Emax

No worries, and ok I hear you. Always hard to know what experience people
have and what their expectations are. But hope you will have lots of fun
sampling the hell out of that 909! :)


2014-03-15 9:17 GMT+01:00 Carl Lofgren <carl_lofgren@...>:

> Absolutely - I don't want to be rude, but I am not comparing the recording
> equipment of today with E-mu biggest "compromise" sampler :) Reason why I
> go on about this is because I'm trying to sample the hell out of a 909 I'm
> having here and apart from recording it with different rates and hot inputs
> - I want to have one stock, "clean", normal as unaltered version as
> possible as well and before sampling a gazillion samples I want to make
> sure I'm doing it the best way possible.
>
> In my earlier days I often rushed in too quickly just to realize one week
> later that I recorded from the most problematic output, or I used the
> settings not optimal. I've learned my lesson and when spending a month or
> so sampling the 909, I don't want to eff up anything.
>
> /C
>
>   Niklas Ehrlin <niklas.ehrlin@...>
>  March 15, 2014 9:01 AM
>
>
> Ok, I see. But what I really ment is that nowadays, an Emax in the
> surrondings of 24 bit 192 kHz digital sound enviroments - the "optimal"
> setting for sampling in these machines are found by using your ears.
> Finding what settings you think sounds good. If the case is to find the
> optimal level for the sake of getting the most information sampled from the
> original sound, then a 25 year old 12bit solution is not the best option in
> 2014. But this is of cuorse my personal opinion and I guess it's always fun
> to explore the possibilities and limitations.
> Niklas
>
> 2014-03-15 7:55 GMT+01:00 Carl Lofgren <carl_lofgren@...><carl_lofgren@...>
> :
>
> > Recording too hot? Oh... I planned doing that. And with different rates
> as
> > well. It's just that I would like to set up the optimal settings first.
> But
> > no matter - I tried again a few hours using expensive shielded cables and
> > practically measuring all outputs. The noise of the sampler when nothing
> is
> > playing is highest on the right output, noticeably lower on the left and
> > quite low on the individual outputs. When when sampling the
> noise/artifacts
> > is pretty much the same give or take one or two dbs.
> >
> > /C
> >
> > Carl Lofgren <carl_lofgren@...> <carl_lofgren@...>
>
> > March 14, 2014 9:20 PM
> >
> >
> > I am not that used to its operation. And after three days trying to
> > understand how it works, I'm a little wiser but far from all-seeing.
> > It's really a quirky little machine with lots of oddness going on.
> >
> > >From my part, this is obviously partly a case of RTFM - but I honestly
> > cannot stand the manual. Craig Anderton might be a legend, but I
> > honestly cannot get my head around it.
> >
> > 1) Individual outputs vs mix outputs. The individual outputs are way
> > less noisy. My Babyface registers about 10 decibels less noise - which
> > might/might not be the entire ruth since the levels are different
> > between the individual and mix outputs. I've been listening to my ears
> > almost start to bleed, but I cannot hear any difference in sound quality
> > (noise level yes) between let's say output 8 and the mix. How about you
> > guys? What's your experience?
> >
> > 2) Replacing samples. Can it be done? Let's say I've got a 18s sample
> > (max memory) and I would like to do another one. Master + 4 erase memory
> > would be one way, but that nukes some of my settings, such as selection
> > of output connector. Is there any way to sample another 18s and still
> > keeping the settings? When erasing the machine, maybe I shouldn't say
> > yes when the Emax asks to make a new default setting? (just occurred to
> > me).
> >
> > 3) Getting the samples on the right keys. I know I am going to sound
> > like I am stupid, but the root position of the samples I make are not
> > constant. Sometimes they land on G1 - sometimes on B1(!). Can someone
> > please please just write down step by step how you do it to sample
> > something on C1.
> >
> > 4) Setting the levels. Oh man what I've been banging my head on this
> > one. I send a sinewave (normalized to -0.05 db) to calibrate the input
> > level. I set the sampling level in the Emax to 0 and I always have to
> > back off on my sound card before sampling. I never go all the way to the
