ASR-X Pro

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cameron Thomas
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Cameron Thomas

Cameron Thomas

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What's up with this piece of gear?

I found one used in my local shop for $350. It's super clean. It looks like it just came out of the box. They didn't know if it was expanded as far as memory or wave expansion. Assuming that it isn't and I know it doesn't have the 8 out expansion is this thing worth $350? I read through the manual and it seems like a pretty dope piece of hardware. I've heard the FX are nice. I've also read though that the sequencer has glitches. Anyone know the severity of this?
 
Specify the glitches that you heard of?

The sequencer in some machines are sloppy, I heard. Before the ASR-X Pro I own now, (a previous ASR-X Pro) I owned and sold had a sequencer that did not loop correctly if you didn't stop the initial sequence recording at the time that you wanted it to loop.

Ex: If you were to start a sequence with some drums with a four bar loop, you would have to stop the sequence before it reached the fifth bar. With the machine I have now, the O.S. fixed that problem and the timing is tight. The only downside of my machine with sequencing is not being able to move backwards in step edit, only forwards.
 
When i had my Pro, the update didn't fix the glitch in looping :(

You should check the memory upgrade, if it's installed. if i remember correctly, it was pretty easy to see, might even say it when you start it up (memory or sampling time). If it's upgraded, 350 is pretty ok catch i'd say, if not you should try to bargain or think if you really want it.. the sound in it is very nice tho IMO.
 
I lucked out an got an ASr-X pro with the beta 4.0 O.S., which made the sequencing much tighter and instead of having to stop a sequence at the end of the 4th bar (with a 4 bar loop) the sequence could go on indefinitely if no note events were enter after that bar. When I hit stop, the machine will loop to however many bars I had recorded not events in.

With 66 megs of Ram in the machine you should have about 68185542 bytes free in the machine.
 
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ohh crap they released the 4.0 beta? What else did it improve? It was supposed to be possible to use soundfonts and **** like that..

man now i'm i'm pissed i sold the machine alltho it's like 1,5 years ago...
 
From what I was reading they didn't put a powerful enough processor in the machine to handle it's capabilities so if you used too many effects or samples the sequencer would start to hiccup. If that's true than software updates wouldn't really solve that problem. I'm thinking I could get them to let it go for $300. I found RAM upgrades on Ebay for like $30 though. I may just buy the machine for sound design. I could always tweak drums, etc. on it and load them into Reason. It would be nice to sequence on it though. I was thinking about getting a 2kxl but it's really one or the other. I have to buy a bunch of other sh*t. New monitors, headphones, software, controllers and a new car at the same time...lol
 
whoa! yall just went way over my head with the o.s. changes. I always thought those upgrades were for just use of the asrxpro with a pc.

I currently have one now and its my main sequencer..

and yes its true that if you don't stop the recording at the point where the loop ends that it won't stop.. but you can manually set a point where you want the loop to end.... (but i think that causes problems later on with sequencing and samples used within the loop)...so are you saying that this 4.0 o.s changes that and possibly some other issues? I THINK I NEED TO CHANGE MY O.S.! i don't even know what im running!

btw.....I paid $300 for mine, i believe the ram is maxed out becuz i have a rediculous amount of sample time....

and I'm on a neverending hunt to find the 8outs for that joint!! which i think will ACTUALLY NEVER END!

and also I've NEVER gotten this thing synched wit protools! so if ANYBODY can help me with either of these issues please get at me!
 
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The O.S. changes are for the Pro model only. I've been searching around Tampa,fl trying to find some one with the knowledge to extract the O.S. from my machine, but no luck. I don't have the option to copy the O.S. on to a disk from the machine. I've used about thirteen samples at ones during a sequence (all resampled with effects except for the drums with some reverb ) and I haven't had a problem with the timing yet. The machine will bog down if you are attempting to scroll through different tracks, but when I get a chance I'll run some more tests and let ya'll know. I haven't used the soundfont extraction yet, but the "xplode" function is not bad.
 
