The Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus is a sampling keyboard produced by

Ensoniq Ensoniq Corp. was an American electronics manufacturer, best known throughout the mid-1980s and 1990s for its musical instruments, principally Sampler (musical instrument), samplers and synthesizers. History In spring 1983, former MOS Technol ...

starting in 1990. It was the successor to the

EPS An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

, one of the first truly affordable samplers on the market. The EPS-16 Plus uses 16-bit samples at seven sample rates ranging from 11.2 kHz to 44.6 kHz and features 13 onboard effects. The unit was available in both keyboard and rackmount versions (EPS-16R). Some versions of the EPS-16 Plus were sold as "Turbo" units, which included an extra 1 MB of

flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

and

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices, best known for its use with storage devices such as hard disk drives. SCSI was introduced ...

upgrades. These units are designated with a "T" after the model number. The EPS-16 Plus features a mono input and stereo outputs, made useful by the unit's stereo panning and internal effects. It was succeeded in 1992 by the stereo-capable ASR-10.

Notable users

Notable users include Havoc of

Mobb Deep Mobb Deep was an American Hip-hop, hip hop duo formed in Queens, New York (state), New York in 1990. Consisting of rappers/songwriters/record producers Prodigy (rapper), Prodigy and Havoc (musician), Havoc, they are considered to be among the pr ...

RZA Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA ( ) or the RZA, is an American rapper, record producer, composer, actor, and filmmaker. He is the '' de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having pro ...

of the

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop collective formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its members include RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and, until his death in 2004, O ...

as well as Wu-Tang affiliate True Master,

Speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

Arrested Development ''Arrested Development'' is an American satire, satirical television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz. It follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family and is presented in a Serial (radio and television), serialized format, inco ...

and Christian "Flake" Lorenz of

Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph ...

. De facto Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA produced some tracks for ''

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) ''Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)'' is the debut studio album by the American hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, released on November 9, 1993, by Loud Records and RCA Records. The recording sessions took place during late 1992 to early 1993 at Fire ...

'' on an EPS-16 Plus, including the group's biggest single " C.R.E.A.M.". He then sold the unit to True Master, who used it to produce "Fish" from

Ghostface Killah Dennis David Coles (born May 9, 1970), better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of ''Enter the Wu-Tang ...

's debut solo album '' Ironman'' as well as " Brooklyn Zoo" from

Ol' Dirty Bastard Russell Tyrone Jones (November 15, 1968 – November 13, 2004), known professionally as Ol' Dirty Bastard (often abbreviated as ODB), was an American rapper. He was one of the founding members of the New York rap group Wu-Tang Clan, which forme ...

's debut solo album '' Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version''. Havoc of

has stated that he produced "

Shook Ones, Part II "Shook Ones, Part II" is the lead single from Mobb Deep's 1995 album ''The Infamous''. The song is a sequel to the group's 1994 promotional single " Shook Ones", with similar lyrics, but less profanity. The original song is featured on the B-side ...

" an EPS-16 Plus.

Accessories

ME-16 Plus

This accessory increases the non-volatile RAM of the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus to 2MB. It was available as a cartridge, for the keyboard version, and as a board, for the rack version. This would double the sample time, and the sequencer memory could now load around 320000 notes.

SP-1/SP-2

This expansion board adds a SCSI interface to the EPS-16 Plus. This allows you to connect your Ensoniq to an external CD-Rom drive and use the Ensoniq CDR collection or other CD-Roms, to an

external Hard Drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

, or into an Apple Machintosh. For the keyboard version, the user needs to have the ME-16 Plus expansion installed, because it has the cutouts for the SCSI bus. It came with a standard IDE 34 pin cable, and a DB25 female connector to IDE 26 pin cable.

FB-1/FB-2 (Flashbank)

This expansion board adds internal flash storage into the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus. It would add 512KB with the FB-1, and 1MB for the FB-2. This was extremely versatile, because every file it would load in the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus, in addition to being super fast loading them, it would also not use any of the non-volatile RAM present in the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus. Also, all the files the user would save in the Flashbank would stay there even when the Ensoniq was turned off. It came with a standard IDE 50 pin connector cable.

OEX-6

This expansion adds 6 more output buses to the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus. This would come installed internally in the rack version. This was useful in case the user wanted some of their instruments or the sequencer click come out from an other channel in your mixer for example.

ED, ESS, SL and SLT Sound Libraries

These are sound libraries that came in floppies for the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus.

CDR and SCD Sound Libraries

These are sound libraries that came in CD-Roms for the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus.

Notes

References

{{reflist E Samplers (musical instrument) Synthesizers Keyboard instruments MIDI instruments Electric and electronic keyboard instruments Polyphonic synthesizers