Ensoniq ASR-10

2.53 or whatever the last one they ever put out was. Presets? I bought it used and even if the guy DID send me the stocks, the stocks pretty much sucked. Rubber Chicken sells some decent stuff like the Voder. I have no idea how hard editing would be to the newcomer, I've been using the ASR/EPS interface nearly every day for 10 years, wearing the lacquer off the front sequencer buttons and sometimes causing system crashes from rapid data entry/slider issues. Suffice to say the nested menu structure is not the easiest thing to grasp, but once you get it, you get it. The manual is OK, more extensive than the crappy Yamaha and Roland manuals. Never used a patch editor, but I have used EPSwrite and EPSDisk, all that crap learned from Transoniq Hacker etc. Really is kind of dumb, they should just UPGRADE THE OS TO SUPPORT COMPUTER FILES. No, they would rather make the Fizmo!

Never had a polyphony issue. The keyboard is and has always responded well, although sometimes it pops and cracks for no damn reason, while sitting there. Weird. It has an output expander available, but I never got it. Plus, the onboard FX are dope. I never liked the fact that only one FX bank could be used at once, but then again, what do we expect from 1992 technology. The distortions are ripe, etc. Great power noise/industrial board this is. The MIDI implementation is pretty solid as far as I can tell. The onboard sequencer is pretty powerful for a hardware. I've used it forever, on over 200 tracks. Weird, inexplicable SHUFFLING and delays result sometimes when the board has memory fragmentation issues or something, plus its easy to accidentally record an audio track instead of a sequence track. Main out sampling is one of the BEST aspects of this board, you can effectively resample indefinitely with the COOL FX to create some interesting textures.

This is a good industrial keyboard. Also good for rap. FX good, as stated. I mean, who else gives you a DUCKER? It has three velocity curve settings, plus 3 or 4 keboard velocity settings. Good overall. One thing to watch out for is that its easy to max the amp on this bizn0tch with the overuse of the booster. Sometimes, i leave the digital clips in the track for fun.

RAARRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
There must be an entire series of inexplicable, poorly defined error codes associated with this sampler, which someone at Ensoniq once knew the meaning of, but subsequently forgot. Error 215,129,132, etc. Midi errors, sequencer errors, file access errors, memory access errors, I have lost a sum total of probably 1000+ hours of work on this board (due to a bad habit of rolling and not saving, but still.) The HORRID lack of reliability in tandem with the interface, as well as the ABANDON of this Ensoniq product (ASR-X, wtf is that? double the RAM and add some fisher price pads?) would be my single greatest reason for not recommending this board to a new user. If you are already a user, a way to avert some errors is to STOP using the onboard sequencer, ESPECIALLY while using the MIDI transmit function.

I know more about their board than their tier 3. If I ever call them again I will ask to be forwarded to the oldest electrical engineer on the premises. This is not to discredit them, they are GREAT, I had an insane 1 hr geek session with a smart do0d one time, as we expounded on the ridiculously obscure corners of the OS, but how long can they be expected to maintain knowledge of what is now a legacy product? The net will end up being your main resource pretty soon, that and the Transoniq archives.

If it were lost or stolen, I would suck it up and get a k2500.
been using Mirage/EPS/EPS16/16+/ASR since 1990. I have a virus, an xp-30, an an1x, etc. I think I explained the love/hate thing already. I wish its filters had resonance and something other than its LP/HP combo which apparently is a lame attempt at bandpass. I wish the LFO was MIDI syncable. I wish it didnt crash, I wish it had more than 16M RAM, I wish I didnt have to take it into the shop to get it SCSI enabled, I wish its buttons didnt break/fall into the board on occasion, i wish its ins/outs were more durable, I wish it read PC files. It definitely helps me make music, I have used it on hundreds of tracks, it has enabled me to carve weird sounds that do not approach cliche'. It's a very original sounding board, with lots of power, but its not extremely versatile by today's standards, and its definitely not reliable. Also, one time I ate an entire box of Cinnamon Altoids in one sitting.

