Ensoniq EPS?

[atomic_(no)afro]

Hey guys, I saw a Ensoniq EPS on sale for 199 USD down at my local pawn shop. I know the guys well, and I think I can talk them down to $150... so I'm asking for your guy's opinion... Do you think I should try and snag it tonight (if it hasn't already been)?

- Note this is the original 12-bit model, and not the later 16-bit plus.

[Meffy]

In another thread it was mentioned that its keyboard has polyphonic aftertouch. Assuming it's in good working condition I would grab it for that price instanter.

[edit] Apparently some have bought them cheaper still -- see Harmony Central (and ignore one idiot's "review" =9_9=): http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... q/EPS/10/1

[matto]

Make sure you play it, with some kind of actual sounds so you can check the velocity response. The keyboards on those things are not the best and if it's been used a lot the velocity response tends to get weird. The Pitchwheels wear out too and don't return to center very well in some units.
I don't know what the going price is for these things...actually I have an old one sitting around myself that I'm thinking about getting rid of.
You don't live in Southern California by any chance?

matto

[matto]

Yes they do have poly aftertouch!

Edit: I forgot to mention, if you plan to do any actual sampling with it (as opposed to just using it as a controller), you should check if it has the optional memory expansion installed. It's still a tiny amount of RAM compared to today's standards, but it's 4 times the original so that helps...

[Armoor]

I used to own one of these. For that price definitely grab it. I had a lot of fun with it.

[Scot Solida]

Oof. That machine was so untrustworthy that I used to borrow a friend's and take his to gigs as a backup, running the same sequences/samples, but with the volume slider turned down, so that when mine crashed, i would be able to recover as quickly as possible. Very flaky. Yep. poly-aftertouch...low-pass, non-resonant filter and a few decent synthesis functions. There is a lot of stuff out there for it. Check out Syntaur if you buy it.

[matto]

Oof. That machine was so untrustworthy that I used to borrow a friend's and take his to gigs as a backup, running the same sequences/samples, but with the volume slider turned down, so that when mine crashed, i would be able to recover as quickly as possible. Very flaky. Yep. poly-aftertouch...low-pass, non-resonant filter and a few decent synthesis functions. There is a lot of stuff out there for it. Check out Syntaur if you buy it.

Hmmm that's strange, I used mine for years playing out and it never crashed on me once.

[1-2-Many]

I'd say pass if you're wanting to use it for its sampling capability - too little memory you could likely get an EPS16+ or better yet, an ASR for around the same price or maybe a little more. The EPS won't load many Ensoniq sample sets due to memory limitations

[Scot Solida]

Oof. That machine was so untrustworthy that I used to borrow a friend's and take his to gigs as a backup, running the same sequences/samples, but with the volume slider turned down, so that when mine crashed, i would be able to recover as quickly as possible. Very flaky. Yep. poly-aftertouch...low-pass, non-resonant filter and a few decent synthesis functions. There is a lot of stuff out there for it. Check out Syntaur if you buy it.

Hmmm that's strange, I used mine for years playing out and it never crashed on me once.

Every one I knew who bought one had the same issues with it. I sent mine back to Ensoniq on a number of occasions for servicing...finally, after the third or fourth time, the got the trouble fixed. Until then, I lived in dread of seeing "System Error 018" pop up during a gig. This was so prevalent that a few of us EPS owners formed a "band" with that name...

[Meffy]

In light of that info if it were me I'd ask for a lower price still and test VERY thoroughly.

[matto]

I sent mine back to Ensoniq on a number of occasions for servicing...finally, after the third or fourth time, the got the trouble fixed. Until then, I lived in dread of seeing "System Error 018" pop up during a gig. This was so prevalent that a few of us EPS owners formed a "band" with that name...

I wonder if it had something to do with the power supply...I bought mine in Europe and it runs on 220V.

[atomic_(no)afro]

Well, I took a bit of a risk when I bought the EPS tonight. It was lacking Manual, factory floppies, even the power cord!

Luckily I managed to talk them down to $100 + warrenty... and the power out is a standard 3-prong chord type so it will take one of the many power chords I have lying around the apartment.

Kinda sucks that none of the sound disks or user guide came with it... means that I'll have to work a little to hunt down some of the missing bits.

But still... $100 aint bad, even if I can't use it right out of the gate.

ATA

Oh, and BTW I bought it for 2 reasons:

1. I need a great controller keyboard... and with poly aftertouch and a great feel this sucker will fit the bill perfectly.

2. I want to try my hand at down & dirty lo-fi 80's sampling (ala El-P). Chop a few breaks, throw them in at the lowest sampling rate, and re-sample the dirty output.

[jupiter8]

Ahh the Ensoniq EPS. I have a love/hate relation with those. A funny technology compromise in so many ways. They must have done something right as they sold shitloads of those back in the days. One to yours truly.

First of all the keyboard is absolute shite.Really really horrible.But you get used to it and it has PolyAT which is cool though i did'nt use it much.

Mine used to crash all the time (a 220 volt european one for the record). The funny thing was when my friend used it it never crashed. Only for me.And it got better after a while.It was like i learned subconsciously how to use it so it would'nt crash.I waited that extra milliseconds before i pressed another button or something. It was'nt by much because i got really fast using it.Which brings me to the next point.

The absolutly horrible userinterface.But as i mentioned after a while i got lightning fast editing. There's shortcuts to every page and when you learn them it is like second nature.

The input stage sounds complete crap.And not good crap.Just crap.But i transfered some sounds from TurboSynth digitally and they sounded really good.So the output stage is quite good.

20 voices was really good at that time but it just sounded so much better when you turned that down to 12 you never wanted to use 20 again. But the 20 voice mode come in handy when playing live. Which i did with mine. Without a backup one. But it never let me down actually.Never crashed live for me.

[mao]

I had it in the past... and it was a funny sampler. But today... Sw samplers are really better. If you really want HW... for 300 euro you can find a Kurzweil K2000 keyboard. It's a lot better and built like a tank. It's a powerful synth, a sampler. It have a good sequencer and it loads a lot of sampler format (EPS too). So... before throwing your money...

[shanecgriffo]

i had one for about 12 years.. it was the later eps16 model .. i just sold it to a friend for about $140 US. i was just using it as a controller in the end. it was ok but the playing action was a bit clunky in the end. Never had any crashes, the only problem was when i went to load a few of the library sounds off the floppies recently, a lot had corrupted over time.