emusonacid!

When buying a used E5000 sampler, what things should I look for on the sampler so that I dont come home with a malfunctioning one? Is there anything on the sampler that often wear of? What is the avarage price of this sampler in its most basic form?

I am also considering going for a computer based setup with my mp-7 controlling reason, how does the E5000 cope with the samplers in reason? Im sure E5000 sounds better but how about functionality? is e5000 outdated compared to those? I want to be able to access functions quickly, how are the loading times on E5000? Are there any lenghty procedures required to access certain functions?

all answers are very appreciated, thanks in advance

I'd advise loading a bank of sounds via floppy, cos i got a used emu a while back and the floppy drive was causing the unit to freeze. Now - a lot of people don't use the floppy drive at all I know, so I got an Hard Drive and i had real probs with that as well. And then the EOS wouldn't update. But the floppy was the 'sign' that things weren't as they should be. I sent the unit to the repairers and they quoted me ?700 for repair. More than I bought it for! So yeah check that...

Check the wheel on the front of the unit - lots of folk have had trouble with that.

Definitely make sure that a HD can be installed. I bought my e5000 brand new a few years ago and it worked perfectly fine until I decided to install an IDE drive. The sampler would not recognize any type of IDE drive at all. At first I blamed the HD's but after trying about 5 different manufacturers I figured my e5000 was bunk. The issue happened to be a faulty motherboard and wouldn't even be an issue if I never attempted to install and IDE drive. So if the e5000 does not already come with an installed HD make sure this is possible before buying it.... if possible. It will save you much pain in the future.

I think you'll really enjoy the filters and modulation possibilities compared to reason. Everythings pretty damn quick assuming you aren't loading 3 min. samples (why would you do that anyway ). It's just hard to get your head around how the menus are set up at first, but if you have used the MP-7 it should be easy for you. Also, I think that the MP-7 will be an excellent combination with the e5000 just because you will be able to set up just midi channels on the MP-7 that just control triggering, filters and parameters on presets on the emu. I'm almost positive you can do this with midi cc and it may actually already be set up for the proper destinations since they units are both made by emu.

Check that the EMU seal sticker is still intact , you know the one on the back that says 'void if broken', if its broken , someones been inside and might have compromised the circuitry.