E-mu Emulator Sampler User Forum for the EIII EII EI and EIII XP

Hi there

I start the first thread which is here for introducing ourselves and telling where we come from, what we do,  etc..


My real name is Christian Bünzli, I live in Switzerland and I do have an office job for living.. I am building up a new studio for me this summer (leaving home) and I am primalry interested working with nice analog gear.

The EIII is my second hardware sampler besides an E4XT Ultra. However I am still stuggling to get it working but I am on it ..Thanks a lot therefore to rokuez and Morley..

I am really looking forward to use this sampler as my main sampler..

My focuss in musical direction is tech-house, minimal techno, house.. but hell.. I am open for pretty much everything ;)


I am really happy that we have now this dedicated forum to this beautiful sampler  :)



Greets


Christian

Hi,

David Vandenborn here from Belgium.

I own an EIII 4MB 8MB that I'm using a my main sampler next to the Akai MPC3000 and NI Kontakt 2.

I've upgraded the internal hard drive with a 700MB drive. I'm also using an external Apple CD-ROM drive and a ZIP drive for storage. Next to that I've got an Apple PPC7100 with a G3 card that's hooked up to the EIII for sample editing using Alchemy 3.

I prefer to create my own samples with the EIII. I do have lots of Sample CD-ROMS but rarely use them.

Since the EIII is a high maintance sampler I've setup a blog with my adventures in keeping the thing working.
My blog can be found at http://dvdborn.blogspot.com (http://dvdborn.blogspot.com)
The Emulator III postst can all be accessed through the following link:
http://dvdborn.blogspot.com/search/label/Emulator%20III (http://dvdborn.blogspot.com/search/label/Emulator%20III)

Some of my music containing the EIII can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/dvdborn

Cheers,
David

Hi!

I'm Elm.
Making music since 1990. Back in those days, i started at fifteen with a Korg 707 digital Synthesizer. Pretty soon, I bought a Moog Prodigy (for 400 DM / 200 Euros, ridiculous today ;).
In 1991, I discovered the E-Mu Emax Sampler, which excited me so much... 
I was deeply into Depeche Mode Sound back then, and as I found an old Emulator I Sampler, I immediately bought it. It even worked for some time..
These things made me E-Mu addicted, and up to today, I collected various vintage E-Mu equipment. That is Emax Keyboard and Rack versions, Emulator I, 2 x Emulator II and the big Emulator III with 8 Megs Ram and 1GB Harddisk.
Today, I mostly make loop related music, hip hop influenced, but more and more fusion styled.

Looking forward to have a good time in this forum!

Greetings,
Elm.

Hello everyone,

My name is Marko alias Escobar, and I'm from Sweden.
I've been interested in electronic music since the 80's, and my very first syntheseizer was the Yamaha DX27 or was it DX21?
Can't remeber exactly, sold it anyway a short while after and bought an Ensoniq ESQ-1 with fantastic wavetable synthesis.
In the 90's I had to sell the ESQ-1 as a poor student and I never had a synth/sampler until few years ago when I bought a Roland MKS-70 + a Super JX, and I got hooked again. This last year I've managed to get my hands on several e-mu samplers that I've been dreaming to own: Emulator II+ HD, Emulator III rack, and Emax keyboard and rack HD. I love the thick, dirty, and gritty sound of analog that these old beasts make. It's always nice to own a little piece of history  ;)
My Emulator III rack has 8mb of RAM.

It's nice to see a forum for EIII, I think it's needed. I have some problems with mine that I might need help to resolve.

thanks,

Escobar 

Hey everyone glad to see so many EIII users, most of u know my personal info, and if u need to know it shoot me a pm.  It looks like a lot of us are using the skype messaging program, but a lot of our convo's where just getting lost/forgotten.

Hopefully some more EIII ppl find their way outta the woodwork and onto this site.

Suprised Rome hasn't posted yet.

I think we will be able to share knowledge and at the end of the day all have fully functional eiii's, which I think is what we all want because it sounds so good.

Right now I'm an out of school student working full time to finish up my studio. 

I'm into producing classical pieces, and 80's pop tunes.

I really love the sound of the EIII, but mine is not 100% stable because some chips pop out of their sockets.  I also really really like the sample sets that e-mu made for the eiii they sound awesome.

My goal is to get my EIII rack to be fully functional, get an old g3 with alchemy, and possibly pick up the northstar eiii samples in a possible group buy.  I want to have my eiii as my main sampler and to play other instruments on it because those patches sound so epic.

it looks like northstar made more sample banks for the eiii then e-mu.  there are a ton of them but the cds are pricey $250 per cd...   http://www.northstarsamples.com/EmuMenu.html

If anyone has ever used the northstar samples start another thread to comment on it to keep things organized please.

hi

Im eII, EIII, E4xt, SP12 turbo and EMAX owner  :)
(http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m18/rokuez/lalalalal2.jpg)
http://web.vip.hr/roginator.vip/lalalalal.jpg
My EIII worx flowless 8MB, recaped and with 2 HD drives and CD rom

love it  ; )

Damir

Hello I'm Olivier and live in Belgium.

I've always been fascinated by electronic music. I grew up with the new beat and the technoroots and became a huge fan of the early R&S sound. Most of the early R&S tracks were made with the EII and later on with the EIII.

Last fall, a guy from Holland sold his EIII keyboard and rack and I couldn't resist buying those wonderfull machines. My keyboard version has 8mb, a hard disk from 240mb and a zip-drive. The rack has also 8mb memory but just a 40mb hard disk.

I've tried a lot of things with them but I'm still learning the full working of the system.

I'm glad that someone had the idea to start a forum about the EIII because there isn't much info on the net about it except the great blog from David of course. ;)

Hello,

I'm Martijn from Holland and I run my own little company repairing vintage synths, samplers, drum machines, etc. As a matter of fact I have worked on the EIII keys and rack that are now owned by Olivier. The rack was not working at all, but I managed to get it running again. Keyboard had some flaws as well and still has some problems IIRC. I tried out several things with those EIII's, like installing new floppy drive, internal MO drive, internal ZIP drive and cardreader. Working on these beasts, I discovered how wonderful they actually sound! So finally I got myself a slightly broken 8 MB EIII keys from ebay last year which is running like a charm at the moment. I'm planning on installing a CF reader later this year. Oh, I'm also the owner of a SP-12 Turbo.

Hi there.

I'm Kris, also from Belgium.
..The EIII seems quite popular in this area (Belgium/Netherlands)...

My EIII is a fully expanded one with 8MB RAM, 540 MB internal HD and ZIP-drive + CDROM drive connected to it.
A Mac with Alchemy and SoundDesigner makes the package complete.

The sound of this machine is wonderful, but I've doubts about its reliability.
I'm still having trouble with one distorted voice/channel. It causes terrible sounds so I have to disable its output.
Even Martijn from the Netherlands (other member) was not able to fix this, so this must be a *real* problem :-). Replacing filters, capacitors, ... didn't work.
So now I'm using a 15 voice polyphonic EIII. That's still 7 more than my EII.

I'm not really a musician, but when I do play music, I only play my own compositions (different styles: Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, Faithless, G. Numan, ...)
In the first place however I'm "just" very interested in old school Emu stuff. Nostalgia I assume.

I started collecting Emu samplers only about 3-4 years ago after having seen the 101 Depeche Mode road movie.
The Emax demonstrated by Wilder intrigued me.
At this moment I'm the proud owner of Emu Emax SE & Plus, Emu Emax-II, Emu Emulator II+ and Emu Emulator III.

This EIII forum is a good idea, it was the missing link for the EIII community wordlwide until now !
And ... if anyone knows the solution for my distorted voice channel, don't hesitate to contact me !


Kris

YO!!! ROME is in the house. What's up fellow EIII users. It's good to see a site for the best sampler ever made. I hope to see more people join. I own several EIII's. I been a fan of EMU ever since my SP12 Turbo. I used to live down the street from emu. I own every sampler that EMU has made. If you are looking for a EIII or a EMAX I or EMAX II or maybe a E4XT Ultra I have a few extra that I am selling. All my machines are  loaded and in excellent condition. Give me a shout rome@sp12.net

Hi,

i'm Rudi from Germany (near Straßbourg-France).

good to have a EIII forum  :)

my toys are also Emax(1), EII, 2xEIII and a lot other stuff...


more equipment from me: http://www.sequencer.de/synthesizer/showroom.php?mode=viewshowroom&u=553 (http://www.sequencer.de/synthesizer/showroom.php?mode=viewshowroom&u=553)

cheers
Rudi

Hi there it's Gian Luca from Italy!