JUST TO CLARIFY, AND CLEAR UP MISCONCEPTIONS:

the sequencer is fine. it only hiccups when scrolling real fast through tracks which makes it somewhat unreliable for live gigs.

The fact that you cannot get a proper 4 bar loop going IS NOT A GLITCH. just set the 'loop to' point under the edit sequence button to 4:4:384.

I have found the best way to use this machine is just to make 4 or 8 bar loops, and then track out (each track individually) to DAW in order to facilitate mixing and more importantly song sequencing. Sonar has an excellent loop function which works great with the x.

hope this helps

Unsystematic - what are the soundfont extraction and xplode functions?
 
well I do want to get the beats trackd out in my DAW which is protools but i'm having a hell of a time trying to sych thiem
 
This O.S. has "direct audio sampling" from a cd player digitally through the scsi. It would have been nice if Ensoniq would have created a digital out board like they did with the ASR-10, but I think this is there method. I haven't used it yet because I don't have a cd -rom drive for the machine.

The Xplode function works like recycle. It splits a drum sample or another sample into pieces and assigns them to a pad for you. It works if you want to pull a drum loop a part quickly, but it has it's limitations. There is no way to select at what intervals you want it chopped up in ( I think it does in 16th notes, finds a zero crossing and cuts?). I've managed to work around this with resampling the drum loop at a higher pitched and then xploding it to the pads, making the cuts longer (closer to 8th notes.)

The Soundfont function basically imports creative labs soundfont format.

I don't use soundfonts so that wouldn't apply to me much.
 
I have the black ensoniq asr-x and it has a 2. SUMTHIN O.S. i wish it was here but i cant wait to find out so im asking anyway if i had a newer O.S. would the sequencing be tighter?? and i want to just throw the thing out the window at how mad i get when you have to SUPER quickly press stop RIGHT before it hits the next bar so it loops right...thats so lame but you guys said its meant to have that as a option you can shut off?? thats great that makes me want to use the machine totally now.
 
Bhunt, another way around the sequence function is make a ram kit with no sounds in it "create ram kit silence?" Set that "silence_01" to track 16 or a track your not going to use. Now start your 4 bar sequence, hit any pad on "silence" and wait until the sequence hits your fourth bar (last minute) and then stop sequence. Now you can go back and sequence with your sounds and don't have to worry about ending the sequence on the fourth bar while pounding out a drum pattern.
 
so is it me or does the xpro cause a problem if ...when recording the first track you don't physically stop it at the end of the fourth bar...then go back and set a stop point to 4:4:064 does it cause a hiccup at the end of the loop for any one else?
 
yeah jaepilla...anything O.S. bellow the 3.20 version.
 
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Asr Sequencer?

Like my man, Unsys' says the key to getting loops on point is to set up a quantitized ghost track of 8th notes to loop prior to programming any sequences.

If you do this you WILL BE FINE. For some reason the sequencer wasn't programmed with a midi continue funcion so you gotta make it happen on your own.

Nothing like a work-a-round to get the creative juices flowing!

*ponders putting away the MPC for a while*
 
I dont know why your creating this 'ghost' track to solve your looping problems. you dont need to trick the machine into doing something, just tell it -

if you press stop after the end of the bar

hit SEQUENCE EDIT button.
scroll right to loop TO =
adjust to 4.04.384 (easily achieved by setting at 5.01.01 and scrolling one clock down - clock is the 3 digit number)
 
beatchefs said:
I dont know why your creating this 'ghost' track to solve your looping problems. you dont need to trick the machine into doing something, just tell it -

if you press stop after the end of the bar

hit SEQUENCE EDIT button.
scroll right to loop TO =
adjust to 4.04.384 (easily achieved by setting at 5.01.01 and scrolling one clock down - clock is the 3 digit number)
Click to expand...

...Because it's more groovey to lay your chops down in real time.
 
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