emusonacid! legacy

hello everyone, great forum here. i've just been given an e4X classic with EOS 4.10/128mb. almost done reading the manual, but i've got some questions (with more to come once i get into it more, i'm sure)...


- the internal HD seems to be shot. any thoughts on what to look for as a replacement? i've seen E-mu/Akai/etc HDs on ebay, but wonder if you can get the same for less? which size would be the best for an e4X?

- is it possible to mount an internal Zip drive where the floppy drive is or would this not be recommended either way?

- should i look into upgrading to EOS 4.61 or is there not much difference from 4.10?

- i have an old version of the EOS manual (2.50) that states that the Sequencer will only loop after the end of the last event, not the end of the last bar. anyone know if this was 'fixed' in a later EOS revision? anyone here use the Sequencer at all, if even just importing files from a PC? is it possible to mute/un-mute tracks via midi CCs?

thanks in advance for any help, i'm sure i'll have more questions as i progress...

-justin.

uhhhh... guys?

:)

Read my replies here:

viewtopic.php?t=1111

and then here:

viewtopic.php?t=1102

Hope it helps.

thanks, i saw those but no they don't help specifically. i've read through plenty of old posts here as well before i registered.

i don't have any plans at the moment to hook up to the PC via scsi, and i'd rather stay away from lugging around an external HD if i can get one to work in the e4X. it's probably got the early power supply in it, so i need to know what size (in gigs) i should look for and if buying one off ebay that's advertised as 'e-mu/akai/etc' (for all the people that don't know what model to look for) is the best way to go. they seem to be around $20-50 or so. i'm thinking maybe it's possible to find one cheaper if i know what i'm looking for. i figured someone here would know these specs (i don't), which is why i asked.

as for the EOS version, i can't find much info on what the changes would be from 4.10 to 4.61(?) as it relates to my sampler being that it's not an Ultra model. the emulatorarchive.com 'OS versions' info only goes to 4.10 and i haven't come across a list of changes, updates, bug-fixes, etc here yet. not sure if i should bother or if there's something that would benefit me.

i'm not sure that i've seen any info here on being able to install an internal Zip drive to replace the floppy. anyone know if this is possible on the E-mu. i'm pretty sure you can do it on an ASR-10 which is (i believe) a couple years older than the E-mu.

while i've seen a few others bring up questions about it, i've seen basically no information regarding the E-mu's internal sequencer. nobody here has even just screwed around with it enough to know a few things? i'm doing basically everything with just a Nord G2 triggering the E-mu, but would like to send some polyphonic string/pad sequences back to the Nord for some stuff that would be hard to do using its internal step sequencers. it'd be great if i didn't have to involve some other hardware sequencer for this simple idea (i just sold my MPC and want to keep things light). if there's any way to mute the sequence tracks externally, even better. i am concerned about midi timing though, being that it's not an Ultra model.

-justin.

Internal HD:

If you stick with EOS 4.10, anything 18GB or below will do, either SCSI or IDE. There are no "special" Emu hard drives. It's gotta be 3.5" form factor and 1" high. Watch out for current draw, you want your drive to draw less than 700mA at 5VDC and less than 500mA at 12VDC, or you'll fry the PSU in the long run (since you have the older 43W one). If you install a separate, dedicated PSU for the HDD you will have more flexibility in choosing an internal drive. If you go to EOS 4.61 then your drive can be up to 137GB. Basically do your homework and research the specs on drives that are up on eBay to see which ones meet your power, capacity, and interface requirements, then bid.

ZIP drive:

Yes, as long as it's a standard internal 3.5" drive and has either an IDE or SCSI interface. You can't put a ZIP drive on the floppy controller. Once installed, it will show up in the Disk screen just like any other drive.

excellent, altus! thanks for the info, i think 18gb should be plenty for what i need. i'll look into it a bit more based on the specs you mentioned.

is installing an internal Zip alot of work, and would it not allow me to use another scsi or ide device with the E-mu? sorry, i'm not used to configuring this stuff. would i be able to mount a Zip100 where the floppy is and still be able to mount an internal 18gb HD and use the scsi port on the back for a CD-ROM (when needed)? any instructions for doing this anywhere? any cons to installing an internal Zip? would it load .wav files faster than from floppy?

sorry for the low-level questions.

