Great! Thank you very much. Dave Smith, Tom Oberheim, Dave Rossum etc have all made successful comebacks. I wish that the main guys at Ensoniq would do the same and pick up where they left off... Trans/Hyperwaves still have a lot of potential for sonic exploration in the here and now. Lots of interest out there.
@@TheDaydreamSound I guess anybody _that_ smart can do a whole world of amazing things. Whenever I dive into the depths of my ASR-X from about 1995 I realize it has like a stunning giant city of engineering expertise/creativity built into it.
My ASR 10 has been sitting in my studio unused for years and I was considering selling it but after watching this and some of your other videos I just may fire it up again Thanks for the inspiration 🙏
Check the free vst Surge. It always had transwaves, now it imports Serum format wavetables or any wav file. It's way more capable than these old samplers.
wow - I have a Ensoniq ASR 88 and as of yesterday pick up a 16 plus rack and a ASR 10 rack - all of them in mint condition - i think my studio is ready for anyone that still knows how to really sample
My theory is this: Back in the '80s-'90s, a.k.a. the Golden Era of Hardware Samplers, samples came in two basic forms: 1) Emulating real instrument sounds ("Real instruments" also included analog/digital synthesizers), and 2) Sound Effects. Now, things like drum loops and breaks would technically fall into a subset of "Sound Effects." The former needed things like advanced looping, layering, elaborate multisample architecture, etc. After all, you needed all of those things to capture a grand piano or even a D-50. But along came Romplers, which can already do all of the above for you. And over time, the sounds of real-life acoustic and electronic instruments were at least satisfactory enough on Romplers that people didn't need samplers anymore to play them. I remember back in the mid-'80s, many artists relied on the Emulator II to play Grand Piano and string section sounds. But now, any Rompler can do that, and even the cheapest Rompler today has more realistic and expressive piano and string patches than an Emulator II could make. Which leaves the Sound Effects category, which are more or less phrase-based, and one-shot in nature. Loops are rhythmic, and many sampler users didn't even need to manually loop the "loops" as they could have a sequencer (i.e. MPC) re-trigger the sample every bar or two. By the 21st century, those that used samplers primarily used them for phrase-based, one-shot deals. And the industry followed suit. A friend who owns a Roland Fantom lamented that he could only record one-shot samples triggered by pads but not pitched samples triggered by the keyboard. The whole phrase-based sampling today continues with things like Ableton Live and Ableton pad controllers, which play primarily one-shot phrases.
I was just going to say that: Ableton Live's Simpler with a MIDI controller (and some imagination) can get you there also. You can go from sound snippet to sound snippet, add envelopes, lfos and other fx. Assign them to a note, and start doing what fires up in your brain.
Dude! Totally agree, I love my ASR10 and have been using it since it came out (EPS before that). I’m just getting back into music again and was surprised that newer samplers are kinda simple. What we used to do all the time is now a speciality thing. Keep up the great work :)
I do everything in my Ensoniq samplers. They are truly endless. Sample something-> push buttons & move sliders. Before you know it you are engaging the sequencer, editing song steps. Brilliant Machines!
I’m glad your touching on Transwaves. Not an easy thing to concept at first. But when you get to that point, man. It’s incredible. I have found a machine that almost does this. I think it’s called the xylophone. I think you have to build it too? But, transwaves do so much. Makes Ensoniq almost priceless. Also, makes it that you can basically recreate any patch from any synth on a sampler. Great stuff man, I don’t miss a video
What's up Jim!!!!!! Thanks for watching man!!!! I agree! Transwaves along with the other synthesis features on the Ensoniq samplers are really hidden gems!!!!!!
Actually, the closest thing to this is the time trip pad in the roland vsynth, v2,xt and gt. These synthesizers allows you to travel through time in the sound by hand, and you can either assign an lfo or a step sequenceur a very powerfull way while keeping the tempo synchronized back to the arp or drum beat. If you are interested I can make a demo daydreamsound . Also in reaktor there is the "spatializer " ensemble that is exactly using this technology. The daydreamer: I would like to thank you for these high quality video' s, they are smooth, I love the blue aspect of the videos, the very calm and understandable voice even for a french native speaker like me. Thanks a lot, cheers from Brussels
Listen folks..I bought the ASR10 rack and Roland analogue synth at the same time,and changed my life and ideas about music.I got the 16 MB RAM and still havent put it in,because by then i learned how to truncate,chop,mangle,and normalize,so i didnt need to touch it.The effects section is so killer,i bought an efx module and hardly used it.I used it live while i was spinning and making mixtapes,made new sounds for myself,and used those sounds as my drum kits and stuff.I have 4 samplers now since i gave away one,yet none of them has the character of the Ensoniq.You can get the ASR10,the VFX synth,and the Paris system,and have a complete studio.Get the third party magazine they had out,if you can,and build a nice desktop system,with SCSI,a LOT of RAm,and have a lotta fun..I'm going to use my EMu6400 and Roland MV8080 the same way.It makes no logical sense to have 20 keyboards,when you can have a couple connected to samplers like the ASR10,because the ASR allows you to run inputs through it's internal DSP/effects section,etc..
