ENSONIQ EPS-16 PLUS Musician's Manual page 106

Section 5 — Sampling
• PRE TRIGGER — This lets the EPS-16 PLUS start the sample before the
sampling threshold is reached. The problem with using a high sampling
threshold is that you can sometimes chop off low-level information at the
beginning of the sound (below the threshold), making it sound clipped and
unnatural. That's where the Pre Trigger parameter comes in.
The EPS-16 PLUS initially records the sample into a "buffer memory" of up to
127 milliseconds (a little over one tenth of a second). You determine the length
of this buffer with the pre trigger amount, found by scrolling three steps to the
right from the level-detect screen. Now when you press Enter•Yes, you get
the benefits of a higher threshold without chopping off the beginning of the
sound.
After the sampling threshold is reached, the EPS-16 PLUS will "back up" the
SAMPLE START by the amount of the time selected in the PRE TRIGGER
parameter. This allows sound just below the threshold level (which would
otherwise be lost) to be retained, as shown below:
A pre-trigger amount of 10 to 20 ms should be adequate in most cases. You
could set it higher to ensure that you don't miss any of the sound, or when
using a very high sample threshold. In any case, a litle silence in front of the
sound is better than clipping it short, because you can later move the sample
start forward to eliminate the dead space, and then truncate the Wavesample.
• INPUT LEVEL= MIC/LINE — Here you select either MIC-level (for when a
microphone is connected directly to the Audio In) or LINE level (for the output
of a mixer, pre-amp, synthesizer, etc). Make sure it is set appropriately for
your current needs. Press the Right Arrow button again:
• SAMPLE TIME — This tells you how much sampling time is available, taking
into account the current Sample Rate and the amount of free Internal Memory.
It is a read-out only and can not be adjusted (though changing the sample rate
will cause this number to change).
• Press the Right Arrow button once more to return to Level-Detect
mode.
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EPS-16 PLUS Musician's Manual
Easy Sampling