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Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103637] Sun, 28 June 2009 03:05 Go to next message
rokuez is currently offline  rokuez   UNITED STATES
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Registered: March 2009
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Was ensoniq paris the main competitor for pro tools HD in the 90s

what was the price of ensoniq paris components when they where new in the 90s? MEC, EDS, 8 in/out, Adat etc



Was it basically pro tools HD and Paris in terms of hi end digital recording during that time?

I'm guessing Paris was a top of the line digital system at the time it was released?


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Re: Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103640 is a reply to message #103637] Sun, 28 June 2009 10:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
kerryg is currently offline  kerryg   CANADA
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Yeah, PARIS was intended to go head-to-head with the more expensive ProTools at the time. There was no ProTools HD at that time, and wouldn't be for years to come - I think we'd just got to ProTools Mix when the PARIS project folded.

PARIS was spoken of as a "ProTools Killer". It may not have hit that ambitious target from the POV of business, but it might have been fairly accurate from a sonic perspective. In those days PT was an utter disgrace in comparison (I was using both simultaneously for a while). PT's come a long way since then, and HD is vastly improved over the crap Digi was shovelling back then. But even with the improvements of HD, the sonic character and handling characteristics of PARIS, while a matter of taste, still fit my own musical tastes much better.

As far as prices - Canadian dollars have fluctuated between par and 2/3 of a USD in the intervening years. But if I recall accurately, when I helped a friend buy a PARIS rig during its production years, after taxes a Bundle III with a MEC card or two cost over $8000 CAD. Say five or six grand US. And even at that price it was a bargain compared to buying a similarly configured PT rig.


"... being bitter is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other guy to die..." - anon

[Updated on: Sun, 28 June 2009 10:32]

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Re: Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103642 is a reply to message #103640] Mon, 29 June 2009 09:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne is currently offline  Wayne   UNITED STATES
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Registered: July 2008
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Hey gang,

I purchased the Paris Bundle 2 (442) and version 1.12 (I think) in '97 because the MEC wasn't even available yet. Six months later I did the Ensoniq upgrade deal, which was to return the 442 for the MEC and add something like $500 with one 8-in card. I then had a minimal bundle 3 system. It had one MEC and one 8-in card, one EDS, one C16 and the software on floppy discs. I believe it total'd out at $4,060.00. I used this config thru 2004.

Since 2004, I've added 3 more EDS, another MEC, another C16 and two more 8-in's and two IF-2's totaling out at about $1,300.00 more.

I'm all smiles Smile

wayne
Re: Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103643 is a reply to message #103642] Mon, 29 June 2009 09:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne is currently offline  Wayne   UNITED STATES
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Registered: July 2008
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Oh I forgot to mention . . . my other options were a stand alone hard disc recorders with something like 640 meg capacity or an ADAT. I forget the pricing on those. PT was out of my price range so not an option. I don't even remember considering it and I don't remember what the price was.

But I remember thinking that I'd couldn't keep too many songs on the stand alone hard disc recorder and I was trying to get away from tape. I had gone from 4 track to 8 track "cassette" systems.

The music store rep asked me to wait one month (approx late summer '97 when I was in the market for a new recording system) for this "new" Ensoniq computer based system, I waited. I already owned the MR-76 and thought that it was one of the best sounding keyboards of it's time for organ, strings, drum kits, electric and acoustic pianos.

I had a hope that the PARIS system would be of the same caliber and quality. I didn't even consider the sonic quality. Yeah, that's right. I didn't even know it was an issue. I just assumed all ADC's did what they needed to do and once digitized that was it. I was naive to digital sonic differences. So, when I saw the in store demo shortly there after, I knew it was right for me, because I could edit so easily and it had a 4 band parametric and built in efx's, so I initially sunk in the approx $3,459.00 for the bundle 2. I was in heaven.

Many years later and thanks to this newsgroup, I have become much more sonically literate. Still smiling. Smile

wayne
Re: Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103730 is a reply to message #103643] Sat, 11 July 2009 20:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Stevehwan is currently offline  Stevehwan   UNITED STATES
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Yup-I bought the first two in Wisconsin for about $4200.00. They were the MEC, EDS 1000, Control-16 and software. Back then I ran it on a 100 MHz Mac 7500 with only a 500 meg HD. All loaded G4s now. 9 of em'
Steve Smile

[Updated on: Sat, 11 July 2009 20:26]

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Re: Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103733 is a reply to message #103730] Sun, 12 July 2009 05:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Ted Gerber is currently offline  Ted Gerber   CANADA
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Stevehwan wrote on Sat, 11 July 2009 20:24
. All loaded G4s now. 9 of em'
Steve Smile


All 9 cards? or all 9 G4s? Either way, pretty impressive!

Ted


icon7.gif  Re: Paris main competitor for Pro Tools HD, original Paris prices [message #103779 is a reply to message #103637] Tue, 14 July 2009 18:36 Go to previous message
LaMontt  is currently offline  LaMontt   UNITED STATES
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Registered: January 2007
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I got a call from my local GC rep just after my honeymoon.. I had been using the VS800(s).. Man, One listen to that demo...I knew and stated "This is something different..Warm, fuzzy, wide...Bottom end..MAN!!!

I ordered 2 months later in 1998.. Still my go to DAW when my butt is on the line..And, i still get ask to do mixes even when the project is on PT HD...

I love Paris. Always will..

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