Emulator Finally released in 1981, the Emulator was a floppy disk-based keyboard workstation that musicians could use to sample sounds, record them to storage media, and play them back as musical notes on the keyboard. With the 5" floppy disk drive, the owner could build a library of samples and share them with others or purchase prerecorded libraries on disk. The original Emulator was a very basic eight-bit sampler with only a simple filter, and it could do only a single loop. The initial model did not include a
VCA envelope generator. It was produced in three forms: a two-voice model (only one of which was ever sold), a four-voice model and an eight-voice model. The keyboard was designed to be played in split mode with one sample on each side, so playing the same sound on the full keyboard required loading the same sound from disk into each side.
Stevie Wonder, who gave the sampler a glowing review at the 1981
NAMM International Music & Sound Expo, received the first unit (serial number 0001). The first unit had originally been promised to
Daryl Dragon of
Captain & Tennille, as he was a longtime E-mu modular-system owner, but Wonder's greater fame moved him to the top of the list. In 1982, the Emulator was updated to include a VCA envelope generator and a simple sequencer, and its price was lowered. Approximately 500 units were sold before the unit was discontinued in early 1984. Other users of the original E-mu Emulator were
New Order,
Tangerine Dream and Tony Banks of
Genesis, and it was among the instruments used in the production of
Michael Jackson's
Thriller album. Composer and writer
David Frank of
the System used the original Emulator on his productions from
Sweat to ''
Don't Disturb this Groove. The Residents, who had received the fifth Emulator produced, used the instrument extensively on their album The Tunes of Two Cities. Vangelis had an Emulator at Nemo Studios in London and used it on the Blade Runner'' soundtrack.
Emulator II Released commercially in 1984, the Emulator II (or EII) was E-mu's second sampler. Like the original Emulator, it was an eight-bit sampler, but it delivered superior fidelity by employing
companding digital-to-analog converters and a 27.7 kHz sample rate. It also allowed more flexibility in editing and shaping sounds, as resonant analog filters (provided by longtime E-Mu collaborators SSM) were added. The EII also featured greatly improved real-time control. Its price was similar to that of the original Emulator, at
US$7,995 for a regular model and $9,995 for a "plus" model featuring extra sample memory. Several upgrades, including a second floppy drive, a 20
MB hard drive, and a 512K memory upgrade were also available. Despite the EII's price, it was considered good value in comparison to the
Fairlight CMI Series II, the most basic model of which was priced at $30,000 upon its initial release. The Emulator II offers a unique sound because of its
DPCM mu-255 companding, divider-based variable sample-rate principle and analog output stages featuring SSM2045 24 dB/oct analog four-pole low-pass resonant filters. Several
OEM and third-party sample libraries were developed for the Emulator II, including orchestral sounds. Many of the EII's original library sounds were sampled from the more expensive Fairlight and Synclavier workstations (for example, the Fairlight's "Sarrar/Arr1" choir sample is called "DigiVcs" in the E-mu library). Samples include the
Shakuhachi flute used by
Peter Gabriel on "Sledgehammer" and by Enigma on their album
MCMXC a.D., and the Marcato Strings heard on
the Pet Shop Boys' "
West End Girls". According to the Pet Shop Boys'
Neil Tennant, every instrumental sound on the track was produced with an Emulator II. Musicians who used The Emulator II in the 1980s includes early adopter
Stevie Wonder,
Front 242,
Depeche Mode,
808 State,
New Order,
ABC,
Genesis,
Paul McCartney,
David Bowie,
Herbie Hancock,
Vangelis,
Tangerine Dream,
Jean-Michel Jarre,
Yes,
OMD,
Stevie Nicks and
Mr. Mister. Options included a multi-effects processor, additional output sockets, and 32 MIDI channels. The e64 was launched in 1995 and, in order to meet a lower price point, was limited to only 64 voices and a maximum 64 MB of memory. It was joined in 1996 by the E4K, essentially an E64 with a 76-key weighted keyboard; however, it could be expanded to 128 voices and 128 MB of memory and included the effects processor and other previous options as standard. A second series of rackmount EIV was launched in 1997 with the E4X Turbo as the new 128-voice flagship model. The E4X (without Turbo) and e6400 offered only 64 voices and fewer options in order to meet lower price points, although unlike the e64, it was fully upgradable. E-mu also released the E-Synth in both rack and keyboard form, with both models including a 16 MB sound ROM and an optional 16 MB "Dance" factory-installed sound ROM that would be accessible immediately upon startup of the unit. The E-Synth Keyboard was the final Emulator keyboard model to be produced. In 1999, the final EIV samplers were marketed with the Ultra designation. The Ultras featured a fast processor and upgraded analog output stages, as well as the ability to install the RFX dedicated high-quality effects processor and ultimately run the very final version of EOS. The entry-level model was the E5000 Ultra, which was limited to four output jacks, could not accept the voice upgrade, and was unable to write sound ROMs. The E6400 Ultra (now with a capital "E") was a basic model but with full upgradability, the E-Synth Ultra (rack only) refined the previous E-Synth models (since referred to as "Classic"s) with one or two new 16 MB sound ROMs, and the E4XT Ultra was the top model with the full 128 voices, digital audio inputs and outputs, 32 MIDI channels, and an ASCII keyboard input for remote control. The final Ultra sampler, called the E4 Platinum, was loaded with the RFX effects card and every option. The EIV series was discontinued in 2002. ==Notable players==