Emulator II to X3 – Famous Sounds
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
Emu’s highly spec’d, stand-alone and VSTi sampler is now out and ready for action – The Emulator X3 is the newest in a long history of Emu sampling solutions, today optimised at 64 bit/192khz for Windows computers (tough cookies Apple) and an array of new and improved features. I have always had a sentimental eye on the Emu range having managed to take an Emulator III hostage for a few days back in the late 80′s.
During the mid-80′s however, I was a young DJ with little or no experience of sampling and high end pro-musician devices. The now legendary Emulator II (pictured left) was even then, almost a fable.. an unobtainable, unaffordable, mystery machine that seemed responsible for the sound textures of some of my favourite records of that time (eg:’West End Girls’ – Pet Shop Boys & n,n,n, ‘Nineteen’ -by Paul Hardcastle). Released commercially in 1984, the Emu II was an 8-bit sampler, but that was significantly better quality than its predecessor, the Emulator 1 and was more flexible at editing sounds. Anyone recall by the way seeing one used in the classic movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? ( Bueller used it to simulate the sounds of being sick!).
The Emulator III & IV then took the hardware legacy into the mid-90′s where things kind of ended for the big 4 machines there. Maybe it was the price being too high, or the dominance of the Akai S1000, S3000 and MPC’s, who knows? Throughout the years the Emulator series evolved, there’s been some classic synth sounds and techniques where certain tracks have been made more notable due to the signature audio attributes they’d showcase. The ‘Famous Sounds’ resource over at Synthmania takes one on a very sentimental, interesting and geeky journey and, Emu’s et al, is well worth checking out.
Tags: akai, emu, emulator, emulator x3, paul hardcastle, pet shop boys, samplers, synth