emusonacid!

and they were pricks! As soon as I mentioned the E4 samplers the guy ran in the back of the booth and brought out one of the developers of the EMU X software. This guy started going on and on about y planes, designing your own plane filters, and why the E4 was such a horrible failure cause all those guys were more interested in getting high. I looked at him dead in the eye and ask him a few questions...

1) why did you guys drop the ball on the hardware line?
-his reply was that the software is better. No elaboration what so ever.

2) since this is MacWorld, then why are you here since you only support pcs?
-he suggested I buy a pc and run it through a desk into my mac. I wanted to kick him! What a stupid answer.

3) are there any plans of making OS X software in the future?
-well most people use pcs, so no.

at this point I told him that I don't care what they do with the software line because I tried it and my Ultra even without y planes sounds much better. I'd rather go with the guys who had fun making their product then a bunch of tight wads. I didn't go there with the intention of starting a debate, but those guys were pricks!

That is insane. I wonder why they would be at Macworld when their product is exclusive for PC's.

What I don't get is you can still get hardware akia's but emu decides to discontinue the hardware. I still use my emu for drums and various other techniques that I can't do with the software I have on my computer. All I have is absynth and cubase so alot of sample editing and the like is done in the emu. It's just a great tool to have.

Well see in a few years when our old emu samplers for for the price they went for retail on ebay.

snh

sampleandhold wrote:What I don't get is you can still get hardware akia's but emu decides to discontinue the hardware.

The thing to remember is, E-mu didn't decide to discontinue the hardware, Creative Labs decided to do it. Because Creative Labs' main business is building add-on material for PCs. Thus the near complete remodeling of E-mu in CL's image... now they just do sound cards and software, just at a slightly higher level than Creative.

Until Creative Labs decides there's money to be had in pro level hardware gear again, E-mu is virtually dead to us.

As for them being at MacWorld... yeah, that's just ignorant marketing people. What they really want to do is just sell people a stand alone box built around their sound card hardware and the Emulator X software (and nothing else on the system)... essentially, they're asking Mac users to buy a hardware Emulator 5 without selling them the hardware.

If they offered it all as a reasonably priced turn-key system in a 19" rack mountable enclosure... well, that would just make sense (and we can't have people making sense in the corporate world, the economy would collapse overnight!)

Either the people who booked the MacWorld booth secretly want E-mu to get back in the hardware sampler market... or they're complete idiots (ooh, tough call...)

I've got my maxed out E4Ultra and a backup. I also have an Emulator X but don't like it as much as the hardware.

I've been trying to get Zoeos to work on 64 bit windows but Paul has since stated its not a supported platform. I'm sure everyone can understand my frustration here.

Anyway. I've been reading the Midi sysex specifications for the Ultras and my Command Station and I'm thinking of writing my own tool. The problem with this of course is that I am a java developer during the day and I don't want to come home and code, I want to come home and play with my neato E4 toys.

It would be really kewl if Paul offered the Source Code as an open source project. I understand he's got a lot of time invested and that it may not have rewarded as much as he had anticipated, but it is pretty clear to me that he is either washing his hands of the whole thing or he is trying to be clever and build some anticipation/demand for the next release so he can charge for it. Either of these strategies is disappointing.

Paul if you read this, please consider open sourcing Zoeos if you are no longer going to actively develop it. I even believe that if the community got together and offered to pay for the priveledge of open sourcing it that could work too.

I have a sample editor that I have written that I have even offered to donate (and assign the copyright) to Zoeos, but htat was knoocked back.

If there are any java developers on this forum interested in contributing to an open source Sysex editor for the ULTRA please make yourself known in this thread.

I would be willing to contribute but I don't want to do this on my own.

That fucking pisses me off. I suppose it ultimately doesn't shock me, the older I get the more I see this shit happens and the "little guy" typically loses out. I can't imagine that it's a wise business model to burn your logterm customers however I imagine to a company like creative nothing matters but numbers and if the numbers ever dropped off so would E-MU as we now know it.
Well I won't feel bad at all if I happen to stumble on a "shared" version of EMU-X then. I don't give a #@$% about morality vs immorality, I think the way EOS users been hosed is equally as immoral. I understand the whole concept of marketing, money, numbers resources but that is ultimately what I feel the problem is with "western" culture, numbers always win out over the right thing to do.... Suppose that's the story with Zoeos too, the numbers are probably going to dictate the reality of the future of Zoeos while preepaid users lose out completely. I can get by just fine with EOS link and Sound diver to worry about Zoeos. If the guy starts to show some respect for his customers then I could justify the purchase.

Big business isn't about giving the people what they want... big business is about convincing the people that they need what you have even when it's not what they want.

I'm new to this site, but I feel you guys. My first bit of gear was an EIII back in 1990. I collect their samplers knowing they will be missed in the future. Great forum!

baschyn wrote:I'm new to this site, but I feel you guys. My first bit of gear was an EIII back in 1990. I collect their samplers knowing they will be missed in the future. Great forum!

I'd love to own an EIII, I've heard the filter is serious but apparently they are a bit fragile and can cost a bit to maintain. Plus I haven't got the space at the moment, maybe one day.

On another note I recently acquired Emulator X2, tbh its not as bad as everyone says. Some filters sound better on Emulator X and some sound better on the hardware.

hehe... at least it sounds like the old dev. department had a great time :). But that dosnt fit the way of a bigshot company like creative... too bad.. because they realy had some big stuff going.. and they could have done more..

I must admit that working with hardware sampler feels like working with an instrument.. i cant say that when i work with soft-sampler on a computer.. And even though that the software version of emulator is good.. its still a software.. which why i stay with the box! :)

I think they should strike a deal with TC Electronics so that the Emulator X software can run on Powercore

also being that macs are pretty much the industry standard for pro audio , him saying most people use pc's is hilarity.

I picked up an emu E6400 with 128 mb ram , original manuals, scsi cd rom all the orginal emu cd roms ( even tho they suck) all for 155 + delivery lol


If there is one good thing to come out of the software takeover its the crazy cheap deals on hardware.

Yes, legacy hardware has really dropped in price since software became the new star. I finally get to scoop up all those noisy boxes I couldn't afford in high-school! And the bonus is that you don't have to futz around with different combinations of drivers on hardware gear, hoping that MacroShaft's operating system doesn't crash, hang, or otherwise give up the ghost at a critical moment. And hardware just has that reassuring solidity... call me crazy, but there's just something satisfying about physical knobs and buttons that you just don't get when waving a mouse around.

I would, however, contest your assertion that the original E-mu CD-ROMs suck. Well, not completely, anyway. There's gold in them thar hills, if yer got the patience to dig... [grizzled prospector impersonation ends now]

Only way I'd really feel comfortable running Emulator X2 would be on a dedicated, purpose built system... which would quickly reach the price that E-mu used to charge for hardware gear, so there's no real gain on the finance front.

But...

EX2 does have some cool stuff that I wish the EOS had. The Morpheus-style function generators, for one.