Editing Ensoniq EPS (section)

==Construction==
The [[Musical keyboard|keyboard]] is of thick plastic construction of a dark gray color with 61 weighted keys. There are assignable pitch, modulation wheels, and two patch select buttons. The interior of the unit is accessed by removing four hex screws under the front of the keyboard and swinging open the rear-hinged control panel.

The whole unit is configurable through a custom operating system (latest version was 2.49 for the EPS and 1.30 for the EPS-16 Plus). After the system boots from the floppy drive, it flashes a "Tuning Keyboard - Hands Off" message while it calibrates its polyphonic after-touch keyboard. The EPS-16 Plus is capable of storing the OS in the optional FlashBank, which removes the need for a boot disk.

An optional Output Expander module allows access to eight discrete mono outputs on the machine, allowing to separately mix levels and effects for each loaded sample.

The key limitations of the EPS were its proprietary disk format, and later a lack of support from [[Creative Technology]], the current owner of Ensoniq. A 19" rack-mount version of both machines were also available in limited numbers.

This model was superseded by the [[Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus|EPS-16 Plus]], released in 1991. The EPS-16 Plus is very similar to the EPS. Its main addition is integrated DSP effects and stereo audio routing.  Due to the upgrade to 16-bit audio, the Output Expander on the EPS-16 Plus is different, instead providing three pairs of stereo outputs, two from before the new effects chip.