I own a mint emulator III (4 mb keyboard) and I love it for its incredible sound.
I do have everyday problems with my beast, of course, but i understand it's a rock even if it needs baby-cares!!

I'm happy to listen to your problems and great finds about our emulators. I'll try to help you as much as I can but I'm mainly into music production rather than technical issues....

I also use other samplers such as akai s6000 and s2000, e-mu 6400, emax I, ensoniq mirage,
ensoniq asr 10

talk soon!

gian luca

Hi gian Luca


Nice to have you here. I am still struggling to get my EIII working, I might have to change the SCSI Board if everything fails.  ::)


Greets

Hi Sleepy here


I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland
Been playing music since I was 14, in various bands etc
Currently playing in the 'Official' Ultravox-tribute band
www.ultravoxtribute.co.uk.
Also into Depeche Mode, Numan, NIN etc
 
My picture here displays my trusty old Emulator ll+HD


Anyway, I'm taking delivery of my Emu Elll in a few weeks time.
I bought it from a friend of mine in N. Ireland a few years back & I never went to collect it!

As far as I'm aware it's the 8mb version & it also has a sycologic external drive & a full flightcase!

My current rig consists of:

Clavia Nord Lead 2
Kurzweil K2600XS
Roland JD-800
Emu Emulator ll+HD (Ex-Simple Minds) Which I'm probably looking to sell at the moment.
Emu E4k (x2)...One which is getting repaired at the moment & may sell on soon.
Yamaha SS30 (x2)

Emu Proteus 2000...looking to sell this module also
Emu Proteus 2500
Emu Vintage Keys Plus
Emu Vintage Pro
Korg Wavetation AD
Novation Supernova ll
Roland JV-2080
Waldorf Pulse
Waldorf Microwave

Looking to add an Access Virus TI later this year...hopefully! ;)

Hello Peeps....

My name's Karl and i live in London, been floating around this great forum for a little while now, but didn't want to introduce myself formally as prior to today i was not a owner of an EIII....

Well now i am, and all i can say is WOW!!!! the EIII has to be the biggest secret, been searching for fatness forever & a day, but this thing does it out of the box, no preamps, no nothing, god help them when i run it thru my Great River pre tonight!!!!!..

Been hunting down a mint rack for about year, then got chatting with rokuez and he hooked me up with "Rome", I have to say big  thankyou you guys, just what the doctor ordered, i'm from the old skool and this just feels like having a tape machine, not "STUDER" mind you, but this thing is certainly up there in the quality stakes....

I sampled and sound from my V Synth and the EIII sounded better than the source, what you put into this thing you most certainly do not get out, everything just comes out "ALIVE & CHUNKY"......

I make Deep House music and this thing just slots right in, it's what i've been missing, my EIII is 8mb version with 1gb internal HD & Zip Drive, also got all the emu CDrom soundbanks, and about 50mb of  Rome's high quality personal library, original floppy drive, extra 1gb HD, all thrown in.....

What more could you ask for, she's been running for the past 6 hours without a glitch, (I hope i'm one of the lucky ones), LOL!!!!

Anyway really great idea having this forum, as it was warranted, i hope to be around here for a long time, Stay Cool and thanks for having me, but don't forget this is our secret, SO SHHHHH!!!!!!  ;)
K.....

hey,

I meant to get around to this earlier.  From Toronto, Canada and I've had my EIII rack for about 4 years I guess.  Got it from a store in Montreal and had it shipped... shows you how little I knew about EIIIs back then.  Would NEVER ship this baby. 

As others have noted, it's a particularly lush sound out of this thing that I appreciate -- warmer than the Akai S1100, or Ensoniqs.  And resonant analog filters are a superb feature on a 16-bitter like this.

I make mostly hip-hop influenced stuff.. I used to produce for some acts around here years ago (before they blew up -- hah..) but now I do it mostly as a hobby with a recurring vivid day dream of launching into music professionally again.   And then the bills roll-in...

Not worried too much about keeping the EIII forum a secret.. it's pretty hard to become a bonified member..  but spam knows no bounds I hear.

Planning to replace the HD and floop eventually on this thing, but you know the saying... if it ain't broke then why should I gotta be?

Hmmm OK I pic of my set-up with the EIII (from the MPC-forums...):

(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll230/tbiggz/StudioMar2008_east_30pct.jpg)

welcum buddy!

 ;D

Hallo all together,

I´m Nis from germany, near Hamburg. Still looking for Emu- users in the north of germany.

A few years ago i made a dream come true, i bought an E III keyboard with 8 MB RAM and an 105 MB HD. Last year the second dream come true, an E II got mine. In fact of no experience as a musician, i want to get started in September. I own these incredible machines, the best sounding samplers ever, and had no time to use them.

Good to have this Forum for the questions that will come!!

Best regards

Syncla

Yo Syncla!

I'm from Bremen!

Greetz, Elm.

Switzerland here



Grüezi!  ;D

Hi, my name is Alfi.
I'm from Argentina but live in the US for the past 20 years.
I bought my EIII in Sam Ash NYC a long time ago.
Paid about 8,000 US$ and check this: US$2,500 for the rack CD rom with a couple of dics.
and those were no bushy dollars. Anyway it was worth every penny every time I pushed the slider up and felt my rib
shaking.
Sold it, payed my lawyer, stayed in NYC, bought an AKAI and discovered how boring programming can be.
I want to thank you all for keeping this alive.
I have a quick question since I 'm shopping for an Emu. Is there any difference in sound between the EIII Keyboard version and the
EIII rack version, or the EIIIxs, or the EIIIxp or even the e64?. I know the keyboard version had the F chip and have seen an EIIIxs that carries  the G chip. I am looking for analog filters.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Good Luck Everybody!

The only EIIIs are the EIII Keyboard and the EIII Rack units. Only they do have analog filters I think.
The x and xs (and everything afterwards) are pure digital pieces I think.

Am I right?!
Elm.

That's right.

David

Great! Thanks for the prompt response.

Nice to see this forum growing! :)

Thx to the founders!

My name is Steve Jones, I am a synth service tech. from Sydney, Australia. I have been servicing synthesizers since around 1982, was a warranty tech here for E-mu, Kurzweil, PPG and others. I have 20 or so vintage synths that I use to record with, and I service all vintage synths. I have an EIII and an EIIIx and an E6400. My EIII's are sitting idle, so they are in the line to get fixed after my CS-80. There are a couple of EII's and an Emulator 1 in storage, don't know when I will ever get to these... Looks like a great forum, when I fix my EIII I will post step by step repair info.

Nice to have you hear Steve!!!

step by step repair info? That would be cool! Don't forget to take photos :)

Another EIII user from Belgium!

David Morley here.
Been producing Electronic music professionally for 20 years now.
Used the EIII  in the 90's and just got one to revisit it (from CJ Bolland for those who know him)
It will live amongst many nice analogue and modular synths and I am sure it will  see some heavy use in the coming months
Anyway, good to be here and I must give a big hello to Buchla (Olivier) and David Vandenborn.
David helped me sort a few issues out on my EIII and we both sorted our Fairlights out...  Thx!

You can hear what I do here
http://www.myspace.com/morleysmusic (http://www.myspace.com/morleysmusic)
http://www.davidmorley.com (http://www.davidmorley.com)

Hi David

Good to hear that you finally have an EIII again !
And even more good to hear that your Fairlights will be saved from their silent death; it would have been a shame that these machines would not have been played anymore.

And by the way (a little off topic :-) your Wersi S3 is still working fine here... maybe I should create some nice Wersi Mk1 sound banks for the Emulator III, I think (no I'm sure !) no one has ever done that before :-)

///E-Synthesist - Kris

Hey Kris  :)
Didn't know you were here too!
Glad the Wersi is still working! Crazy synth. Is the problem you had with flickering solved?

Hello David, nice to see you've joined the club and that you've found an EIII. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it.

