again corny but true) when my girl or nobody else was feelin' me the asr-10 was. - Def Scotty B aka Spaz

Not so easy to use at first. Take a little bit of time.

MIDI 16 Bit sampler, with built-in effects processor (based on legendary Ensoniq DP4) and sequencer. No graphic windows, you rely on your ears to edit samples.

The sampler sounds is so amazing and so warm that it's unbelievable!!
You gotta try it!

The effect are amazing too, warm, it sounds analog!

Very good factory sounds.

It become very hot very quickly! You should use it with a fan.

Go to www.thesoniq.com to get upgrade and to get it repaired.

Amazing machine! Too bad it's not made anymore. You can find them for around 1000 dollars nowadays.
THE workstation of: The Neptunes, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, etc...

The asr-10 is easily the most user friendly of all the keyboard sampling/workstations including. The Triton & Motif granted these keyboards have a few more features most of witch are useless if your a hardcore sample based music creator such as my self. If you have the latest board from 96 with the blue LCD and the new operating system consider your machine the last real advancement in sample keyboard technology. I know what allot of you is thinking - the asr-10 is old and lacks so many features of the newer workstations but in most cases there not worth the desk they sit on. I?ve have used them all, I make beats for a living so I could have any kit I wanted, the asr is my secrete weapon while everyone jumps on the mpc4000, triton and motif bandwagon I?ve got my asr-10 & asr-x pro (Drum Trigger) beating' out the dopest beats in underground hip-hop, until they make an ASR-2010(I?ve got a prototype if emu wants to call me . . .) there is nothing better to make a dope beat on. If you do another type of music you may want to check out the new fantom s88 from Roland it basically incorporates a drum pad & keyboard (i.e. asr-10 & asr-x) but with a mastering feature better sound quality and yada. But I guarantee you it?s not as user friendly as the asr-10. I give it a 9 because emu/ensoniq should hire me on to design the asr-2010 witch would by the way receive a 10 for ease of use but then again.

the action is fairly standard for a 61/key the effects are also better then alot of the newer boards or at least as good. iv'e upgraded my board to 4 ram chips for a total of 64mb & 3 minutes of stereo sample time it's far more then i need. (beacuse im not a puff daddy d*ck head or his team of ass m*nkeys that samples a whole song and drops a drum track on top of it. MIDI is in-out-threw the sequencer is very easy to use but a little basic if you you layer your drum kit accross the board or use a seperate drum trigger like n asr-x you should be good to go cubase isn't a bad idea either but i prefer hard sequencing (e.g emu sp1200 or asr-x pro)i dont' use the 1200 anymore but for it's time it was a standard. if your creative enough you don't need to use breakbeats. create you drum parts on another machine and midi it up or just use the on board sequencer i do.

I don't use any of the pre programmed sounds and I don't care how they sound but the expressiveness of the board itself is very favorable When you create allot with the asr-10 you feel like it knows you. The asr-10 keyboard is one of my best friends. In a world of instability and uncertainty you can always count on your asr-10

When I first got my asr-10 it had a few minor qwerks that needed to be taken care of. I sent it off once to get fixed in 7 years it's been fine ever since. A sampler is like a pc sometimes you get a bad one right out of the box, that doesn?t mean that they are all bad although it's frustrating at the time the pay off for a working asr-10 is immeasurable. I never take my keyboard out of the studio but i would trust if i had to.

As I said previous I sent it of once in 7 years ensoniq was fast they addressed the problem with was a faulty sound board fixed it and sent it back within 2 weeks. I can?t really say anything regarding upgrades since I had it factory upgraded when I bought it.

I love my asr-10 if it were stolen I would hunt down the person responsible and inflict pain (serious lasting pain) I have been making music for about 14 years I?ve mastered many machines but none are as in tuned with what I want to express musically as the asr-10. the only what to improve upon the asr would be to re design it from the ground up while retaining the fundamentals that make it the machine that it is now (Id put a drum pad bank on the keyboard too) Id make sure it had a sequencer that would kick cubase and logic's a*s and call it the asr-2010 would you buy one. . . I bet you would!

