For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
User avatar
By tapedeck Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:00 pm
awesome dude - do what works for you

if yer saving anything, a floppy emulator or a scsi2sd upgrade is really handy on that old gear. theres a recent really interesting post where a guy uses a scsi2sd across multiple samplers.
By martel80 Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:05 pm
richie wrote:
martel80 wrote:I'm not into mpc60 grith nor the s900. I never tried a sp-1200 but i believe I would get maybe even worst bit definition or grit and I'm not running after bad bit sound.

When I listen to Mobb deep The infamous or wu tang 36 chamber, I dont hear the bad bit sound I hear on early premier and pete rock tracks. I hear warmth and hollowness which seems to fit my needs but i'm not sure if theres any other samplers that can do that. So thats why I asked.


To me the MPC 60's strength is in the sequencer and midi timing. The accuracy of of it is what I believe gave it that feeling. To the SP12/SP1200's credit what I think is dope about it is that you still keep the bottom end of whatever you sample in, even when transposing significantly lower from the original sample (maybe it's just me but on the Akai gear, it's as if everything pre 50hz is totally lost). The drums knock on it in a way that I prefer over what Akai has to offer and based on my mixing skillset, which I find a lot of people don't want to take into consideration online -- They figure, they'll buy the same gear as those they look up to and expect to have that same creative output quality. Yes this is partially achievable if your goal is to trace what others made but it isn't as if the bedroom producer will have access to the same analog consoles and engineers the pioneers did.

From what I recall in several instances, the early Mobb Deep stuff was on the EPS 16+ and the MPC 3000. When RZA was doing 36 Chambers, the studio footage online shows that he was on the ASR-10, which lends credence to your preferences over the punchy and ring modulated sound that Premier and Pete Rock often had.


You,re right, I just checked the article again and they said it was the EPS 16+ for mobb deep.

But it seems that the 36th chamber was done on EPS classic:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=S0bOmxF-r08C&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=rza+36+chamber+ensoniq+EPS&source=bl&ots=AOvTTMexDs&sig=FgKLKVl7ZOjw_KH7DD4T0v-AcuI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtt9jk7-nZAhUr4YMKHdouDk0Q6AEITTAD#v=onepage&q=rza%2036%20chamber%20ensoniq%20EPS&f=false

Anyways, the point is not to recreate their sound as I'm really not into those kind of agressive beats but to get the color they had.

To me, 36 chamber is a type of sound ( and im not saying music ) I'm after. I took this as example as I believe everyone can understand the difference between a destroyed sample pushed in the red of a mpc60 / sp-1200 and the warmth of the ensoniq in those examples.
( and no, I'm not speaking about the distortion of 7th chamber haha )
I think that if you want to understand you will have enough information to understand what I mean now.
By martel80 Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:21 pm
tapedeck wrote:awesome dude - do what works for you

if yer saving anything, a floppy emulator or a scsi2sd upgrade is really handy on that old gear. theres a recent really interesting post where a guy uses a scsi2sd across multiple samplers.


I use so little sample time that I'm sure the 1.44mb of floppy will be way enough.
User avatar
By tapedeck Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:23 pm
martel80 wrote:To me, 36 chamber is a type of sound ( and im not saying music ) I'm after. I took this as example as I believe everyone can understand the difference between a destroyed sample pushed in the red of a mpc60 / sp-1200 and the warmth of the ensoniq in those examples.
( and no, I'm not speaking about the distortion of 7th chamber haha )
I think that if you want to understand you will have enough information to understand what I mean now.

rza is quoted as saying that a lot of their sound came to the preamp he was running things into the sample through, so its gonna be a combination.

a preamp is a really good consideration for any sampler setup - hardware or software.