I have the latest o.s. 3.53 as far as presets there arent any as far as im concerned.The editing is pretty straight forward althuogh I wish it was on a wave formatt....the manual is beyond long....I mean really it unbeleivable....but hands on is the best way to learn anything.

features are plentiful just apply what you know and youll be fine

Now this is where it wins the asr-10 gose above and beyond duty.....I personally love the warmth that it provides on acoustic shyt....I have a 12bit sampler the mpc-60 and something about the asr that reminds me of this....But remember what you put in is what you get out.....the effects on the board are hott to death(meaning good for those unfamiliar with ebonics).

ummh kinda initially there were bug issues which pissed me off when im working on something hott(a.k.a good for those unfamiliar with ebonics)and you get this reboot error mssge what's that about....but since upgrading the o.s. and gettin the full 16mb its all good....but still slow

Suuuucks!Hated it!....And there expensive as hell for the things that they still sell and support like the scsi....$400 what the hell is that about!These guys are the definition of LOSER!

Overall I love this board Im actually looking to purchase another one as a back up....maybe the 1st asr-x I heard the at least can read the asr-10 disks....I advise use the keyboard as just that a keyboard/controller no sequencing .....although its cool it can lag down system resources just use your computer or MPC(I hate these things everybody has one and alot of music sounds the same because of them especially in hip hop thats why I got an asr-10)But overall under a Thou its the best buy

I never had the manual and this was my first sampler... you can learn everything if you explore. For those that don't like to be buried in menus get an Electribe sampler. The layout is very logical and once you figure it out it clicks.

Great modulation possibilities. 3 Envelope stages that can pretty much control anything. Polyphony and sample memory are smaller compared to newer samplers. Also there is only one FX processor, though it can be subdivided into 3 busses. The FX are rich and warm and are intrinsic to this samplers character. The sequencer can certainly be used for experimental purposes and when used in conjuction with a computer is quite useful.

The main reason I am now keeping this sampler is because of Transwaves. It took me a couple years to realize how to properly use this function.I always overlooked it. The Transwave function allows a sound to be subdivided into sections and have those sections be played back in whatever order (modulation assignable). A sound can be played at any pitch and have the same ADSR (no "chipmunk" effect) and of course this can be changed as desired with keytracking. Essentially you can make the ASR into a programmable wavetable synth. Few wavetable or transwave synths offer this (the Microwave XT doesn't and either does Ensoniqs late Fizmo). Turn whatever you want into a tranwave, beats, voices, pads and you will get wild results. The trick is to subdivide the sample into perfect sections (128 is standard) and perform a crossfade on all 128 loop sections. Depending what you sample you should be able to create smooth, evolving, textures or harsh, sporadic nightmares. Anyhow it is something that I think is the strongest part of the ASR and is not found on any other sampler.

Use the sampler as a sound generator. You can always multitrack it and further process and filter it. I hear the ASR-XPro can play back transwaves but can't create them. A shame.

It used to crash on me all the time. I think I've tamed it though... as it rarely crashes on me. I noticed that when performing disk operations it was most vulnerable. I suggest turning the FX section off, disabline the source monitor and making sure you have loaded the disk before saving onto a disk. Also, always keep a back-up of what you are working on. I think this sampler will last me quite some time.

Well I got my OS 3.53 ROM chip from them.. it took them a while but they got it out to me. I respect them for their efforts.

I want to keep it for it's transave engine, if something comes out for the ASR-X Pro to do this I at least would now I could replace it. I have created some of the most interesting sounds with this board and have spent late nights sculpting new sounds into into and out of it. I have created one sample so layered, lush and emotive it is a work in itself. That is what this sampler is for.

THIS KEYBOARD IS VERY EASY TO USE. I RUN MY BOARD ON THE 3.53OS
AND IT WORKS EXCELLENT. THE PRESET SOUNDS ARE NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT.
THE ONLY PRESET SOUNDS I USE ARE SOME OF THE DRUM KITS. THE EDITING
IS NOT HARD EITHER BUT IT DOES TAKE SOME PRACTICE. I FOUND THE MANUAL
USEFUL AT TIMES, BUT HAND ON EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST.

THE EFFECTS IS ONE OF THE GOOD FEATURES ON THIS BOARD. YOU HAVE
ABOUT 50 TO CHOOSE FROM, AND YOU CAN APPLY IT TO ALL INSTRUMENTS
WITH DIFFERENT SETTINGS USING THE BUS PORTS. I DON'T USE ANYTHING
ALONG WITH THIS UNIT SO I DO NOT USE THE MIDI. THE ONBOARD
SEQUENCER IS TIGHT AND VERY USER FRIENDLY. I SUGGEST TO ANYONE WITH
AND ASR TO GET IT BLOWN OUT AN EXPAND MEMORY WITH THE 16MB.

