Ensoniq Project ROM review.
2003-10-21 by rabidmusic
I finally received my Ensoniq Project ROM after debating on the purchase for about a year. Ensoniq Project is a blend of two Ensoniq ROM's for the MR/ZR series containing sounds from their hip-hop and world expansions. As with the Sounds of the ZR, the size of the Emu ROM is less than the total size of two combined Ensoniq ROM's. The ROM has quite a few beat patches which may be good for quickly tossing together a new hip-hop flavored song but I normall find there useless. There is also a collection of simple arps and chord patches that are common on hip-hop sound sets. Again, these tend to be useless for people who do not need to play a chord with one finger. In all, these patches which may be considered useless number about 100. On most systems this would be a problem but luckily the Emu ROM's come with 512 patches. The rest of the patches can be broken down into three areas. Hip-hop. There are a collection of patches and kits which are very nice. There is not enough material here to compete with the PurePhatt ROM, but it makes a nice addition. There are a few interesting sounds in some of the kits, and just a sprinkling of spoken words to add some spice to the creation. There are a lot of basses, some very nice kits, and an unexpected number of sound effect patches. World. I once owned the original Ensoniq World ROM which was installed in a MR Rack. The ROM was very nice and I regret selling it. They now easily sell for over $200 on ebay. The sound set on the Ensoniq Project world section is nice but it does not quite compete with the dedicated World Expedition ROM. For me the highlight is the world kits. Vintage. Yes, vintage sounds on this ROM. I was quite surprised to find so many ep's, organs and synths. Most likely these are from the hip-hop section but I feel the need to separate them in my review. In my view the electric piano's and organs are a disappointment. They cannot compare to the sounds form the Vintage Pro ROM or even the base ROM in the P2500. There are a few synth leads but not enough to get excited about. The big surprise is the pads. There are a lot of nice usable pads and sound effects patches. So do you need the Ensoniq Project ROM? If you have a unit with Pure Phatt, World Expedition and Vintage Pro ROM's you will not gain much by picking up this ROM. If you have the an MP-7 and want a bit more variety the Ensoniq Project can fill that need. Where this ROM really stands out is in a tightly focused unit that needs some variety. I placed my Ensoniq Project into a Virtuoso 2000. It gives that device the variety of sounds I need to make it usefull in every song. You can do this with the Protozoa or Sounds of the MR ROM, but those have a different focus on sounds. This would also be very nice in an XL-7 as the hop-hop and world kits would give you a lot of mileage. I am not sure I would pay the normal $279 price for the Ensoniq Project ROM. It would be worth the $170 I have seen them sell for on ebay. At $79 it is a great buy for the kits alone. Robert