Ensoniq ESI-32
This is not an Ensoniq. The ESI-32 is E-mu's budget sampler, and the record needs to say so.
Overview
The ESI-32 is an E-mu Systems product, not an Ensoniq one. The catalog entry filed it under Ensoniq, but the period documentation says otherwise. E-mu's own advertising for the ESI-32 lists the company's Scotts Valley, California address and pitches the machine as the affordable way into the Emulator line. Ensoniq's name shows up in the same era's magazines only as a compatibility target. Third-party software like BIAS Peak and ReCycle listed the ESI-32 alongside the Ensoniq EPS/ASR family as samplers they could talk to over SCSI. That's a format relationship, not a shared badge. If you want an Ensoniq sampler, look at the EPS, the ASR-10, or the Mirage.
Per E-mu's own copy, the ESI-32 is a two-rackspace digital sampling instrument built to undercut the price of everything around it. The headline spec was 16-bit audio resolution with 32-voice polyphony - the same polyphony figure as the far more expensive Emulator IIIx it was derived from. E-mu described it as essentially an EIIIx without the submix outputs, and reviewers at the time seem to have agreed. Sound on Sound (October 1997, p.265) carried a used listing for a unit with 8 MB, SCSI, filters, chorus, timestretch, EQ, doppler pitch, and four outs.
The sampling engine was the selling point. E-mu advertised 32 four-pole digital resonant filters and a set of DSP functions, including time compression/expansion and pitch transposition said to be virtually distortionless across ten octaves. Sample memory could be expanded to 32 MB via SIMMs. The machine shipped with a floppy drive, which could be swapped for an optional 270 MB SyQuest removable hard drive. S/PDIF digital I/O and an advanced SCSI interface were offered as upgrades. Ten user-assignable front-panel trigger keys let you audition sounds without a keyboard plugged in, so the ESI-32 worked as a standalone module right out of the box.
The price was the whole argument. E-mu's advertising put standard models at US $1,495. Electronic Musician (as reprinted in the period documentation) noted that the ESI-32's budget price had pushed some of E-mu's competitors into serious price cuts of their own. The same coverage placed it directly against the e-64 at $3,295. The e-64 had no expansion slots and needed a factory modification to add balanced outputs, but was otherwise the same animal at more than twice the money. E-mu's ad copy leaned on a "first sampler or last sampler" pitch.
Compatibility was the other big selling point. The ESI-32 could load EIIIx, Emax II, and Akai S1000/S1100 sound libraries, and E-mu's ad claimed over 50 GB of available material at the time. A buyer wasn't starting from zero. Third-party editors supported it too. BIAS Peak and ReCycle both listed the ESI-32 among their compatible machines, and the SMDI protocol let samples move between computer and sampler over SCSI, though sampler-specific parameters still needed dedicated drivers.
The record doesn't give production years, original UK pricing, dimensions, or detailed service information. The ESI-32 shows up in the period literature as a current product in the mid-to-late nineties, but no start or end date is documented here. Collectors report the usual caveats for a machine of this vintage. The floppy drive and any SyQuest unit are the wear items, and the SIMM expansion is only useful if the RAM is actually installed. Verify condition and installed options before buying, because a stripped ESI-32 and a fully loaded one share a model number and not much else.
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