Hi Olivier
Thanks!
I'm sure I will!
See you soon hopefully...

Hi @ll,
finally I've found the Emulator Forum as well  :)
I'm Matthias from southern of Germany (close to Heidelberg).
I've been an Emulator III user since a couple of years and love this machine. Furthermore I've got an E6400 (which is also a fantastic gear but does not sound as powerful as the EIII) and an old E-mu Drumulator. There's a lot of other (non-Emu) gear I use, both vintage stuff and modern VSTis. Have a look at my studio collage here (http://www.pleasuresremain.de/home/secret.htm)
I do synthpop- and electronic music with my band project.
Currently my EIII is not working anymore - seems that it get damaged during my relocation :(
I hope to get it fixed on my own, will post the issue afterwards in the technical folder.
Nice to meet the enthusiastic emulator users here in this forum!
Talk 2 u soon -
 Matthias

Since others here have posted pictures of their EIII setup.
I just thought I'd share some pictures of mine.

David

Hmmm... yeahh... a typical homestudio setup... I think I have a CMI III too standing in a corner collecting dust, j...ust can't remember which corner...  8)

Hah!

Yeahh, very typical homestudio ... HAHAHA

Nice room.

Chris Strellis here from Clare in Suffolk, UK.

I've had an Emax Se and Emax II in the past and have an EIIIxp (although it has sampling inputs so that would make it an EIIIxs!).

(http://71.18.227.106/images/studio/rack.jpg)

My overwhelming collection of web addresses for you all to see and hear what I get up to.

http://www.strellis.com (http://www.strellis.com)
http://www.voynich.co.uk (http://www.voynich.co.uk)
http://www.strellis.co.uk (http://www.strellis.co.uk)
http://www.chromic.co.uk (http://www.chromic.co.uk)
http://www.myspace.com/strellismusic (http://www.myspace.com/strellismusic)
http://www.myspace.com/voynichmusic (http://www.myspace.com/voynichmusic)
http://www.myspace.com/chromicmusic (http://www.myspace.com/chromicmusic)
http://www.myspace.com/energiefabrik (http://www.myspace.com/energiefabrik)

Some videos too :)

http://uk.youtube.com/user/Synthasy2000 (http://uk.youtube.com/user/Synthasy2000)

EIIIxp Mellotron violins and Chamberlin strings samples on my Kraftwerk Airwaves homage here:

http://www.voynich.co.uk/mp3/Voynich_Airwaves.mp3 (http://www.voynich.co.uk/mp3/Voynich_Airwaves.mp3)

Roland St. John Perez a.k.a. Liquid Zen. I started playing synths at 11. My first real synths were a Yamaha DX100 and a Multimoog. I saved all year for those two. Back then (early 90's) analog synths were going cheap, I picked up the Multi for $200 at a music store!!! I signed to the Waveform Corp recod label in 1999 under the name Liquid Zen. I have since started my own label www.seventythreerecords.com   and have done some great things and met some great people along the way. I very exicted to see this EIII forum is going strong. I am currently building a library for my EIII of my analog synths. My studio list is...

MINIMOOG D
MULTIMOOG
OPUS 3
KORG MS20
MONO/POLY
OBERHEIM OBMX MAXED OUT
OBERHEIM OB8 W/MIDI
WALDORF Q
NORD LEAD 2X
MPC2000XL
EIII
FENDER RHODES 73 W/CAB

PRO TOOLS HD3 ACCEL
ADAM P33A AND MACKIE HR824 MONITORS
PRE'S EQ'S AND COMPS BY...
MILLENNIA
SUMMIT AUDIO
NEVE
JOE MEEK
STUDER

TL AUDIO M4 TUBE CONSOLE

A detailed list of other gadgets can be found at my other website www.liquidzen.org   be aware there is hi rez content.. it may take a little bit for all the pages to load

btw... i am willing to share the samples I make for free to all other EIII users on this forum. as soon as i have a good batch, i'll let ya know. thanks!!!!

Hi ppl, I'm Lucio from Rome Italy.
I'm a composer, gtr player, in new wave-pop-nu jazz scene since 1980, playing with (too much) italo-french disco-pop-electro bands, some of them known other not.
Now I'm trying these days to make some noises with some older beasts I used to play with in the last 30 years. Love some 80's drum machines I've found on the net. I'm playng with Kawai R50, Tr 606, Korg DDD5, Korg DDm110, Oberheim Dx, and some racks like EIIIxp, Waldorf Micro Wave I, Tx7, Polysix, Matrix 1000 and so on, from Sci Multitrak to D110. My only 2000's keybard is a Xio from Novation.
This is a very good place for E-mu fans (and more synths)
www.myspace.com/lucillis

A propos E-mu Fans. Here some Emus gathered while I was cleaning up.

(http://www.soulcage-department.de/Emus.jpg)

Greetz,
Elm.

Hi Elm,

Nice collection of Emu's you've got there. Do they all still work, except for the EII in the background :-)?

Cheers,
David

Yes, they all work perfectly.
Missing is my Emu-1 (which is NOT working anymore) and my two Emax-1.

The casing in the back has (very likely) been played by Alan Wilder back in the days.

Greetz,
Elm.

thanks for posting those pics elm .  are you personally fixing that eii in the back with the missing parts?  I would personally love to see a pic of one of those three tiered keyboard stands of the ei, eii, and eiii with an sp on the side hehe

Hah!
Me too, but I don't have a keyboard stand...

I do not have the 'interiors' of the EII in the back, I just got the casing (unfortunately). I had the chance to buy it cheap. I was wondering if I put some kind of controller - keyboard in it (USB or something..) But I think that could turn into a tricky affair.. find matching keys, matching wheels 'n stuff. But I'd really try that out.

Greetz,
Elm.

Hi, my name is Al and I have a sampler addiction...

It's great to see a forum dedicated to the EIII, they're wonderful machines.  I have owned two of them for about 7 years now, one is functional and the other is a parts machine as the keyboard circuit board is split.  I also have an E5000, E64, Emax SE rack, akai S6000, 2 Yamaha A4000's and a Waveframe 1000.    Of these samplers my favorite is a toss up between the the EIII and the Waveframe. 
I'd like to find a Series III Fairlight some day...

Anyway, it's great to see a community of EIII owners as I plan to keep mine as long as I can keep one of them working.

Hello all I'm Dan from the Bath area of the UK.   I'm a Electronic Design Engineer by profession and have been collecting, repairing restoring and using electronic music gear for nearly 20 years.   I'm lucky enough to own a substantial amount of gear including an EIIIXP, Emax II Turbo KB and EMAX II Rack.   Although I've always wanted an original EIII due it having lovely real analog filters (I will have one one day - even if I have to bring it back from the dead!) I have always been extremely impressed with the smoothness of E-mu's digital resonant filters - the filters on the Emax II and the EIIIXP are just lovely and make them more like synths than samplers.  I used a lot of samplers over the years and I can safely say the the EIIIXP and Emax II are some of the most flattering silky smooth samplers around - I put this down to their superb transposition filters which make my S1000 sound lame in comparison.... don't believe then make a single shot sample of an FM syth preset on an Emax II, loop and filter it, and then play up and down the entire keyboard - then do the same on an S1100!!

I'm a huge fan of older studio gear - I adore the D-50 because it has character - it's aliasing and harmonics make sound much more special than any software emulation could possibly touch.  The weird pitch bent ahh vox lead sound on Jarre's Computer Weekend was D-50.  The same is said for the orginal EII, EIII, Fairlight, EMAX I, Akai S950 and Waldorf Microwave - all of which have a special character.  I have loads of analog gear too - but we all know about that....

Here is piccy of the studio.

Cheers Dan.

welcome aboard!

Nice studio! (no EII ?)

Hi My name is Damir and IM EMU JUNKIE!!!!  :D :D :D :D :D :D

hi my name is eric and i just copped the emu eIII keyboard....
i have also a emax and i wanted another emax but than i ve found the EIII keyboard... ;D

Full ACK!

Or shoud i say "amen" :D

Welcome here, Peter!

Welcome Peter!

//Escobar

I think I did.

Welcome aboard!

Hi Emulator people,

My name is Quique and have been a long time lurker on this forum and finally aquired an EIII in tip-top shape...glad to finally join you. Hope to learn a lot more about this amazing sonic spaceship.

