The Emulator III

The Emulator III was introduced after the discontinuation of the Emulator II in 1987, and was manufactured until 1990. A rack-mountable version was introduced in 1988.

E-mu Emax SE (ca.1988)

E-mu Emulator IIIXP (1993)

E-mu ESI-32 (1994)

It featured 4 or 8 Megabytes of memory, depending on the model, and it could store samples in 16-bit, 44 kHz stereo, which at the time, was equivalent to the most advanced, professional equipment available. The sound quality was also improved greatly over its predecessors, the Emulator I and II, with quieter outputs and more reliable filter chips.

The Emulator IV & EOS

E-mu E4X Turbo (1996)

E-mu e6400 Ultra (1999)

E-mu E4XT Ultra (1999)

The Emulator IV series of samplers was introduced in 1994. They are compatible with the Emax 2 and E-III program libraries, and later versions can read Akai and Roland CD-ROMs. (Some reports state that only the Ultra versions can consistently load Roland 16 bit samples.)

The first to be released was the Emulator IV rack which could come with 128 voices and up to 128 Megabytes of RAM. Later you could add a multi-effects processor, additional output sockets and 32 MIDI channels.

The Emulator III

The Emulator III was introduced after the discontinuation of the Emulator II in 1987, and was manufactured until 1990. A rack-mountable version was introduced in 1988.

E-mu Emax SE (ca.1988)

E-mu Emulator IIIXP (1993)

E-mu ESI-32 (1994)

It featured 4 or 8 Megabytes of memory, depending on the model, and it could store samples in 16-bit, 44 kHz stereo, which at the time, was equivalent to the most advanced, professional equipment available.

the emulator II

E-mu Emulator II+ (supersized picture, frontpanel decals can be read).

Released commercially in 1984 to huge acclaim, the Emulator II (or EII) was E-mu's second sampler. Like the Emulator I, it was an 8-bit sampler, however it had superior fidelity to the Emulator I due to the use of digital companding and a 27.7 kHz sample rate. It also allowed more flexibility in editing and shaping sounds as resonant analog filters were added and it had vastly better real time control.

The Emulator

Finally released in 1982, the Emulator was a floppy disk-based keyboard workstation which enabled the musician to sample sounds, recording them to non-volatile media and allowing the samples to be played back as musical notes on the keyboard. The 5 1/4" floppy disk drive enabled the owner to build a library of samples and share them with others, or buy pre-recorded libraries on disk.

Impetus

Impetus

E-mu Systems was founded in 1971 and began business as a manufacturer of microchips, digital scanning keyboards, and components for electronic instruments. Licensing this technology gave E-mu ample funds to invest in research and development, and they began to develop boutique synthesizers for niche markets, including a series of modular synthesizers and the high-end Audity system. In 1979, founders Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum saw the Fairlight CMI and the Linn LM-1 at a convention, inspiring them to design and produce a less expensive keyboard that made use of digital sampling.

Originally, E-mu considered selling the design for the Emulator to Sequential Circuits, who, at the time, was using E-mu’s keyboard design in their popular Prophet-5 synthesizer. However, soon afterward, Sequential Circuits stopped paying E-mu royalties on their keyboard design, which forced E-mu to release the Emulator themselves.

Emu emulators

The Emulator is the name given to a series of disk-based digital sampling keyboards manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1982 until 1990. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary musicians, due to its relatively low price and its size, which allowed for its use in live performance. It was also innovative in its integration of computer technology with electronic keyboards.