Ensoniq ASR-10 help, for ASRonians.

Thanks bro!

Now shits starting to confuse me. I know how to record a sample but how do I make it so that I can have 61 samples on the same instrument bank but I can change their start and end points to make my own chops? I know it's copy only the params but after that I'm lost.

MGStudios wrote:Now **** starting to confuse me. I know how to record a sample but how do I make it so that I can have 61 samples on the same instrument bank but I can change their start and end points to make my own chops? I know it's copy only the params but after that I'm lost.

Once you copy the wavesample (yes, parameters only), you can assign it to a new root key, and set the range of notes that play it (Edit->Pitch, set the WS RANGE). If you just want to have a bunch of different snippets of the same sample, you will probably want to turn the keyboard tracking, to have everything play the same pitch (Edit->Layer, PITCH TBL=OFF) - in which case you don't need to adjust the root key.

Once you have a new (copied) wavesample in a new note range, select that wavesample and change its SAMPLE START and SAMPLE END times. That's it!

Then you can repeat the process, and keep making new snippets.

Sam
Syntaur Productions
www.syntaur.com

When I turn keyboard tracking off it makes every sample really high pitched and pretty much unlistenable. All I want to do is find the correct pitch for the tempo I'm trying to roll with, and then set that same tempo and sample across the 61 keys and be able to edit each one for my own chops.

MGStudios wrote:When I turn keyboard tracking off it makes every sample really high pitched and pretty much unlistenable. All I want to do is find the correct pitch for the tempo I'm trying to roll with, and then set that same tempo and sample across the 61 keys and be able to edit each one for my own chops.

Once you turn off the keyboard tracking, then just adjust the ROOT KEY to get the pitch back down. It sounds like you are probably selecting a very low note for the root key, since when you turn off the tracking, everything plays very high-pitched. Try selecting middle C for the root key - it will take less adjusting to get the pitch right.

Once you get as close as possible with the root key, you can then adjust the FINE parameter on the same page to dial in the pitch or the tempo exactly.

Sam
Syntaur Productions
www.syntaur.com

Thanks Syntaur! Another question: What is the best program to convert .wav's or mp3's to .efe for the asr 10? I heard it was Chickensys. Also- do I need to get an external floppy drive for my computer since mine doesn't have a built in one? I should format the floppies from the computer correct? Sorry, this is something I've always been confused about.

MGStudios wrote:Thanks Syntaur! Another question: What is the best program to convert .wav's or mp3's to .efe for the asr 10? I heard it was Chickensys. Also- do I need to get an external floppy drive for my computer since mine doesn't have a built in one? I should format the floppies from the computer correct? Sorry, this is something I've always been confused about.

Chicken Sys is the defacto for converting .efe files. And yes, you'll need a working floppy to make this happen, especially if you're going from comp to asr.

Doesn't need to be built in right? I'm just gonna look at external ones. Does Chickensys let me format the floppy from the program? Or do I need a seperate one?

Turned my ASR on after a few months on the sidelines.

OS doesn't load as normal, just get the ENSONIQ ASR10 words onscreen (sometimes!) with or without any red instrument lights lit.

Im sure I saw a SIMM FAIL message onscreen once when I turned it on again, but not since then.

In the event that this is due to a SIMM failure, can anyone confirm this behaviour as such?

Or may this behaviour indicate some other problem that you have experienced?

Thanks in advance for any info!

clint246clint wrote:Turned my ASR on after a few months on the sidelines.

OS doesn't load as normal, just get the ENSONIQ ASR10 words onscreen (sometimes!) with or without any red instrument lights lit.

Im sure I saw a SIMM FAIL message onscreen once when I turned it on again, but not since then.

In the event that this is due to a SIMM failure, can anyone confirm this behaviour as such?

Or may this behaviour indicate some other problem that you have experienced?

Thanks in advance for any info!

This could be a power supply issue, or a main board problem. I think if it were a SIMM issue, it should still get far enough to show (and keep displaying) an error message. How many SIMMs do you have installed? If there are 4 in there, you can remove the expansion SIMMs, see if that helps, and if not, swap the other pair in there. That way you can eliminate a bad SIMM.

Sam
Syntaur Productions

Thanks Sam

After a few days of head scratching and checking the installed SIMMs (which appeared fine) it did turn out to be a power supply problem after all, one of my own making.

Turns out I was using a voltage transformer that I didnt need, I'd forgotten which lead was for the ASR!!

Not enough voltage was going through the ASR, I feel like an idiot!!

But at least now, Im a happy idiot and no repair is necessary.

Still to get into this thing, but so time consuming....

Picking up an ASR10 tomorrow to hook up with my 3K. Brand new condition but with no SCSI. The guy doesn't have the floppy boot disk for it though.

Can anyone fill me in on how to get one? Is it as simple as downloading the OS putting it on to a floppy disk?

Thanks in advance. Have had my eye on an ASR10 for a while. Pretty excited about getting it home.

samuraibattleagent4 wrote:Picking up an ASR10 tomorrow to hook up with my 3K. Brand new condition but with no SCSI. The guy doesn't have the floppy boot disk for it though.

Can anyone fill me in on how to get one? Is it as simple as downloading the OS putting it on to a floppy disk?

Thanks in advance. Have had my eye on an ASR10 for a while. Pretty excited about getting it home.

The ASR-10 (and other Ensoniq keyboards) don't use the same disk sectoring that a PC or a Mac uses, so you cannot simply "drag and drop" a file to a floppy disk and use it in your ASR-10. A disk formatted on the ASR won't be recognized by the computer, and vice versa. Therefore, you have to be using special software (such as Gary Giebler's Ensonig Disk Manager (EDM) or Ensoniq Disk Extractor (EDE, a free program)) in order to write an ASR-10 disk with a PC.

BUT - those programs were written way back when, and require a computer from back in the Middle Ages (like the mid-1990s) to even run correctly. Modern processors are too fast for the software to work. I have heard there are some software things that will run on a newer computer, and fool it into running slower, so that you can run EDE, so that you can make an OS disk.... There are a lot of hoops to jump through.

Which is why my company (Syntaur Productions) still sells lots of OS disks for Ensoniq keyboards. We have an exclusive licensing agreement with Ensoniq to distibute their discontinued sound libraries, manuals, etc.

(The "exclusive" part means that anyone else distibuting the OS disks or other Ensoniq-copyrighted products is doing so illegally, and in violation of Ensoniq's copyright. They are NOT paying royalties to Ensoniq. Okay, enough preachin', but I do this for a living, and it's how I feed my family. Those who distribute this stuff illegally are stealing from me, and from Ensoniq.)

Anyway, the disk is $15.95, and like all floppy disks we sell, has a lifetime guarantee (we'll replace it years from now, for any reason). You can get more info here:

www.syntaur.com/asr-os.html

Hope that helps!

Sam
Syntaur Productions

samuraibattleagent4 wrote:Picking up an ASR10 tomorrow to hook up with my 3K. Brand new condition but with no SCSI. The guy doesn't have the floppy boot disk for it though.

Can anyone fill me in on how to get one? Is it as simple as downloading the OS putting it on to a floppy disk?

Thanks in advance. Have had my eye on an ASR10 for a while. Pretty excited about getting it home.

Since you won't be able to verify that the ASR you're getting works, you might just make sure it gets to the PLEASE INSERT DISK screen. That will tell you that it is working correctly at least to that point...

Good luck!

Sam
Syntaur Productions

Hey Syntaur, question for ya. My ASR 10 DOESN'T have SCSi, but I am wondering how to get drum samples from my computer onto a floppy and into the ASR10. Thanks.