Ensoniq ASR-10 vs MPC4k / Z4 / Z8

I've had an MPC 4k and Z4 for a couple of years now. I've been offered an ASR-10 rack reasonably cheap and wondered if there is much to gain from the ASR or if most things are already covered by the Akais? I think I'd mainly use it for building polyphonic pad instruments from samples.
Thanks!

An ASR-10 is DOPE! I love the filters on mine.
Check to see if it has SCSI, OS3.53 (?) disk, rack ears, maxed out 16mb of memory and there is a self test mode to make sure all the buttons work.

Just buy it.

Rarely will an ASR-10 rack come up for cheap.

Or flip it to me for a small profit. Shoot me a PM.

JamieOxford wrote:I've been offered an ASR-10 rack reasonably cheap

How cheap is cheap? If it's honestly cheap, you should not be wasting time posting about it and buy it.

This is not up for debate.

Even using the ASR-10 rack as a sample effects processor alone is worth it to many.

Having an ASR-10 rack for resale, trade bait is worth it to many.

Be a man, do the right thing.

richie wrote:
Even using the ASR-10 rack as a sample effects processor alone is worth it to many.

richie wrote:Even using the ASR-10 rack as a sample effects processor alone is worth it to many.

To further elaborate - You can actually run audio from the line in and have the effects processed in real time, so literally as an effects processor.

It uses the algorithms from the Ensoniq DP/4 which anyone who is familiar with that effects unit knows it is far too expensive to easily bother purchasing now.

richie wrote:
To further elaborate - You can actually run audio from the line in and have the effects processed in real time, so literally as an effects processor.

I do this all the time. it’s real nice playing the sub 37 through it. Just the other night i slowed down a drum break to and used the guitar amp 1 effect and sampled it while it was playing. it was pretty cool.

Replace VS with FT and get them both. There is no better combo. (for hiphop at least.)

Both have them, actually had many different units of both in the years! ASR10 man, what a BEAST!

JUKE 179r wrote:An ASR-10 is DOPE! I love the filters on mine.
Check to see if it has SCSI, OS3.53 (?) disk, rack ears, maxed out 16mb of memory and there is a self test mode to make sure all the buttons work.

Most of the rack units got delivered with scsi from the box, allthough it was optional.

richie wrote:

richie wrote:Even using the ASR-10 rack as a sample effects processor alone is worth it to many.

To further elaborate - You can actually run audio from the line in and have the effects processed in real time, so literally as an effects processor.

It uses the algorithms from the Ensoniq DP/4 which anyone who is familiar with that effects unit knows it is far too expensive to easily bother purchasing now.

I have an ASR-10 rack but I don't use it much.

I drove 2.5 hours all the way to Charlotte to pick up an Ensoniq DP4 for $400. Then another 2.5 hours back. The things we do for gear.

The DP4 and ASR-10 have most of the same effects, but a few different things. The nice thing about the DP4 is you can put effects on 4 channels. And about $100 per channel for effects was my budget. Once word got out that Daft Punk used one, prices sky rocketed.

ASR-10 is nice and has more sound character than MPC 4000. But MPC 4000 more powerful, more modern, much easier for loading and saving, way more ram, and a far better sequencer and work flow in my opinion.

ASR-10 is going to make samples sound better than MPC4000 in my opinion. But it's going to be slower, more sluggish, less ram, you'll depend on scsi, it gets hot, it crashes more often, processing takes longer, and sequencer not nearly as powerful. So you give and take.

They are worth about the same amount on the market. Maybe ASR-10 is getting a bit harder to find and is worth a couple hundred more than an MPC 4000.

Hey Man.
I own both machines and they both are unique in different ways.
ASR10 is a proper sampler however sequencer it's not the best. It's quite hard to get a nice groove. You can do that much easier on MPC4000.
ASR10 sound soo nice and smooth. Really easy to get a nice vibe. MPC 4000 has got much more details in the sound. Really clear sound however you can resample to different bit depths and bandwidths to get sound like you won't. It won't sound exactly the same like S950 or SP1200 but it's pretty close I need to say. MPC 4000 can ring too!
When I bought ASR10 I didn't know how to use it. It was so strange for me. Using 4000 was more natural for me, but now there is plenty of tutorials on YouTube and you can learn how to use those machines quite quickly.
Get 2 machines if you can.