I've had this thing for 6 years and I've always been able to navigate with the lights off. Uses easy to understand page based system. The manual is as thick as the bible and almost as important if you want to learn how to do some of the more advanced techniques. The sounds that came with it are decent as filler or background sounds when filtered or resampled through effects. Easy machine.

As far as features go, theres not much I feel like I reach for and isn't there. The only thing that would have been great would be that if it had any internal sounds whatsoever for resampling purposes. You have to load any sound you want or sample.

I love the sound it puts out. It sounds so much more professional than so many other things out there. Plus, I don't know about everyone else, but I love the way the sequencer is not quite "perfect". I hate the way the MPC sounds because it is so on-point.

I'm not saying it's never frozen on , but I must have one of the good ones... plus it's a newer one with the cool purpley light up screen. Anyway, I treat it good, so it returns the favor.

I've never had a problem I couldn't fix myself with this thing.

I adore this thing. It has been my companion through many things and always provides me with a satisfaction like nothing else. I promise to love and to cherish it till death do us part. And then I will buy another one.

Latest O.S. is pretty solid. No visual editing element but after 6 years on it, I can navigate it in my sleep. Lots of ways to create custom sounds through layering, resampling with effects. You need to really keep at it to unlock its full potential (look online for support). I've seen videos out there for this thing!

Effects are sweet, 50 total fully tweakable with 4 preset versions of each. Velocity control is smooth. Sampler is clean and sequencer is as straight as it gets, rock solid. Sounds and synths are extra clean and tweakable to the T! Again, you need to keep on it to fully enjoy all features.

ASR 88 has the full load of ebony and ivory and has excellent action (a little plasticky, but good for the $$$). Get the high end sounds from EMU/ENSONIQ/CDRs and such. You can import other sound formats fool! As with all synths, many factory sounds (small size) are weak while some are staples in my setup. Lots of patches online if you got the time and patience to find/convert them. Sample as much as you can. I make all of my own patches mostly, full tweakage!

My ASR 88 is rock solid. Will lock up on you if you don't give it respect ;-). Low quality power will inhibit it from booting up in certain houses/situations (use a line conditioner). System has its quirks but once you use it for a while, you know how not to piss it off. SCSI device order and booting is very specific. Runs a little hot.

Forget it, EMU has aquired Ensoniq and has abandoned the ASR 10/88 as a relic. Support is now online at places like chickensystems, asr-10.com, syntaur, and Thesoniq (dude knows his ASR and can fix them easy). Besides a few experts, you better download the official repair manual that the dealers use and discharge the static before you touch those circuit boards.

I have made many songs with the ASR as the base of my little studio. When used with a PC you'll have a blast. Now you can get one cheap! I learned sampling and sequencing on the EPS/ASR before there was anything like it. The competition at the time was inferior. New samplers have more memory/speed but sonically, the ASR will bump the bass mostly.

v3.53
reasonable
clumsy
in deapth

64 voice pressure action but not weighted
Effects need to be loaded with instrament. Mostly auto load.
Yes. mem digit out expansion slots
full midi compatable
on board sequencer and editor Flexible but awkward. could use wave form display. only has bit display

One word. PERFECT. Tricky to load from cd if no instruction manual.
ALL. i do dance.
good effects and much controll but hard to use.
static in my opinion
Not overly sensitive but has reasonble variance.

easily over heats. (mine does) and intermittant can only load 7 out of 8 instruments
If gig was short yes. Long term no.

Vendor only.
No repairs done as yet.

Yes. It easliy becomes sentimental with all it's hangups. But we are all in it for sound. And the sound is perfect.
When bought yes.
Had now for 7 years.
Love it's quirkiness.
Hate the quikiness
Any other non weighted sampler kbd.
weighted keys
helps!
It's like a lamborghini. Not the fastest or the loudest or the strongest but is simply the greatest!

It came with the 2.51 O.S. Disc. Bought it in a case, looked brand spankin' new.
The freebies are always ish....(bogus).
Editing is pretty straight forward. That's the only plus about Ensoniq gear. If you learn something it's hard to forget.
Wow!!! WAR AND PEACE ring a bell? Unless your up on the jargon, it gets kinda confusing.

