Six months of sampling and programming; thirty years of heritage; 541 individual sounds and over 31,700 individual samples... this one has been a long time coming, but we hope it's worth it

Back in the 80s, the sampler that took the studio world by storm was the Emulator II. Far more affordable than a Synclavier or a Fairlight, its crunchy 8-bit samples and clever companding output convertors made for an awesomely in-your-face sound that punched its way through countless hit mixes. Artists like Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears, Thomas Dolby, Philip Glass, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Vangelis and dozens more put the EII's signature sound to work on their tracks. It's not overstating it to say it helped define the sound of a generation of music.

‘I’m a fan of this Rhythmic Robot outfit. Using their instruments is like discovering a lost tribe in the digital jungle… pure, but slightly uncivilized.’ – Stephen Hague, producer (Peter Gabriel, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Melanie C, New Order, etc.)

Key to the EII's success was a phenomenal aftermarket library of professionally-recorded samples. The factory library itself was excellent, but the soundset that really expanded the possibilities of the instrument was OMI's Universe of Sounds – a mammoth swathe of patches covering keys, basses, strings, orchestral, synths, ethnic, drums, percussion, brass... everything you needed to bring your track to life. When we first approached the idea of sampling an EII, it was this library we wanted to sample.

Now, in collaboration with and with the blessing of Doug Morton – the guy who actually recorded those OMI samples back in the 80s, and who remains their copyright owner – we bring you the OMI Universe of Sounds, in all its glory. We've sampled every note of every patch (over 31,700 samples in all!) out of a reconditioned Emulator II, to preserve the exact sound of the EII's D-to-A convertors and sample interpolation process. We've meticulously preserved original looping behaviour, velocity layers and sample switching. In short, what you hear when you play this instrument is the sound of an EII in its heyday.

Although the interface allows you to sculpt, change and effect those sounds in a whole variety of ways – filter and amp envelopes, Chorus, Phaser, Echo and Rotary effects, convolved era-appropriate Lexicon reverb, various LFOs etc – we've also incorporated a nice simple Vintage button for when you just want to go back to basics. Hit that, and all the modern filters, effects and reverb are instantly killed; the sound is panned to mono; you get the pure sound of the EII on its own. Hit Vintage again, and everything's back the way it was. Clever

This is a phenomenal wealth of sounds.



Here are some quick facts about the library:

- 31,700 individual samples
- 33Gb original 24-bit
- 21Gb uncompressed 16-bit
- 11.33Gb compressed .ncw format
- 541 individual instruments, consisting of 14 Bass / 18 Bells & Chimes / 52 Brass / 51 Drums / 59 Ethnic & Folk / 8 FX / 36 Guitar / 38 Piano & Keys / 77 Orchestral / 41 Percussion / 61 Strings / 76 Synth / 12 Vocal
- Additional Kontakt Multis taking the EII's sounds in exciting new directions

The Emulator II OMI Universe of Sounds library is out now for Kontakt 4.2.3 and above, including all versions of Kontakt 5 (but you'll need the full version of Kontakt, not Player.)

This is like having a huge blue EII crammed into your DAW, but without the synth tech and the roadies you'd normally need to look after it.

Emulator II OMI Universe of Sounds is available for £85.00 plus VAT (Regular £99.00 plus VAT)

More INFO: Rhythmic Robot | Emulator II OMI Universe of Sounds

 

The original library took three CDs therefore I'd like to know how they are getting 21 GB of uncompressed 16 bit data?
And also the original lib was in 8 bit if I'm not mistaken.

 

Another informative post keeping us on top of the latest and greatest. I know I've said it before but I'd like to extend my deepest gratitude and respect for all the time you've put in keeping us on top of what's new in the audio world. Not only are your posts informational but they often even manage to be funny and creative. As a token of our appreciation, in addition to some exclusive shares, I'd like to cover the next 3 months of your Uploaded account. We may work hard but we play hard too. I'll drop the coupon off shortly.

 

I'm sitting 10 feet away from my E-II and it is 8bit and uses floppy disks, i was lucky enough to purchase back in 1984 the HD vers 10MB

A few years later i worked on sounds for the CDRom addons, tho the project was well received it was a financial flop.

 

The answer is in the text: They've sampled every note and with 24bit resolution, not matter how many samples were actually used in the patch.
If you're picky enough and want to reproduce every tiny nuance of the original, that's indeed one way to do it, and the gigantic size is a logical consequence. Also it's much easier to automate the complete sampling process if you don't have to take care of split points.
One thing I'd like to know however is how they did this:

 

How is your post related to mine?

 

Partly related

The rest of my conversation was just general conversation about the E-II