Ensoniq EPS-16+

Do recall what software version.
I found this keyboard very easy to use. The overall logical structure of how sounds and made and processed was straight forward, but then I did read the manual cover to cover.

Memory expansion was way too limited. It annoys me to have to buy additional bits of hard ware to add in my SCSI hard drive. The floppy disks were an exercise in pain and patience, neither of which you want in a live show, honesty you don't want this keyboard live without the SCSI hard drive.
I loved the on board effects processor

I got access to every ensonic library at the music shop, and the sound were mostly horrible. There was a nice bright Bosendorfer which was my mainstay, I found some great hammond sounds from some guy in Sweden (Sorry I don't remember the name).
I got fantastic string and orchestral sounds with this keyboard but I made them myself using an orchestral Audio sample CD.

It always worked for me. If it was going to fall over it would probably be my SCSI hard drive and not the keyboard itself. I always carried an operating system disk and a piano sound on disks in my pocket. That was my backup and I never used it.

I miss this keyboard but I think I could get better functionality out of my laptop and a cheap USB midi-controller.

Using the most recent software that came out before Ensoniq was gobbled up by EMU - 1.02 I think.
The presets for this unit are amazing, especially the drum sounds.
Editing the patches takes a bit of finger grease - lot of button-pressing, menu-scrolling and staring at a small screen.
The manual is a piece of shit. Whoever wrote it approached the writing as if the EPS-16+ was a synth - and it is soooooooo much more.

Polyphony - I'm not sure, never maxed it out, and our stuff is pretty dense. The keyboard action is very good - doesn't feel like a toy piano (which was a problem with the old Ensoniq, Korg and Yamaha synths of the day) and responds very nicely to deft touches.

The effects are okay. If you re-sample one of your samples though, it'll eat up all your memory (which isn't a lot at four megs).
No expansion options that I know of. Lots of third-party samples available out there though - I keep seeing people selling their old EPS/Mirage disquettes on eBay.

The midi is pretty responsive, but the Ensoniq defaults when you set up a new sample is close to 127. It takes a bit of finger grease to fix this, as mentioned above.
The onboard sequencer is split into two 8-track segments: 8 instrument tracks and 8 song tracks. I never figured out how to use the song tracks, and always used the instrument tracks, which allowed me to build patterns which are then split into whatever instruments you have loaded into the keyboard.
Up until a few years ago, I was using this as my main sequencer, and I still use it for loop-based crazy stuff.

Instrumentation is limited only by your imagination and the four megs of memory it is maxed out at (remember guys: 1992).

It can sample at 48khz, which is better-than-CD-quality, but I don't hear the difference on most sounds between 48, 44.1, or 32.5 khz. You start hearing differences with high sounds: cymbals, distortion, voices and techno-synths. It is better to keep your samples short and repetitive, and some of you young guys who get your hands on this will be severely handicapped by the amount of memory...
hehehehe...
...but you'll eventually figure out that it's a workhorse of a sampler.

Excellent for electro-synth rock, industrial, and gloomy goth. If you get your hands on the output expansion unit, you can synchronise your drummer to it by having a click track come out of one of the outputs, which only he can hear. A bonus for live shows where you are using the sequencer.

I now use it as a glorified drum machine, and occasionally for some synth loops. As a drum machine, it beats any of those Roland MC series crap out there.

Very dependable in the studio... but live it was glitchy the few times I used it. And yet I saw one band from Toronto use it - as described above, with the drummer - and they never, ever had a problem with it. I'm convinced this is the keyboard Trent Reznor must've first gotten really pissed off with, hence leading him to throw and thrash gear around the stage.

I don't use it in live situations anymore - just in the studio (see above).

Ensoniq did not go out of business without a reason.

I'd love to give EMU some credit for their customer support of the EPS, and anything Ensoniq, but they dropped the ball on this one.

I would hate it if I lost this piece. It's on its last legs, so one day it will die, and I'll seriously miss it.