Keyborad action is cool for keyingup a nice melody or pounding out some drums. Yup. The efx are kinda cool and pretty straight to the point. Editing them can be a bit of bitch, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Oh yeah. Expansion. They upgraded to SIMM chips istead those cartridge looking things from the EPS days.
Sequencer is very cookie cutter. Easy as pie.

Well, whatever you sample. So do your homework on making it sound thick and powerful before sampling. No magic happens hear. What you sample is what you get. You can create any type of music on it it. It's a clean slate. The efx are pretty nice. The reaction timing is butta. you can set the sensitivity and all that.

There's still companies dealing out the parts for this thing. so far so good.I wouldn't gig with a sampler. A no no.

There's still companies dealing out the parts for this thing. so far so good. My EPS yes. This one, not yet. Hopefully not soon either.

Let's put it this way, my EPS died and I didn't hesitate to pick up another ENSONIQ product. Some people are into Akai MPC's, I dig the shit outta my ASR 10. Been making tracks for about 7 years now. I have an ASR-X, Roland VS-1880, Yorkville ysm1p monitors, Technics SL1200,...etc.
It is easy to use and not monsterous. I hate angry people. I hate people who don't take the time to try and teach themselves something about the equipment they own. I also hate high priced gear.
Compared it to Korg Triton, Yamaha Motif? Check the pockets....hmmmmm
ASR-10 it is. I wish I had the Triton, Motif, MPC4000 (just becuz it's new) or Trinity for the sounds.
I wish I had more time to study this craft. Why can't artists just create and be merry..........(ugh...oh) WAKE UP!!! Back to the grind.......
Long live the creative process and free thought.

My ASR-10 was among the last made (may '96 LCD screen) so came with vs3.53 OS. I don't mind the preset sounds although I've radically mucked around with a lot of them (resampling main out through distortion & chorus type effects). Although the grand piano is probably rather dated now I've always really liked it. I do a lot a soundscape type music with piano-based song/lyric material - through the 44kHz reverb I think the piano sounds fine. I also particularly like the orch strings patch with the long attack & LFO panning. To be honest, though, the ASR-10 is for creating your own sounds, not using those created by others. Editing patches is straightforward assuming you've read the manual & only really need to alter loops, envelopes etc... There is no way to easily change the character of sounds that I've found except by resampling through effects. The filters offer some tonal variation, but I've never had the patience to really play with them. The manual is comprehensive & well written. I'd never owned a sampler before I bought my ASR-10 so it took me at least a year to fully come to terms with it. That was OK though - I enjoyed the experience.

The ASR-10 has only 23 voices @ 44.1kHz which (except for resampling through the great guitar amp simualators & distortion/chorus effects) is the only sampling rate I use. Since I record to a digital multi-track these days polyphony isn't an issue as I'll usually separate sequence tracks created on the ASR-10 into their instrumental components when recording to external multi-track. Anyway the ASR-10 IS a sampler so sounds can always be combined. Judicious use of the 44parametric EQ effect is advisable here. I'm not much of a piano player so I find the keyboard action to be fine. There's plenty of adjustment. The inbuilt effects are mostly 30kHz so I tend to use them only if I want to warm up or coarsen a sound. I've had a lot of fun creating weird distorted drones by resampling through amplifier & distortion effects. The COMP+DIST+REV effect is a particularly nasty little monster. I resampled some heater-grill chinks through this & ended up with something sounding like a skyscraper's-worth of broken glass. Similarly, the Q-control on the DIST+CHO+REV effect permits some absolutely tortured sounding whooshing effects. The 44kHz effects are, to my ears quite good. The 44kHz reverb is a good general purpose effect. The loadable 44kHz lush plate effects are a bit shinier & sound great on vocals. They have a warmth & density that my recently acquired Yamaha REV500 takes some editing to achieve. The combined chorus/reverb/delay effects have also proved most useful - especially for creating lush, spacey, ambient drones. I specified my ASR-10 with SCSI & 16MB RAM at the outset. The digital i/o would be nice but it's probably too late to get one now & the prices I've had quoted are outrageous. SCSI & extra memory are ESSENTIAL with this machine. Otherwise loading sounds takes all day! I use a 100MB ZIP drive & also found a SCSI CD-ROM drive 2nd-hand (very handy because my ASR-10 came with 3 Invision CD-ROMs). The ASR-10 does have quite a lot of MIDI implementation which I'm quite ignorant about so I'll leave that topic to others. The sequencer is quite powerful but is also the ASR-10s achilles heel! It's quite bug-ridden & temperamental. Long key events (holding a key down continuously while recording) won't be tolerated if too much else is going on. The solution is to save data frequently & not expect too much from the sequencer. It will NOT perform to its theoretical limits! A tip: perform a save song+seq & a save bank operation at the START of a session. You'll get the "shuffling data" message for a while (because the ASR-10s 16bit CPU can only read 4MB blocks of RAM) - but on subsequent saves, in that session, the wait will be very much less. I think this is because performing these commands puts their "address" in the most immediate 4MB memory block being read by the ASR-10 (or something - who knows?). I recommend this tip because during my days of audio track recording with the ASR-10 it would sometimes shuffle data endlessly at the end of a session (VERY FRUSTRATING)! Performing these commands at the start of a session eliminated the problem. Also use a line filter or equivalent with your ASR-10 - it likes good, clean power. I experienced less hangs & crashes after purchasing one. For all its quirks, however, the ASR-10's sequencer is easy to use. You can even resample sequence tracks through the main out & effects to save polyphony - handy for dance musicians.