Best Regards,

Quique

Hi Quique,
Welcome and congrats on your purchase! Whereabouts are you in SoCal? I'm in San Diego....

George

thanks George :)....been moving around and about the last few years..currently residing in LA.

Qq

cool 2nd person in LA that I know of whose into EIII's

i'm in west LA

check out this thread on how to replace the internal HD with a Compact Flash card for the Hard drive.  I have two 1 gb cf cards in one of my EIII's ^_^

http://eiiiforum.com/index.php?topic=4.60  on page 5 I wrote a guide

Nice! ;)..thanks for the heads up Rokuez...thats the first thing i'll be doing  on my eiii...was reading that thread the other day, but was wondering if i can score the various parts at Fry's or somewhere in LA...and what brands? Noticed most guys on here are in Europe.

Quique

I wasn't able to find anything at Fry's except the jumpers (see the thread for a pic of those little things)

I ordered all from the net

as far as brands there is Acard AEC-7720U which is an adapter that goes from the scsi cable to the Compact Flash converter/holder.  

then there is the CF card, and you need to go with Kingston 1gb cf cards (white flower with purple triangle)

then the "Compact Flash Converter/Holder" object which holds the cf card  (the Acard attaches to this from the scsi cable)  

http://yhst-24919672089015.stores.yahoo.net/bootable-dual-ide-to-cf-converter-adapter.html i went with this bad boy.  Notice however that it is a dual cf card holder, BUT only one cf card goes in there.

so if you want to have dual 1 gb CF card Hard drives you need, two acard's, two kingstons, and two dual cf card holders.  So I'm NOT putting two kingston 1 gb cf cards in the dual cf card holder.... even thought it can fit two of them.

Most users I believe just use the single CF card holders, but I accidentally bought the dual one and it has worked for me.

i am making a note of this Rokuez. you Rok, dood..

thanks for taking the time.

Qq

Quique,  that's a track name from Seefeel.   

lol..you do know electronic music, PX. I was maybe 16 or 17 when i bought that album on cassette...cool dronie stuff...

My name is Enrique...Quique is the shortened nickname. kinda like bill for william or bob for robt. :)

Qq

I just LOVE samplers !!

Check out my signature to see what I currently have in my ever growing collection of E-mu stuff.

I also have an Oberheim DPX1, Ensoniq EPS, Ensoniq Mirage and a Korg DSS1 as well :-)

Love to you all and I just can't get enough of this forum !

Kenneth
12bit.com

Wow!!

That's quite a collection!

Yeah I know - it doesn't make much sense - right ?

But I can't help it - I just need to save all the Emu samplers I find :-)

But if anyone will understand my addiction I guess it's the guys on this forum - right ?

Kenneth
12bit

we understand here at this forum

this is Rome's pic from a while back, not mine

(http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m18/rokuez/100_0004.jpg)

 :o :o :o :o

 :P

DAMN DAMN DAMN !!

Kenneth
12bit

and one of those EIII's is now sitting firmly in MY rack, LOL!!!!!

It makes sense, if you´r enjoying these incredibly machines. If only you play them for your own and feel deeply happy in your soul in fact of this phenomenal sound , that´s the greatest sense of this finest samplers!

happy emulating forever to you all

Syncla

Hey. I'm Jay, living in Calgary, Alberta Canada. This forum has provided a wealth of hard to get info already.
Thanks! I have been using E-mu samplers since 1993 and really enjoy tinkering with them. Most of what I have now I got in a non-functional state. I guess I enjoy the challenge.  Havent been beaten yet...
As for music, my main influence for my musical creation is without a doubt just one band. Depeche Mode. Seeing them perform with Emulator II's and Emax Turbos was all I needed to start this journey. My holy grail would be to get a hold of some of their Violator and earlier samples. They have to be out there somewhere.... in E-mu or Akai format too I would suspect. Never come across any- YET.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that administers and contributes on here and I will be here for a long time to come.

Jay 8)

My name is Todd Loomis.  I got my second Emu sampler recently (well 2nd ever - I only have 1 now) - an EIII rack.  It used to belong to Danny Elfman!  No sounds were included though...  hehe.  A long time ago, I used to have an EIV XT Ultra.  I sold it way back when...  it's the one piece of equipment I've sold that I kind of wish I had kept.  It would be really nice to have it around now.  Anyway...   a bit of info about myself...  My main musical project is called "The Twilight Garden".  My new CD is now available (projekt records) here: http://www.projekt.com/projekt/product.asp?sku=PRO00236 (http://www.projekt.com/projekt/product.asp?sku=PRO00236).  Also, I did a lot of work on the last Velvet Acid Christ album "Lust for Blood".  Here are my sites so you can hear my stuff if you care to - but I didn't get the Emu until AFTER my album was finished  :)   - the EIII will be all over my next album I can assure you!

Todd Loomis
homepage: http://www.thetwilightgarden.com (http://www.thetwilightgarden.com)
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thetwilightgardenmyspace (http://www.myspace.com/thetwilightgardenmyspace)
vampirefreaks: http://vampirefreaks.com/TheTwilightGarden (http://vampirefreaks.com/TheTwilightGarden)
twitter: http://twitter.com/twilight_garden (http://twitter.com/twilight_garden)
projekt: http://www.projektrecords.com (http://www.projektrecords.com)

Welcome Rod!...diggin' your bubbleboy at autobahn track on your myspace page.

Qq

Hello all together,

my e-mu family has grown up!

Just got an Emax SE Rack and an e6400 for 350 € together.

Greeetz to all e-mu´s

Syncla

Just discovered this forum, and popping in to follow whenever possible..
I have started music back in the early 80's, mostly songwriting and gigging, and recently reorganized to start releasing albums (2004!). I have actually started music with a guitar (old second hand gibson lespaul custom!) and my first synth, must have been the cheapest Casio VL Tone (yes the micro toy), then i have completed my set up through the years by more professional synths, always second hand (I heard the ones I wanted back in the 80's most of the time and preferred waiting for the beast at second hand price than buying the short lived phenomenons people would get rid of the beasts for..). Actually I bought each synth from second hand shops and studios, around 10% of sale price, because these were 'out of fashion'. There was a new technology people were going for (ex.: digital age with DX7 and stuff, then Computer & softs..) ! What I mean to state here is, if you hold on to the quality of sound and not the wizard capacities, you can actually build a musician's rig and escape the office-techno hell.. Although I work as a IS consultant, I have no computer in my rig, i still work on my MC500 sequencer. (Speaking of this, the fact that operations are far more time consuming than on a computer - forgetting the crashes.., the hardware is reliable and you actually use this time between operations to do some thorough thinking on the next steps.)

So I'm now set up with the current gear : E-mu - Emulator IV, E6400 Ultra (factory demo unit), MPS
.Emulator III / SCI - Prophet 5, Pro-One / Roland - Jupiter 6, MC500MKII (my sequencer) / Yamaha - AW2816 / Sure - SM57 (mic) / Boss (pedals on mic) - DD2 (Delay), Compression, OD1 (Overdrive) / Inkel - 8 voices Mix.

I once owned a PolyMoog Synthesizer, and think with the Prophet 5 and the EIII, these are the synths with most 'soul'.. Maybe because these have no levelled amplitude in sound, and the sound just evolves in space as you play..

I reckon the only problem with the EIII is all the tatty technical problems you get with it (its real fragile, I wouldn't use it for gigging !), but what a sound and source of inspiration (would it be only the synth module and the arpeggiator).
I actually transfer my EIII sounds to the E6400 for gigging, and after some ajustments fall back to the original atmosphere of the EIII sound, BUT without the depth.. The 'evolution of sound in space' effect..

I would be glad to find
. some CD drive that actually works with the EIII
. a more practical saving system tip, maybe on computer (I can bear a computer for saves or audio recording)
 recording..

My current major issue is on my MPS keyboard (chips keybed) gradually losing keys action..

Apple CD 300 (with caddy). Welcome here!

David Noller from the electro act Dynamix II.