I've owned this thing for close to 14 years... and hopefully I'll get another 14 years out of it. When it dies I'll probably get an ASR-10, if I can find one.

What I loved about it when I first purchased it was the sequencer/sampler combo... no other keyboard had that. It's a solid piece of gear, in spite of its glitches in live situations.

ENSONIQ EPS16+
OS VERSION 1.30

I do Rap/Hip-Hop Production, so if you dont, this Post might not help you very much.

This product will be pretty hard to get used to if you are not used to the Ensoniq's sequencer. If you have the Manual, this product will take a lot of usage to understand. Once you understand the way to operate it, its very easy to work with. You start to memorize shortcuts to certain features and after about 2 months using it, other people whove never used it before are lookin at you like: Damn. He knows exactly what he's doin.

I rate this 6 without a manual for ease of use.
I rate it 8 if you have the manual for ease of use.

The sound quality is a little grimy. If your lookin for a perfectly on point, crystal-clear sound, i wouldnt suggest this for you.
If your lookin for grimy Rap/Hip-Hop, i suggest this to you.

There are a lot of built-in 24-Bit effects. All of the effects dont sound like they are from 1988 (but they are). www.Chickensys.com sells new effects on floppy if your not satisfied with all the built-in effects.

The keys can be split by velocity which i'm still tryin to figure out.

This has real good velocity sensitivity if its used as a MIDI controller though.


There is a 16-Track Sequencer in this. If your used to the AKAI MPC-Series sequencer, this will be real hard to adjust to. But they are both capable of about the same thing.

I personally love the sequencer, its just like all the other features of the EPS16+, it takes time, but once mastered youll be lovin this shit.

The sampler is hot on this one too.

Last time i checked, Ensoniq had a lot of libraries of sounds out for this. I dont even mess with those. I use all samples. And as long as you make sure you set the LFO rate to 0.0, youll be all set.

Theres not a lot of memory on this so it will be hard to get real big samples to fit, but you should be alright.


If your the type of person that cuts your samples up before puttin them in a sequence then the EPS16+ will really take some gettin used to. Its not like the MPC in this department.

As long as you get a fan that blows air towards the heatsink on the back the whole time you use it, and your using OS version 1.30 or above, this is very reliable.

If you dont have a fan for the back, i wouldnt suggest using it at all. The back (this aint a joke) gets hot enough to fry some chicken on it.

After a lot of hard use, the buttons will all eventually break. But the keys will last you as long as you have your keyboard. These keys are built like a tank.

I rate it 10 for reliability only if you have a fan.
If no fan, i rate it 4.

Never had problems with my machine, but read the other posts, since Ensoniq merged with E-Mu, customer support sucks.

If it was lost or stolen i would definitely buy another one. Or i would buy the ASR-10, which is more expensive, but it has 15 more mb's.

I love this keyboard, you might think im crazy but youll actually miss this if its ever gone.




If you have any questions, really feel free to drop an e-mail.

What a joy to work with. As a recording engineer I use alot of samplers but the Ensoniq spells out what you need to do.
The presets have stood the test of time for quality and when you listen to them in a correct accoustic enviroment you will know what I mean.
The manual is a manual.If you are used to Japenese samplers then the US sapler mentality but be a little strange at first.

Keyboard action is standard.
The FX are still pretty cool and simple to edit and SAVE!
Midi is fine especialy when it comes to using RECYCLE. No probs there.
Unfortunately I have never used it's onboard sequencer but I have heard it is a lot "tighter" than a pc sequencer.

Sounds great for everything.
Does not have great controller reactions but then its not God.
Great for Drums!

100% Works everytime. Would you believe so do my floppies after 5 years. My hardrive packed up long before my 1st floppy failed. So always keep "a copy on a floppy"
If loading time is not a prob then gig with it for sure.

Never called but over the years with the advent of WWW you can sort out most problems.

After 5 years I love this machine. If you have one you never think about how much you paid for it.

I would love it if someone could build a device that could sit between the EPS16+ and my PC so I could partition a big SCSI drive and transfer files etc. Pipedream eh!

