emusonacid! legacy

ive know about the potential of emu samplers for a few years. ive just decided to buy 1 tho. .and im struggling to decide what would best fit my needs. .

i didnt even realise about how many different models there are. i was only really aware of E5000 . E6400. (ultra) . . but ivedone alittle research and found e4 .. e4x . .e64 etc

what are the differences? they all have z-plane filters? fx? etc
sorry im a complete noob here. .excuse my ignorance

thanks

Well, there are basically two lines, the non-ultra(classic) and the ultras. Almost every e-mu's has their ultra counterpoint. What differes them is that the Ultras is generally better, you can use ide-harddrives, you can write flash-roms to use in your proteus 2xxx's range and you can use eos 47 (the operative system), which have some fancy effects and so on.

The thing is, take for example the e4-xt ultra (you might wanna search this info on the net and/or wait for someone else to answer, this is an example), it already got two midi inputs, and input for qwerty-keyboard and so on and so on factory installed. The e6400-ultra don't have any of that, but all of it could be added, so an e6400 could be just as good as a e4-xt...

Well, there are basically two lines, the non-ultra(classic) and the ultras. Almost every e-mu's has their ultra counterpoint. What differes them is that the Ultras is generally better, you can use ide-harddrives, you can write flash-roms to use in your proteus 2xxx's range and you can use eos 47 (the operative system), which have some fancy effects and so on.

The thing is, take for example the e4-xt ultra (you might wanna search this info on the net and/or wait for someone else to answer, this is an example), it already got two midi inputs, and input for qwerty-keyboard and so on and so on factory installed. The e6400-ultra don't have any of that, but all of it could be added, so an e6400 could be just as good as a e4-xt...

Or you could think of it this way...

The non-Ultra models are Generation 1 of the Emulator 4 model range.

The Ultra models are Generation 2... which runs 50% faster hardware (so if you want to really mangle your samples, it will take less time), it allows IDE internal hard-drives (instead of just SCSI... which seem to be harder to find, among other problems), and has more RAM for the OS and presets.

You start with the Emulator IV (Gen1 only). This became the E-IV rack, which had a little brother e64. These gave way to the e4, which could be upgraded to the e4-XT. Consider this the top of the line. Full sampler RAM, all the additinal I/O upgrades (8 additional out, AES digital, 4 extra ins (I think), extra MIDI ports, etc).

Now, not everyone can afford the top of the line, fully tricked out Porche. So E-mu introduced the "build-as-you-go" model, the e6400. Same basic hardware, but without all the cool extras, so you can add them as you can afford them (or as you find you actually need them).

Later, E-mu revised the main board hardware and such, and Generation2 was born as the Ultra series. Though not labled as such, the previous generation became known as "classic" (hence, you'll find people talk about an e6400 classic vs. an e6400 Ultra).

And here things get complicated. You could, at the time, upgrade the system flash RAM in your classic, which would allow you to install and run the OS for the Ultra and get almost all the same features (I have no idea what was changed, other than adding "Beat Munging" to the sample edit tools... lets you chop up loops and play just selected beats). It doesn't get you the full amount of system RAM of an Ultra, so some really large banks might not load because of "preset full" errors (well, that's my experience).

Then E-mu decided that having the e6400-Ultra wasn't quite getting them the "budget studio" crowd, so they introduced the e5000-Ultra. Slightly better base specs than the e6400, but couldn't be upgraded nearly as far.

The situation with FX is also a bit complicated. The original classic e6400 didn't have an FX board, but one could be added. When the Ultra model was introduced, what was the basic FX board became standard, but you could now upgrade any of your Ultra systems with the spanky new RFX-32 card... which turned out to not be nearly as popular as E-mu had hoped. There were some software issues, among other things.

And software is sort of where you end up. Classic models without the flash RAM upgrade can't run the 4.0 series EOS. Classics with the flash upgrade can, as can all of the Ultra models. The last "official" stable release that will run on the Classic models is EOS 4.62. There is a 4.7 "beta", but as far as I know it will only run on the Ultra line. It adds one major feature: the ability to address FAT formatted hard-drives. This makes sharing data with the PC world much easier, and allows you to use a much larger internal hard drive (the basic EOS file system is limited to a maximum 18Gb). It also adds several problems if you have the RFX-32 card installed, like random blasts of noise (or so I've read... I don't have the card myself).