Been in the game since the mid 80's

www.myspace.com/dynamixii

Still own my old vintage beasts

Roland TR808 (signed by the egyptian lover), SH101, JV1080 w/Expansion Cards), MC202, SVC350 Vocoder, TB303 w/ cv in mod, sync

Novation Bass Station Rack

Electro Harmonix Vocoder

EMU EIII Keyboard

Sequential Circuits Pro 1

Clavia Nord Modular rev 1 Keyboard (signed by Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk)

Korg EA1, ER1

Moog Multimoog

Waldorf Microwave Rack

Akai mpc 1000,2000,2000xl

Korg Mikro Kontroller

Sonic Core - Scope System

UAD

3ghz Quad Core PC still running xp  ;)

nice gear man!!

check out DA BEAST


http://wellwornworkshops.com/stu808.htm a modified tr 808

No one ever welcomed me.
You guys suck! ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

Thanks!

Hi Everyone, My name is Michael Grönroos, and I live in Stockholm, Sweden.

I have been checking out the forum for years, but today I thought I'd register to be able to communicate with you all!

I had my first Emulator III encounter in Stockholm late 1987, and was blown away. I have never looked elsewhere since.
I bought my first EIII 8MB keyboard around 1989, over which my friend Daniel then took care about 1993. He still has it..
Somewhere between 1991 and 1993 I bought my other two EIII KB's, which I still use today. I love them to death.

I had an EIII rack for a few years, but always liked the keyboard better for some reason.
I think I sold it to buy the EIII XP when it came. It was very expensive at the time..
In my opinion the EIII XP is the cleanest sounding sampler ever made, due to its open, crisp sound. (I still have three of them today..)
Sad that E-mu never made a black EIIIXP keyboard version. I would still buy it today.

The emulator three keyboard is simply majestic.
It has warmth, caracter, fatness and, above all, deep bass!
If I had to choose one instrument, it would be the EIII keyboard.

Interesting that you can still feel a mix of anticipation, excitement and pure respect each time you power on an electronic instrument.
And this is after 20 years. It its truly a work of art.
The Emulator III is for E-mu what a 356 Speedster or a -73 911 RS is to Porsche.
Sad only that E-mu have not understood this yet.

Imagine if we all would get 1st class premium support from E-mu?
Imagine if they would help us all with memory upgrades and replacement chips?
Imagine if they understood that we are the ones upholding their heritage, that keeps the E-mu myth alive?

Just like the MiniMoog Voyager, the EIII could rightfully be developed ad re-released today.
Firewire, DSP, more RAM, extra voice boards, new A/D-D/A:s..
The technology of the EIII may be old by today's standards, but the sound is not.
The EIII still sounds warmer, fatter and has more soul than any new software synthesizer.

So let us all keep our machines running, and hope that the message to E-mu finally gets through!
Looking forward to talk to you all.

Yours truly,

Michael. 

Very well said.

Have you ever tried out the EII?

Concerning E-Mu: I think E-Mu is a totally different company than back in the days, forget about them. I don't even think anybody from the old days is still working there.

Hi Elmbeatz,

Yes, I actually had an Emulator II a few years. I REALLY like the looks of it, but I really never worked that much with it.
I used the strings on a couple of songs, but that was really all. I lacked the HD too much..

I did some A/B testing, and found the aliasing to be far more useful on the EII than the EIII.
But in terms of warmth and fatness, the EIII is my personal choice.

My friend Jonas still has the EII (and EIIIs) and likes them a lot, so perhaps I should give the EII a new listen?
Who knows, my 15 year old opinion might perhaps be reevaluated..  :=)

Regards,

Michael

The II's Just my preference..

It's soo intuitive... and warm...
IF you use it like I do - Plug, play, record on the fly (and twist the finetune slider for that detune flavor :D )

The III is a drum and sequencer beast to me. And - yes you're right - a bass mONSTer..

That's an awesome emu collection !!!  8)
Only the E2 & E4XT ultra for me, but I'd love to add an E3.

Hi I'm Simon from New Zealand.

Last week I acquired two NOT functioning EIII keyboards.  Very rare to find in this country!  From careful reading of posts on this forum I have managed to get them both working.  Thanks to all the genius's who post their advice and experience here.  You know who you are!

Years ago I used to have an Emax and made some great sounds with it, and played in a few bands.  Now thanks to esynthesist & his EMXP I can see if I still want to use any of those sounds.  Later on I had an ESI2000 but I didn't like the sound so much.  But hey it was probably my sound design!  I have a K2000 for a few years, looking for a new sampling experience.  I love it as a digital synth but sampler is PITA for me to use!  I also have a friends E4 and MS20 here.  He lives in Australia but we jam over the net with ninjam.  It kind of works!  I also have an SU700 for some things it's good.  But sometimes I live in a kind of scsi hell, instead of making samples and tunes!

The EIII - I am liking the bottom end, the Emax never had that so much.  The filter resonance is different from the Emax, and maybe I prefer Emax more (sorry EIII's!) but it's still early days!.   Some sounds really jump out strong from the EIII - I like that!  Mine needs to be calibrated / trimmed I think.  I like the non linear voice behaviors though, I think I might not trim it!

I really like the sequencer.  Just the right amount of simplicity / flexibility for me.

I have backlights on the way from Germany, and service manual on the way from USA.  I will look at getting it scanned and uploaded somewhere.

bye

Welcome Buddy!
If you like the Emax, go get an EII  :P

Hi all,

I'm PFM from the UK. This is a great resource and it's interesting that we're still use this stuff after all these years.
First started using an Emax II back in 1993. Bought my first EII in 1998 (for £800!!!), and my second a year later. Bought a second Emax II about 2 years ago. Managed to get two Mac Classics running Sound Designer with both EII (had to mod one of them to work with the RS interface, but it was a Rev 1 board, phew!). Working on getting Alchemy up and running with both Emax II's (got my hands on 2 x Mac 9600's). Done a few tests building cables.

Gigged one of the Emax IIs and both EII a while back. The Emaxes are fantastic to set up live (ignoring their MIDI issues) but the EII's were a pain. It was worth it though - the EII sound through a 4,000 Watt PA rig is pretty nice! Although the Pet Shop Boys references from people got a bit tired after a while!

Have changed all the EL backlights but am planning to replace them with LCD screens and built-in LED backlights. Am running the EII's with 3.5" drives too. Also have two Oberheim DPX-1's, but haven't gigged these. Having big problems changing the Emaxes to CF card though... patience. Really want an EIII - and work with the on-board sequencer.

Glad to see so many enthusiastic users - and some good music / sound.

Hi there!

Greetings,

I just got an EMU Emulator III, hoping I can get it working because currently it is not loading the OS (or something). Thanks for any help that I might get on this site.

Dave

Hi DD1200202

Congrats on getting your EIII.  Your brief description could be down to a number of causes:

- dead HDD
- dead FDD
- dirty contacts on ribbon cables or scsi chip
- not the full amount of RAM being seen (dirty contacts)
- PSU in need of recalibration

Suggestion: define your symptoms exactly, spend a few hours reading the forum (you will learn a lot), if you don't find a solution describe your symptoms exactly and ask for advice.

salut
pot.

Thanks,

Right now its with the tech people where I bought it, Apparently it booted once. So they are going to try and see whats wrong. I'm hoping that its not going to be a huge ordeal. If I have any questions, I'll definitely post them.

D

Hello... I didn't see much activity on this thread anymore, so I thought I would jump in. I am a long time EMU user and have owned most of the various models over the years. Currently, I have an EIII Rack (along with various EMU modules). We also have an EIII Keyboard laying around (and an eSynth)... Don't use them much anymore, but every now and then, I just need to fire it up and listen to that amazing EMU sound!

I've been kicking the idea around to do a complete EMU track... old school style. Maybe use an MSQ700 to sequence the EIII Keyboard and rack. Record to tape using all external gear. Might be fun!  :D

Welcome!

Good idea!

Could've sworn I posted in this thread?

Anyway, hi. I'm Lynette, I'm 29, female, and I've been obsessed with synths since I was about 4. My first was a crappy monophonic Bontempi (yeah!), and since then I've had a few Yamaha's (including a keytar when I was about 9. Now THAT was cool!), a Jx-3p, an Emax and an Emulator II, which has always been my dream machine.

I'm into 80's synthpop, always have been, since I grew up with it. Alan Wilder is my hero- met him this year, and seeing him twice again next year in Manc and the Mute event (£100 a ticket!). His act Recoil is my favourite music, has been for years.

