Plenty?

Maybe now, but not for a veeeeeery long time

 

Those samples are just samples. There was absolutely nothing special in the EIV factory library (all 15 or so discs I have sitting here) and nothing that was any different than any of the production sets Roland put out, or anyone else. The whole point is the way they sound after going in and coming out of a particular piece of hardware.

I don't know why anyone would grab the EIV orchestra cd today when you can just load up a much better more complex set of strings in Halion or Logic Sampler or Kontakt. I mean hell, the old Miroslav orchestra discs were leagues better than the EMU ones, but they don't sound the same coming out of Halion as they do coming out of the actual hardware doing the DA conversion on it. Those drum breaks on Jungle Warfare aren't going to sound like 'classic' 1994 S1000/S3000 jungle just dropping them in your DAW and hoping for the best.

Somebody said EMU could've survived if they joined the groove box market?? Hello they had a whole lineup of 'groovebox' workstations, and folks still love those things. It still didn't help with everything else going on in the market, the world, and inside Creative..

 

That sentence goes down in history!

I'd say it's down to the quality, resolution, and format of the samples.

There's no way to verify what samples musicians use at home for their music production. Some are certainly nostalgic and love the old analogue warm sound. Some only use samples made with modern contemporary equipment. And some users cherry-pick the best samples from all times.
As a company, you have to sell large numbers of units and also put enough money aside to be able to bridge times when sales are not going so well. E-MU also lacked financially strong investors, which means that the investors saw no future for E-MU products.

You have to develop products that people need and want, otherwise the musicians will not make a purchase decision. Since the competition never slept and produced better, more affordable products, they won the race against E-MU. A company has to adapt to the market and make the right decisions.

The know-how of E-MU and its employees is not gone, however; these employees now work for other companies.

 

How do you use Emulator X3?
Is anyone using it as a standalone sampler with an E-MU soundcard on an old PC?
How does it compare to old hard samplers or modern DAWs and soft sampler plugins?

I found the following videos
This video shows Emulator X running on an old WIN XP

It seems possible to do something like a z-plane filter in Ableton as well.

 

The incredible E-MU Emulator 2 Rhythm set - How does it stand the test of time?

 

e mu mo phatt and e mu proteus are one of my favorite sound modules
i have been using them over 13 years now for pop hits.. they are great for layering
also i like to use percussion from the emu planet earth modules so good for congas, bongo and other percussion sounds

making music is FUN

 

yeah the demise of EMU, came during the 2008 financial crisis caused by creating financial instruments out of home mortgages and selling them worldwide, every country got burned even Iceland, the economies of most countries turned to complete shite. I remember going into a small business and buying a cofeee or doughnuts and the owner would thank me for my business as if I'd done them a great favor. I knew things were shaky for alot of people when that sort of thing was happening to me regularly.

It was in that backdrop that CreativeLabs discontinued EMU products, and as mentioned Creative was having financial difficulties as well and couldn't afford to keep EMU in production during this particular dry spell.

Good to see Dave Rossum giving it a go again under Rossum Electro-Music brand, I'm sure CreativeLabs still owns the E-MU brand and copyrights,so he had to start with a new name...

 

The software includes the z-plane filters in its implementation. I run it on Windows 7 64 bit without any problems.

it will run on windows 64 bit with the final release of Emulator X known as EmulatorX3. This will run on windows 7,8 and including windows 10 64bit - of course it runs under 32 bit versions as well.

I think I rememeber seeing someone write a procedure to get the drivers for the EMU soundcards and breakout boxes to work under Windows10. I'm sure if you google it you'll find it on several music forums.

if you have your heart set on new modern hardware, the EMU EuroRack module, the Morpheus Filter Module includes it.

Stereo Morphing Z Filter

https://www.rossum-electro.com/products/morpheus/

 

e: wrong thread

 

Last edited: Feb 1, 2025

In 1994 I purchased UltraProteus just because of the Z-filters.
At the end I used it very little, and today the will to put back hands on it is very low, seeing nowadays vst tech.

I just assured E-mu racks work, and they do brilliantly.
I factory reset both modules, tested sysex both ways, reinstalled factory sysex and I should test them with Morphedit sw, but unfortunately it's on the bottom of the todo list.

Unless I eventually play live, they'll remain freezed.
If not (it will be so), better to learn X3 though I think you I can realize the Z-filters with other sw stuff like chained filters automation or Molekular or Filterscape.

 

yeah I think the z-filters can be a way to find yourself out in the weeds real fast as they can become chaotic with just a little tweak. the sample library though are a great feature of the E-mu gear.

here's the Vintage X Pro library..

 

here's a great example of the 1st Emulator sampler being used

 

although these rack modules are now old they can still be useful for doing hip hop, rock and pop music
you probably going to say ow why just use samples.. in my opinion hardware is Special.. what i noticed about hardware is some sounds
natural (acoustic guitar, fretless bass, trumpets) its hard to get that with software or kontakt libraries

when recording from the hardware you save cpu because you record into audio tracks and that is kind of good... its some old school method
i also noticed that usually hardware blends good in a mix for software vst synths you have to layer 8 times whether hardware is 2 tracks and it sits good in the song mix.

the only downside is that it takes longer time to record, edit and configure hardware synths

 

Not true for all devices, think of the small ram/rom availble at the time and sample frequency, no matter the digital/analogue filters or the clever programming of the manufacturers.

When I used the SY99 I thought that the harpsichord was the best you could reach (and was great for the time, even release snap was included), until I heard of Pianoteq, another planet.

Many modern sample libraries are imo immensely better, and physmod is even better than samples, mostly because of the "analogue" feel - I got to get a seabord.

Then with hw of course PC is not stressed, but nowadays is not a huge problem.

 

Many people find hardware music to be better because it often offers a warmer, richer sound quality. Hardware synthesizers and instruments produce sounds through analog circuitry, resulting in natural distortion and a harmonic sound that is perceived as more pleasant.

Software music, on the other hand, is based on digital algorithms that, while very precise, can sometimes be perceived as colder or less vibrant. Additionally, many musicians have an emotional connection to the physical instruments they use, which can affect the perception of sound.

 

Attached is a text from the Pianoteq manual translated from German into English:

Developed through mathematical research at the Institute of Mathematics , INSA Toulouse, France. It offers unique possibilities to make your piano behave and sound exactly the way you like it.

1.1. The fourth generation of the piano
The first generation of pianos, which began in 1698 with Cristofori's Pianoforte , matured into an acoustic concert grand piano at the end of the 19th century. This was followed in the 20th century by electro-acoustic pianos and then variants with digital samples. At the beginning of the 21st century, Pianoteq is the first instrument of the new, fourth generation of pianos, based on physical models, which offer exceptional playability and enormous expressiveness.

Pianoteq lets you customize the sound to your taste. Unique parameters that model the behavior of real pianos result in an unprecedented level of realism that was previously only available in real acoustic pianos .

With the internal 32-bit calculation, the calculated sound is free of any quantization noise. Real dynamic timbre. From the weakest pianissimo to the strongest fortissimo , for all 127 standard MIDIvolume values (and more with the future high-resolution MIDI2.0).

Everything that characterizes a real piano is there: mechanical noises, the complex sound of pedals and strings interacting, the percussive effect of staccato playing (short notes) and, most importantly, the beauty of the piano sound.

The second generation brought innovative sounds (such as Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Yamaha CP and others), while the third generation only reproduced recorded samples. Based on an effective physical model, Pianoteq lets you adjust and model the parameters, creating new sounds and styles. Pianoteq offers both the ability to emulate existing pianos and also provides an innovative tool for creating music.

Pianoteq is in fact the first virtual piano factory : it can produce both new brands and copies of existing instruments. From historical instruments, such as the harpsichord or pianoforte, to contemporary grand pianos or newer electro-acoustic pianos.

Other instruments from the family of idiophones (self-sounding instruments) are regularly added to the Pianoteq collection. Visit our website www.modartt.com and discover our latest developments.

Spoiler: 1.2. What makes Pianoteq so unique?

1.2. What makes Pianoteq so unique?

• It is the first of a new generation of pianos based on a groundbreaking technology based on physical modelling, intended as the technology of the future. Notes are actually played ('constructed' in real time, like on a real piano), not just read from the hard disk or memory. This explains why the sound is alive and not static: it is not a simple recording, but a real instrument that responds to the pianist's interpretation .
• It was developed at the prestigious Toulouse Institute of Mathematics, at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) in Toulouse , France. Two specialists from this laboratory worked very hard and with passion to develop this beautiful instrument. The conception of the physical model was created by Philippe GUILLAUME, piano tuner, musician and mathematician, whose "grail" is the equations for the "piano soul". The implementation was done by Julien POMMIER, engineer and mathematician, who created the physical model to work in real time.
• Pianoteq is "light". There is no need to install huge amounts of data from a whole DVD collection, as only one current one CPUis needed for real-time calculation of all sounds. It simply loads into RAM and installation is instant. No problem with a laptop.
• PianoteqCPU can process or provide extremely low latencies with good audio drivers and an up-to-date .
• Pianoteq offers a beautiful collection of breathtakingly lively instruments: pianos, pianofortes, piano precursors such as cimbalom, clavichord and harpsichord, electroacoustic and electric pianos, chromatic percussion and other instruments from the idiophone family.

Spoiler: 1.3. The Pianoteq versions

1.3. The Pianoteq versions
Pianoteq is available in three versions:

• PIANOTEQ STAGE is for musicians who want to quickly plug in and start playing without changing the physical model. It includes standard functions such as velocity curve , dynamics , action settings , EQ , tremolo , wah-wah , chorus , flanger , phaser , compressor and other effects.
• PIANOTEQ STANDARD also offers powerful tools for optimizing and adjusting the physical model as well as the position of the microphones.
• PIANOTEQ PRO goes one step further. The Note Editfunction allows users who require complete freedom in sound design to edit the parameters note by note.

Source: www.modartt.com/user_manual?product=pianoteq&lang=de