I USE MY OWN SOUNDS THAT I CREATED BY SAMPLING AND FILTERING. I ALSO
USE THE EFFECTS TO CREATE NEW SOUNDS. I AM PRODUCING STRICKLY RAW
HIP-HIP SO I MAKE THIS UNIT DO WHAT I WANT. THE ONBOARD EFFECTS WORK
WONDERS. I LOVE THE FACT THAT I CAN PLAY A SEQUENCE AND SAMPLE AT THE
SAME TIME. THE NUMBER ONE FEATURE IS THE RE-SAMPLING AND I USE
IT ALOT WHEN I MAKING DRUM KITS.

IN 1994 WHEN I PURCHASED MY FIRST ASR-10 I WOULD SAY HELL NO TO
DEPENDING ON IT. I WAS USING THE 2.SOMTHING OS AND THIS BOARD WAS
FREEZING UP ALL THE TIME. IN 1996 I PURCHASED ANOTHER ASR 10 WHICH
I AM CURRENTLY USING NOW. I USE THE 3.53OS AND I NEVER HAVE ANY
PROBLEMS. SO I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT I CAN DEPEND ON THIS UNIT. IT
IS THE CENTER OF MY PRODUCTION AND THAT SAYS ALOT.

NEVER HAD TO DEAL WITH ENSONIQ.

I THOUGHT I ALREADY TOLD YOU IT WAS STOLEN AND I DID NOT WAIT LONG TO
GO OUT AND PURCHASE ANOTHER ASR. I DO NOT LIKE THE ASR-X AND I THINK
THAT THE MPC IS OVER RATED. I HAVE OWNED BOTH AND ALSO DID SOME
WORK ON THE SP-1200. ALL THE UNITS I HAVE NAMED ARE GOOD TO USE, BUT
I JUST PREFER AN ASR-10.

ASR-10 is a love and hate experience to me. I have two of them, one rack, one keyboard. I'm using Ver 3.53, the latest version I think.

Some of the preset sounds are great, such as the Minimoog or any analogue synth sounds. There is something about the ADDA that make this sampler rocks. AS for the Ensoniq Piano, you can throw that away. Any sprogram that uses less that 1 Meg memory is virtually unusable.

Is editing easy, I really don't know. 'Cause I've spent so much time programming and sampling on it that it's become my second nature and I've become an ASR expert to my friends. It's definitely not the easiest, especially with the small ancient LED screen.

The manual is big though, 1 1/2 inch thick. But I've only read through 10 to 20 pages before I dive into it. Since then it has become a reference which I only read when I encountered some big problem.

I like the keyboard action ( I'm not a piano player ).

Strange enough, I really like the internal effects. A lot of feedback from this forum have a different opinion. I think they give the presets a real personality. I like the effects to the point that I sometimes route a lot of sounds thru the internal effects. Actually this is a plus point becayse I think ASR-10 is the only sampler that you can process external sounds with it's internal effects. I especially like the roto overdrive effect for Hammond organ. Flangers, phaser , auto wah and VCF is also good. Worth checking out the Waveboy effects, the vocoder, lofi and resonator are must have.

But ediying the effects is hell.

Expansion, 16M is the only way to go. 2M for ASR-10 you might as well throw it again. No one will even buy it from you. I have expansion output for it, but I don't think it is really that neccessary. Midi features are really scarce, but I'm using it as a controller now. Next month I will get a Korg Triton and I'll use that as a master keyboard.

Sequence? Never tried it, only useful for playing back the onboard demo.

Also, you MUST get an external SCSI device if you want to be serious with this machine, or any sampler really.

This baby really cooks. But you better sample you own sound. Organ sounds, especially processed with it's internal effects, is big and fat. Bass absolutely rocks, I've tried other softsyn and modules but eventually I go back to ASR for that bass sound. There is something about the ADDA of ASR, a real character. And you have to sample thru the AD, I've tried the digital in board but it's real crap. I've also tried importing some AKAI sounds and they suck. Drum sounds are big and bad, real rockers. Perfect Hip Hop machine.

Another great thing is that you can route external sounds through ASR internal exffects and you can resample thru its internal effects. Once I remix my song by cutting it up into loops and then resample via the internal Effects then chain them up again. The sound was so produced and Hip Hop, unbelievable.

The sound is not 100% true to the source, I think some distortion is introduced when you sample thru it, but it has character. Many times I have people come to me and asked me where I got those killer brass sound, I think that speaks for ASR.