Apart from that, the usual stuff, PSB, Erasure, DM, anything synth really. Currently I'm doing a music production course, and have a fair few tracks floating around. I've always wanted to be an engineer/producer in the same vein as Gareth Jones, but I also want to get into a band again- haven't been in one for years now.

I love ANYTHING tech or synth. Computer programming, graphics, iPhone programming, anything with knobs and sliders and cables. I'll sit there for hours until I figure out how something works.

Tools of the trade- Logic and Reason. Many, many VST's (Korg analog and digital are my faves, but I always prefer hardware to software).

What else? Umm...I can pretty much outfilth any bloke in the humour stakes, AND outdrink them. Real ale lover here. Fancy a challenge?  ::)

Um, following on from the other DM synths/samplers, I just got bought this for xmas. Shame it's only 1 oscillator, but Martin got his use out of it- now all I need is a Moog Source and a JP-8, PPG Wave... *cough*

(https://img.skitch.com/20101221-mrd3t6k2m1jems3snw4ychdq25.jpg)

Hi Lynette, congrats on your Christmas gift..that's the kind of stuff I like finding under my tree. :)
Actually a 1 osc synth can still kick out some very nice sounds, sure you can't thicken the sound up a bit by adding another osc, but a very short delay or chorus with effects can help quite a bit.

I have an Alesis Andromeda, and one day I spent trying to get a Tony Banks type lead. I just happen to turn off the 2nd Oscillator and played just one and it was exactly the sound I was looking for.

Btw, how's the Ell doing?

Still buggered. I can't get hold of that bloke to repair it, not sure what my options are to be honest. I'll never sell it though. Hopefully something will turn up in the new year, or it'll just spontaneously work like my Emax did after a month or so...  ::)

Been around here a bit but only just seen this....  ::)

John from the North UK here. About to turn 41 and so an 80's teenager when these vintage instruments were being released and way outside most people's earnings.... Anyway, got hooked on the EII ever since watching DM play a slot on the The Tube around 1986 (playing Black Celebration and Question of Time) and subsequently hearing all of their works with this machine. Also into Yello, New Order, JMJ and others synth-based from that time.

Eventually bought my own EII a few years ago, got it fixed up and loved it ever since, frequently using it before any other gear. Recently got into creating new soundbanks which I've demo'd here and on YT under JMPSynth Channel. Got an expanding collection of EII sounds, my own, library ones and some private collections acquired in trade. Always looking to expand, so get in touch if interested in any trades.  ;)

Had loads of synths, modern and vintage including Jupiter 4, 6 & 8, Junos, OBXa, OSCar etc. but slimmed down in the last year to a moderate setup which suits my space and needs; an Elka Synthex, Prophet 5 Rev 3.3, EII, ESI4000, Roland XP50, Korg X5DR & Roland R8 drums.

Great forum and glad to be part of it.        

I am still after a male singer if anyone can help? I just need some vocals that I can build a track around (mid 80's, you know the score  ;)).

Hi Guys,  ;D
Pat here! just got myself a sick (as in not working) EIII.
browsing the forum for some tips, if I have no luck, I'll post my problem..s
I previously owned an Emax SE many moons ago and an E6400. always been a fan of the Emu sound, also have a SCI Prophet 2002+ and a Korg DSM1 and many other vintage synth goodies.
I'm a live sound engineer by trade,
looking forward to getting my emu working.

Ale challenge! only if there's pickled eggs!

p.

Hi Marcus here,

owned an EIII and X long ago and yet i got this beauty again... Know what - i had all my old MO-Disks (230/640) left in my garage (no heating) since 20 years - and guess wot: the datas are still in shape - incredible !!! Mod it with some new PAPST ducts and MO-Drive - heavenly quiet... At the moment i am trying to get it working with SoundForge and SCSI/SDS Dump. MIDI Dump is a way to slow... Something like 'REMOTE CTRL Plz Wait' shown in the E3 display, keep you updated.

I love the E3 but do not move this baby until you get another one - haha !!!

regatus samplus
marcus

Hi,

My name is Alain, I live in the Paris suburbs, France.

It first started whith a jp8000 and an Akai s01(8bit) for me
2 years ago I met someone that was selling a miniMoog.

his studio was big like a montain so I asked him about what was the gear he liked the most: he instantly replyed E-mu!
He played me a full new order song from scratch from his sp and emax in just 10 min!


So I started looking for an emax (so cheap compared to all the moog and other analogs stuff!)

As a DM fan and I naturaly fell in love with all the e-mu gear.
I now own a part of the dream: Emax I/II/EIV xt ultra  all racks (all lovely and worth the price/effort)

I serviced most of my gear without a problem :it was only psu cap job and usual contact cleaning(e-mu design is good and the community helps a lot).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But...... today i'm stuck with a problem on my new favorite : a lovely EIII kb: (I'll post this in the EIII Technical Issues / Tips section)

The E-mu Force be with you!
 

Greetings Group!

Call me Cee Tha Wizzard. I am an 8mb EIII owner since 1989 when I purchased a used one from a friend in California ($7500) to produce the "live" show for multi-platinum selling Euro pop-rap duo, Milli Vanilli -  Club MTV Tour which I also engineered FOH.

My permanent base is Chicago, but I have or have had studios near Nashville, Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Detroit.

Here are a few of my vintage collector synths and samplers:

Alesis SR-16
Arp Odyssey
Arp Omni
Arp Solina String Ensemble
Casio CZ-101
E-Mu Emax
E-Mu Emax II
E-Mu Emax II Rack
E-Mu Emulator III
E-Mu Emulator III Rack
E-Mu ESI-32
E-Mu SP-12
E-Mu SP-1200
Ensoniq ASR-10
Ensoniq ESQ-1
Ensoniq Mirage
Hohner Clavinet
Kawai SX-210
Korg DSS-1
Korg M-1
Korg Mono/Poly
Korg MS-20
Korg Poly Six
Korg Poly-61
Moog Memory Moog
Moog Prodigy
Moog Rogue
Moog Source
Oberheim DMX
Oberheim DX
Oberheim Matrix-1000
Oberheim Matrix-6
Oberheim Matrix-12
Oberheim Prommer
PPG Wave 2.2
Roland Juno-60
Roland Juno-106
Roland Jupiter 6
Roland JX-3P
Roland Octapad
Roland SH-101
Roland TB-303
Roland TR-606
Roland TR-707
Roland TR-727
Roland TR-808
Roland TR-909
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks
Sequential Circuits Six-Trak
Sequential Circuits Pro-One
Sequential Circuits Prophet 2000
Sequential Circuits Prophet 2002
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600
Sequential Circuits Prophet T8
Sequential Circuits Prophet VS
Sequential Circuits Prophet VS Rack
Sequential Circuits Studio 440
Simmons SD5
Simmons SDS-1000
Simmons SDX
Simmons TMI
Yamaha DX-7 II FD
Yamaha TX-81Z

Cheers!
CC

That's one hell of a nice collection.
Though no Fairlight or Synclavier?  :)

Hello

I'm Kim from Denmark


gear:

EIII KB 8meg
Elka Synthex
PPG Wave 2
Jupiter 4
Roland Promars
Roland GR-500
Serge modular
Korg SB-100
EDP Wasp

I'm happy to have found this list -

all the best, - Kim

I have just found this... Why is this thread in the EIII subforum anyways, should be on the front page.

I am André. Have started with an AKAI S01 in 1997 and soon started collecting other samplers. Two years ago I found my way to synthesizers as well and I am currently learning to play the piano. After buying an Emax last year and selling it again because i needed the money, I found an EII+ HD from it's first owner. EII has been my dream for some years and now i finally have it :) It came with approx. 300 disks. This week I'll get my Emuser & a Mac with SD II, so I am willing to trade banks in either format!

Listen to some new & old stuff here:

http://soundcloud.com/mr-konfuze-and-lunatic
http://soundcloud.com/lunatic77

hi and welcome!

Good to have some more hiphop here!

Hello everyone!

