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Any EPS users in here?

john_doejohn_doe 237 Posts
edited February 2008 in Strut Central
Does anyone in here use the Ensoniq EPS (or even the EPS 16+)? Hit me on the PM.Thanks,John

  Comments

  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    I had one from 1997 - 1999. I liked it a lot.

    Unless your question is personal, like "how do I get my junk out of the zip drive (beans and franks related)?"
    then you should probably post it here so we can all share the knowledge and add on to it.

    I learned a bunch of the inner workings of it, but it's been awhile, so I may not remember exactly. I'd be glad to try though.
  • matamaticmatamatic 488 Posts
    what chu need? still got a eps. The floppy drive still works but make this loud ass noise when loading files. Bout to sell it. Got an asr rack now (bout to get a compact flash card reader for that joint!)...
  • john_doejohn_doe 237 Posts
    "how do I get my junk out of the zip drive (beans and franks related)?"

    haha.

    There's one around the way for $100 and I'm interested in getting it.

    The OS disk was included, and it booted up fine. I tried loading several disks (which seemed to have been thrown together with the Ensoniq OS disk) and it kept reading "Bad Device ID" which made me think it was the drive...but it booted up no problem. I then tried to format one of these disks (the ones that were DD disks) and it was in "Formatting" mode for 5+ minutes.

    Should I pass on this, or is there something else I should/could try?
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    formatting a disk does take a long time, but that might have been too long. Did it eventually do it?

    $100 is a nice price, but not really if it's got issues. Google searches seem to show that a bad device id is possibly a miscommunication with the drive itself. Most of the searches seemed to be related to scsi.

    If you can load up the os, sample a sound and save a program file with the sounds then you should be good. If you can't save anything, it's not worth it at all.
  • dayday 9,611 Posts
    "how do I get my junk out of the zip drive (beans and franks related)?"

    haha.

    There's one around the way for $100 and I'm interested in getting it.

    The OS disk was included, and it booted up fine. I tried loading several disks (which seemed to have been thrown together with the Ensoniq OS disk) and it kept reading "Bad Device ID" which made me think it was the drive...but it booted up no problem. I then tried to format one of these disks (the ones that were DD disks) and it was in "Formatting" mode for 5+ minutes.

    Should I pass on this, or is there something else I should/could try?

    GAH! As much as I loved that machine, it gave me nothing but headaches as time went on. Eventually it would turn on and then the whole screen would go "as;dflkjasdf;lkuasdof;alksnf.mewni" within 5 minutes. It's chilling in the garage right now gathering dust.

    That said, if you know a place that can clean it and repair it, and you get the 4X memory expansion, it can do you just fine if you don't mind smaller sampling time.
  • john_doejohn_doe 237 Posts
    formatting a disk does take a long time, but that might have been too long. Did it eventually do it?

    No, and I would have waited longer but the store was closing.


    If you can load up the os, sample a sound and save a program file with the sounds then you should be good. If you can't save anything, it's not worth it at all.

    Yeah, I brought an ipod with me so I could try to sample something, but I wanted to see if I could format a disk first, since it gave me the "Bad Device ID" on every disk except for the OS...sounds problematic.
  • Young_PhonicsYoung_Phonics 8,039 Posts
    I just bought an boot disk and fired it up. Figure it would be interesting to sample some stuff at a lower rate or rock the effects into the mpc. Plus I want to use it as my beginer piano. Need to start practicing.
  • djkingottodjkingotto 1,704 Posts
    i've used an eps 16+ since 92 and its still going strong. i've seen "bad device id" but don't rememeber the specific issue. i stopped buying discs for it back in like 00 because they don't make the double sided double density jammies any more. i am told you can us a regular 3.5 floppy and cover up one of the tabs and it works the same but i never had luck with that. i would say save the dough and just get an asr. pretty much the same machine but sounds a bit crispier.
  • bass_feverbass_fever 974 Posts
    I know a dude here in Indianpolis that used to work for Ensoniq that would service it for a decent price. Dude is magic when it comes to fixing broken keyboards.
  • thedailyhustlethedailyhustle 151 Posts
    i stopped buying discs for it back in like 00 because they don't make the double sided double density jammies any more. i am told you can us a regular 3.5 floppy and cover up one of the tabs and it works the same but i never had luck with that.

    The online store meritline.com used to sell them new as recent as 2007, but when i went back to bring up the link, They no longer list DS/DD 720k diskettes on their site. I bought 25 brand new disks about 8 months ago. I knew I should have bought 100! eBay and other sources still exist. I have used the tape over the hole trick but from what I hear, at least with the MPC60, it could be bad for the floppy drive to use a low density drive with high density diskettes. I need to get SCSI and a card reader for the 60 anyways though.
  • upskibooupskiboo 2,396 Posts
    I have used the tape over the hole trick but from what I hear, at least with the MPC60, it could be bad for the floppy drive to use a low density drive with high density diskettes.

    not a problem for the eps floppy drive, not from my experience anyway..
  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
    Bad Device ID and a million floppies for one beat made me sell my ASR-10.
    I wish I still had one around just to have it but messing with those ain't worth the trouble.

  • john_doejohn_doe 237 Posts
    i am told you can us a regular 3.5 floppy and cover up one of the tabs and it works the same but i never had luck with that.

    I went back to the store brought some disks from home (some HD disks with tape on the tab) - the EPS formatted these disks fine. I hooked up my ipod, sampled something, and it worked fine. The people in the store said that no one could get it to work.

    i would say save the dough and just get an asr. pretty much the same machine but sounds a bit crispier.

    Bought it for $99. After I got home, I get a call from Dibbs wanting to know if I wanted to buy his ASR. He proceeded to curse me out after I told him I bought an EPS about 45 minutes ago.
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