For the era (1992) the ASR-10's packaged sounds are quite good. I still like the grand piano for its own sake. The only other pre-sampled sounds I've heard for the ASR-10 come form Invision CD-ROMs. In general all guitar-type sounds are very weak & unconvincing. You need to be a whizz programmer to get the best out of these. Orchestral string, brass & percussion sounds are better. Some of the violin, solo oboe & flute sounds are quite good. In my experience the ASR-10 is best emulating keyboard instruments - there are quite good hammond B3 & church organ sounds available. As long as you're not hung up about the lack of weighted keys the keyboard has plenty of expressiveness (3 types of velocity & both key & channel after-touch). I've tended to use my ASR-10 to creat ambient/industrial music - a role for which it has plenty of potential. I generally create my own sounds from scratch, recording various acoustic textures & then resampling through effects & EQ. I've always found the ASR-10s effects more than adequate for my requirements. As a live instrument the ASR-10 can be most impressive - but a lot of preparation must be put in beforehand. It's not like an analogue synth, with lots of knobs & sliders that can be used to change the sound intuitively. The actual sound quality overall is superb. I've been able to create everything from extremely clean & sparkling percussion sounds to wall-of-warmth, analogue/dirge with this machine. It's all in how you use the effects & particularly resampling through the 44parametric EQ effect. I've seldom used the filters actually. I prefer the ASR-10's unfiltered & upfront sound.

The ASR-10 IS reliable once you've come to terms with its eccentricities. Use the most recent OS (vs3.53). Save sequence/sample data often in a session. Use a line filter (a must for computer gear anyway & that's what the ASR-10 is after all). Especially use a line filter in live situations! Don't expect miracles from the sequencer. Don't push buttons & sliders in rapid succession. I've NEVER, in 3 years of live performances, ever had my ASR-10 crash on me. My live performances usually involve lead piano work with background drones & rhythms & with vocals processed through the ASR-10. I've never needed, or even contemplated a back-up (couldn't afford it either).

n/a - never dealt with them. They've been taken over by EMU now though so I reckon the internet's where people will find support.