Like lunatic above, I wondered why this thread was in the EIII subforum, but anyway I'm new here. I have been looking at the forum on and off for a while, but having just acquired an EII with problems, I thought I'd better join. The Emulator will join my small collection of synths which currently comprise:

Roland Jupiter 6
Roland Juno 106
Roland SH 1000
Yamaha DX7
Ensoniq EPS16 Plus

and some DIY bits:
Mutable Instruments Shruthi-1 4 Pole Mission
MIDIbox MB6582
x0xb0x
9090 drum module with MIDIbox sequencer

The Emulator has PSU problems, which I will hope to be able to diagnose and repair without asking too many annoying questions! I have a HxC floppy emulator waiting to go in it. I may not get a chance to do much with it for a few months as I am currently in the middle of a couple of other projects: Building a MIDIbox Seq V4, refurbishing a mixer and giving the Juno's voice chips the acetone bath.

Thanks,
Kevin

Hi my name is Neil and I am a producer/composer from Guadalajara, México.
http://www.nmmp.mx/?page_id=178

I have an EIII and a SP1200 connected to a Macintosh Color Classic II "Takky" (Performa 5500 motherboard) to my main midi system.  After many years I was able to purchase this dream sampler and setup my own studio..!  :)

Best,

Hi guys!

Holy sh*t - that otari is a monster!!  :o :o :o

Neil,

Welcome to the EIII club.

BTW, That's one hell of a dream studio you've got there.

Hi my name is Marq Lativ from Hamburg, Germany and I want to thank this forum for its kwowledge base and nice users, i own only 3 emus, (eIII rack, 2 emIIIxp´s) and i ´m not a collector, i use them to make sound, music, compositions, noise, it is funny that so many people in this forum mention DM and Alan Wilder, my real EMU hero is Holger Hiller a german composer, he started in the early days with an EMU II and made nearly all his solo albums with it. And yes i have issues with my eIII rack, one voice distorted, two other voices are only on one side in the panoramafield, but still have voice 11 to 16 in good shape. I don´t want to write, what was written already, we all know that emu is great. But i also use other samplers, they all have their strenghts, the old rolands (770-760) for example are great sounding aswell, very easy to program, via screen, and have some features the emus lack, (scaling is important for my music, 24 notes pitchbend ect.) I hope this forum will stay for a long time, thanks again

Hi All

I'm Jens from Denmark.

Purchased a EIIIXP last weekend, and having a hell of a time setting it up. Booting from hd etc. Also I have no sounds for it, so I have not heard it yet.

Also I have Akai S2000, Roland S-330, Yamaha DX7s, Korg N1R, Korg M3r, Korg X5, Use Mac Book for effects and Iphone as a vocoder and DXi (FM synth prog) and verious other Iphone synths. ;D

Just for hobby though.

Br Jens

Hello fellow Emu enthusiasts! Now it's my turn…

My name is Dave, and I live in the San Francisco, USA area. I am a long-time E-Mu user — purchased my first Emax in 1987, purchased the SE Update from my E-Mu dealer in 1988 (?). I later ordered the SCSI Update kit directly from E-Mu (in about 1991?) and updated my Emax SE to an Emax SE HD while working at a Lab at IBM (where I had access to some nice soldering stations!).

Since then I have purchased two more Emax Racks, one of which I fixed up (SCSI Update, install CF, slim floppy, etc.) and sold for a nice profit on Ebay :)

About a month ago, I purchased my dream sampler: an EIII 8MB Keyboard. It was in moderate shape: non-functional floppy drive, internal 340MB Quantum drive was throwing errors (some modules wouldn't load from the OS areas of the HD), buttons on the front panel were "bouncy", and the worst: the LCD display was blank (though backlit).

After pulling out all the cards and putting them back in, the LCD started working again. This was on the day I purchased it, so this made me happy. However, this happiness didn't last long as I found the display to be intermittent . I quickly determined the 60-pin IDC connector to be at fault (fortunately at the CPU board side), so I ordered a new IDC connector and cut the old one off. This fixed the LCD and the "noisy" sliders. Then I replaced the internal HD with an AztecMonster SCSI CF reader (re-cal the PSU to 5.05v loaded) and replaced all the buttons on the front panel with new ones. Found a couple of dim LEDs on the panel, so I replaced all of those too! It still has a problem with voices 5 and 15, but I think it's a minor problem.

I absolutely LOVE the EIII. I originally purchased it with the intention of using it for a while then selling it after making it fully operational, but I don't think I will be able to part with this! The amazing warm sound (goes very well with my other CEM-3387-utilizing synth gear) and the great familiar Emax-like interface. It's a dream machine.

As for my studio, well I'm a UNIX/Network Systems Administrator by trade, and most of my time is spent working or working on my house or raising my family, so the music is just a hobby for me. I am also a big fan of Waldorf synthesizers, so I have quite the collection of their instruments (but that's off-topic right?) :)

Still have one Emax HD Rack and the EIII as my samplers. Synth-wise, I pretty much have all the Waldorf stuff (yes, even a Wave!).

I am loving this forum! It's a great way to interact with other fans of E-Mu, and a great resource for those of us who have been entrusted with keeping the old E-Mu torch burning!

-Dave

Nice new introductions, folks!

Welcome to the forum!

I'm so happy to have found this forum!!!!

My name is David Noller from the act Dynamix II. Since the day I saw the EIII I fell in love with it. It is built like a Sherman tank

I'm ready to overhaul my ole EIII Keyboard.

I've used it on tour and in the studio for a very long time, sold it and just recently acquired it back into my possession. I feel it is a part of my history and feel it deserves to have some fresh life breathed back into it. Finding this place put a huge smile on my face!!!   ;D

Off hand I am def looking for a button cap and one key that had gotten a burn from a cig while on tour from my band mate who smoked like a chimney   :'(

I'll be posting pictures asap!



Thanks in advance from any help I get from your forum!



Best Wishes,


Scratch-D
Dynamix II

www.dyanmixiii.com (http://www.dyanmixiii.com)
www.facebook.com/dynamixii (http://www.facebook.com/dynamixii)

   

One of my oldschool heroes, welcome!

Hey all-

I'm Steve Mayer. I work in L.A. doing various kinds of music for hire, mostly game music, as well as TV and the occasional film. I'm an avid Emu fan and the EIII is the capstone to my collection. I've read a lot of posts and this is an extremely helpful and intelligent forum, glad to be a member.

Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to your comments and any helpful contributions you can add for the rest of us.

Hello,

I'm Rodolphe from Switzerland.
I played in a black metal band 1993 to 1996.

I start with E-mu buying a Emax II but, it burn :-(
I replace it with a EIIIXS 24 Mb before tourning with the band.

I have bought a second hand MPC-60 Akai for replace my Atari ST.

I stop music for more than 10 years, and i restarded view years ago.
I already have my EIIIX and my MPC-60 :-)
I bought 2 E4 Platium (one without RFX).

And finaly view months ago a beautifull EIII 8Mb keyboards.
I have already a TX-802 Yamaha.
I use a A&H mixer Zed-R16 and Genelec 6010.

All the best at everybody, for this new year.

Rod

PS I find 8Mb for my EIIIXS views days ago (feb 2014) and now have a 32Mb :D

Hello All -

Tom from Boston, MA USA. broadcast/ audio engineer by trade, music hobbyist as time permits.   I was fortunate  to buy on the cheap two EIII Rack units in 2000 from a state of the art digital ( DASH !!) recording studio that operated in the late 1980's and had the two samplers in service for about 18 mos. before shutting down and shelving them. Btw the studio controlled the samplers  with "a wicked fast" Mac IIfx back in the day. Studio 4 midi  and all the Mac Software mentioned in the Forum here.  I imagine that studio's  investment in their EMU system was close to $45K when all said and done! Smaller potatoes, then a Synclavier or Fairlight , I guess.

When I first got the rack units there was very little helpful information about these. I could not find any samples that were reasonably priced or a working version of Alchemy or why  my HD 3.5 disks kept corrupting. And also Classic Macs were still not throwaways all over Ebay and a nubus Audiomedia II card was $500.  So I sold one and put one aside cause I remembered how amazing it sounded  playing The few Northstar samples that were still left on the HD with a KX88 I that studio included  for $100!

 I Just  recently started  using my remaining EIII rack this week.  After reseating the cards and backing up the OS to  the correct DS/DD 3.5 floppies.  Now I have a running unit. The sound  is  really beautiful and this Forum is a Godsend.  Thank to all for kind information and helpful posts. 