Very low. I got two, one keyboard one rack mount because I need a backup. This machine keep generate such immense heat you can fry an agg on it. And I think this is the reason why it is not very reliable. I called the customer service and they said this is normal because it was using the case as a heat sink. But there's no heat vent on the case, stupid design.

Both machines have been serviced more than once. And as I am writing, my ASR rack is in need of servicing again. Some of the outputs are distorted after left on 1 or 2 hours.

But then again, I don't know what I'll do if they breakdown. They've become such a big part of me. Fortunately I use them only for studio work, definitely won't take it to a concert, it's too heavy anyway.

Really bad

If I lost this baby, I will definitely get another one. I have been playing for 10 years and music is my business, sometimes I think it's silly or me to rely on such an unreliable machine for business, but it's the sound man, the sound.

OS 3.53

Ensoniq was an excellent manufacturer of synths/samplers in their day; the ASR-10 is no exception. The controls are intuitive and easy to learn. Without a manual, one can easily determine most of the basic command/system functions and be up and running in no time. Large, labeled buttons and silk-screened wording make navigating a sinch.

The 50 standard EFFECTS available with the 3.53 OS are excellent. I have had some fidelity problems with the 44k effects and have not yet been able to determine whether or not it is the fault of the hardware or the software. Loadable EFFECTS are available through Waveboy (a must) as well as "The Art of Transwaves" CD-ROM (another must) by Derek Von Krogh (this CD-ROM can be purchased on soundengine.com) - EFFECTS are extensive yet grainy in some areas. Loadable EFFECTS can be used one at a time only.

MIDI capabilities are average; takes time to feel out their true potential.

If you purchase one nowadays, be sure to have a SCSI port; why these were manufactured without is beyond me. A much higher resale and less depreciation would have prevailed had Ensoniq chose to make this a standard feature. With only 16 Megs of maximum potential memory, you'd think that it wouldn't be a big deal - but try and load some decent sounds via a 3.5 floppy and see how long it takes for you to get up and running. After-market SCSI upgrades are now non-existent, so be sure to find a used ASR-10 with SCSI installed!

Other preferred upgrade packages to look for: Digital S/Pdif i/o ports, Multi-line Breakout Box, and an upgraded "pretty-blue" LCD screen as opposed to the green LED version.

The ASR-10 comes with a regular IBM-PC 3.5 floppy that can read 2DD or 2HD floppies - thank God! The 2DD floppies necessary for the older EPS-16+ was a nightmare...

SCSI port option increases storage and load options dramatically. Get an Iomega ZIP 250 and a CD-ROM; you won't regret it! You'll never use that 3.5 floppy again...

Stock sounds were aweful; you have to do some good research and after-market purchasing to open up its true potential. Any TRANSWAVES sounds are a must (Transwaves are a proprietary Ensoniq sampler-only phenomena); as mentioned earlier, WAVEBOY and THE ART OF TRANSWAVES are a must!

It's very buggy as the OS developement has stopped (I'm sure the engineers/programmers that were reponsible for this service are no longer employed by Ensoniq)! Save frequently to avoid any reboot mishaps!

I'm sorry, what did you say? Customer what? I'm afraid this phrase is no longer in Ensoniq's vocabulary - if it ever was. You're on your own, my friends...

Over all, if I lost this board tomorrow, I would be devestated. Although it is limited by its antiquidated technology and lack of future support, it is essentially a complete sampler/sequencer/workstation and can be used effectively as such if you take the time to learn its nature. It's easy to use and you can get 'em used for very little money nowadays (May 2000). Never could get used to the whole "Groovebox" thang like the ASR-X Pro - I prefer the full range of a keyboard - although 64 megs of RAM would be nice...

Big Manual that I didn't spend too much time reading.

Does all kinds of stuff. It sequences and samples. This was the best part. It could be an all in one work station if you learned how to use it well.

The sounds that came with it sucked but I found a program called awave on the internet that let me turn almost any sound file into an instrument and I sampled myself. Effects were all right.

It spent 1 and 1/2 of the 3 years I've owned it in the shop. My warranty has run out and Ensoniq no longer supports the instrument. It spent 6 months in the shop during my first year owning the thing.

None.

Anybody want to buy an unfixable broken keyboard? cmcdonald@hushmail.com

I use my keyboard strictly as a sampler/sequencer. I found the manual to be bogus. I had to hunt out a fellow user to find out how to use the thing. The presets are bad. Overall it's difficult to learn and use, but once used to it, it's okay. But there are still a ton of features I don't know what to do with.

