emusonacid!

Hello all , i am looking at buying my first sampler but will have to get a second hand one . Can anyone tell me which of the following is the best and assume all have maxed out features .

e64

e6400

esi4000

e4x

yamaha A3000

yamaha A4000

They all seem to be around the same price range yet finding information on them is hard .

Cheers to all that reply , Ian

bar none, AKAI S2000...kikass sound, best filters on the planet wikid color

Nah seriously, what do u want to do with it?

If u make rok pig music, or techno/trance, house even then u probably better with an AKAI S3000. Maybe a Yamaha sampler, ive never used them tho.

If you do Drum n Bass then the only sampler your allowed to have is an EMU. In the list u provided the E4X would be the machine to choose....use EOS 4.x sicne it is the fastes OS for the machine.

ez mun

I will be making techno ( hard and deep ) . Though my brother makes drum and bass so i may make a tune or 2 to amuse him .

djthepurist wrote:I will be making techno ( hard and deep ) . Though my brother makes drum and bass so i may make a tune or 2 to amuse him .

The EMU will have a more aggressive sound than any of the other samplers...the EMU most certainly has sound quite unlike anything else, im sure it would be more suitable for harder styles of dance music be it D n B hard breax etc The last time i really listened to techno was back in 90-93.

If your bruv is into D n B get him to pull out the following labels for u to listen to :
Renegade Hardware, TOV, Bad Company (ok not a label) , Virus, Ram, Underfire etc

Listen to the basses and pay close attention to the sound of the filtering. Should give u an idea of the sound.

Laiterz g

The E4X refers to the Ultra line of samplers I assume m8. Don't get confused with the E4 which was a precursor to the E64. Yeah, E--MU whatever you're tipple is ulnless you can get an Akai Z8 with the AkSys USB integration...Nads.
BC Recordings is a label...

I have been thinking about spending a bit more an getting an ultra like a 6400 or a 5000 ?? what do you think they are worth in US dollars second hand ??

I have also been looking at the prices of the rfx card and its like US$999.00 !!! thats rediculus , there must be about $10 worth of chips and circuit board . Come on EMU no wonder you have gone broke !!!!!

personally i'd get the fucking emulator x studio for $599 brand new. but then i have to wait for the mac version to eventually come out. if you use windows i'd jump on that. from the specs it's the most bad ass sampler period.

Yamaha samplers, although feature packed, have terrible MIDI timing which is why I sold mine. EMU on the otherhand is good, but the random panning on the RFX card is a big enough reason for me to ditch it.

It may seem a good time to buy second hand because hardware sampler prices are rock bottom, but thats because they are more or less dead. You won't see another hardware sampler released or developed further.

Wait a few weeks til Emulator X is out as the previous poster says and buy new, prices start cheap at ?149 if you don't need the breakout box. With this you are getting all the advantages of cutting edge hardware but with a software interface, so its going to be 100x faster to get around.

drayon wrote:The EMU will have a more aggressive sound than any of the other samplers...

Wrong! EMU has a softer / more transparent sound than any other sampler I would say. The filters don't resonate that severely and are generally very soft.

bass cadet wrote:

drayon wrote:The EMU will have a more aggressive sound than any of the other samplers...

Wrong! EMU has a softer / more transparent sound than any other sampler I would say. The filters don't resonate that severely and are generally very soft.

No point arguing here, but i think u need to listen a bit harder ..i mean ALOT harder if u think the EMU has a softer more transparent sound.....to my ears its anything BUT soft and transparent. There is just NO WAY i will agree with you on this bass cadet. Ive used and heard Akai, they sound thin and tinny, i have K2500S its sounds pretty smooth and transparent . The EMU is a different story, it DEFINITELY colors the sound. I dunno what u do with your EMU, but the processing and filtering i do in my EMU's make it sound very badassed.

Your totally off on the filtering as well. Again, i can't gauge your ears but i think u need to clean out the wax . I guess your one of the typical 'Techno' ppl who jump up and down about 'Self Oscillating' filters in that if the Filters don't do this they are pussy shit. To my ears self oscillating filters only squeal and scream with a hideously unusable sound, to me, they are terribly overrated !!!

Bass cadet, design a bass or use a preset from a VA or real Analog synth if it has a low pass on it open the filter right up, in your mixer add a bit of 2k and 4-5.5 k EQ about 5 db each band then sample this into your EMU (obviously the bass is gonna have lots of mids/tops). Now go select the 4 pole hi-pass , now go assign filtfreq in the cords to your modwheel, Amount 95%. Sweep the wheel and listen to the top end and also the bottom end. Now go back to the '4 pole hi pass' filter page.... make sure the wheel is as low as it can go (filter fully open) trigger notes and listen.....now dial in about 50-60 units of 'Q' NOW listen to the bottom end...it gets more bassy with a prominent dark droning sound. Now sweep the mod wheel an listen closely the dark droning in the bottom end become more noticeable. Now close the filter a bit as u trigger notes, and listen to the mids and top end...listen to that gritty top end no squeal, screaming or scueltching here agreed? BUT its FAR FSCKIN from Smooth and Transparent ...man

THIS IS COLOR like NO other machine !!!

Im still in shock when i read back at your perception of the machine.

I have done many listening tests with other gear, there is nothing i have ever heard that sounds as colored as these filters. My Virus hi-pass is without mistake the closest i have heard but still very mild and appears much smoother an softer, my K2500S is clean and transparent but a little phasey (horrible sounding filters to be honest..tho the LP filters rok), all my Roland gear ( i have a ton of it believe me) sounds smooth but thin and also weak compared to the EMU.

You should try a few different basses to get the feel for this gritty sound. Since i love this sound so much i often hi pass a bass at about 1 k to get the grittyness then re-sample it , add gain so its about 3 db over zero then put layer this on top of the original bass then change the filter of the original bass back to a 4 Pole LP OR the 'Peak/Shelf' filter with a cuttoff just below 1k with the LP or boosting 83hz by 6 db with a wide shelf on the Peak/Shelf then resample both of these voices. The bass will heavy but will contain much top end grit ready for another round of filter modulation.

Shouts going out to tha D n B massive

Hey drayon , i am still looking at the moment . Are there many people on here that use these for techno ? which will be mostly what i make ? Or would you say they are more of a drum and bass thing ? Or is there just no good techno programmers on here ? Also is this true about the software ? Or would the software sound typically digital like other programs such as reason etc ? Cause i hate reasons sound .

To my ears Hyperprism's Hi and Low can belt the shit out of my E--MU filters...I still love her though...Nads.

djthepurist:

I make acidy techno in addition to dnb, house, ambient, breaks, and whatever else I'm in the mood to make on any given day ;0

I make some music that could be described as techno, along with alot of other stuff - to me it's all house but that's showing my age What techno artists do you like? The emu is great for this sort of music, to be honest it's great for any sort of music if you can be bothered to put the work in.

I do use a lot of outboard gear with it too which I resample back in. Drayon, self oscillation isn't that bad, especially in the lower frequencies. Some of my best bass noises are self oscillated filters however I too dont like the high frequency screams.

There's a set here from 2 guys I know that used to do live gigs with each other. Their live setup consisted of 2 rfx'd e6400 ultras(1 each), 2 hardware sequncers(1 each) and some outboard compressors. All the sounds are coming from the emus - nothing else. Unfortunately it's at a really bad mp3 rate and it isn't really techno but it gives you an idea what the emu can do live.

Really cool set, thanks for posting it up!