T

EIII Rack  w/ 2.4 OS, 2.0 Firmware, Stock HD, Stock RAM, SCSI ports
Stock EMU III Systems manuals  in binders ( 2)
Mac IIci OS 7.06 80 MB Drive
Alchemy 3.0 ( Thank you for the posts!)
Opcode Editor Librarian original disks

My name is Graham Hunter, and I've been an e-mu fan from the day I first played an Emax 2 in a little music store in downtown Calgary in the late 80's.  I couldn't afford it then, but every chance I could I'd sneak down and experiment more with what that keyboard could do.  My first e-mu was an E6400 in the mid-90's, which was quickly followed by a Morpheus.

Now, many years later I live in the Seattle area and I'm employed in the software industry and I've been collecting these wonderful instruments from the past.  Today I received my EIII 8MB rack and am absolutely in love with the pure, rich, smooth, warm, and sheer incredible sound quality.  The EIII libraries that I've owned for decades have new life in them, and on many banks that I loaded today I prefer the sound of the EIII over my E4XT Ultra.

Hi
My name is Marc.
I've been fiddling with samplers ever since I bought a 1 second luxsound sampler way back.
I have a studio built into a recycled shipping container run entirely on solar power.
I own a wonderfull EIII that myself and my tech have put many many hours into. A true labour of love. One day I'll write about it more to help others here. My EIII has a reconditioned power supply and 2 cf-card readers, new screen and is one of the best I've seen. And yes.. Its a love hate relationship. And... well of course.. Nothing sounds like it! Truly 3d possibly 4d.
The centre of my studio is my Akai MPC 3000 which is my all time favourite bit of gear. I also have a Studio Electronics ATC-1, ASR10, S900, S1100, Publison Infernal Machine, Space Echo and a few other bits n pieces.
I also own a broken EII :(
Ill rebuild the power supply soon. In fact Im pretty convinced that most of the issues with the EII and EIII are power supply related.
Anyhow.
So good to have all this knowledge around for this incredible sampler.
M
(https://s8.postimg.org/80owq9cz5/18902975_10158742769575521_1296849327_n.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/80owq9cz5/)

Hi, I'm Luca from Italy.

The EIIIXP is my second sampler, bought it in the early 90's.
Featurewise compared to the Mirage the step up was huge as was its price.
Gigging around with it the backlight went awol after a year or so and sometimes the sampler didn't recognize the HDD. So I had to take it apart, like a minute before the show, disconnect and reconnect the SCSI ribbon cable to make it work again. Terrible moments but in a way or another the weird procedure always worked. I almost got used to it...  :)
Never understood what the problem was but the situation settled for the good with the third HDD I used in there. That led me to believe the E-MU didn't like some drives or some brands or maybe the problem had something to do with the SCSI termination.
Anyways, wasn't all perfect but I loved it and still love it to this day mainly for the powerful warm voice not too boxy or shiny.

Sometime ago someone was selling an Emax II for cheap, I couldn't resist but I've yet to spend some quality time with it. The analog clock is tempting to me.

It's so good to have this forum, thank you.
Cheers   :)

Hi All,

Alex from the band Propellerheads here, based in the UK. It's a pleasure to come aboard. :)

I'm looking to revive the E-III Rack I used for our early productions back in '96-97 which has been languishing in a corner ever since its hard drive fell on its sword sometime around the turn of the century.

The current state of the E-IIIR is that it powers up, announces that it's sporting firmware v2.00 and then goes into the endless SCSI port checking loop that I've seen described in various threads on this forum. I get the impression that the way forward is to replace the internal HDD with a CF card via a SCSI to CF reader adapter, and then reinstall the OS from floppy, assuming the floppy drive still works.

I would be very grateful to hear or be pointed at the latest wisdom in this regard, specifically the following:

• The best currently available options for the CF reader adapter and card.
• A source of a bootable OS floppy (I'm a Mac user, which I gather is an issue when it comes to making floppies from a disc image).
• Any other useful insight that anyone may feel moved to share.

I realize that there is a lot of information encoded in the forum already, but I'd really appreciate an overview from someone who has already ingested, filtered and reassembled the raw data into a convenient, bite-sized chunk which might enable me to get up and running again without being entirely sucked into the yawning vortex...  :o

Great to see that the machines are still being loved and cherished, and I look forward to chatting with you guys.

Alex

Hi Alex!

One of the Mega-Heads around here (Dr.C) states that every EIII has its "own" boot floppy disc.  I forgot the exact reasons for that, but I think it has something to do with filter trimming or so. Nevertheless, I guess that any EIII should boot with any working boot floppy disc. You may try to find someone with an old win XP PC and a floppy drive. Using EMXP, you can then create a EIII boot disc using the OS Disc image which can also be found on the emxp site.

If that doesn't work for you, I guess there'll be someone here to just send you a physical copy of his EIII OS disc...

Greetz,
Elm.

Hi, registered today with this forum while fiddling with EMXP. Reason : I got an ESI-4000 already years ago, but now I only have the time to deal with it in more detail. I had added an SCSI2CD module and I'm trying to dump all the 20 CDs that came with the ESI-4000 when I bought it from a guy in Hungary - reason I bought it at that time was to test out the Tehtubes B3 samples, which were quite nice at that time. Today there are better Hammond B3 emulators around. Anyway for my special problem today I'll go into a forum thread for this.

--
Christoph
(living near the Belgian frontier - Aachen, Aken, Aix-La-Chapelle)

Hi All,
I am Gianfranco from Milan, Italy.
I own an EIII keyboard (4MB, firmware 1.0) that was in its Fly case for 20 years. Now I want to revive it.
The original HDD was a Seagate ST251N 40MB and was broken. Unfortunately, my sons had a brilliant idea to trash out all software, disks and samples. So, I must to start from zero.
I have bought a disk with the latest OS available (2.42) and the floppy function well, I need suggestions on how to buy a proper SCSI boot drive or perhaps a SCSI2SD solution.
Many thanks to all of you that would help me.
Best regards
Gianfra53

Hi everyone here,

Im PIERRE From PARIS. A guy who start sampling synth on 1993 at thirteen yo with FM and TX81Z and on 1995 year after JC, at the time Im only fifteen and bought a K2000 Kurzweil for 10.000 francs I remember... After while, I start to make a lot of music with lot of different people as a teenage do, lot of styles fully nineties spirit - some techno trip hop jazz electronic sample funk etc...

I progress slowly but surely, gear after gear, read books of machine ... because at the time for a young boy, informations was not easy to collect and gear was pretty expansive. At ninteen, my father help me to study by paying a Cinema AV school in Paris. And the second year, I prefer to spend the money of the school to bought a Powermac 8600/250 - and go in the meanwhile at University (because in France, Big University is free of charge for French). So I continue to work music a lot and to study at college both. I have the chance to sign with my first label Techno in 1999; I bought a lot of things with the budget. Start to enjoy analog stuff... and big sampler too like old 12 beats, my first mixer, compresser, my first lexicon, my first DAW etc..

Few years of happiness : I make music, win some money to create stuff at home, could have great time, make what I want... but Support crisis of Download are killing a lot of professional aera... Vinyls sales are going down but in fact at beginning for me, it could be a kind of opportunity. At the time, maybe your remember, a lot of big studio are on the edge and close door. Lot of gears on the market to dig : I bought a lot of professional studio stuff and start to work as Sound Engineer Free lance, with a lot of gear, neve, Manley, GLM, 1176, EMT, Lexicon... I bought my old springs BX20.

The work of SOUND ENGINEER at the time (2004-2010) very boring job in fact.... because making sound for deaf producers who only loves ultra limited hip hop... progressively, I loose faith, work fully in the box with plugs (hardware work need time patience and love, sodtware work is perfect for modern work)... I quit on 2010.

But with covid crisis and for me, the middle age crisis too, I come back to music on 2020. But differently... Im looking for some kind of sounds. So i test thousands of gears, bought sale many synths...

I try maybe all the samplers acessibles : akai Ensoniq Roland Yam, .....

And three weeks before , I have a revelation like I see Jesus in the sky with Violins :

I bought an E3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This thing is HUGE. Is not a sampler. Its an electronic Stardivarius !

So im here to exchange, help and bein help about tips tricks technics and what ever else about E 3....