Yes, you can use both a SCSI ZIP drive and still have an internal SCSI hard drive. All you need is a 50-pin SCSI ribbon cable that has 3 connectors and is long enough to reach from the motherboard to both drives. Note that the connector you plug into the Emu motherboard must be on one of the ends of the cable and not in the middle. And yes, you will still be able to use the external SCSI port in the back of the Emu, provided that each device on your SCSI chain is configured properly; things like SCSI ID and termination are critical (google will be your friend here, as every drive model is different).

A ZIP will be somewhat faster in loading data than floppy, but again you gotta watch your power, as it will draw more power than a floppy drive. Watch your LCD display, once it starts getting getting darker (more contrasty) than usual, especially getting darker when using the drive(s), your PSU is on the edge and running it that way will burn it out in the long run.

Installing the drives isn't too much work, you just have to open the Emu and unscrew the old drives, then put the new ones in and screw them back in. You also have to watch out for proper orientation of the ribbon cables, and any jumpers that are used to configure the drives you're installing (google their specs/manuals so you don't fry something).

I know that one of the things in EOS 4.6 was that it could import ASR-10 samples. It also supports drives up to 137GB and FAT32. Not sure about other changes. Hopefully someone will also have an answer to your sequencer question. Good luck.

Not so Altus, jbuonacc's sampler is a classic it can only use scsi drives internally there is no ide bus on those machines, also the ensoniq file import is not supported with classics.

Also jbuonacc I use the internal sequencer exclusively and yes you can loop bars.

Cool, I didn't know about those differences on non-Ultras, I just thought they had a slower CPU, thanks e64_eli.

e64_eli - cool, thanks for clearing that up, i'd forgotten that non-Ultras only have scsi. so altus' advice should work fine, i'd just have to stay away from ide devices, correct? not having Ensoniq support is ok with me, i'd be working with my own samples for the most part.

thanks for the help on the sequencer as well. so i don't have to make sure there's a midi event in there that needs to extend to the duration of the last bar (this is how it's explained in my EOS 2.50 manual)? are you using a non-Ultra as well? any midi timing issues with other gear? i'm hoping to sync the e4X sequencer (looping 4-bar seq tracks, for example) to the G2's outgoing clock. maybe eight tracks or so going on the e4X at most...

here's what it says in the 2.50 manual about sequence looping...

"A sequence will be looped from the end of the last event, not the end of the last bar. If you import a sequence from your computer, prepare it for looping by extending the duration of the final note to the end of the final bar. This will keep the time signature constant while playing back."

was this taken care of in a later version then?

jbuonacc wrote:e64_eli - cool, thanks for clearing that up, i'd forgotten that non-Ultras only have scsi. so altus' advice should work fine, i'd just have to stay away from ide devices, correct?

Correct

are you using a non-Ultra as well?

Yes a E64! Its a powerful machine!

any midi timing issues with other gear?

Nope its rock solid but I'll have to admit I've only got this machine and only hooked it up to a few pieces of gear over the years, I do everything from within the machine, this is my whole studio. But when I did sequence the odd rack or keyboard it worked like a charm!

i'm hoping to sync the e4X sequencer (looping 4-bar seq tracks, for example) to the G2's outgoing clock. maybe eight tracks or so going on the e4X at most...

here's what it says in the 2.50 manual about sequence looping...

"A sequence will be looped from the end of the last event, not the end of the last bar. If you import a sequence from your computer, prepare it for looping by extending the duration of the final note to the end of the final bar. This will keep the time signature constant while playing back."

was this taken care of in a later version then?

Well heres the deal, you can loop any where in a sequence (you set the position in time) but it wont save with the sequence, so basicly you have to make loops and enable them to be triggered, easy enough because you can just sequence the notes then cut/copy the section and just paste it however many times.

