Forum for all other samplers & synths such as Maschine, MVs, Akai S & Z series, Roland, Korg, OP-1, analog synths etc.
By Christov Mon Jun 25, 2018 6:24 pm
Hello everyone,

I got some birthdaymoney and taxrefundmoney and after years of searching for one online a Ensoniq EPS 16+ has popped up second hand in my country (the Netherlands). Since I found out it was used on some of my favorite records and having owned a ASR10 in the past I kinda know what to expect. However, the one for sale is the stock keyboardversion, so no scsi, no outputexpander and just 1mb of memory.

Now I know that for older Akai samplers you can still find parts, I recently managed to upgrade the memory of my s950, but I wondered, is this still possible for the EPS 16+? Having full memory would be nice, and adding a gotek might also be a good idea, but I cant find that much info online about this kinda stuff, so I wondered what everybody's thoughts over here are?

I'd mainly use it for its sound and resample it in my MPC 2500 I guess, so having a rackversion of it makes more sense I guess, but I don't know.

So... what's your opinion about buying a stock EPS16+ in 2018?
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By richie Tue Jun 26, 2018 2:37 am
It is possible to find parts for the EPS16+ however the cost involved can outweigh the actual effort put in to get it all going for you.

This person here has recently remade the SCSI expansion and Memory Upgrade modules for the EPS16+

http://www.straylightengineering.com/ep ... available/
http://www.straylightengineering.com/ne ... ds-coming/

Contact him and see what is affordable. If the EPS16+ is cheap and works, just buy it. The main thing with these Ensoniq units is that they get quite hot and some have to end up replacing the transformer in it. I've seen some people perform mods, although more so on the ASR-10 where they hooked up a pc cooling fan to help with that as well so I believe it will be similar enough on the EPS16+ as well.
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By Sense-A Thu Aug 30, 2018 10:48 pm
I have a EPS16 plus, but I have not opened it up yet. I eventually will.

If you are able to find me some specifications or data sheets or service manuals for it then I will see if I can't find you a suitable third party replacement transformer that runs more efficiently than the old ones of that era. When I open mine up, I'll probably take some voltage readings myself and work on some modifications.
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By richie Fri Aug 31, 2018 12:08 am
There are no schematics I was able to find however there is a EPS service manual floating around that gives a lot of detail as to what the usual levels should be.
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By JUKE 179r Fri Aug 31, 2018 5:17 am
Lampdog wrote:For me, ASR10, no EPS.

+1 :smoker:
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By saltmcgault Fri Nov 02, 2018 6:35 pm
im interested in seeing what this cooling fan for the asr-10 rack would entail. I have a little fan aimed at the bottom of it. I haven't had any problems with it crashing (fingers crossed). It does get pretty warm though. ! character in the screen is out on it but after about 10 minutes of it being on lately its been appearing to work.
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By Lampdog Fri Nov 02, 2018 8:48 pm
Yeah gotta let em warm up a lil bit. Old electronics.
I used to leave mine on for maybe 20 minutes before working on it.
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By v00d00ppl Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:48 pm
EPS classic user...waiting 15 minutes warm up time does the job somehow. I think it’s the VCA section of the board that gives us that Ensoniq sound.

If you sample right away it doesn’t sound bad, but if you wait 15-20 minutes and let everything situate you get a gentler sound I guess.
By Christov Fri Apr 19, 2019 3:52 pm
Almost a year after I opened up this topic I was able to buy one, a keyboardversion with the full memory. Had to rearrange my lab for it, but it's such a nice sounding sampler plus having a 61 key keyboard never hurts, even if I'd decided only to resample it, it's still usefull to play modules with and what not. But not sure if I only want to resample it or use it on it's own...

Does anyone over here has any tips or tricks? Has anyone fitted in a Gotek and if so, how did you do it and how did you get your old discs on it? It seems people have done this with the original EPS and the ASR10 so I guess it must also be possible for a 16+... But I'm not the kinda guy to open up gear without knowing what I'm doing.
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By v00d00ppl Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:13 am
Try to tap the AMP peak just a little on your hardest hitting part of the drums. This is probably a kick or snare, or clap you have sampled. If you run it too hot the hats and cymbals get ruined. If you barely his the AMP peak meter during recording you can get a little extra punch out of your outputs. Then use the input gain of your sound interface to capture your samples at a slightly higher level.