Affordable sampling just became that bit more affordable with the release of E-mu's ESI-32. Roger Brown fires it up to see if this particular bird has wings...

In a field previously dominated by the big boxes of Akai, E-mu and Roland, samplers had an enviable reputation for sound quality and an unenviable reputation for big price tags. The release of Roland's S760 placed the proverbial cat amongst the sampling pigeons, making Roland's famed warm sound and extensive filtering available at a price which seemed to place it within the reach of most of us.

A rarer bird, E-mu, started the whole process of making sampling available to a wider market back in 1980, when their original Emulator streamlined the Fairlight's sampling capabilities, and accommodated it in a keyboard. Sadly, Emulators and the following family up to the E-III, were cheaper in the States than on this side of the pond, and it is largely this price differential which has been responsible for the predominance of Akais over here. That is until now...

Out of the box

On paper, the ESI-32 is impressive, with a choice of 22.05 kHz and 44.1 kHz sampling rates, with 16 bit resolution promising CD quality sound. The extensive filtering and processing options make this more than just a cut-down E-III. In fact, the ESI provides professional quality to equal the E-III, without a price tag to match.

The ESI-32 comes with a vast range of preset sample banks on disk, and these ably demonstrate just what you can do with this particular bird. Stereo inputs and outputs, plus another set of stereo subout/mix in points for inline effects provide generous enough mixing opportunities, while a SCSI port provides access to hard drive storage, and importation of Akai and Emax II samples. There's even an option to fit a coaxial digital interface, for transfer/synchronisation with DAT machines and digital effects units.

The preset banks supplied make a good introduction to the filtering and effects sections of the ESI, featuring in many cases a bank of 16 or 32 sounds which have then been altered in character, through extensive use of the VCA and VCF features of the ESI's Dynamic Processing module. This module also includes an LFO and tuning, delay and chorus functions to produce wide variations from an original timbre, and an Auxiliary Envelope for effects sculpting.

There is only one filter, a low pass one with variable cut-off frequency and Q, as well as a filter envelope over which you have control of tracking and amount, as well as hold, decay and sustain. This gives quite a fine degree of control over the original sound. The VCA offers the usual hold, decay and sustain controls, as well as level and pan settings to produce those subtle variations in volume of a sound over time, which differentiates one tone from another. This is particularly good for taking percussive sounds, and producing a wide variety of timbres.

"the concert grand I edited was among the most realistic I have heard on any sampler"

The LFO offers triangle, sine, sawtooth and square waves, plus a variation setting to thicken the sound, by creating the illusion of different sounds, all of varying LFO modulation rates. The rate itself is variable from 0.08 Hz to 18.4 Hz, and control over the pitch and cut-off frequency provide the means to produce shimmering vibrato effects.

The auxiliary envelope is interesting, in that it allows you to to link either pitch, pan, LFO rate or LFO destination to it. Adding envelope control to an LFO destination, for example, allows modulation to fade in or out over the duration of a note, to emulate the shifting timbres of real tones. You can also map the velocity of your keyboard or sequencer input to the pitch, VCA level or VCA attack of a sound, for realistic varying tones.

Getting a look in

All of this is from a very clear LCD screen, which is logically laid out and easy to follow. Of course there are the usual nested pages to negotiate, but most of the modules are accessed from a front panel button first, and then negotiated from there by means of the large cursor dial, making editing from the front of this unit easier than previous E-mus.

In fact, only the lack of a waveform display mars the otherwise excellent editing capabilities of this most excellent of samplers. I managed to link up to the ESI with the Emax II driver in Avalon, but would have expected a waveform display to be available, in the absence of an option to upgrade to some form of monitor interface. The ESI's closest rival, the Roland S760, features both.

This is a shame, because, in terms of digital processing the ESI offers some nice features, from time compression, compression and parametric equalisation, and sample rate conversion, through to doppler and panning effects. These are all easily accessed and adjusted from the front panel, and there is even a sample calculator to work out the number of samples in a cycle, dependent on sample rate and pitch. This is handy for calculating the desired pitch-to-sample rate ratio for single cycle loops, maximising your use of memory.

The review model boasted 8Mb of RAM, making life very easy, but with the minimum 2Mb you'll need to pay careful attention to your sample housekeeping. This is all done from a dedicated sample management button, from where you then negotiate through the various submodules in E-mu terminology.

There is also a very useful function called sample integrity, which reconstructs the sample header, removing unsightly pops and thuds from sample loop points. Portions of a sample may be cut and pasted into another sample, or back into the sample from which they came. Here again, I found myself calling out for a waveform display, the better to see what I was moving about. A crossfade function helps to smooth over awkward joins here, and with a little practice, I was able to achieve highly usable results. But I would still stick my neck out and say that once you've edited with a waveform display, anything less seems somehow just a touch too retro.

Bending an ear

In terms of sound quality, the ESI proved quite a surprise. I was expecting a sound much like the Roland's, or E-III, all warmth and deep bass. While I wouldn't say the ESI was lacking in bottom end, I did perceive a high-end brightness of timbre which these ears normally associate with the venerable Akai samplers. Perhaps E-mu are after Akai's customers in preference to Roland's, and the import facility for Akai would seem to bear this out.

In use, the operating system does seem to have picked up some of the Akai's famed ease of use, and I certainly found myself at home sampling and editing samples within minutes rather than hours. From low, rumbling basses to clear, bell-like tones and all manner of percussive sounds, the ESI was a delight, with clean loop points easily achieved. Constructing sweeping pads became a particular pleasure, via the LFOs pitch and cutoff settings and mapping of the LFO routing to the auxiliary envelope for expressive modulation.

Importing sounds is a simple affair. A warning here: Ensure you reset the SCSI ID on your CD-ROM drive to 1, the number following the internal floppy drive, 0 as the ESI kept generating errors trying to read a SCSI ID set to 5. Obviously it likes its drive IDs all in apple-pie sequential order. Once you have done this, the ESI is as happy to read Akai samples direct from an Akai unit or CD-ROM, as it is importing Emax-II samples.

I was lucky enough to have Newtronic's State of the Art sampling CDs in Akai format, and importing these provided further avenues of exploration. The piano and string samples came in very bright and aggressive, and forced my attention to the filtering section of the ESI, where a little judicious trimming of the envelope's attack and cut-off points tamed the samples, and produced some stunningly clear dance pianos. Natural sounds too benefited from this treatment, and the concert grand I edited was among the most realistic I have heard on any sampler.

Verdict

For your money, the ESI-32 provides a usable 2Mb of RAM, and enough filtering, processing and effects options, to keep all but the most nit-picking of samplists happy for hours. As an entry level sampler it certainly takes a lot of beating, and will definitely not become quickly redundant, as has been the case with other stabs at the same market. In fact, memory upgrades and digital expansions means the ESI will continue to be a useful part of any studio setup for a long time to come.

My only gripe is with the lack of waveform display, but even this audio-visually challenged samplist has to admit I didn't really find that too much of a bother after an extended period of use. As the ESI looks like the most affordable sampler yet available, I guess working from digits is a price well worth paying for such advanced features, in a package that should keep both the musician and the bank manager on speaking terms.