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Emulator II Library Demo


Post Posted Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:47 pm
Jakob BC
English Moderator, Studio/Stage Expert

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Posts: 4344
Location: Aarhus, Denmark

Jakob BC wrote:Sorry for the offtopic, but this is a photo from 1982:
Still on topic since there is an Emulator in the pic! Plus two PPG's Prohet 5, Jupiter 8 Xpander, Obie... holy crap I want that room!
Post Posted Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:09 pm
Dr. Who


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Posts: 96
Location: Texas, USA

Dr. Who wrote:
Jakob BC wrote:Sorry for the offtopic, but this is a photo from 1982:
Still on topic since there is an Emulator in the pic! Plus two PPG's Prohet 5, Jupiter 8 Xpander, Obie... holy crap I want that room!
Hmm, I wouldn't really like to work in that room, unless it got some serious restyling :) .
"No matter where you go... there you are."
Post Posted Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:31 pm
Jarp2600


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Posts: 3136
Location: Apeldoorn, NL

Jarp2600 wrote:
Dr. Who wrote:
Jakob BC wrote:Sorry for the offtopic, but this is a photo from 1982:
Still on topic since there is an Emulator in the pic! Plus two PPG's Prohet 5, Jupiter 8 Xpander, Obie... holy crap I want that room!
Hmm, I wouldn't really like to work in that room, unless it got some serious restyling :) .
Me neither. So many synths would block my creativity...
"If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem"

My soundclick * Myspace

Audio Engineer at Fast Forward Studios
Post Posted Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:25 pm
Jakob BC
English Moderator, Studio/Stage Expert

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Posts: 4344
Location: Aarhus, Denmark

Remember who the studio belongs to :wink: three dudes who maybe need to play at the same time, eventhough their music was perhaps a bit more organized around that time.
Post Posted Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:36 pm
GeeJee
The GUV'NOR

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Yeah, I understand that they had to play all at the same time, but still there's too much equipment...

Anyway. Perhaps we should return ontopic
:mrgreen:
Post Posted Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:21 pm
Dr. Who


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Posts: 96
Location: Texas, USA

I love a room full of gear! Use one or two main boards for inspiration/writing and when your music is written and recorded into midi; use the full palette of your different boards to expand the soundscape. That's my method of working. BACK ON TOPIC...

I think I just bought a couple of fully expanded (RAM) Emax's for a very good price. Not sure yet but I think they are mine (no one is bidding on these things). Unfortunately they are Emax II's and not Emax's. The Emax I was basically an Emulator II on roids but the Emax II implemented 16bit stereo sampling along with expanded 16 voice polyphony/midi etc.etc. It was Emu's attempt to break into the modern sampling arena and thus they also implemented digital filters/not the analog ones on the Emulators and Emax series. But the boards are supposed to come with an extensive EmaxII library of sounds. Very curious to hear what is on there. I've read different things about the filters that they sound great, sound digital, sound close to the Emax... so who knows. Depeche Mode switched to Emax II's for the Devotional Tour so they can't be all that bad. We'll see how it works out and what these things sound like. More later...
"No matter where you go... there you are."
Post Posted Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:57 am
JMP


Posts: 23
Location: UK

Let me know when you've had enough of one.. ! I fancy one of these too now, only for comparison and access to the Emax library too. Interested to hear what you think of them.
Post Posted Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:06 am
Dr. Who


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Posts: 96
Location: Texas, USA

Turns out I won the bid. I'll be picking up those bad boys this weekend (only about a 3 hours drive). Is there an easy to use software to convert Emax to EM II format and vice versa? Maybe Translator Pro can do it? I'll check out the library I get; maybe we can exchange some libraries etc. Should be able to convert... Can't wait to get my greasy hands on this!!
"No matter where you go... there you are."
Post Posted Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:43 am
JMP


Posts: 23
Location: UK

Nice one. This appears to be the program you need:

http://users.skynet.be/emxp/
Post Posted Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:15 pm
Dr. Who


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Posts: 96
Location: Texas, USA

JMP wrote:Nice one. This appears to be the program you need:

http://users.skynet.be/emxp/
Many thanks, looks like a very handy program for Emax/Emu users. I am pretty swamped with work but did check out a little bit of the library this weekend when I had a few moments. First impression is that the library is filled with a lot of typical old sounds (lots of samples of DX and D-50ish sounds), but there were a few gems in there as well. I haven't gone through 70 disks as of yet. I did spot a few Em II samples in there. The seller is awesome and is mailing me his "complete" personal library on zip disks this week and ensures me that it has a ton of banks not included in the 70 disks. So hopefully that will have better sounds when it arrives. The board itself is amazingly easy to program even though it is not full of knobs and sliders. The layout is rather intuative. While it is limited in effects and modulation routing, the sounds you can coax out of it with minimal effort are very very good. Super easy to use and the few samples I've made instantly have a gritty feel to them. I haven't even opened the manual and already have had no problems getting usable sounds by mutating short samples. You can use two samples in one patch and layer them applying differnt modulation to each sample. Makes for some interesting effects. The filter is not as "digital" as I thought it would be. It has "Q" which serves as resonance and you can assign the cutoff to the mod wheel for live tweaking if you so desire. Not sure how it compares to the Em II analog filter, but overall I am really happy with this board. Again, it was very surprising how easy this board was to use with menus, a few buttons and one slider. Plus it has 8megs of ram and is mult-timbral. It came with a SCSI zip drive with the OS loaded and some banks on it. Loading banks from floppies is a royal pain, but from the zip it's a breeze. Never thought I'd be so glad to see a zip drive in my rig! Overall I'm super happy with this purchase. All for a little over $200 bucks a board.

@JMP - Do you have the full factory Em II library? Once I get the large zip disk library from the seller, I'd be more than willing to trade my Emax Library for your EM II library if you're interested. Can you convert your Sound Designer library using EMXP? That might be the problem...
"No matter where you go... there you are."
Post Posted Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:05 pm
JMP


Posts: 23
Location: UK

Nice info on the Emax II you've picked up. Quite sold on getting one too when one comes up cheap, not too bothered which type. Actually, having the EII, reckon an Emax II with digital filters, more memory and/or HD would be better (for comparison) and probably easier to pick up.

Yeah, I have the entire EII library in Sound Designer format (for the EII - Not SD Universal). To be honest I haven't used EMXP yet.... although pretty sure they can't be converted from SD files unfortunately. Will give it a proper look over as soon as I can find the time.... Would be good to have the Emax library, cheers. :D







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