KVR Audio

jones-y · Post by **jones-y** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:14 pm

By the way, 40 quid is an average price for the ESI32, they go all the time for less than 100 US. You can get all sorts of hardsamplers for dirt cheap nowadays. I've seen fully loaded S5000's and E4XT Ultras go for less than $400.

Coxy · Post by **Coxy** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:17 pm

it's true, i've watch s3000xls go for about £100 normally. Just don't ebay it (I did cause I couldn't wait for one to crop up in classifieds) for some reason ebay is so overpriced for sampler and synth gear

jones-y · Post by **jones-y** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:23 pm

Coxy wrote:It turns out it came with the SCSI card in it too! What does that mean for me sampling wise?

Better and faster storage than floppies. You can also hook it up to a SCSI enabled PC/Mac to do sample dumps, so you can edit those samples in your favorite sample editor. Soundforge and Wavelab (IIRC) both support sample dump on the darkside, and DSP Quattro and Peak Pro on Mac.

Coxy wrote:Small problem, the sample length keeps restting itself back to 0.1 sec, anyone know why it does that. So when I come to record a sample it only records 0.1 sec so I have to go back into sample setup and revert it back to it's maximum lenght which is kind of a pain. No info in the manual either about that.

Dunno, but each of those old samplers has some workflow niggle like that... Maybe you should have gotten one of the E-Series samplers (E-IV, E64, E6400 E4XT Ultra etc...), as they have software editors available for them.

Coxy · Post by **Coxy** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 5:01 pm

jones-y wrote:
Better and faster storage than floppies. You can also hook it up to a SCSI enabled PC/Mac to do sample dumps, so you can edit those samples in your favorite sample editor. Soundforge and Wavelab (IIRC) both support sample dump on the darkside, and DSP Quattro and Peak Pro on Mac.

Cool, sounds promising. What do I need, a scsi card for the pc, the cable and that's it? and a terminator thing obviously.

jones-y · Post by **jones-y** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 5:12 pm

SCSI card. Do your research. And I don't know how the situation is shaping up for Vista, but I do know that SCSi support was waning on XP. I think Adaptec may be your best bet, but definitely check for compatibility before you buy. And the appropriate SCSI cable.

I'm more than sure the SCSI card in the computer and the ESI-32 will both have built-in switchable termination, so you shouldn't need an external terminator.

Also, you'll probably want some sort of storage (hard drive or Zip, or best, SCSI card reader) to sit between the sampler and the computer. It will be viewable by both but you can never access it using both simultaneously, if you value your data that is.

You might wanna brush up on SCSI bus stuff, as it can be fickle...

Robr · Post by **Robr** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 5:47 pm

Heres a few links that you may find useful.

http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/ (site/forum dedicated to emu samplers)

http://studio-central.com/phpbb/viewfor ... 55770df63c (good hardware sampler forum)

http://www.tweakheadz.com/surviving_scsi_hell.html (maybe some useful scsi info for you)

http://www.tweakheadz.com/resources.html (resources for emu samplers on the internet)

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:09 pm

Good for you. The scsi interface means that you can add a scsi card to your PC and you can use this free librarian to transfer files.

http://www.ele4music.com/temp/esi-win_0.10.zip

It also means that you can install a Iomega scsi Jaz/Zip drive in place of the floppy or get yourself an internal HDD. Loading is a lot faster.

pschelfh · Post by **pschelfh** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:09 pm

Coxy wrote:Hey, so it arrived today! mental stuff. Just been having a play as I've only just sat down today. Already sampled from an old vinyl and turn something into a bass sound. As people have said, really nice filters!

It turns out it came with the SCSI card in it too! What does that mean for me sampling wise?

Small problem, the sample length keeps restting itself back to 0.1 sec, anyone know why it does that. So when I come to record a sample it only records 0.1 sec so I have to go back into sample setup and revert it back to it's maximum lenght which is kind of a pain. No info in the manual either about that.