My "keyboard action" is horrible. One key was actually "broken" when I bought it. I can't imagine using this for a keyboard. The built-in effects are decent, especially for tweaking samples. I've tried using it for my guitar, live, and it wasn't so hot. The sequencer is decent, except for the fact that the quantizing of drum hits is HORRIBLE. The whole thing starts sounding stiff. And for lack of features, it only having a floppy drive is stupid.

Not a keyboard to gig with, as someone else said.

This thing freezes on me occasionally. Works slowly all the time.

Mine broke down a couple months after my warranty expired. I called up and haggled with them forever. They kept telling me to talk to the company that would fix it and see what they said. I kept saying, "Look, they don't care where they get their money, so why should I talk to them??" I kept insisting that Ensoniq pay for the repair, Ensoniq authorize it, etc. They didn't know why they had to authorize it. Why not let the repair shop deal with it??? This insanity continued for a while. But I finally got them to pay for the repair. I don't know if they finally understood their mistake, but at least they did pay for the repair 2 months after my warranty was up.

As a producer, I would buy the MPC2000 next. I like the ASR for the keyboard value. It is fun to use, tweaking samples with the keyboard. But it lacks the basic pads (like the ASR-X has) for hitting drum patterns. I'm very used to it now, so I'd miss it if it were gone. But I recommend the MPC to anyone who asks, even though I've never used the MPC. It needs a Zip drive (which the ASR-X has). It also needs a better manual (they act like no one actually SAMPLES with the thing!!!). And they need customer support. It seems like this product is a mystery to everyone. Mine has a SCSI port and I can't figure out what to do with it!! I know I could install a CD-ROM, but I can't figure out if I could hook up a ZIP drive to store more samples...I'm guessing not, since the floppies need to be formatted to ASR...

I've had an asr-10 for approx. 6 years. It's a love / hate instrument. I have used it live and in studio almost weekly since buying it. This was my first real big bucks instrument in the realm of midi. My previous (and still used) instruments are a Fender Rhoads and a roland sc-33 (I love this little piece of general midi crap for live performance). As my first introduction to this world, it was a frustrating, unsupported beast. It still remains so. What little software there is to hook this thing to a computer is out there I have yet to get to work. Dos based applications, third party hacks, so little tech support that as I right this I feel like firing of a note to that company (I won't name them) saying two years after purchase it's still not working!!! The asr-10 is a performance vehicle no matter what else is written. It is slow to load up banks of large instruments, but you can get buy. I play it live, no sequencing, though the sequncer is easy to use. If I were to want to do this live I look for other options as it is only 8 track , no matter what ensoniq or any one else says. The sequencer does have a nice playability to it with muting tracks and switching between sequences. It's your decision. I found the presets as OK... the asr organ is a staple live and in studio. It by far was the best hammondish organ available at the time,( a friend has a nord lead and of all things its organs are tremendous). I lost the disc, but i remember it came with an eerily accurate sax. The steel string guitar is also good...but overall thats it for sounds. Editing is easy, pick it, tweek it, save it. Dont' attempt this live. The effects are good , somewhat easy to tweek and save. The asr-10 is not a great sampler/synth, it's a good to great sampler. the manual sucks in my opinion, bits and pieces here and there..redundant information..not complete, probably never will be. Oh, I hate the envelopes, but I hate most envelopes of this type of interface. I wish you could see them..it would be great if some sofware or computer could interface with this thing successfully.

Go to emu/ensoniq's web site for specs(if there still there), but take it all with a grain of salt. As previously stated the seqencer does not have 16 tracks only 8. I like the grainy effects, the crackling I could do without as I could the loud electrostatic pop when switching between some of them. I like the keyboard, hasn't broken yet ...(I've broken 2 fatars)...It's not a hugely featured sampler...you sample, with or without effect, tweek the amp,envelope,pitch, loop..all the usual..the filters are ok, but no resonance..this sucks in this day and age. The way around this is Waveboys resonance filter effect..great job these boys did with this one..it makes the asr-10 that much better. I find it can do what I want it to do. Occasionally it does something fantastic that I didn't know it could do. I generally don't screw around with things like velocity, keyboard tracking... this sort of crap, but it has it. Midi is ok within its own asr-10 never-never land...interface with another unit or a computer, experimentation is your only resort. It took me a years to figure out its program changes, (but I'm an idiot with this shit). Its features for its time were great...In this being 9 years afetr the fact I suppose you could do a lot better...

