EP-1320 Medieval

Last week I picked up the EP-1320 Medieval and I’ve been tinkering with it all weekend. Besides it’s buck-wild look, it comes with a bunch of expertly recorded medieval samples: flutes, bowed harps, gitterns, reeds, trumpets, bells, battle toms, rowdy peasants, and coconut horse hooves. This makes it sound like a joke, a musical toy that immediately finds itself in the back of your closet, but what I love about this musical machine is how seriously it takes itself. Yes, this is a medieval sampler! Get with the times! The EP-1320 reminds me of programming, or the first time I learned how to cd, ls, open . in the command line. You learn a few helpful words of this scary, foreign language and over time it opens up a world of possibilities. And, in time, a new way of thinking reveals itself. (You program the machine, and the machine programs you.) So the EP-1320 is not simple. You either learn it’s way of doing things or go to hell. Like computers from before my time, this thing is…