You can connect the ESI trhu SCSI with a standalone CDROM or HD (also equiped with SCSI). Try to find some S/H ones, Apple used them alot a couple of years ago and they're a must for storing your samples. Samples also load more quickly from an external SCSI hardrive.

You could also try to connect the SCSI to an old Apple or PC (if it has a SCSI card) and store your samples on their HD, but that was fiddly as I recall.

Yep, from what I remember, on E-MU's you always have to specify the sample time before sampling ! You can truncate the sample and recover the time after that. Aaaah, sampling was hard labour back in the old days !

Peter.

pschelfh · Post by **pschelfh** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:13 pm

Oops, didn't see all the replies on the second page

!

Peter

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:15 pm

pschelfh wrote: Had that one too ! Though I liked the sound of it.

Before that I had a Roland S220. Also had a S760 at some point but I found them all too difficult to use.

The one I found easiest to use and edit was my Ensoniq EPS16+. I still have +1000 floppies laying arround. Must dump them sometime.

Peter.

The s760 is one of the easiest hardware samplers to edit, provided you've got the video interface + monitor and mouse. Graphically It reminds me of the c64 and that makes it fun.

Coxy · Post by **Coxy** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:15 pm

Some hardcore info here for me. Excellent stuff and much appreciated thanks!

EDIT; Robr, already found http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/ and signed up

thanks dude

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:21 pm

Coxy wrote:Some hardcore info here for me. Excellent stuff and much appreciated thanks!

EDIT; Robr, already found http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/ and signed up thanks dude

Do not miss the librarian link above. It won't be there long.

pschelfh · Post by **pschelfh** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:22 pm

tomg wrote:
pschelfh wrote: Had that one too ! Though I liked the sound of it.

Before that I had a Roland S220. Also had a S760 at some point but I found them all too difficult to use.

The one I found easiest to use and edit was my Ensoniq EPS16+. I still have +1000 floppies laying arround. Must dump them sometime.

Peter.
The s760 is one of the easiest hardware samplers to edit, provided you've got the video interface + monitor and mouse. Graphically It reminds me of the c64 and that makes it fun.

Had all that + the sound was great too. I just couldn't get my head around the sample structure, the Roland sample->part->patch thing was too confusing. Only used it to load the Roland CDRoms, which were very good BTW.

Peter.

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:33 pm

pschelfh wrote:
tomg wrote: The s760 is one of the easiest hardware samplers to edit, provided you've got the video interface + monitor and mouse. Graphically It reminds me of the c64 and that makes it fun.
Had all that + the sound was great too. I just couldn't get my head around the sample structure, the Roland sample->part->patch thing was too confusing. Only used it to load the Roland CDRoms, which were very good BTW.

Peter.

I agree that it's hard to get into unless you've got experience programming Roland synths. The sample->part->patch thing makes it one of the few samplers that you can build a complete sound module of custom sounds and patches on. Even with a mouse and monitor it can take a long time to get the job done but once you get "it" it's easy.

Distorted_Mastermind · Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:42 pm

jones-y wrote:SCSI card. Do your research. And I don't know how the situation is shaping up for Vista, but I do know that SCSi support was waning on XP. I think Adaptec may be your best bet, but definitely check for compatibility before you buy. And the appropriate SCSI cable.

I'm more than sure the SCSI card in the computer and the ESI-32 will both have built-in switchable termination, so you shouldn't need an external terminator.

Also, you'll probably want some sort of storage (hard drive or Zip, or best, SCSI card reader) to sit between the sampler and the computer. It will be viewable by both but you can never access it using both simultaneously, if you value your data that is.

You might wanna brush up on SCSI bus stuff, as it can be fickle...

I have a SCSI USB cable that is plug and play on XP, but doesn't work at all on Vista. I'm not 100% sure but I'm thinking SCSI 2 could have been left out, but it's possible a PCI card might work.

Even without being able to transfer projects to a computer it is still worth it to have the SCSI drive since they hold way more and load/save a ton faster than floppy. Also if you ebay the zip/jaz drive make sure to buy it from the computer category rather than the sampler one, it will save you quite a bit of cash.

I just bought a sampler! No, a real one!