i've got a really nice bass amp on the way and it has a preamp out - cant wait to run the sampler through that, or more specifically run samples through it into the emu :mrgreen:
By martel80 Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:32 pm
tapedeck wrote:
martel80 wrote:To me, 36 chamber is a type of sound ( and im not saying music ) I'm after. I took this as example as I believe everyone can understand the difference between a destroyed sample pushed in the red of a mpc60 / sp-1200 and the warmth of the ensoniq in those examples.
( and no, I'm not speaking about the distortion of 7th chamber haha )
I think that if you want to understand you will have enough information to understand what I mean now.

rza is quoted as saying that a lot of their sound came to the preamp he was running things into the sample through, so its gonna be a combination.

a preamp is a really good consideration for any sampler setup - hardware or software.

i've got a really nice bass amp on the way and it has a preamp out - cant wait to run the sampler through that, or more specifically run samples through it into the emu :mrgreen:


If you can make a before and after ( if youre not running your sample hot ) You might be ableto convince me :P

So far, my opto is giving me the depth I'm afterbut could do with even more color !!

Show me the path :-D
User avatar
By tapedeck Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:42 pm
martel80 wrote:If you can make a before and after ( if youre not running your sample hot ) You might be ableto convince me :P

So far, my opto is giving me the depth I'm afterbut could do with even more color !!

Show me the path :-D

not trying to sell you anything, just offering another perspective. keep yer ears open :mrgreen:
By martel80 Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:53 pm
tapedeck wrote:
martel80 wrote:If you can make a before and after ( if youre not running your sample hot ) You might be ableto convince me :P

So far, my opto is giving me the depth I'm afterbut could do with even more color !!

Show me the path :-D

not trying to sell you anything, just offering another perspective. keep yer ears open :mrgreen:


Always do,thats my job.

But hey, why not, I'll bring one home and see what I can do with it or if its worth it for what I'm doing.
By martel80 Tue Mar 20, 2018 12:05 pm
I finally decided that I'll buy a EPS 16+.

Found one close to where I live for 450$ canadian.

I'm a bit confused tho'
On Vintagesynth dot com they describe the EPS classic as Mono Input and Stereo Output but the EPS 16+ is simply put as Mono but on Wiki they say it has a stereo output.

Any thought ?
By Cockdiesel Tue Mar 20, 2018 1:23 pm
Looks like mono in stereo out on the back.
Great choice. Highly prefer the Ensoniq sound to the old Akai sound I had on a 2k back in the day.
By martel80 Tue Mar 20, 2018 2:43 pm
Cockdiesel wrote:Looks like mono in stereo out on the back.
Great choice. Highly prefer the Ensoniq sound to the old Akai sound I had on a 2k back in the day.


cant wait to bounce sample into it and make the comparison. :-D
User avatar
By richie Tue Mar 20, 2018 4:37 pm
martel80 wrote:I finally decided that I'll buy a EPS 16+.
Found one close to where I live for 450$ canadian.
Any thought ?


A little up there in price. Does it come with the SCSI expansion?

Also where abouts in Canada are you?
By martel80 Tue Mar 20, 2018 5:10 pm
Yes, the 8 outputs the ME-16+ and a bunch of floppies.

I had found a EPS classic in the Greater Toronto Area for 300$ but it would have took me 6hrs of train + 3 hours of bus to get there and I would have still need to c omeback with it in train and Bus.

Type of day you wake up at 4 am to catch a train at 6 am and get back home near 2-3 am .
That would have been 300$ + 150$ of transportation to go+food + another 150$ to come back.

Not worth it, it was too expansive.
User avatar
By richie Wed Mar 21, 2018 5:14 am
I would not even travel that far for pu*sy let alone a f*cking sampler man.
By martel80 Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:02 pm
richie wrote:I would not even travel that far for pu*sy let alone a f*cking sampler man.


Hahaha, well the problem was not the distance but the price to get there and come back.

So I chose the EPS 16+ which is about 30 minute from where I live.

Sadly, my expansion soundcard decided to die on me last weekend so I will still need to put money out to connect all those babies together.
User avatar
By Lampdog Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:39 pm
richie wrote:I would not even travel that far for pu*sy let alone a f*cking sampler man.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: