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Original Emulator II demo from 1985


orangefunk

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Is it just me or does that tune sound a bit flat?

 

Bad transfer from a tape I would expect. The pitch is all over the place.

-Mike Martin

 

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Yeah, it sounds squirrely like just about every old VHS to YouTube transfer that was originally taped around then.

 

[video:youtube]

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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I am amazed that so much music of that time sounds the same as this.... those marimbas are everywhere on Jarre and TD for instance...

 

Same thing happened with the DX-7 and the D-50.

 

:laugh:

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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Other than the wobbly pitch, it's quite refreshing. :cool: Reminds me of my L.A. Days back in the late '80s when you could tune in 94.7 "The Wave" and hear music like that all day. Then somebody coined the term "smooth jazz" and it became uncool. Personally, I miss it. Good stuff! :)

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Steve

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Maybe the pitch issues were due to it being a "sound page" played on a turntable...?

 

We still have a bunch of them here from back when Keyboard Mag included one in every issue.

 

The bass and drums are definitely "80s fabulous"!!

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In a way, I think of the early Emulators as the digital equivalents of the Chamberlin and Mellotron. A lot of their samples still hold up.

 

True, really like the piano stab sound and the strings on this demo too. I guess the (much) less than CD fidelity has a bearing there.

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Wow, it is hard to believe those sounds are almost 30 years old. If I were offered an Emulator II for free I'd say "no thanks dawg". :sick::laugh::cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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If I were offered an Emulator II for free I'd say "no thanks dawg". :sick::laugh::cool:

If you get offered an Emulator II for free, PM me, dawg. ;)

No problem. I'll hand deliver it to Brooklyn free of charge. :D:cool:

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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The guitar is off for sure....

 

Yes it is and always was unless owners of the stock guitar library disk edited and re-saved.

The guitar on that disk was delivered w/ some samples being slightly out of tune.

 

The last time I used a Emulator II was on a 1986 tour.

I kept the library but started using Oberheim DPX-1 sample players w/ the single outputs and OMI optical drive options then.

I still own 2 of these DPX-1s because they have the same SSM filter chips like the EMU II in every output channel.

Last year I sold ~ 400 5.25" floppy disks for good money :-)

I have the most samples on 3.5" disks in DPX-1 format and these DPX-1 load within half the time.

But, most samples of the EMU II went into the EIII library which for me is available for the EMU E64 I still own.

In addition I was able to port all over for NI Kontakt.

Today, I wouldn´t clutter my room w/ a EMU II as also my DPX-1s will go into the sales soon and together w/ libraries.

 

There´s EMXP (for PC) http://www.emxp.net/ making the complete vintage EMU sample library range available for todays technology and any owner of the EMU sample disks for EII,EMAX, EIII, EOS as well as AKAI S-1000 and there are DPX, Mirage and Prophet2000 tools.

The libraries can be stored as disk images or files on HD and be used in software apps by mounting the images and import,- very comfortable, but the images can be used to make new disks too.

Reason NNXT sampler reads the EMU files too.

 

A.C.

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Back in 86 I bought Tangerine Dream's Underwater Sunlight and Jarre's Rendezvous... never realised how important the Emu II was to both those albums.

 

I guess 85-87 was the time for the Emu after that the Akai and Roland samplers really took over with increased fidelity... but saying that I am stuck to think of classic Roland and Akai samples in the same way as I think the Emu (e.g. Shaku, Strings, Piano, breathy voices, etc.).

 

Thanks Geoff for the update on UVI!

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If you like the Emulator II sound, you might want to know that UVI was showing this at Winter NAMM:

 

Emulation II

 

 

Best,

 

Geoff

 

thx for the remark !

Hmm,- do I like the EMU II sound today ?

Not really,- but it works in some context,- it´s a option if someone wants it.

After we imported the library for Kontakt and EXS, it was very obvious the library is outdated compared to what is available for the modern sample players.

OTOH, you cann make more out of the old samples if you´re into editing within the modern virtual sample player instruments,- but it´s time consuming.

 

The UVIs library is 4.7GB,- that´s much !

But my EMU library is more than twice as much and already usable,- without a iLok dongle :thu:

 

A.C.

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One of my friends bought an EMu II and a Mac with SCSI with the whole library so he doesn't need to deal with the floppies. He absolutely adores the thing... loves the filters and esp all those 80s sounds.

 

Thing is... its unreliable... even the Mac needs a kick sometimes...

 

Listening to the video again... it does have a Keyboard Soundpage feel to it... loved those discs... I remember a couple of great jazz fusion tunes in the mid to late 80s from contest winners... I bet some of those were by guys on this forum!

 

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One of my friends bought an EMu II and a Mac with SCSI with the whole library so he doesn't need to deal with the floppies. He absolutely adores the thing... loves the filters and esp all those 80s sounds.

 

Thing is... its unreliable... even the Mac needs a kick sometimes...

 

I now have the library on my PC DAW, on 2 SCSI hardrives connected to my EMU E64 and an assortment of sounds on DPX-1 floppy disks.

 

Before the library went over on PC DAW,- I used my oldest Mac PPC 7500/100 to make 1:1 SCSI copys from 3rd party and EIII library CDs,- using Roxio and Mac OS 8.6. That´s the backup for everything.

The 2nd backup goes to SCSI MOD soon.

 

If I want that EMU II filter grid, I use a DPX-1, but all-in-all, the EMU E64 Z-Plane filters and modulation sources/destinations offer much more possibilities and to my ears also sound better than using the samples and programs in Kontakt.

 

A.C.

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Oh yeah! I had an E-mu Drumulator around that time also.

 

Sold mine,- got much money because it was custom modified MIDI.

There was this guy who buyed a EMU II for EUR 600.-, but had no sounds !

So he came over and took all the 400 f**kin´ floppies and the Drumulator for EUR 1.000.-.

Was one of my coolest sales :wave:

 

The vintage market is a crazy place.

 

A.C.

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