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

Hi all,

I have an EIIIx that *may* have been an engineering testbed/prototype at E-mu.

The unit boots with "Firmware H-sp" and OS "Pre-release" on power up and "2.10 beta" when I check the software version.

I have attached some photos. There are 4 (!) H-Chips present, and wires attached to legs of the 3rd H-Chip and tap points on the main board run to a toggle switch mounted on the rear panel. There are also a pair of cut wires that plug into diagnostic tap points on the board that are cut off, but look like they used to run out of a hole cut into the side of the unit.

The unit boots and the various OS modules seem to navigate fine, but only a few of the voice channels sound properly - the rest are silent or heavily glitchy/distorted. It actually samples fine, too - but again the majority of channels glitch during playback.

I am thinking this may have been a test unit for exploring more complex filter types in the EIIIx that were never implemented in production units. The presence of 4 H-Chips (instead of the normal 2) and the "H-sp" firmware version suggest that. Clearly Emu had the plan to do this, since the locations for the 2 extra H Chips are present on production units, just not occupied. I think they never went ahead with it since developing the E4 was a bigger priority.

I am not sure what to do with the unit, since it is unfortunately unusable due to the glitches, and yet it seems a shame to part it out if indeed it has an interesting history as a step between the EIIIx and E4.

Any thoughts about this?

Howie

nice!

Wow.  That's really cool.  You still have it??!! 

If you want to sell this machine, please get in touch!