emusonacid! legacy

This has probably been done before, so forgive me. The aim of this thread is to provide board members with an idea of just HOW people are using their E-MU's in the studio and to perhaps identify ways in which we could better our workflow and interaction with our samplers and sequencers.

I mainly got an E-MU coz I heard the sound and filters were amazing and I also had wanted to incorporate some hardware into my setup for some time.

Since I've had it I agree, the sound is great as are the filters, ALTHOUGH, I don't seem to be using it as much as I'd previously anticipated.

My main use of the E-MU at the moment, is sampling my Virus b and recording it straight into Logic. I like to crank up the gain pretty hard depending on the patch, for reeses an basses I bump it anywhere from 6db upto 18db which gives a massive compressed effect, which I find really good for dirty neuro type leads. With pads and other shit I quite often use the reverbs and delays from the E-MU aswell as recording some filter sweeps from time to time for added movement, but sadly, that's about as far as I go.

The setup is plain obvious, outs of the Virus b, into the E-MU, into the inputs of my soundcard, into Logic audio channels, hit record. I don't stray much from this setup as I don't have sufficient I/O and I can't be fucked changing those motherfucken cables around the back of my desk.

I've always wanted to do a bit more with my E-MU, particularly with breaks, although without any SCSI transfer (Macbook Pro) I haven't heard of a realistic way of acheiving this. I've tried chopping breaks in the E-MU and it's not for me, I much prefer chopping breaks in the arrange window of Logic, I believe it's much faster and much more accurate.

If anyone does do their breaks in the E-MU and then programs them in midi from their sequencer with good results and fast workflow. Could you quickly outline the process (whether it involves SCSI or not)?

Also, for the people that are programming their leads directly from the E-MU in midi in their sequencer, could you explain a little about how you do this?

Ie. Start to finish, from mapping to grouping, a few things you might do in CORDS, etc?

Hope this can be a productive thread!!!

- Ric

cool. to do my breaks i send a bunch of single one shot drum samples to the emu via scsi. (ive read somewhere in the forum that there is a scsi adapter for macs.. but if you cant do that, you can always just out your computer to teh sample ins on the emu and record the one shots that way.)
anyway, then i use the 2nd multi screen to place all the samples (usually one sample per note, unless layering then 2 or more per note)
then in the patch chords, i set the filter freq, resonance, pitch, and sample start to be controller via a mid controller, (a,b,c,e etc), play with the amount values and away you go.
ususing sample start to control drums is cool cause you get really choppy short drums (good for an intro or break) and then can sweep the knob to bring in the full sound.
you can also just copy the entire sample zone and fine tune it up a a tad to get a thicker drum sound, or even more for some flanging/chorus effects.
go nuts!

woops, posted 2x ")
btw, i dont use the internal sequencer cause i find i faster just to program it using the sequencer on the daw.
sometimes i'll send the midi out of my er1 to the emu and assign the pads to control the drum sounds so i get a step sequencer to controll the emu drums. FUN!

I sequence using ableton live on an I-mac C2D.

I record samples from a set of outputs to a cassette deck.

From the cassette deck, I record samples into the emu.

I then have a G4 set-up running os9, recycle, prosoniq, and DSP Quattro.

I edit the samples and use recycle to send them back as presets.

I am having so much fun. this is exactly the set up i wanted back in like 97' but it was way to expensive then.

the whole rig with CPU, emu E5000, Recycle was @ $500 US

lordtoranaga wrote:I record samples from a set of outputs to a cassette deck.

seems kinda convoluted. why arent you recording the samples directly to the emu by connecting your soundcard outputs directly to the sample inputs..

lordtoranaga wrote:I edit the samples and use recycle to send them back as presets.

also if you're using recycle to edit/send samples.. you can just send the samples via scsi and bypass the emu sample inputs entirely..
i dont see an advantage to doing that much work just to get the samples in there.. unless you want that "tape" sound.. but i dont think using a tape casset recorder is the right way to go about it.

I like the sound.

I hit the tape real hard, and filter out the distortion (sometimes).

I am just experimenting with creating my own sound.

everybody just throws their samples in a soft-sampler, and adds some plug-ins.

Some times I hook up an amp, and re-amplify my samples and record through a good tube pre-amp to cassette.


Also, all of my samples come from my vinyl collection(7000+), and I do my best to disguise them.

convoluted, yes. A waste of time, maybe.
but, WTF else am I going to do?


I am also playing around with a roland VariOS on my os9 machine

i see. sorry if i sounded like an ass!
tube pre to sample in definetly sounds like a good idea esp if you're driving the tube nice and hard.
it would be interesting to hear what that sounds like
softssamplers are generally pretty retarted. with the exception of kontakt. it seems pretty intuitive. but i rather like to keep the cpu load off my comp

I meant no malice.

like I said, I am just trying to do what i can.


I come from the old school 4-track days

track and mix on a 4 track, then master to a cassete deck


watch the levels, and you can get some good sounds


stay creative + positive

Been suggested quite a few times in the past. How about an area where we can post up some Preset Templates, Multisetups + FX configs for RFX owners etc. Then add some of your own samples, tweak the controllers and you'll have a nice idea of how people work with the emu.

so do most of u guys draw in midi and have ur emu's 'play it' live?

or u do guys bounce and resample etc?

I play the midi until i am satisfied with the part i am working with.. then i am bouncing to wave.. to free up the emu.. (i only have 64 voices). But i am keeping the midi, incase of change.

then i usually compress and layer the bounced audio in the sequencer to get the right punch!