by pongoid » Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:05 am
I used an a3000 v2 for years. It was quite a cool sampler. Not as nice as an e-mu IMO, but it did have some interesting features. The effects were fun, but not super tweakable. LOTS of EQ options, which was great for getting things to sit in a mix when I didn't have enough mixer to create good seperation. Also good for dealing with different rooms and systems. I stopped using mine when its second hard crashed. The first time it happened I must have lost four or five years worth of original samples (thousands of hours of synth progrmming), sequences, sys-ex back-ups and ideas. I was devastated. The second time it happened, a year or two later, I vowed that that was to be the end of that.
As long as the one you get has good encoders, a good input section (as some tend to get burnt out), a good HD and you back it up externally just in case, I'd say that the a3000 is a decent workhorse. It's not nearly as nice as an E-mu, as far as sample sound quality, and the filters are not as good, but you can get it to do some cool things, and it is fun as an instrument in its own right. As far as the ROM waves... meh. They were kind of boring. Better to sample a complex form and get it to do something interesting.
Would I call it a supplement to an E-mu Ultra? Not really, no. I'd say you'd do a LOT better to get something like a DSI Evolver, or a Waldorf Pulse or a Nord uMod or something else that is small, with low polyphony, and fun programming but makes really cool sounds. Then you get to really put the horsepower of the E-mu to use and both supplement each other.
$.02