E-mu ESI-2000

Price Paid: US $99 used

Ease of Use: 7
relatively easy to figure out everything without manual. Anyway manual is still available online at emu. Good company, ever try looking for a Roland manual online? However some better chices could have been made, like including shortcut buttons for 1-touch sampling, and undo, etc.

Features: 9
I bought this again just for phrase-sampler functionality. I previously owned one just to play back akai sample cds before the days of softsamplers - sold the first one becuase it took to long too load and limited memory - 128Megs max - using Kontack for the giant stuff. Kontact has similair vowel filters too.

It can quickly map cd quality stereo phrases to each key, one after another. Just takes a double click of one button, then a single click of another. Wish it was just one, but this is still fast. My setup is now based around two phrase samplers, Roland SP606 and this emu "phrase sampler" The Roland resamples but inefficiently and doesn't resample when a sequenced pattern is being played back. So I use the emu to catch the sp606's patterns and excellent effects manipluations, then after a several takes bounce the best back to the Roland to resync all the audio again. Works very well and in realtime now. So in effect the emu is acting as the other half of the roland, that is what the roland should have been in the first place! Actually this is only half of what I'll use the emu for. It's a great sampler and has excellent sound quality, plus with all the mapping capabilities and filters, it's a great synthesizer as well. Also just as a phrase sampler passing a completed audio track through those filters is exceptional. Using the computer with the software roland supplied is good too, but sometimes a little unreliable as far as timing is concerned, spits and sputters some times, even with a fast computer lots lot of memory and very few background processes running. The emu is instant and tight. That's why I bought it. Plus the emu d/a converters are smooth as is their pitch interpolation process. Pitch bends, even + - 12, are instant and smooth. Try that with some software apps. Of course I use the esi's standard chromatic assignment feature to map a sample from the sp606 for "playable" ideas. It's all good, and it just was $99 used. So for $725, I got the emu and a new sp606. Not a bad combination. Actually a very powerful one. It's much faster, easier, and a lot more fun creating music realtime without messing around with mouse and cranky computer.

Another great feature I almost forgot to mention is that this sampler can srub thru a sample polyphonically using the pitch wheel. Not only can it do this in realtime, but while scrubing through, you can change the scub assignment from sample-loop length, sample-loop start or end. Want to hear some amazing waldorf-style wavetable sweeps, sort of like super-pulse with modulation, then use this feature! Some serious leads and pads/textures can be developed this way.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
excellent, yes there actually are differences in sound quality between various samplers/manufacturers. This emu is very clean and musical. CD quality.

Reliability: 10
very reliable, never had any problems or lock-ups with my old one without any drives attached. However with the scsi tranfers, sometimes loading would lock it up. But I don't use this one with a hard drive/cdrom (yet?), so that isn't a problem for now.

Customer Support: 10
EMU always had excellent customer support - probably the best in the industry.

Overall Rating: 10
Since it's so cheap these days, I would of course buy another one. It gives you too much advantage over a computer for what I'm using it for now.

Submitted by Alan Paz at 09/20/2004 00:15

Price Paid: US $175.00 used

Ease of Use: 8
My first Sampler. I chose it over the 4000 because it is 100% identical to the older and more expensive brother. (on power up it says' it's a 4000, and comparing the guts it is 100% identical except for a few useless effects. really easy to use, espically if you do the sampling and editing on a PC and upload it.

Features: 5
64 voices is a bit limited today but it is very useable for a couple of instruments coupled with your other gear. dont try and use this as your only synth/sampler.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
Fantastic! The sounds are better than most! Granted it's a sampler so it depends on how you made your samples or the quality of the samples you buy. I find it silly to buy samples of analog synths you can get on ebay for less than the price of the sample CD to load into the unit, but in voices and real instrument sampling it is fantastic. 44.1Khz sampling at 16 bit Mono and stereo (stereo cut's your polyphony in 1/2! be warned) is Cd quality and I can not detect any compression comparing a sample from the esi2000 and a sample recorded in cooledit uncompressed on a PC with a $500.00 studio soundcard.

