E-mu systems have long been known for making high performance equipment easy to use, so after receiving a Turbo version of their new ESI-4000 Digital Sampler to review we were more than pleased to find that not only is the user interface easier than ever to use but that it's also packed with many features usually found on machines costing much more.

For starters the 64-voice polyphony feature should help make this into a very popular digital sampler. When you have all the sounds of the orchestra as well as almost every other instrument in the world at your disposal there's nothing worse than only being able to play several at the same time. Now you are able to play 32 stereo voices or up to 64 mono voices all at the same time making the ESI more than capable of handling complex orchestrations or arrangements with voices to spare.

If you're completely new to sampling and worried that the technology will end up controlling you rather than the other way around don't worry. E-mu Systems have been making samplers for a long time and continue to make instruments that get easier and easier to use. One look at the front of the ESI reveals the large display screen which is ultimately your work area and where you get to see what's going on inside. Buttons to the left, above the disk drive, get you into the different areas within the ESI. To the right of the screen you have all the controls you need to make changes to the samples or the functionality of the machine itself. Use the wheel to scroll through presets and to change values quickly, the keypad to enter numeric and alphabetical values directly and the cursor to move around within a menu. It's always a temptation when acquiring new technology to just power it up and get started but you'll find that a couple of minutes with your operating manual each time you use your ESI will make all the difference.

The ESI comes standard with 4MB of RAM and a floppy drive. This is more than adequate for many applications and literally doubles the amount of sampling time that was available on a standard Emax sampler, but when it comes time to add memory the ESI is expandable to 128MB, that's a total of 23 minutes of mono sampling at a sample rate of 44.1kHz. The ESI also accepts standard 72pin SIMM chips, so adding memory is relatively inexpensive and will drastically improve the capabilties of the instrument. When you get up to about 8MB you might want to look into installing a Zip drive. This will make loading sounds into the ESI quick and easy due to the fact that each Zip disk holds about 100MB of information. An 8MB bank, which is capable of containing an entire orchestra complete with Bosendorfer grand piano, takes about 5 seconds to load from a Zip disk, whereas a unit equipped with a floppy drive requires the user to feed it eight separate disks. If you're up to around 16MB of RAM and want to fill the sampler with sounds you're looking at 16 disks.

Another option is to hook up an external hard drive to the SCSE port on the back. This port is also used when you want to connect your Macintosh or PC to the ESI when using digital sample editing software, this allows you to edit your samples on your computer and then send them back into the sampler. The ESI is also able to access approved Macintosh internal CD-ROM drives with CD-ROMs containing ESI compatible files. Similarily, a Macintosh can access an internal ESI Zip drive.

For those who need to trigger individual samples without having to rely on an external controller or MIDI devices will love the Trigger Mode. Once activated the numeric keypad can be pre-assigned to trigger any one of the 999 available presets loaded into the ESI. For the touring DJ this means being able to interact in real-time with your sequenced or pre-recorded tracks, triggering drum loops or entire sampled synth parts one element at a time. Each button is able to trigger the various presets independantly. The DJ in a radio station situation can also benefit from this feature by being able to instantly access any sample within the ESI-4000's memory banks. No more searching through stacks of tape cartidges for that "Monster Truck Roller Derby" soundbyte. Instead just sample it, assign it a number then press it every time you need it.

Creating samples is with the ESI really couldn't be easier, the same menus and set-up procedures found in the Emax series has been adopted by the ESI. Once you've have your sample you'll have access to built-in powerful editing tools which include manual as well as automatic truncation, cross-fade looping, gain change, normalization, and automatic correlation for easy-to-find loop points. Then, when you have the sample to the desired length and pitch you're ready to start using the processing tools to get the sound exactly as you want it.

There are a number of ways to make you own unique sounds. The obvious way is to sample your own and go from there, but you can also choose any of the 200MB of professionally created samples that comes standard with the ESI. These sounds can be used straight out of the box or used use as building blocks when you want to make a sound your own, and with 18 different types of 64 digital 6-pole filters and powerful DSP features such as time compression/expansion, parametric EQ and digital tuning, you'll soon be making sounds that work well with your kind of music.

Key Features:

The ESI-4000 comes standard with:

64-voice polyphony
4 MB RAM (expandable to 128 MB with standard 72pin SIMM chips)
64 digital 6-pole filters (19 different types)
10 programmable trigger buttons
Two CD-ROM's (which means thousands of sounds, over 200 MB, ready to download and start playing right away)
4 audio outputs, expandable to 8, plus a stereo effects output
Large palette of powerful DSP tools including stereo phase-locked time compression/expansion allowing you to play the same sample across the keyboard, at different pitches, without the sample changing length.
User-friendly interface that allows you to play and sample with ease. You'll also spend less time scrolling through menus.

The ESI-4000 Turbo comes with all of the above plus:
Two 24 bit stereo effects processors
Three more stereo analog outputs
S/PDIF digital in and out

The ESI-4000 Turbo Zip adds an Iomega Zip drive in place of the 3.5" floppy drive, giving you 100MB of on-board removable sample storage (this can also be used as an external hard-drive if you use a Macintosh computer)

All are compatible with Akai S-1000/1100, E-mu EIIIx, ESI-32, and EmaxII libraries via the built-in SCSI.

To contact E-mu Systems check out their entry in our Manufacturers department

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