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Is it outdated - well yes and no - Quality was NO and sound Wise NO -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!

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...

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.