I agree, sometimes in order to be creative it is better to rationalize and use only a few samplers and make sure you have a correct desktop, sound system, ergonomy that makes you feel much more comfortable . I have seen so many musicians with tons of synths, sometines 4 kronos in the same room,... and none of them even knowing how to use wavesequences that made korg so famous. Or none of them actually have a proper acoustic, sometimes, less is more.
To quantify further; the Transwave function doesn't prioritize amplitude or frequency over time. It focuses on distributing velocities evenly over time. This way, you can choose much shorter loop regions for synthesis. Knowing this loop number, is the base math for the filters applied. Heavier, less noisy synthesis.
People need to read up on Xenakis, Truax, Schaeffer, Stockhausen, R.M. Schafer, Simon Fraser University, WDR, RDF (Radiodiffusion Française)... Grain can be derived from any schizophonic sound object, including wavetables. Wavetable synthesis itself can be considered an applied technique of granular synthesis. Evidently 'transwaves' have been referred to as an extension of wavetables. The term "synthesis" (as commonly applied to all three) is appropriate, though a bit of a misnomer, since synthesized sound is generated from non-acoustic, inaudible processes whereas granular audio is the result of manipulated playback of sound objects (i.e. samples). There was a fierce philosophical rivalry in first half of the 20th century between the Concrete and Elektronische schools, to the point that both might find the words "sample" and "synthesis" in conjunction to be anathema. Fortunately for us that debate is a matter of history, but all contemporary electronic musicians are indebted to their work. We would do well to know our avant-garde music history and utilize its lexicon with care and intention.
I'm biting my tongue a bit in regards to the future. But I can speak to some current samplers that can still do this. Transwave is simply a term that isn't used but the technique still is. Often times it's referred to in terms of grainshifting (which you do touch on in the video). One piece of kit I really enjoy doing this with is in the modular domain. The phonogene and morphagene do this with a whole host of extra control. Dave rossums amazing assimil8or goes even deeper with allowing you to also audio rate fm those pieces. The future has not forgotten these amazing samplers though... We are in a new golden age.
Yeah back in the 90s your sampler was your only instrument, the mirage was my first piece of gear it had actual analog filters and lfo so you could do a lot of synthesis with those samplers even though the mirage only did 8 bit.
Waht's up Brian!!!!! Thanks for watching man!!!!! The Mirage is an absolute gem!!!!!!!!!!!!! I agree! You could get so much done when you only have one instrument to work with.
Nice to think of a sampler as a creative tool, not merely playback of traditional sounds. As for the transwave concept, I believe you should be able to pull this off with Tal Sampler using the mod matrix.
Just found you and definitely a sub here! This is an awesome example of what I been working on in my head but only have phone software to try an capture my ideas! Love to learn more about freestyle creation poke this! Thanks for the video!
@@TheDaydreamSound I've seen more videos now and love and appreciate you're content even more. You've got me trying ideas through inspiration, so a big thank you! Phones can do way more than anticipated!! ;)
What's up Sabored!!!!! Great question!!!! You know I've used the Kruzweil samplers so much and never really paid any attention to the concept of V.A.S.T. I really gotta go back and look into it now.
There is nothing like Transwaves in VAST. Modulating loop start and loop end points is itself unique to the Ensoniqs and a handful of software samplers. The transwave tech is the logical conclusion of this and as far as I know there is no direct analogue of it elsewhere. Ditto the looping types (bidirectional crossfade, bowtie, synthesised loop etc...). That said VAST can do some nice stuff - FM on samples (it's actually called SAW+ SHAPE though within VAST), amplitude and ring modulation, wavehsaping and wavefolding a nd other non-linear processes not found in other hardware, plus really nice filters. My main board is a K2661 with sampling, I find it really easy to use despite what you may have heard, but I've also keep an Ensoniq around - they're unique.
You get used to it- plus, pressing EDIT on any field takes you directly to that page. The great thing is you'll find you still uncover new depths to it years on. All the wavefolding/waveshaping stuff we're seeing last few years in West Coast style Eurorack has been in the K2x since 92. Plus all the values are in meaningful values - Hz, dB etc. What you learn on the K2x is transferrable directly to your mixing, your modular, learning Csound/Supercollider/Max etc. It's a worthwhile learning curve. And they didn't reinvent the wheel when they brought out new models- eg if you know the K2, you buy a PC3 or whatever, it's a matter of just learning the updates. They're beast machines. Dig in.
