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Manufacturer Request--Sampling Keyboard


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I know I'm the only dinosaur KB player who would love to have a new version of the Ensoniq ASR-10. :laugh:

 

No floppy disk drive or SCSI interface. Give me a fully functional sampling KB with a built-in hard drive and a USB port for removable media and computer integration.

 

As NAMM 2020 wraps up, hopefully, this request falls on seeing eyes or listening ears.:laugh:

 

Maybe Uli Behringer is already working on it for me. :D

 

BTW, I don't need the overheating and calibration errors. :laugh:

 

Thanks in advance. :cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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It would have to offer hella sample storage room and a display that makes the one on the Quantum look like my old red LED wristwatch. Then we'll talk. :cool:

 

Unless you WANT to wrestle that ancient display, in which case you've gone balmy. :crazy:

 

I say this as someone who briefly thought he was going to program a Mirage from the front panel. Sure I was.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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It would have to offer hella sample storage room and a display that makes the one on the Quantum look like my old red LED wristwatch. Then we'll talk. :cool:

 

I say this as someone who briefly thought he was going to program a Mirage from the front panel. Sure I was.

Brotha David, that Quantum with its tablet display and what looks like a spilled bag of Skittles light show is an impressive synth. The Particle (sampler) is a cool feature too. I'm not enamored with the price tag though. :laugh:

 

I also wrestled with a Mirage back in the day. The hexadecimal programming was a bit much to ask for a handful of sounds. :D

 

Prof, I'd sell two Kurzweils in a heartbeat to pay for an ASR-10 reboot. Heck, I'd be happy with an EPS....

Brotha Tom, selling the Kurzweils shouldn't be necessary at the price point I'm thinking a sampling KB could be produced for nowadays.

 

I realize the sampling ship has sailed. The feature has been embedded in a few KBs and software. Sound libraries are huge. No need for folks to roll their own sounds in that regard.

 

I'm just a hardware dinosaur. I've got enough to keep me busy until Uli answers the phone. :laugh::cool:

 

 

 

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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It would also have to be 1/3 the weight of the ASR-10! I gigged with that thing in the late '90s! That thing is HEAVY!!!!

I sold that one in 2003 but bought another ASR-10 (with purple LCD) in 2018, but that just stays in the studio.

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The only new "sampling keyboard" I would be interested in personally would be one with juicy analog filters...a machine that has a "sound"...

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Given the resurgence of all things yesteryear, I'm assuming the pendulum will swing towards sampling keyboards sooner or later. Seeing that Korg is flirting with FM, I'd say 18 months, tops!

I've yet to resurrect my Akai S2800, but it's on the list (anyone know of a concise instruction set for adding a USB reader?)

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I know I'm the only dinosaur KB player who would love to have a new version of the Ensoniq ASR-10. :laugh:

 

There may be some hope, in that Rossum made a limited run reproduction of the Emu SP-1200:

http://www.rossum-electro.com/products/sp-1200-renovation/

 

Granted, Emu only merged w/ Ensoniq for a short time, so Rossum may not even consider Ensoniq part of his "heritage" but you never know. Hopefully the asking price for a remake of an Emu or Ensoniq keyboard sampler will be slightly more affordable than the $7500 asking price for the SP-1200 renovation. Of course Rossum makes a modern sampler in Eurorack format but I'm guessing that's not what you're really looking for, especially with only 8 voice polyphony (8 channel multi-timbral tho!)

 

http://www.rossum-electro.com/products/assimil8or/

 

Blackbox seems well-received - frequented firmware updates helps I'm sure. It's got a touchscreen keyboard, so maybe it counts? :laugh:

https://1010music.com/product/blackbox

 

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What am I missing? Almost every major workstation includes sampling. My Kronos has 2 inputs that can be used for sampling, samples can be edited and built into multisamples and stored on the onboard SSD. There is a USB port that can be used to back up on a stick, or import wav files from a stick.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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What am I missing? Almost every major workstation includes sampling. My Kronos has 2 inputs that can be used for sampling, samples can be edited and built into multisamples and stored on the onboard SSD. There is a USB port that can be used to back up on a stick, or import wav files from a stick.

 

You're not missing anything. The Kronos has sampling capability. It comes with a $3k price tag. :eek:

 

A dedicated sampling KB with some analog controls on it should cost less than $2k.

 

Think Roland System 8 with sampling as a plug-out. :idea::cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Do non-Kurzweil workstations include more advanced sample editing than the Kurz? On my old EPS I could select from about 1/2 dozen looping algorithms, and modulate the start point and loop position in real time. I don't perceive that amount of control in my PC3 (or my K2600). The only sampling trick I have heard about on PC3 is to simulate the D-50's Digital Native Dance.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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Are people who want sampling these days intent on building out fully multi sampled instruments with velocity layers, or one shot sound effects?

 

The ability to make fully multi-sampled instruments with velocity layers for me. I'd love a single space rack mount sampler, (with the ability to connect a monitor to for editing) as well as loads of memory of course.

 

I still have two ASR-10's, but they're tanks to pack around and a bit of a hassle with the external SCSI drives, etc. (Not to mention the 16 megs of memory.)

 

Maybe Behringer will eventually make one! Kinda doubt anyone else would bother in this day and age.

 

I know a laptop rig can replace all this, but some people don't want to go that route.

