emusonacid!

Hi All,
I hope that this is posted at the correct place.

Someone recently gave me a E4K for nothing but sad to say the HDD is gone so I'm going to try and replace it, but my question is what now how do I reformnat the drive and how do I replace the samlpe library? I have the manuels but they are all like Japenese to me. Also could this be used as a Midi Controller without the HDD...I have no idea what to do please can someone help me to get this controller working...Many thanks

See my reply in your other thread.

Gilles

gcoudert wrote:See my reply in your other thread.

Gilles

Thanks have replied in other thread

Just a matter of interest...Do they still sell this particular model E4K new and how much more or less, I'm not talking about 2nd hand..It would be interesting to know

Over here there are not many people who have these units in fact to find someone to service them is a nightmare

No, you can't get them new. After all, they came out in 1996. They are quite commonplace in the UK, especially in their rackmountable incarnations.

When E-mu were taken over by Creative, they had to give up on hardware instruments. They now concentrate on the software based Proteus and Emulator as well as audio cards/interfaces and MIDI keyboard controllers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The Archive section of the Emulator Archive http://www.emulatorarchive.com/Archives/archives.html will tell you all about those magnificent machines.

Gilles

Indeed, now E-mu is just the upscale arm of Creative Labs... but CL did let them run with instruments for a good while after they acquired E-mu in March 1993. The last E-mu hardware (the PX-7 command station, plus a couple more Proteus2000 expansion ROMs) was released in 2003. This is around when the first generation of the Proteus X/Emulator X software crept out the door (late 2002/early 2003), and pretty much put the nail in the coffin for E-mu instruments. From there on, they've been strictly PC hardware and software (well, plus a studio monitor).

For a great article on E-mu history (well, up to September 2002), try this Sound On Sound magazine article:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Sep02/articles/emuanniversary.asp

Note how fast CL threw out one of the founders (the morning after the deal went through)...

Along the way, Creative Labs also tried to fold Ensoniq into the E-mu branch of the company... then killed off the name completely.

Yes, with great moaning and lamentations, I'm afraid we've seen the last of the "old" E-mu. From here on out, it's only E-mu in name, not in spirit (but admit it... who wouldn't kill to get a full G-chip, H-chip, R-chip based sound card for their PC, with all the filters that were in the Morpheus and UltraProteus? A full on E-mu instrument in a single plug-and-play card. It would be freakin' brilliant! But would Creative ever let them do it?)

Thank you both for that very interesting history of EMU it's a pity about the hardware but as you say it was way back in 1996 and with technology updating everyday the EMU's that came out in that era are now vintages and probably collectors items...Thanks great info

Well, the original proteus range serve as nothing else than a cheap general midi module or something for the specially interested, but both the e4-range and the proteus 2k series are quite useful today. You will find that many still use their hardware e4's, simply as a (non 4.7eos) reliable, good, cheap sampler. A maxed out e4ultra cost you around 400-500$. How much would that cost if you should have used a computer and a software sampler? You'll first of all need a portable computer, a soundcard and a software sampler. It gets quite expensive.

Ole wrote:Well, the original proteus range serve as nothing else than a cheap general midi module or something for the specially interested, but both the e4-range and the proteus 2k series are quite useful today. You will find that many still use their hardware e4's, simply as a (non 4.7eos) reliable, good, cheap sampler. A maxed out e4ultra cost you around 400-500$. How much would that cost if you should have used a computer and a software sampler? You'll first of all need a portable computer, a soundcard and a software sampler. It gets quite expensive.

I couldn't agree with you more, software for computers etc and hard ware have become extremely expensive specially here in S.A.
Any way I must say I prefer the real thing...

Dedicated outboard hardware has a certain reassuring solidity to it. And often seems to be better tested before release than software (no, not always... but SEEMS is the operative word... it's all down to psychology and the comfort of the user).

Software... well, it's hard enough to get a Windows xx PC to run perfectly at the best of times. There are too many potential conflicts to sort out with drivers, API layers, slew of different hardware components, Microsoft bullying or deciding it knows better than the user what the user might want... and potential angry interactions with other software running on the system.

Now, that being said, NEW software is a lot cheaper than NEW hardware (generally), and has the potential to be far more flexible. You can build up a decent software based studio for a lot less than a decent hardware studio (even counting the cost of the computer), and have a wide variety of synthesis models as well as samples.

But I still prefer hardware... just like I still prefer to read books (and manuals) on paper (yeah, I'm becoming an anachronism at 34 !). And older hardware (even from just a few years ago) has become a LOT cheaper since the bandwagon jumped to software (well, until it gets labeled "vintage"... then all bets are off). Software is even forcing down the price of some new hardware (a microKorg, new, for $500 Canadian)

I have myself worked with a lot of software etc and the problem is that it takes me twice as long to learn the software as with hardware...Yes Windows has it's problems and is a pain in the butt...At the end of the day I would think you'd have to think of important factors.

Which is more suitable and easier to use, whether this would fit into your budget bracket, Pro's and con's between hardware and software, and the ability of using either the hardware or software...At the end of the day it does certainly boil down to user's preference

Around 4 years ago, I decided to go down the software route, so my old hardware (S2000, DX7S, D50, Wavestation & Hammond XM1) went except for my trusty Yamaha P150 piano, and was replaced with FM7, Pro 52/53, PPG Wave 2.V & Halion.

Great stuff, except I never got used to sitting for hours in front of the computer to design sounds as well as create sequences. It simply didn't work for me , so I went back to hardware (D550, TX7, S1000, S2800i, E4K and the P150). I still like the PPG though.

Now I'm happy again...

Gilles

Like they say 'Nothing like a place like home' Heh Heh...I myself have been on a few orf the software trips and for one thing sure my eyes don't do to good in front of a PC when working with sounds, I have worked with Cubase,Nuendo,cakewalk,Sonar, FM7 Absynth3, B3 etc they lovely programs but as you've said it's more pleasurable working with the actual hardware...Now a good question for you...What is the most versatile keyboard/synthesis to work on stage?