Easy to use,but you should have the manual.
The manual is like that,what a manual should be.Explaining every step
in a fine and understandable way.
The manual itself is already a ten worth.

The "delivered" sounds are of a high quality.

Editing patches/sounds needs a time,caused by the enormous flexibility of this machine.
A softwaresolution is recommended.But also on the EPS it is OK,once
you understood its flowchart.

A 16 track straight ahead sequencer of a a good quality.
A 24Bit FX processor build in,with flex in routing and programming.
OK,the distortion sound is nowadays a little to sick.But the EPS was
build in 1990,and at that time digital distortion was always a sick
thing,like the digital Filters....

Yow,a machine of my dream.Flexible in routing and with a great modulation matrix.
The sound is superb.Clear,deep and warm.In the filtersection is missing maybe resonace.
But the Filter itself are working great,so that resonace is not missing so much.
Here are build in analog Filters,and that's what they sound like.
GOOOOOOOD.....
The limitation is the max of two MB RAM.If you work with disks,it
prepares you a lot of coffeetime.But with the optional Harddisk solution sounds can
be loaded very quick.And with a good managment no one will recognize
this limitation.
The ASR10 is in this way better.
But remember the cost of a MB in this years ? Or of a printer of that
time.
Sound quality is superb.FX is also very fine,not to forget the flexible
sequencer.

Ensoniq build very amazing devices.But they were stingy with the hardwarefunctions.
If it is the slider or the buttons.The quality is really cheesy.
so you have to handle the Interface very carefully,like a virgin.
If to rough,the buttons will fly around you.
I remeber the VFX.Once pressed to strong the button,you had to search
it inside of the VFX.
The rest of the EPS is made forever.

EMUsoniq still maintain also old Ensoniq products,besides the EMU
Max series.

The EPS16* is one of the machines I would never give away anymore.The soundquality and the Modulationmatrix
are amazing.This sampler is very flexible.
I used it for several different styles and always it produces a great
sound.
The EPS needs only a stricter managment,caused by its limitations of
RAM.at least I don't trace it as limitation.This makes me to think over how to manage
the small RAM.
A habit wich most Softwareengineers have lost today,caused by the
inflation of the infinty hardware possibilities.

The Ensoniq EPS16+ was made for musicans.And so it sounds.

Still a great machine after all this years.I prefer it to libe with
the limitation of RAM(wich seems to be a joke nowadays),instead to
have lower sound qultiy with infinity RAM.

All of the Ensoniq's sampler are easy to use, and very simple to edit. It will take a little bit of time to really take advantage of what it has to offer. A very good all purpose work station

The build in effects are great for the time it was made. There is not to many keyboards that can run multipe effects for under 2 g's. The worst quailties about this keyboard is the memory and time to load instruments from a floppy disk. It's smart to invest is computer hook up, that will cut down on time!!!! And now there is so much available on cd that is a must. The sequencer is straight forward and easy to work around and with practice a person can put together high quality demos in a reasonable amount of time.

The Miami Brass are the best, piano sounds are good to okay. And again there is so much out there to choose from (in terms of instruments) that if you look hard enough you can find some really good sounds. The velocity and aftertouch can be adusted to fit your needs. The edit commands are really good, so in terms of expresiveness it's all in your abilty to use the edit commands to adjust the samples to your needs.

A very reliable keyboard. I've had the keyboard 11 years and it's never let me down at a gig. Again it's slow in loading from a floppy disk, I have a lap top which allows me to load sounds faster and it cuts down the lag time between songs. The sequencer has froze up on me a couple of times and that really pisses you off especially when you have been working on a song all night and the everything gets erased. Again, for the money it a very good all purpose keyboard.

The customer service has been very quick in responding to my needs but that is before they merge with emu. I am not sure about it now. The upgrads are the best thing about the keyboard. If it was not for the upgrades and the continual avaibilty of sounds and patches, etc. I would have traded it in a long time ago.