Basically ignore the "samples" CD's running around for this unit, make your own that are better and certianly more origional. the crossfade looping makes looping a sound really easy compared to akai units.

Reliability: 8
well it's 5 years old and it still works great. I ripped out the floppy and replaced it easily with a ZIP drive off ebay for $20.00 and a buddy of mine installed a Hard drive inside as well as a Zip drive easily. it's dirt cheap to upgrade all the way to 128meg for sample memory and the turbo option is a complete waste of money.

I would not road with it but in a studio it's killer.

Customer Support: 1
It's E-mu... they are legendary for their crappy technical and customer support. www.google.com is your friend for support.

Overall Rating: 9
some of the $2000.00+ samplers today are not much better than this unit. some features I desire are hard to find even on new units that are insanely priced (seperate samples for velocity and pressure as well as each key)

This is my favorite and I'm looking to get a second unit. as far as "vintage" gear goes, this one is gold.

Submitted by Anonymous at 08/25/2004 08:09

Price Paid: US $328

Ease of Use: 9
To be honest I haven't had this sampler for all that long (less than 6 months) but I found that the controls and menus are relatively easy to use and follow. My only complaint would be the size of the LCD screen: too little in my mind for quick and easy action and read out of information.

Features: 8
This unit offers a lot of bang for the buck: 64 voice polyphony, 16 part multi-timbral, upgradable to 128M of memory and great filters. I would like to give a perfect 10 if it were not for the lack of standrad memory: only 4Megs - not enough for laoding most of the sample E-Mu sound banks. The first thing I recommend to anybody is to load the sampler with the maximum memory. Another point, you abolutely need a CD Rom a hard drive to load and save your work (or at the very least a zip drive), both of which need to be purchased in addition to the ESI. Beware also that this sampler does not have any built in effects: one needs to purchase the Turbo kit which is not cheap. I settled for a used Behringer Virtualizer Pro to do the job.
As a point of interest, I purchased a new Plextor 40X CD drive for $55 USD on E-Bay and a new Seagate ST9171N 9 Gig hard drive for $65 (also on E-Bay). Both units have been mounted in a new Compaq SCSI enclosure purchased for $25 (yes on E-Bay). As it is now, the whole system works flawlessly.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 8
Once all is said and done, the sounds and possibilities are endless. I have purchased several sample CD roms (all E-MU samples) and have mixed feelings: Some of the vintage analog synth sounds are terrific, however I'm dissapointed with some of the more traditional instruments. I found that the sounds on my Proteus 1 were superior. However, I would probably attribute it to the qulaity of the CDs.

Reliability: 10
I have no complaints at all - easy to set up and works perfectly.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had the need to contact them.

Overall Rating: 10
For the price I paid I think it's fantastic value, and would probably find it difficult to find a new one at the same price, but would definately replace it if I were to lose it.

Submitted by Simon at 10/16/2002 11:45

Price Paid: 400 (pound)

Ease of Use: 8
Software v. 3.2
I've only had it for 3 days and it's my first E-mu product, but I already know most of the procedures, so I guess it's quite a simple piece of kit. The manual is realy helpfull, although reading over 300 pages of it on the computer screen (it's not printed, only CDRom)... well, it hurts.

