Section 1 — Controls and Architecture
About Memory
13
Memory
Disk Memory vs. Internal Memory
The instruments, banks, and sequences that the ASR-10 plays are stored on 3.5” micro-floppy
disks. The ASR-10 uses a high-density (HD) drive, allowing you to uses both Double-Sided
High-Density and Double-Sided Double-Density disks:
Disk Type
High-Density
High-Density
Double-Density
Double-Density
Format
(Sector Offset)
ENSONIQ
(offset 0)
COMPUTER
(offset 1)
ENSONIQ
(offset 0)
COMPUTER
(offset 1)
Kilobytes
1600
1440
800
720
Sample Words
800k
720k
400
360k
Blocks
3176
2863
1585
1426
A Block is a handy unit that the ASR-10 uses to measure Internal and Disk memory — 1
Block=256 sample words; 4 Blocks=1k sample words.
Sounds and sequences must be loaded from the disk into the internal memory of the ASR-10
before they can be played. Once it’s loaded into memory, an ASR-10 sound or sequence is
completely independent of the copy on the disk — you can do anything you want to it without
harming the version on the disk, unless you intentionally save the changes. You should feel free
to experiment as much as you like with the instrument, layer, and WaveSample parameters of
any sound that came with the ASR-10. As long as you have it safely on the disk, you can just
reload it and start over if your experiments go awry.
Important:
The data in the ASR-10 internal RAM Memory is not retained when the power is turned off.
Anything in memory, whether Instruments, Banks, or sequencer data, must be saved to disk
before you switch the power off, or it will be gone forever.
Warning!
If you are unfamiliar with installing SIMMs, or do not want to risk the possibility of causing
damage to the SIMMs or your ASR-10, we highly recommend having an Authorized ENSONIQ
Dealer install them. We also recommend reading all of the SIMM information before attempting
to install SIMMs in your ASR-10.
Purchasing SIMMs
Here is some important information you should know about purchasing the proper SIMMs:
• The ASR-10 was designed to use 1m x 8 or 4m x 8 (Macintosh) non-parity SIMMs (not 1m x 9
or 4m x 9 parity SIMMs). We highly recommend using this type of SIMMs.
• We do not recommend using parity SIMMs (designed for IBM PC compatibles). These SIMMs
may not operate properly, and may cause damage to the ASR-10.
• We recommend using SIMMs with an access speed of 80 nanoseconds or faster.
