Ensoniq EPS

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EPS
Ensoniq EPS
Manufacturer	Ensoniq
Dates	1988–1991
Price	£1695[1]
Technical specifications
Polyphony	20 voices
Synthesis type	13-bit samples
Velocity expression	Yes aftertouch = Yes
Effects	none
Input/output
Keyboard	61-note with polyphonic aftertouch
Left-hand control	pitch-bend and modulation wheels
External control	MIDI

The Ensoniq Performance Sampler (EPS) was one of the first few affordable samplers on the market. It was manufactured from 1988 to 1991 by Ensoniq in Malvern, Pennsylvania, US. The EPS is a 13-bit sampler and replaced the Mirage - widely regarded as the first truly affordable sampling keyboard.

The EPS has a straightforward interface that is easy to use, with configurable controls geared for live performance. Because it has two processors, it can load and play up to eight instruments simultaneously (with another eight on reserve). The display is a 22-character, single-line vacuum fluorescent display. It boots from an integrated floppy disk drive (sourced from Sony or Matsushita), or from a SCSI drive connected to the expansion bay. The EPS has 256 Kwords of RAM on board. Ensoniq offered both a 2x (512 Kword) Memory Expander and a 4x (1 Mword) Memory Expander with SCSI interface. A company called Maartists offered both 4x and 8x memory expanders, allowing a total of 2 Mwords RAM. Extra RAM allows for longer and higher quality samples. The "2x" expander contains one 1x256Kbit and three 4x256Kbit chips, for a total of 13x256Kbits in addition to the onboard memory. The EPS is unusual in having a 13-bit sample memory word length, left-justified into the most significant bits of a 16-bit word.

The EPS uses double-sided, double-density 3.5" disks, formatted to 800k with ten 512-byte sectors per track. It can also read (but not write) Ensoniq Mirage sample disks.

The EPS uses MIDI and can be used as a controller of other instruments or connected to a computer.

The EPS was superseded by the EPS-16 Plus which upgraded the sample size to 16 bits and added a 24-bit effects system. Other improvements include CD-ROM support in the optional SCSI interface and FlashBank storage for the OS and favorite sounds.