@@CaptainCabers-nickmccabemusic the plugin Surge, while not a sampler, (originally developed by Claes of Bitwig)can import custom wavetables. It can also modulate the loop points. Combined with a program like audio-term, the sky is the limit.
Are you sure you can't do this in any other box? I have a Kurzweil K2000S, and I expected you to show me something that was really unique to Ensoniq. Maybe I missed what was really happening, but it looks like you just sliced a small section of a sample, looped it, and then added modulation assigned to performance (e.g., aftertouch). Can't any sampler do this? I'm pretty sure a K2000S can do this. I haven't used an MPC or AKAI sampler, but I'd expect the same there too. Please help me understand. Thanks!
Dope textures! That looks like an old school way to do granular synthesis (which I'm a big fan of). Been experimenting with similar approach in Reason by making a combinator patch with NN19 sampler, modulating sample start parameter with LFO and sending fast gate signal (from Subtractor LFO or Matrix sequencer)
@@TheDaydreamSound yes, Reason is a sound design beast, definitely worth checking out! So much modulation possibilities thanks to its modular nature and the ability to modulate almost any parameter (of both built in and vst instruments and effects) in combinator
Yeah…I really regret selling my EPS…I’m seriously considering getting another. And you are so right, I’ve been looking at current samples, and none of them seem appealing, especially since I want an actual keyboard sampler, to get that classic 80s Latin freestyle vibe.
Transwaves synthesis is the closest thing to musique concrète, to tape manipulation pioneered at the dawn of electronic music. Most commercial music using electronics these days draws on a very narrow range of sounds immediately recognizable as belonging to the musical orthodoxy of commerce. Recognizable samples almost always rely on 60s-70s R&B. We’ve been very thoroughly trained to reject every other kind of sound in our desire to conform to mass marketing expectations and identities defined by commerce.
I sample sounds into a v synth 2.0 then when I am done exploring that and making something crazy, I sample that into a e-mu e6400 and use the z plane filters to really explode my head with sonic insanity...
When you created the drums, did you create one shots and mapped them to the keys and then created the drum groove or are the drums a single transwave and the beat is created by modulation the positions within the sample?
What's up man!!!! Thanks for watching!!!!!!!!!!! Much appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!! It's different and can do so much more than what we're showing here for sure!!!
Is this possible on the eps16+ as well? I’m new to these samplers and I’m already convinced this will stay with me forever...now to carry the manual around with me for a while like I’m studying for a degree.
Daydream Sound, appreciate the knowledge. Sorry for the sort of rudimentary question, but if I wanted to transfer songs from an ASR-10, to Ableton Live for tweaking, mixing, and recording, in your professional opinion, which would be the best method, and which newer components, if any, are available to help fascilitate this process? Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to lend. Really enjoy the vids, and you've got a new sub;-)
What's up man!!!! Thanks for reaching out!! These two videos might help ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BaS64S_ij40.html & ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lh8D4LO73CE.html
"can't do as efficiently in software". Wouldn't say that. You can do this quickly and easily with Ableton's Sampler/Simpler by setting a loop and automating the sample start position with an LFO. You could automate the loop length as well, basically modifying the granularity of the playback in real time if you wanted to. Imagine I could probably set that up quite a bit faster than setting up a transwave patch. But the old samplers and old devices in general tend to have their own sound so there's still ample reason to use them IMO.
Great video with a highly usable technique explained in clear detail ...One viewer asked if you would review a Roland MV ..l wonder if you you check out the MPC 60 as it has similar functions as the 2000/ 2500 ..Yamaha samplers / work stations are a mystery to me ...Anyway top work ma man
Love you vids! I have a question... I’m looking for a modern day 88 key-keyboard somewhat like that Ensoniq line. I have a MPC 1000 and really want to chop up sounds as quick as possible with the onboard sampling/keys and with my other hardware as well without a computer or software, but I also don’t want to sacrifice any quality towards the acoustics. I like to play both Rap/Classical music so it’s a bit of a dilemma lol. Are there any keyboards that’ll help me with that? Or I’m I better off with the ASR/ Ensoniq line. Thank you
What's up Adrian!!!! Thanks for reaching out!!! I would look into workstation synths like the Korg Kronos, Yamaha Montage or Roland Fantom. They may fill the role that you're after.
Transwave was a musical dead-end, according to a former Ensoniq employee who was asked shortly after Ensoniq folded as a synth company. There was/is simply no real demand for the feature outside a fraction of a niche subset of the Synth user base. It's a lot like polyphonic-aftertouch, everyone fawns over that feature, but very few who have access to a synth with a poly-AT equipped keybed actually ever uses it musically.
