The Ferris Bueller Emulator II Scene

[Sundown]

I"d be lying if I said this scene didn"t have an impact on me... I was 11 or 12 at the time, and it piqued my interest further into synthesizers and samplers.

 

I don"t know much about the Emulator II, so I don"t know if these were factory sounds (foley effects) or specially created for the movie.

 

Enjoy -

 

[video:youtube]

[Josh Paxton]

I was a senior in high school, and I had enough of an idea of what an Emulator II was to cringe when he threw a baseball at it.

[mate stubb]

Well, I used one at an electronic music studio I worked at, back when they were the new hotness.

 

I can say that with a microphone and an Emulator 2, you could make all those sounds yourself in short order.

 

Fortunately, they were pretty darn easy to sample with - there were no commercial sample libraries available. Floppy disks were duplicated and traded amongst owners.

[Ulf]

Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember these floppy disks and how you had to plan the setlist according to when new sounds were being loaded. We'll, we have come a long way since then.

[eric]

Epic scene from one of my favorite movies. I was a teenager and had started collecting synths, though a higher end sampler like the Emulator II was unobtainium to me at that time. I think they were like $8-10k, which was a decent chunk of change in the '80s. Though nowhere near the cost of a Fairlight or Synclavier. It was crazy how much investment was required back then compared to today.

[Markyboard]

It was the next version I lusted after. This is one of the largest rack mount synths/samplers I can remember:

[Sundown]

It was the next version I lusted after. This is one of the largest rack mount synths/samplers I can remember:

 

The keyboard version was even more insane. With the possible exception of a Waldorf Wave, I don"t think there has ever been a larger or deeper 61-key synth/sampler.

 

[timwat]

Two words.

 

Mia. Sara.

[Dave Bryce]

I sold an Emulator II to Todd Rundgren in 1985, and got to take it up to him at his studio. IIRC, he used it to make the A Capella record.

 

dB

[Stephen Fortner]

I remember seeing this in the '80s, having scraped all summer to buy a Korg Poly-800, and thinking, "What a privileged little bastard."

[Mills Dude]

Two words. Mia. Sara.

Amen to that! I was channel surfing not too long ago and Bueller was on. Just had to stop and watch a while, especially her.

 

I remember seeing this in the '80s, having scraped all summer to buy a Korg Poly-800, and thinking, "What a privileged little bastard."

Yeah, me too. I was rocking my DW-6000 at the time that I bought with some student loan surplus for $800. This little sh*t had a multi-thousand EII and couldn't play a lick and he was much better looking than me with a hotter girlfriend!

 

Late 80's I spent a lot of time with an Emax. The church I was involved in at the time bought one of those for orchestral sounds and I was the primary operator. Swapping and loading 3.5" floppies in between measure breaks. I remember the brass being quite good, especially french horn, strings and woodwinds were fairly good. I remember the Hammond floppy had a sequence with a piece of that Argent song - Hold your Head Up. Hammond sounds were pretty good for the day, obviously no drawbars to push/pull, all presets and no leslie but the samples did sound good. Also used the pipe organ samples occasionally.

 

I never got into sampling with it, strictly playing presets with the Emu supplied floppies. It was a pretty reliable machine, I never had it fail on me but I never took it to a club on a gig, strictly used it at church and home. The church eventually dumped it in the early '90s, they traded it for a Roland U220.

[TommyBoy]

Have to admit back in the 80's sampling my own cough into my Ensoniq Mirage after seeing Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Those were the days....

[mate stubb]

I made an amazing Husqvarna chain saw disk for my EMax. Sampled a real chain saw in the alley behind a music store where I was the keys sales drone.