Again a good all purpose keyboard, the memory is lacking a little but with a computer you can get around it. The sounds are good and some even great. There are tons of resources out there to keep you up with the latests trends. The ability to edit samples is it's best features. People asked me all the time where did you get that sample? and I say " I created it". But I have to admit if it was stolen I wouldn't but it, I would buy it's big brother the ASR 10.

I am using the latest software and to be honest i've never used much of the preset noises, i mean who really buys a SAMPLER for the preset sound disks, i use it mainly for loops that i construct on my computer. creating seamless loops is a little tricky at first, but once you figure it out it becomes second nature. the manual gives a decent overview of the architecture but the diagrams don't really reveal a lot, but i don't think it was quite as horrible as a lot of people have said.

the waveboy FX are very useful, i recommend the parallel FX and the resonant filter disk. the onboard ROM effects are actually very good, amazing for when this beast came out, the wah+dist+rev used to be my absolute favorite for destroying sounds. as far as i can gather the FX in the EPS 16+ are almost identical to the DP4, but don't quote me on that. I've screwed around on the sequencer, but for a whole live PA it would be a nightmare, i do not like the on board seq. I don't have any of the SCSI retrofits, but there are still companies that will do them, probably a good idea. I basically use the sampler for loop playback and a few synth stabs here and there.

I use this sampler strictly for dance music and i love it, i would normally complain about the lack of resonant filters, but i believe this thing actually uses the philips filters (same as the esq-1) that are in fact analog, can really rumble the lows with the right input, has a decent routing matrix, with waveboy you can use sampling input as an audio in for FX although i did notice some clicking. don't care for the keyboard too much, notice a little bit of a hiss on the key contacts, but that's due to mine being heavily used and pretty filthy. really the sound of it depends on the user, not really a players keyboard.

I have gigged with this machine EXTENSIVELY, everyhting from musty basements to smoke filled, humid warehouses and it has never frozen on me, that's not to say it has never frozen, but it always comes thru in the clutch (knock on wood), when loading sometimes it does stutter, it kind of pauses then spits out the last 4 beats of MIDI message at once, not great for studio recording, but it adds a definite live feel if it happens at a gig ;]

N/A ensoniq doesn't supports this model, lots of resources online though.

if my EPS 16+ was stolen I would cry, but i probably wouldn't replace it with another ensoniq. this thing is definitely an odd and somewhat unique sampler, i hate the limited memory and the DD disk drive, but i love the amazing AMP BOOST ;) It is a road warrior and mine has been known to spit out noises with no samples loaded into it (which is kind of freaky), i've had it for over four years and nothing has ever gone wrong with it, it is my only sampler, but i have several drum machines and synths, including the prophecy, ms2000r, kawai XD5, r8 mkII, RY-30 and EA-1 and they all get along pretty nicely.

I'M USING THE LATEST 1.3. THE PRESET SOUND OF MOST OF THE INSTRUMENTS AER EXCELLENT...THE PATCHES JUST HSAPPEN TO EXPAND MORE INTEREST IN MOST CASES, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO CREATIVITY AND ORIGINALITY.

I JUST INSTALLED SCSI AND A ZIP DRIVE AND THIS ALONE JUST SENT ME TO THE MOON. YOU CAN PUT DAMN NEAR INFINITE SOUNDS ON ONE ZIP DISK AND NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT PULLING OUT DISK AFTER DISK. IN JUST A COUPLE OF WEEKS A CD-ROM DRIVE WILL BE ADDES IN SERIES...THIS WILL GIVE ME THE ULTIMATE ADVANTAGE.

MORE THE 90% OF THE SOUNDS ARE REALISTICS. JUST BE CAREFUL AS TO WHERE YOU OREDER YOUR SOUNDS FROM. THE ONBOARD EFFECTS ARE COOL BUT NEVER SETTLE FOR SECOND BEST...YOU CAN GET THE UP GRADED EFFECTS ON DISK AND THEY ARE MORE UP TO SPEED FOR TODAYS MUSIC.