I honestly still failed to see why he thinks what he did is exclusive to ensoniq transwave. Maybe the operational method is different but you can do the same things on an MPC, Maschine, etc what exactly was so special here?
@@tellitlikeitis8691 there really is nothing special about Transwaves... Much like the Realtime Convolution and Modulation feature on the Yamaha SY77/99, it is something that takes a sample and spits out mostly useless noise...
@@looneyburgmusic Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm genuinely curious if there is any sampler out there that qualitatively stands out from the rest or if it's just a sound/workflow thing
@@tellitlikeitis8691 that's actually a good question... I've been a huge fan of Ensoniq since the Mirage, but I honestly never found a musical use for the Transwave feature
The ASR10, is way ahead of its time. I love using the the auto loop function. Perfect looping so fast. Without seeing it. Especially for looping bass notes and such. What I don’t get is why you can’t auto loop in stereo? There is a work around, by doing one layer at a time. I especially like the video of auto chopping. When I seen that, I was like, I do that!. I go between start and transwave, though. I like trans waving drums to, for fills. It’s the closest you can come to actually jamming on that kit. Such a great machine. Akai mpc’s are a totally different thing. Ensoniq samplers are more for making synth patches, and everything else. You’ll really only use the mpc for sequencing. You really don’t even need that.
What's Callum!!!!! Thanks for reaching out!!! The ASR-X has some Transwaves in it's ROM memory but unfortunately you can't create Transwaves with it's user interface.
Hey, love the videos! I have a quick technical question; are you aware of anyway to get around having to load the OS into the ensoniq samplers everytime you turn them on? As in a mod that loads the os internally somehow when turning on the machine?
What's up Arne!!! Thanks for reaching out!!! The EPS16+ has a flash ROM option that lets you store the O.S on it but aside from that you'll have to load the O.S from disk every time.
Are you serious ? This is granular synthesis and you can achieve this effect with a LOT of modern hardware/software : The Harvestman Tyme Sefari, Make Noise Morphagene, Rossum Assimil8tor, 1010 Music Bitbox and so on... Reaktor can also do this since more than 15 years !
This was just one example. Transwaves in general are like *wavetables.* On gear like the ASR-10, you essentially can make your own wavetables that you can scan through with whatever you want. Granular synthesis is typically done with very short snippets of audio at a time; you're not restricted to granular type stuff with the ASR-10. Transwaves aren't the same as granular. I get what you're saying, but they're not the same.
"Transwaves" is a marketing name, granular synthesis is the real concept behind. As soon as you are able to create tiny loops of audio material and make it move, this is granular synthesis. Still cool to be able to do that on an old device like this.
I don't understand why You don't see the way Digitakt is tool to handle granular resynthesis. I see your point (I hope so) but I do love Digitakt becouse of its granular possibilities. If any questions how to do on Digitakt chop, start/end loop points, rec on same device/reuse then resample on buttons (lack of aftertouch on Digitakt but You can use midi to connect any other device)...then use filtering (a lot things with mapping this...) ,lfo assign on many, many parameters on each block then....just ask. There are a lot of things You can't do with Digitakt, but...there are also some things You can do in diffirent way :) I think that its still a- good video and good subject. Also I understand that both machines have different potentiality...
@@Voc0der I'll take your word for it; that probably makes more sense, in retrospect. I thought they were more similar to wavetables, but I don't have a VFX, SD-1, or ASR-10, etc., and it was a long time ago that I read about it
I wonder every day bro. In 2020 all this tech should be stuffed into $99 portable synthesizers. Heck, by now it all should be stuffed into pocket recorders with BT & DIN MIDI.
@@Roikat Don't tell my EPS-M (classic rack mount). It has had transwaves as a function since 1991. *edit* Ensoniq has used transwave synthesis in it's synths since the 1980s. Looks like the Mirage is the only unit that didn't have a transwave function.
No really. There are many vintage synths that are sitting crippled and out of circulation because of lack of repair. Let alone manufacturing new boards. The components used in their audio architecture--chipset, circuitry or whatnot--are no longer available. Korg Z1 is another example of lost technology. It was made with components that no other Korg synths shared, and those chips are no longer available. The sound it created is very distinctive.
@@cubistone Transwave technology isn't lost nor is it dependent on circuitry or chipsets. In fact, many software music programs implement process similar to transwaves today. It's just not something included in hardware samplers. It's completely possible and comparable. It's just not in demand; just like variable sample rates an samplers.
@@TheDaydreamSound you're right about the lack of demand for such synths. If there's no interest in any vintage gear it won't be making a comeback. Peace
