The Grand-daddy of the Ensoniq sampler family - a family that started unpromisingly with the somewhat arcane Mirage, but then rapidly evolved with the vastly improved EPS, then the EPS16+, then the imperious ASR-10. ASR stood for Advanced Sampling Recorder, and for its time (early 1990s) it may well have been the most advanced (at least for those available at a consumer level, we will discount the sorts of ubermenschen who could afford a Synclavier or Fairlight). If you were already familiar with the EPS and the 16+, the ASR was simple to use, the same architecture and layout applied, but with a ton of extra features which really opened up the sampling, sequencing and production possibilities (and a few of these were actually thanks to Ensoniq listening to customer suggestions). If you were fortunate to have all the additional bells and whistles such as the digital I/O and the SCSI expansion, you were into an early form of HDD recording as well. The ability to resample its own audio, with or without effects was also a great idea, and a shortcut to freeing up sequencer tracks if you needed to. Some people complain about Ensoniq keybed quality, but I've never had a problem with them. The ASR has always felt solid and responsive, and the poly aftertouch has never given any grief. The modulation routings on the ASR are almost without number. All in all, this sampler really kicks.

This is the #1 sampler that Kanye West, and Timbaland uses most. I own 1 and its maxed out with memory , expander, CD-rom drive and SCSI hard drive for storage...the preAMPs and Processor is what gives it a fat sound. In the nut shell you get Fat sounds right out the box when sampling and they sound radio ready. It's the best analog sampler by far with digital in/out options if you can find the card. It's like having the SSL or NEVE of Samplers. It's a Classic that sounds like a Beast...it's _AKA- The Secret Weapon...shhh don't tell...lol.

the desert island sampler songwriter.

pretty great. love the sample quality on this one. sequencer is pretty "OK", I prefer to sequence via the MPC.