OF COURSE I CAN DEPEND ON THE EPS 16+ AND IT IS SMALL ENOUGH TO TAKE TO A SHOW, ESPECIALLY WITH THE ZIP DRIVE. JUST A FEW ZIP DISK AND YOU CAN ROCK ALL NIGHT.

I WAS FORTUNATE TO GET LOTS OF HELP THRU CUSTOMER SUPPORT. THAT WHEN I FOUND OUT ALL ABOUT THE UPGRADES AND INSTALLMENTS THE THE EPS 16+ COULD HANDLE!

HELL YEAH!, I WOULD PAY $100.00 BUCKS FOR A PIECE OF ART SUCH AS THE EPS 16+. FOR THE MOST PART IT IS EASY TO USE AND EVEN WHEN IT SOUNDS LIKE CERTAIN FEATURES ARE HARD TO UNDERSTAND JUST ONE DAY AND ONE NIGHT IS ALL THAT IT WILL TAKE TO GAIN EXPERIENCE...AND I'M FAR FROM CONSIDERING MYSELF A PRO!

I'm Using the Latest EPS 16+ OS 1.3. I think the presets that come with the EPS 16+ sound great...I use the factory OB-8s and Moogs on everything, The drum samples are good too.

Editing patches is somewhat complicated but great once you get the hang of it.

I have no manual and it took me several months to figure out all the features of the OS with no previous keyboard experience (which i think is pretty good)

I love everything about the EPS 16+ except a couple of features:

The sequencer is terrible..I have never been able to sequence anything with it.

The action isnt the best...its not the easiest to play.

The sounds are good - there are a large number of sounds available on the internet that can be transfered to disk. Samples sound fine on it. The factory instruments are decent and realistic, and there are alot of more obscure synth, analogue, ambient sounds on the internet (www.soundcentral.com) Works best for rock music and is ok at dance.

Very dependable. Hardware has never caused any problems and it has taken alot of abuse (has been thrown across stages, hit with mic stands, etc) and is still working (missing a few keys, but thats acceptable) Software crashes occasionally but never live - only when using the terrible sequencer. (which you shouldnt use anyways)

Ensoniq no longer supports this product, However there is a tremendous amount of help from users on the EPS mailing list, and on various web sites.

If it was stolen, I would get another. I wish i had more memory (more money)

I'm using the 1.3 OS version. I also have the 2mb flashbank installed and the expansion to 2 mb for memory. The sounds that come with the unit are varied in quality. The overall board is easy to use. Layering can be accomplished with the touch of a button. The presets for performance are great, allowing splits, key changes, etc all preprogrammed before the gig. I have a SCSI 1 gb drive hooked up to it....a whole lot better than using floppies all night long! and much quicker...the Steinway piano loads in about 5 sec vs. floppy at arounf 2 min.

64 Polyphony. You can't go too far when sequencing or stuff starts dropping off erratically. But for most sequences, it works great. Editing sequences is easy, allowing addend or removal of specific measures.

The Miami Brass is absolutely awesome - best breass sounds I've heard, efven compared to today's ROland XP-80 or the Triton (Korg). They absolutely sound real as long as you don't go to high up in the register. The Steinway piano is good, and better than most I've heard. I've got the Rubber Chicken organ set and it's simply great. Around 50 vintage B-3's, Farfisa, Vx, etc Very useful when trying to match an organ sound in a particular song. The flute, clarinet, clavs, are very good. The strings like thickness/richness and the sax leaves a lot to be desired.

I've used it for gigs over the last 7 years and never had a problem

I've had trouble with my SCSI drive linking to the keyboard. On mine, you have to turn on the SCSI, wait around 7 seconds...no more no less...and then turn on the keyboard. Sometimes you can wait around 20 seconds, but the keyboard only recognizes then around 25% of the time. Ensoniq engineers told me "that's interesting" but had no clue how to fix it. Otherwise, they've been very helpful through the years

If I could find another one with all the features mine has in good condition, I'd grab in a heartbeat if the price was right.