Features: 7
64 voices polyphony, 19 types of filters, some interesting sound processing options (although not real-time, and without any graphic editing). Memory upgrading is a must (up to 128MB) , but I couldn't be bothered to buy the turbo version (S/PDIF, couple of additional analogue outs and two FX processors). MIDI is quite nicely implemented, althoug I could use a few more continous controlers. Generally, I'm happy with the features for the price.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 6
First of all - it's f... quiet. You can adjust the headroom by a couple dB, but you'll be risking distortion, when trying to make full use of the unit's polyphony. Another thing - it's too warm-sounding for my taste. I sampled a couple of drum sounds off my Yamaha DJX, and the harshness of the sounds seemes to have dissapeared. I like to add a bit of lo-fi edge to my music, and now I'm going to have to add it at the mixing stage, which I'm not looking forward to...
One more thing: when I use Auto Truncate function while samplig soft (like analougue open hi-hats) sounds with longer decay-time, the sampler simply cuts the tail off. Maybe there's a treshold setting for this function, but I havn't found it yet (well, it's only been 3 days...).
I have yet to try the CD-ROMs supplied (no CDR drive at the moment). I'm expecting a lot, because E-mu is known for it's sample libraries.

Reliability: N/A
No crashes yet (touch wood)...

Customer Support: N/A
I haven't had chance to deal with it yet, but from what I've heard, It's terrible...

Overall Rating: 8
I think it's not a bad sampler for the money. Quite a lot of features, some expansion possibilities, ease of use, and I got 9 sample CDs with it... I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together (for a while at least). Still, maybe I should have gone for Akai...

Submitted by Geesus at 04/13/2002 09:24

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 7
Software Version 3.02.
The sounds that came with the unit are ok.
Manual was basiclly good.

Features: 7
64 voice/polyphony
Can be expanded for effects & outputs.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 7
Some of the sounds are good, such as the sound effects.
There is a lot of redundancy on the disks.
The piano sounds were 90% useless, not very realistic.
The pads were good.

Reliability: N/A
No comment.
No failures yet.

Customer Support: 2
I am disappointed with Customer Service.
I purchased my Sampler October of 2000, E-MU hadn't updated their compatablity list since 1998. I purchase a Plextor UltraMax 40x SCSI CD ROM and it didn't work with the sampler. All the ESI 2000's LED's lighted up without the unit being turned on. I sent that unit back and purchase a Ricoh 6200s CD rOM unit that was listed as compatable but it wouldn't mount. The sampler wouldn't recognize it. I spoke with E-MU and they said that it must not be compatable. I sent it back and Purchased a Glyph (Toshiba 6401b 40x) CD ROM and it did the exact same this as the Ricoh unit. After several calls I got a Tech that suggested an alternate mounting proceedure (not listed in the manual) which worked. The Richo unit would have worked if they had have had offered the alternate mounting proceedure earlier. I wasted $60.00 in shipping fees.
Now E-MU is selling a Plextor 40x CD ROM for $250.00 in place of the Toshia 12x they were selling for the same price. I asked them what model number Plextor it was, just for my personal knowledge, and they wouldn't tell me.
This is not good Customer Service.
E-MU is selling EDO SIMS (64 meg) for $279.00, PriceWatch.Com has them for as low as $28.00 for 64 meg. I paid $34.00 for my SIMMS.
And SCSI CD ROMS are around $150.00 or less new.
A good note is that I purchased a Quantum Viking 4.5 gig hard drive and had no trouble at all.

Overall Rating: 6
This is my first samplerand first E-MU product, I can't campare it to anything else yet.
I have mixed opinions about E-MU and Ensoniq. Ensoniq no longer supports some of there older keyboards and didn't supply schematics and repair manuals for some of them.
I wish there was a simple way to create my own sound banks for quick access. Such as all strings or basses etc.. group in banks at certain locations.
Would I buy again from E-MU/Ensoniq?, probablly not.

Submitted by Anonymous at 06/11/2001 13:09

Price Paid: 699 (£)

Ease of Use: 9
The sampler is very easy to use, slighlty easier than the Akai's in fact. Everything is just a few button-pushes away.

Features: 6
The filters are good, but overrated (I've heard better software-based filters). Really, they're the only good thing about this machine. It's stuffed full of editing tools, non of which are real-time and none of which are particularly good. There are no in-built effects.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 5
This is where the Emu really falls down. Basically, what you put into it is not what you can expect to get out. Why? Because the Emu seems to compress the signal to death. Sharp sounds come out sounding dull. Some, top-end sounds can almost dissapear! Sure, it's got a good bass-end, but this doesn't compensate for it's lack of clarity at the top-end of the scale. It's ok for drums and bass, but I would never sample vocals with it.