It really is a powerful sequencer once you understand how to manipulate it and its all relative to the actual machine.

sounds good so far! i don't think i'll be pushing it too hard. i did notice though that the on-screen editing (jumping from screen to screen, etc) gets pretty sluggish when it's receiving midi data. is this normal? i've only spent a few hours or so working with it.

now that i think to mention it, there seems to be some audible noise coming through my monitors when hitting certain buttons sometimes. are E-mu's known to do this? seems like some sort of voltage bleed being sent to the outputs? i've also noticed some audio glitching when going into 'Sample Manage' from the Preset section while it's playing. as soon as i get to the 'New' screen to sample/re-sample it's gone. found some crazy issues when assigning velocity>Sstart along with ModWl>Sstart at the same time. (sorry i can't explain it better at the moment) it's like you go past the sample end point and it crackles and screams. weird. didn't sound 'healthy', but i don't think it hurts it at all... ??

e64_eli wrote:Well heres the deal, you can loop any where in a sequence (you set the position in time) but it wont save with the sequence, so basicly you have to make loops and enable them to be triggered, easy enough because you can just sequence the notes then cut/copy the section and just paste it however many times.

not sure exactly what you mean here. or are you talking about looping drum rhythm samples, etc and making a long 'song' with the sequencer? i was thinking more about the 'Loop on/off' setting on the internal sequencer that restarts the sequence from the beginning once the sequence reaches the end of its last bar. my midi sequences are four or eight-bars with usually 8-16 seperate tracks that i would just loop and mute in and out while they're playing. i'm hoping i can pull of a simpler version of this on the E-mu (though it doesn't look easy to mute tracks in real-time). i guess in worst case if it still needs to loop from the last midi event, i could throw the files in a software editor and put in some 'ghost note' which runs for the duration of the whole sequence and set it to midi channel 16 or something. haven't had much time to experiment with it since i got it the other day.

jbuonacc wrote:sounds good so far! i don't think i'll be pushing it too hard. i did notice though that the on-screen editing (jumping from screen to screen, etc) gets pretty sluggish when it's receiving midi data. is this normal? i've only spent a few hours or so working with it.

No idea.

now that i think to mention it, there seems to be some audible noise coming through my monitors when hitting certain buttons sometimes. are E-mu's known to do this? seems like some sort of voltage bleed being sent to the outputs? i've also noticed some audio glitching when going into 'Sample Manage' from the Preset section while it's playing. as soon as i get to the 'New' screen to sample/re-sample it's gone. found some crazy issues when assigning velocity>Sstart along with ModWl>Sstart at the same time. (sorry i can't explain it better at the moment) it's like you go past the sample end point and it crackles and screams. weird. didn't sound 'healthy', but i don't think it hurts it at all... ??

No clue.

not sure exactly what you mean here. or are you talking about looping drum rhythm samples, etc and making a long 'song' with the sequencer? i was thinking more about the 'Loop on/off' setting on the internal sequencer that restarts the sequence from the beginning once the sequence reaches the end of its last bar. my midi sequences are four or eight-bars with usually 8-16 seperate tracks that i would just loop and mute in and out while they're playing. i'm hoping i can pull of a simpler version of this on the E-mu (though it doesn't look easy to mute tracks in real-time). i guess in worst case if it still needs to loop from the last midi event, i could throw the files in a software editor and put in some 'ghost note' which runs for the duration of the whole sequence and set it to midi channel 16 or something. haven't had much time to experiment with it since i got it the other day.

What you would do is either 1. play the notes you want then copy that little piece and paste it however many times you want it to play 2. do the same but sample it and then enable looping via the sample not the sequence and just sequence that one note however many times. And you have 48 tracks which can be muted or solo'ed at will, it will display a M next to the track when u mute it or S when solo'ed. I would suggest updating you EOS seems as tho you have a old one.

I could go on forever really, this is a great extension of the machine that hardly anyone has explored, and doubtfully many will now that these samplers are relics of the cavemen.

Modern musicians are the most wasteful of all creatures.

ahh, my problem is having my nose stuck in this ancient 2.50 manual that i got with it. checked out the EOS4 manual again - while they totally overhauled and expanded the sequencer (i'd say it rivals the MPC and others in many regards), they totally botched the looping function. if i'm lucky it'll default to sequence start and end points and i can just switch it 'on' at power-up. i'll have to play around with it.

it's not possible to mute more than one track at a time is it? ie - having tracks 1-5 playing, then immedietely dropping out tracks 3 and 5 in real-time? as far as i can see you have to move the cursor to the track you want to mute and then change it.

yes, it seems like a great sequencer though. i may just have to make more use out of it than i'd originally planned...

about the HD - would a smaller capacity drive use less power, making it safer to use with an internal Zip? should i look into upgrading my power supply?

...perhaps it is better for you to work with external SCSI Devices ...and let the Maschine as it is. I think there are a scsi upgrade Kit for your EMU ...?...