I'm basically in love with my ASR-10. I've invested so much time exploring its possibilities. I guess a Korg Triton or Kurzweill 2600 might be nice - but the ASR-10 still sounds fantastic & does all I need it to do. I shudder to think of the learning curve another machine would entail - although the ASR-10 is the only sampler I've ever used. At the time I acquired it (New Zealand, august 1996) there was nothing comparable for the money. I even recorded an entire album using the ASR-10's sequencer & audiotracks (with auduitrack bounces through effects etc...). For this purpose I bought a 7200RPM seagate barracuda external SCSI 2.1GB HDD. It actually worked! I wouldn't reccommend the ASR-10 for this purpose however as recording multi-track music without a mixer is very cumbersome & slow. Also the ASR-10's audiotrack punch-in/out function basically didn't work requiring me to perform vocals in single takes (VERY difficult). I wish the ASR-10 had come with a resonant filter effect. I wish it had more memory (though in practice 16MB is enough). I wish it had a more modern & speedy CPU. I wish the sequencer was more reliable. On the whole, though, I'm very attached to my ASR-10 & wouldn't dream of trading it in on something else. My relationship to it has become something like a marriage - something complex & not entirely rational - but with too much history & rich experience to be easily discarded. Once I came to terms with its quirks & capabilities my ASR-10 has taken my music (often fairly experimental & non-mainstream in character) into all sorts of areas I couldn't have, otherwise, imagined. As a sound generating device it has encouraged me to build sounds from acoustic textures, resulting in more realistic, natural tones & timbres - even if the samples are radically resampled through various effects. Although I also own an Akai AX60 (which I love!), I'm not a fan of synthesised or techno music as such. The ASR-10 permits me to create sounds without the robotic or cheesy factor of so much modern pop music. The ASR-10 allows me to create sounds which are of the world & which have a down-to-earth reality to them. Samplers, in general, also allow you to produce music with original textures & sounds found nowhere else. "Preset" tones leave me cold. The ASR-10 never does.

Using OS 3.53
Preset are crappy. never use them. anyway this is a sampler. so act as your imagination dictates you.
Otherwise I found Derek Van Krogh's Transwaves very good.

Editing patches is straightforward if you practice a little bit.
Can be fiddly if this is your first sampler.
Existing Patch editors are crap : Ensoniq Midi tools from Giebler sucks and crashes all the time.

I dont have the original manual but like I said pretty much all of the features are easily available once you get the overall "ergonomics" of the little beast

I owned an Akai S2000 and I can tell you the ASR is far better.

By the way, I use my ASR on all my productions
you can check out at http://mikewelf.iuma.com
if you are into downtempo / electronica stuff.
enjoy!

Overall this is the most versatile sampler I've ever worked on. Even today's akai S5000 or 6000 are less classy

polyphony 29 or something. it is a sampler / resampler so if you are short of voices you can resample the whole or part of a mix and then use it as a loop. I found this feature very easy to use, very useful and highly creative.

an other one I use quite a lot is the ability to manipulate and tweak all samples of a layer at the same time, and realtime. i.e. you can make them play "reverse no loop" while it is playing, to do that "reverse scratch" effect. nice if you are into downtempo or drum&bass stuff.

check "Orpheus" on my site. it uses this last feature.

Built in effects are killer ones.
Expansion: use the 16 Megs or die. 16 Megs is fair enough but too little if you want to load a full philharmonic orchestra on it. I never use 16 Megs on my programs anyeway so I don't feel frustrated by this limitation.

I plan to find one output expansion board but it is hard to find here in Europe.

Wow. this is an area where the ASR just kicks ass.
downsample this one and you'll get an EMU SP1200
put an effect on that one and you'll get kicking ass drum loops.

Thousand millions lightyears from Akai "plastic" sound and Emu "over complicated" texture, Ensoniq is "in you face" and that's all.

I would complete my set up with an EMU for its expressiveness and modulation features, but I found my ASR very easy to use and I'm definitely getting used to work on a keyboard rather than on a bloody rack...

Very reliable if you do not use a lot of its SCSI "capabilities".
I heard so many horrible things about ASRs.... but I'm lucky as I did not have any of those.

is there one anymore ?

yes I would buy another one if it was stolen or broken.
you can now find fully extended ASRs at #500 in the UK... so I would definitely go for another one... given its sound and its features.

I've playing on it since 1998. I'm really "in love" with its sounds.

It does not compete with modern samplers as people use it for its expressiveness / sound heat factor, rather than for its polyphony or modulation features.

I wish it had more SCSI features like direct and realtime connection to a PC... I'm getting tired of waiting for these MIDI dumps to be done...