Free Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus Emulator: The 90s Sampler Running Its Real OS in Your DAW

Here is a wild one for the sampler heads. The Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus came out in 1991 and it was the sampler a whole generation of hip hop and electronic producers cut their teeth on. 16-bit sampling, a gritty 4-pole filter per voice, the ES5505 sample playback chip, built in effects, an 8-track sequencer, and that famously weird and wonderful Transwave synthesis that lets you sweep through a sample like it is a wavetable. It sounded like nothing else, and a lot of that was the converters and the quirks of the hardware itself.

This free emulator from mardlib does not try to copy the sound with samples or approximations. It runs the real thing. It emulates the actual hardware around the original Ensoniq operating system, so the 68000 CPU, the keyboard controller, the ES5505 voices, the ES5510 effects chip, the floppy controller and the display are all running the same code the keyboard ran. You get the real VFD display, the real button layout, the real sampling workflow, and the real OS quirks, inside your DAW as a VST3 or AU plugin. It even does the original sampling, with the modelled mic preamp and line input, plus floppy disk images, EFE instrument import, and the 8-track sequencer synced to your DAW clock.

One honest heads up: this is a young open source project and it is still being actively fixed. The Mac build is the smooth one, and the Windows build had a startup crash that got fixed in version 1.1.1, though at least one Windows user has reported the newest build not loading the OS while the older 1.0.10 build works for them. If 1.1.1 gives you trouble on Windows, the older release is still on the releases page. It is free, so it costs you nothing but a bit of patience to try.

Grab it free here:
https://github.com/mardlib/Ensoniq-EPS-16-Plus/releases

How to install:
Windows: grab the Windows x64 VST3 zip from the releases page, unpack it, and copy the .vst3 folder into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. Then rescan plugins in your DAW.
Mac: grab the macOS universal zip, unpack it, and run the Install EPS-16 Plus.command file, which puts everything in the right place and handles the signing. Then rescan plugins in your DAW.
Before it will boot, you need to add your own original Ensoniq files to the EPS_files folder next to the plugin: the main ROM, the KPC firmware, and the OS disk image. A successful boot reaches NO INSTRUMENTS on the display, and from there you load instruments and samples the same way you would on the hardware.

A word on those files, and this matters: piracy is not endorsed here. You must own the device to use the emulator, and you must find the ROM file yourself. The ROM, KPC firmware, and OS disk are copyrighted and are not included with the download.

Here is a video of the real hardware in action, The Daydream Sound putting the EPS 16+ through its paces:

The real EPS-16 Plus operating system, running in your DAW, for free. That is a pretty good deal for a sampler that defined a sound.