> > right, but I settle one or two pixels from the left/max. This causes the
> > Emax to distort - very slightly. I could clearly hear it and even see a
> > small part of the falling top slope of the sine wave being straight. The
> > solution was to back off a tiny bit more - and the distortion
> > disappeared. How do you guys set the levels? I assume setting the Emax
> > input level to 0 is the optimal (it even says so in the manual). But I
> > haven't had the time to experiment with it.
> >
> > 5) Ok. Now it's really RTFM time. Primary / Secondary samples - how are
> > you supposed to work with that? To me it sounds like you can sample one
> > sample that says AAAA and another sample that says OOOOO and have them
> > playing together like a normal two oscillator synth. Can you detune
> > them? Set the levels? Different envelopes?
> >
> > /C
> >
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>    Carl Lofgren <carl_lofgren@...>
>  March 15, 2014 7:55 AM
>  Recording too hot? Oh... I planned doing that. And with different rates
> as well. It's just that I would like to set up the optimal settings first.
> But no matter - I tried again a few hours using expensive shielded cables
> and practically measuring all outputs. The noise of the sampler when
> nothing is playing is highest on the right output, noticeably lower on the
> left and quite low on the individual outputs. When when sampling the
> noise/artifacts is pretty much the same give or take one or two dbs.
>
> /C
>   Carl Lofgren <carl_lofgren@...>
>  March 14, 2014 9:20 PM
>
>
> I am not that used to its operation. And after three days trying to
> understand how it works, I'm a little wiser but far from all-seeing.
> It's really a quirky little machine with lots of oddness going on.
>
> >From my part, this is obviously partly a case of RTFM - but I honestly
> cannot stand the manual. Craig Anderton might be a legend, but I
> honestly cannot get my head around it.
>
> 1) Individual outputs vs mix outputs. The individual outputs are way
> less noisy. My Babyface registers about 10 decibels less noise - which
> might/might not be the entire ruth since the levels are different
> between the individual and mix outputs. I've been listening to my ears
> almost start to bleed, but I cannot hear any difference in sound quality
> (noise level yes) between let's say output 8 and the mix. How about you
> guys? What's your experience?
>
> 2) Replacing samples. Can it be done? Let's say I've got a 18s sample
> (max memory) and I would like to do another one. Master + 4 erase memory
> would be one way, but that nukes some of my settings, such as selection
> of output connector. Is there any way to sample another 18s and still
> keeping the settings? When erasing the machine, maybe I shouldn't say
> yes when the Emax asks to make a new default setting? (just occurred to
> me).
>
> 3) Getting the samples on the right keys. I know I am going to sound
> like I am stupid, but the root position of the samples I make are not
> constant. Sometimes they land on G1 - sometimes on B1(!). Can someone
> please please just write down step by step how you do it to sample
> something on C1.
>
> 4) Setting the levels. Oh man what I've been banging my head on this
> one. I send a sinewave (normalized to -0.05 db) to calibrate the input
> level. I set the sampling level in the Emax to 0 and I always have to
> back off on my sound card before sampling. I never go all the way to the
> right, but I settle one or two pixels from the left/max. This causes the
> Emax to distort - very slightly. I could clearly hear it and even see a
> small part of the falling top slope of the sine wave being straight. The
> solution was to back off a tiny bit more - and the distortion
> disappeared. How do you guys set the levels? I assume setting the Emax
> input level to 0 is the optimal (it even says so in the manual). But I
> haven't had the time to experiment with it.
>
> 5) Ok. Now it's really RTFM time. Primary / Secondary samples - how are
> you supposed to work with that? To me it sounds like you can sample one
> sample that says AAAA and another sample that says OOOOO and have them
> playing together like a normal two oscillator synth. Can you detune
> them? Set the levels? Different envelopes?
>
> /C
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]