E-mu Emulator III vs Emax (orig)

[0e0]

thoughts?

j

0=0

[Beerco]

I can only speak to half the question but....I own an Emax SE and it's a pretty cool synth but it's got a sound to it that sticks out from a mile away due to the compression. The emax was the only sampler I had access to in the 80's and 90's and must say it's a very flexible and intuitive interface. Very easy to assign sounds etc. Flexible filters and all the good stuff. Lot's of good mod sources as well.

The bad part is that apparently the power supplies are bad on them. I pulled mine out a couple years ago for a reunion show and the power supply burned out over night when I accidentally left it on. I got a new one off ebay for about $40.

That said, I'm sure there's way more emaxes out there than EIIIs so that would make the choice obvious for me.

EIII is a clean 16 bit sampler with a 90's processor. Anything that it can do can be out done on a modern soft sampler.

emax is a gritty 8 bit sampler from the tail end of the 80s.

What do you need?

[HideawayStudio]

EIII is a clean 16 bit sampler with a 90's processor. Anything that it can do can be out done on a modern soft sampler.

emax is a gritty 8 bit sampler from the tail end of the 80s.

What do you need?

Err - thats a little unfair - the original EIII (not the later EIIIX) is a monster and is also a hybrid design with discrete Curtis analog filters like the EII's SSM filters. It has a beautifully warm and smooth sound too - a real collectors item, once an extremely expensive flagship sampler and technically horrifically complex!

The EMAX, released in 1985, is 12 bit and quite high quality with it. It is capable of sounding very smooth too - if required - again, with discrete analog filters.

Vintage 8 bit samplers include the Mirage, the Fairlight Series I and the Amiga

[calyx93]

Since when are chipped filters discrete ?

BTW - the series II Fairlights were obviously 8-bit and the Emax's samples were 8-bit companded from 12-bit converters.