This is where a previously mediocre intrument review turns into a great one.. I think it is one of the best sounding intruments out there..Loud, gritty, distorted, earth trembling, ear piercing, This thing screams..I generally make my own simple sample/instruments, when I brought them to a friend with a kurzweil 2500 and loaded them they sounded like crap...you figure it out.. the asr-10 has an electric yet organic quality to its sounds.. Not all smooth warm and rich, but alive like it will rip your throat out..This might not be for everyone...I sometimes wish I had warm and rich in my meager arsenal of gear ( maybe someday.....) Live it cuts above guitars, in the studio it can get a bit too gritty, but we put it on 2 inch tape and it sounds great( I know, not always an option). The effects live are great to use.. You have basically 2 options, your saved instrument effect and a bank effect...tweek an effect and it becomes your bank effect...I like this as it doesn't screw up your instrument effect, and you can tweek away..of course if you want you bank effect forget what I said.. Bottom line is for what you can get one of these used for these days it's a great sounding instrument...Oh, you neeeed scsi and some sort of drive. I use a zip, they work, I guess there was a problem at one time, not with mine...there cheap and easy to back-up. I'm rating this 9 because nothing is "pristine".

As stated, I've had this thing for years, knock on wood no real problems as of yet. I do think it will crap out on me at some point. When it does I'll fix it and look at my options for a performance keyboard. I think it sounds too good to completely bag..Gig without a backup??? Real world calling here, if you can afford two of any instrument to have one as a back-up your in the wrong business. I have a dx-7 as a back-up and dread the day when it comes to using that thing live again. I'll break out the fender rhoads and horrify the world. The scsi stuff can be tricky so pay attention to what your doing, as with anything it back-up when ever possible.

I had what I thought was a blown internal pre-amp at one point. The tech over the phone was actually pretty good. No real problem (it wasn't the pre-amp, but my 10 year old power amp). They never upgraded this thing past version 3.53 or so..not to my knowledge. I hasd the scsi card put in, but that's about it. I'll give this a seven as I feel this keyboard is never going to get any more support or upgrades ever. I'm tired.

Overall an eight.. some very good sounds come out of this thing...some very poor third party software people have tried to make this more of a complete computer/workstation, but I havn't had any luck..I wish ensoniq had done something about this..I would have to get another if this one completely died..my friend with the k2500 loves his, it has so many more features and synth stuff that the asr-10 can't touch, but to me it sounds a bit sterile ( don't get me wrong I would love to own one) If I had done research at the time of purchase, I probably would not have bought this, but I didn't know squat back then and I got it new at almost half price..I like it almost all the time. If anyone can help with figuring out how to better this thing send me a message...

Not the easiest to use, but the manual helps a great deal and is pretty
straight forward although lengthy and flat. If you're going to do that
much reading, it should at least be moderately entertaining. The preset
'in-box' sounds are ok, but nothing to do backflips over.

The keyboard action is good but beware of the effects if you wish to
create clean sounds. The effects are 'breathy' and by the time you've
properly tweaked them, you forget what it was you were tweaking them
for. As for the memory, YOU NEED IT. It's a big disgusting paperweight
without it.

I have to say, compared to other models, it's MIDI capabilities suck. You
can only get the interface from Ensoniq to hook it up to your computer
and it's ridiculously over-priced. If you do manage to get the interface,
good luck finding software for it. It's step editing capabilities lack
compared to EVERYTHING else I've used but the sequencer itself is one of the
easiest to use, so go figure.

The sounds are mediocre. The wonderful thing is, you can hunt through
the web and find even more mediocre sounds. (note the sarcasm) You can
conceivebly make your own sounds, but as stated earlier, once you've
finally got the sound to where you want it (if you can get there, that is),
you've forgotten why you even started. Make plenty of coffee and be sure
to take some kind of herbal mood altering concoction before you begin
to edit those on-board effects. You can buy effects disks from Syntaur
that are pretty decent, though.

This isn't a keyboard that you gig with in my humble opinion. This is
a home studio type of system. The sounds take too long to load and it may,
on occaision, have problems reading instruments and banks that you have
previously saved.

Support? HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! There IS no real support at Ensoniq. If it
ever manages to break, find a complete sucker and sell it to them for
$500.00 and put that money down on a Yamaha PSR8000.

If it were lost or stolen, I'd miss it like that stray dog you let into
the house....sure, it's loveable, but it's nice not to have to clean
the poop up off the kitchen floor. There are better products out there.