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Pick yourself up a used Alesis Fusion 6HD. I'll bet you can get one for around $450 or so. No USB but it took an SD card. I think there were 2 versions, one with a 40Gig hard drive and one with 60 or 80, don't recall. No need to preload samples, they load as you select patches, first in first out as the memory fills. Plus it has build in VA engine and Wind modelling. ADAT lightpie I/O, 8 analog inputs - yes you can record simultaneous 8 track audio in the sequencer. That was the heart of my rig before I bought the Kronos.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Are people who want sampling these days intent on building out fully multi sampled instruments with velocity layers, or one shot sound effects?

 

Moe, I would multisample the non-EP sounds I use for comp, pad, bass and lead.

 

Pick yourself up a used Alesis Fusion 6HD.

Brotha Dan, I thought you were the bravest man in the land during your time with the Alesis Fusion. So dedicated that you had two (2) of them. :laugh:

 

Man, I couldn't bring myself to buy one of those half-baked, raggedy azz KBs with Monopoly money. :roll::D

 

I still have two ASR-10's, but they're tanks to pack around and a bit of a hassle with the external SCSI drives, etc. (Not to mention the 16 megs of memory.)

 

I know a laptop rig can replace all this, but some people don't want to go that route.

Yessir. :thu:

 

I know there is no demand for a sampling KB in this day and time.

 

But, if analog synths can have a resurgence, it's possible that we could go back to the future one more time. :cool:

 

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Pick yourself up a used Alesis Fusion 6HD.

Brotha Dan, I thought you were the bravest man in the land during your time with the Alesis Fusion. So dedicated that you had two (2) of them. :laugh:

 

Man, I couldn't bring myself to buy one of those half-baked, raggedy azz KBs with Monopoly money. :roll::D

 

 

Served me well in all of those years in an 80s tribute that was the highest paid cover band in St. Louis for a while. Sounds were always spot on and it was gigged heavily for a solid 7 or 8 years. As far as sampling goes, I preferred it to my Kronos - wasn't as finicky...just worked.

 

 

Oh, and I was able to buy 2 and have a backup because they were cheap enough to do that. 2 of those Shen they were brand new were less than the current price of one kronos. With as many critical high paying gigs as I was doing, and as much as I relied on that board for everything, it made sense to have a backup. I only had to go to my backup one time out of probably close to 1000 gigs. Not to say there weren't a few times I needed to do maintenance. A couple times the output board would get flakey and I would maybe switch from the left to the right or go to an aux out until I could fix it. One time the backlight for the display went out and I fixed that. Parts were cheap and could be ordered direct. I think the inverter for the display backlight was $15. Output board which included all the main and aux outs and spdif was well under $100....I think around $60 or so if I recall. Solid keyboard and cheap/easy to maintain.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Falcon or Kontakt are so superior anything in any keyboard, that I can't imagine anyone will ever do that again. I get the nostalgia, but honestly, even the Kronos is completely annoying compared to working in Falcon on a 27" display. It is so much slower and less responsive, less capable, etc. It is self-contained, sure. But in terms of working with samples and doing sound-design? I'll take Falcon any day.
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I'm still angry at Alesis for not really finishing the Fusion firmware. The acoustic modelling in particular was never documented enough for me to build any instrument from scratch, and as I recall the sampling was terribly primitive. That said, the analog synth engine was beautiful, and the modulation routing rocked, able to do some tricks that even my beloved PC3 can't quite duplicate.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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I'm still angry at Alesis for not really finishing the Fusion hardware. :)

 

The data wheel felt like a Pringles can lid and my fingers got seasick from pushing those spongy rubber feeling buttons.

 

Edit: of course, I bought mine on blowout for $500 (AND they threw in a pair of Alesis powered studio monitors worth $350...)

Moe

---

 

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I know I'm the only dinosaur KB player who would love to have a new version of the Ensoniq ASR-10. :laugh:

I made many mortgage payments selling Ensoniq ASR-10's. I wouldn't be mad if history repeated itself. :)

The Ensoniq School and Retail Salesperson Incentive boosted ASR-10 sales and rewarded retail sales folks. Ensoniq invested heavily in both the school and the incentive program....and not just in money. There was a boatload of human capital involved in vision, planning, disciplined administration, follow up and attention to detail. It all paid off.

 

The ASR-10 sales lifespan exceeded expectations and we built more than expected. While this sounds like good news, it wreaked some havoc. As the service manager, I did a last-time-buy on the ASR-10 floppy drives years prior when the drive's manufacturer ceased production of that floppy drive model. This was a couple of years prior to the ASR-10's scheduled production end. So I was sitting on ample floppy drive inventory to cover years of future ASR-10 spare parts and repairs. Then, I was told to surrender hundreds of my ASR-10 floppy drives for new ASR-10 production. I was pissed at the time. It all worked out in the end.

 

The ASR-10 was solidly built.

Steve Coscia

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As the service manager, I did a last-time-buy on the ASR-10 floppy drives years when the drive's manufacturer ceased production of that floppy drive model. This was a couple of years prior to the ASR-10's scheduled production end. So I was sitting on ample floppy drive inventory to cover years of future ASR-10 spare parts and repairs. Then, I was told to surrender hundreds of my ASR-10 floppy drives for new ASR-10 production. I was pissed at the time. It all worked out in the end.

 

That reminds me of this guy who purchased several thousand dollars of CEM parts only to have them re-issued at $15 a piece a few years later. :redwall:

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