Reliability: 3
Well, I've had mine for about a year and sometimes when i switch it on, it doesn't come on properly and the rear of the sampler has to be "tapped". Considering that the samlpler hasn't moved position since I bought it this is pretty bad news and makes me wonder what would happen if I were to gig it.

Customer Support: 1
Emu have the WORST customer support ever. It took them THREE months to answer two of my emails for which they didn't even apologise. In addition, I wasn't happy with their reply to my query which was to do with the manual containing false information. That email never got answered, nor the one after that. Nice one Emu.

Overall Rating: 4
I bought the Emu because I thought it offered good value for money but I was wrong. In comparison, the Yamaha's offer more features to price ratio, whilst the Akai's simply have the best overall sound. I would never buy Emu again, not least because they have such a bad customer attitude which has put me off completely. I'd rather have an Akai because they are just as easy to use, have better real0time capabilities and don't colour the sound too much.

Submitted by J West at 04/16/2001 09:41

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 8
Compared to Akai, this thing is pretty easy to use. If you want to get any serious work done with this machine, SCSI it up to your computer and send samples to the unit with Sound Forge. Don't use ESi-Win (free). It's useless compared to Sound Forge.

Features: 9
Polyphony is good. I haven't had any issues with it yet. I use a Lexicon MPX-100 for effects. It was only $150 and sounds... well it's Lexicon, of course it sounds good. I've heard the Turbo Kit sounds like crap and costs about $400! As for upgrading, I would beef up the RAM and add some SCSI items. I upgraded my memory to 8mb and hooked up a Toshiba 32x SCSI CD-ROM and to the SCSI card in my PC. Don't buy your CD drive from E-mu though. I got mine at Goodwill for $20 and a cable for $1. It all works perfectly.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 6
The free CDs are OK, and provide some usable sounds. The unit sounds good but has a tendancy to "change" your sounds. It gives them a somewhat warm quality. The main problem I have is that the output levels are way too weak!! I have to turn up my mixer big time to get it to a good level, and by that time the noise is unacceptable!! SCSI also produces alot of noise. Unplug all your SCSI stuff when you master!!!

Reliability: 9
I have had no problems in this department. I use it in a studio, but it seems like it might be a bit weak for use as a gig instrument. If you need a sampler for the road, get a Triton keyboard.

Customer Support: 7
Customer support emails take an eternity to be replied to. The website is very helpful, though.

Overall Rating: 9
I love this unit... except for the weak outputs!!! Such a great machine spoiled by noise and weak outputs. I will probably not sell it, but I would like to eventually get a better E-mu or a Yamaha.

Submitted by Devin Weston at 02/21/2001 21:24

Price Paid: 649 (pounds sterling)

Ease of Use: 7
Not too hard to use with the front panel but I strongly suggest hooking it up to your PC audio editor e.g. SoundForge via SCSI. This makes digital editing such as trimming, cropping normalizing and editing loop points MUCH MUCH faster. The digital editing tools are joke. It takes for ever just to trim a sample ! Great filters (E-MU know their filters !) and a surprising number of synthesizer features such as envelopes and LFOs. The full Manual comes on CD as a PDF which I HATE ! I'd much rather have it on paper but I guess it's cheaper and more enviro-friendly on CD. Althogether not too bad !