And since it's somewhere around here than E-mu lost interest in hardware samplers, they never bothered to tidy up the code. If you have an Ultra, you have a choice: EOS 4.7 for the FAT compatability and ditch the RFX, or EOS 4.62 for the stable RFX and forgoe FAT drives.

There... simple enough?

Ah, good writing there vermis!

thanks for the info. it lead to me buying a 6400 ultra :)

Wow Vermis, pretty comprehensive reply!

So what about the keyboards? How many different models were there? Am I right in thinking there was never an Ultra spec keyboard?

Nope, no Ultra spec keyboard. There was the E4K, but it's a "classic" model unit. Oh, and the E-Synth Keys (which is basically the E4K with the extra E-Synth sound ROM installed... although, if I remember right, having that or any other sound ROM installed limited you using a maximum of 64Mb of regular sample RAM, but you could turn the ROM off if you had a full 128Mb and wanted to use it all).

Although... you could use an Ultra series rack to roll-your-own flash RAM (16 or 32Mb) to install in any of the Proteus-flavour-K-6 model keyboards (MK-6 Mo'Phatt, XK-6 Xtreme, PK-6 Proteus Keys... that last one came with the "composer" sound set from the Proteus 2500 Command Station rack). This would effectively give you the best of both worlds, as you could re-flash the RAM with a new sample set built with Ultra level tools when you got bored of the current one.

And then there's the Ensoniq Halo... it also accepts the E-mu sound ROMs/Flash RAMs. It was introduced the same time as the K-6 models, after Creative Labs merged their two acquisitions. It's physically and functionally identical to the other K-6 models, just a different colour (red, instead of purple, yellow or white) and a different base ROM.

All of the K-6 models had three free slots for expansion ROMs/Flash-RAMs

As for the comprehensiveness of my reply... well, I'm slightly obsessive-compulsive about gathering information (research monkey on my back), so when I started looking at an e6400-Classic in a local store, I decided to find out as much as I could about the whole line.

That, and I've always been a fan of E-mu products going waaaaaay back

That's great information.
I've been half keeping an eye open for an E-Synth keys to double up as a controller board. I hear the feel and action on these is extremely good.

I'm glad you raised the issue of flash RAM. Is there any way of sourcing this any more or is it simply a case of finding one on the used market? I spoke to Emu in Ireland but they couldnt help.

That's a really good question, and off hand, I don't know. Certainly, E-mu are no longer making the kits available, although you might find some floating around on eBay I suppose (although I've never seen them... while the expansion sound ROMs are out there, they could be saved to a hard drive as regular EOS Banks, meaning people would be more willing to part with them after they've "ripped" the banks to disk... Flash RAM, because it's infinitely resuable, it more likely to be held onto, reducing the chance of finding them second hand).

It's not even remotely clear from the documentation (check E-mu's web site, under support... there's a little link at the bottom for legacy hardware support, then follow Ultra model links... they have the docs that went with most of the available upgrades) whether the SIMMS were standard off-the-shelf units or a custom chipset that E-mu came up with. There are references in the "Sound Authoring" document to "Big Flash" and "Baby Flash", but that would just be E-mu's way of referencing how the memory is addressed rather than a custom arrengement on the SIMM.

You could try contacing E-mu support through the main web site. There are at least some people there still willing to talk about the older hardware (although they will admit that, for the forseeable future, E-mu is out of the hardware sampler market... tagged with a hopeful "never say never", but I'm not holding my breath). They might be able to at least tell you if it was a standard SIMM or a custom job... and if it's a standard, they might tell you what kind to look for. Then it's time for a trip down the local PC shop for scrounging.

Alternately, there is still one (and only one) designated E-mu hardware service center... but it's in Florida (USA). They don't list parts on the web site, but a polite e-mail might turn up some Flash RAM info (who knows, they might even have some lying around somewhere).

If you do manage to get an answer out of E-mu Support, don't forget to share with the rest of the class