Features: 8
Plenty of Polyphony, loads of different filter types with great names such as "Bottom Feeder" ! Some whacked-out Doppler effect presets which make sounds fly around the room in 3D although it takes about a week for them to process ! No built in effects but the (expensive) turbo option provides them. I've heard the turbo option effects and to be honest you'd be better off getting a cheap effects unit like the Behringer Virtualizer instead and hooking that up to the ESi-2000.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
The sound quality of this sampler is absolutely awesome ! Crytsal clear with a slight warmth that makes your samples sound better that the originals ! I cannot fault the quality and depth of the filters either. They range from warm and fuzzy right up to acid squelchy and the formant filters are a real treat making your samples sound like the human voice. Brilliant. My only criticism is a low output from the unit but this can be quickly and easily adjusted.

Reliability: 8
Great build quality with a heavy duty metal chassis. Would survive most gigs but I'd put it in a flightcase rack. You will have to shell out a bit of cash on exra storage and RAM too. Get yourself a SCSI ZIP drive and a SCSI CD-ROM and bump the RAM up to 32mb. These are the minimum options I would recommend at the time if purchase.

Customer Support: 3
Okay if you live in the U.S. I guess. Tricky here in the U.K. All warranty cards and special offers nside the box were U.S. related !

Overall Rating: 9
It's a great budget sampler from E-mu ! Before the esi-2000 came along, buying a new budget sampler meant one thing, AKAI S2000. If you've ever used and S2000 you will be amazed at the simplicity and features of the esi-2000. Voted one of the best samplers of 2000 by Future Music Magazine readers. A bargain buy. Get one

Submitted by Jim Howells at 01/09/2001 05:20

Price Paid: US $540

Ease of Use: 9
THE UNIT WAS EASY TO USE . BUT I WAS ALREADY PRETTY UP ON THE EMU PROCESS.WHOLESALE MUSIC CONVIENCED ME TO GET THIS UNIT. I HAD A SP 1200 IN THE DAY AND I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LIKED THE SOUNDS OF IT.

Features: N/A

Expressiveness/Sounds: 8
THE SAMPLING PROCESS WAS AS GOOD AS THE SOUNDS I PUT INTO IT.IT WAS GREAT FOR THE DANCE PROJECTS I HAD IN THE WORKS. AND I HAVE USED IT ON SEVERAL PROJECTS SENCE. IT SEEMS THE MORE I USE IT THE MORE I LIKE IT. I FOUND HUNDREDS OF SOUNDS ON-LINE THAT WERE PERFECT FOR ME.

Reliability: 10
I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS AS OF YET. MOST OF THE ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS I WORK WITH EITHER BREAK IN THE FIRST 2 WEEKS OR LAST WELL BEYOUND THE WARRANTY. I GIVE IT A 10 FOR NOW.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
DO TO THE GREAT PRICE I GOT AT WHOLESALEMUSIC.COM THE UNIT PAID FOR ITSELF IN 3 SESSIONS. I HAVE A BEDROOM FULL OF OLD GEAR THAT I HAVE BEEN USING FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS. 2 ROOMS FULL OF GEAR I STILL USE.I PICKED THIS UNIT FOR THE PRICE 540 , NOW I WISH , AND STILL MAY , I HAD BOUGHT MORE OF A UNIT RATHER THEN THE CHEEP ONE .

Submitted by Anonymous at 11/25/2000 08:03

Price Paid: US $900

Ease of Use: 9
Couldn't get much easier. Everything is perfectly clear at all times.

Features: 8
64 notes poly, 16 multitimbral. No effects comes as standard, and this is a bit of a shame. Turbo expansion is overpriced, so the easiest way is to go with an external effects box.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 8
Sound quality is impeccable. Filters all sound good, but the digital processors are a buncha jokes. Again, not having any effects limits the usefulness somewhat I suppose.

Reliability: N/A
Dependability is dependent (no pun intendent) on your external SCSI gear - bad gear = no keyboards for this gig!

Customer Support: N/A
N/A

Overall Rating: 8
It's the best sampler for the money, no doubt. But I think if lost, I'd go for one of those keyboardy things with a sampler built-in. To much hassle to drag all those units around.

Submitted by Tomas Lundell at 11/15/2000 12:44