Emax

Hello y´all,

it´s a different task what to recommend. The Emax II´s MIDI timing
is depending on the voices played, the more the better it gets, no 
joke. Fatally these instability is not constant, it varies from note 
to note (was later even proved in German Keyboards when they compared 
all samplers on market). Even if Rob has more knowlegde, I hardly 
disagree that the filter section of an Emax II and E III XP is the 
same. The E III XP is the only device I sold immedietly, mainly
because of the filter section. You can´t get that smacking sounds
that are possible with an Emax II. The latter has a lot more power,
you can - like on old Oberheim Analog Synths - set Q to 99 and the
sound is full there, as compared to E III XP the sound will be almost
gone and superthin (E-mu agreed with me on that). Maybe XP acts more
here like an analog, but it was that Emax "error" that made it for me.
Also the great real-time filter/Q games with Emax II sounded like a
joke to my ears when made with a XP (running them both side by side).
Emax II is a little peaky @1kHz and 10kHz, but can be great during 
real time filtering. Otherwise you have to EQ a bit. I would only buy
a Emax II Turbo with 8 MEG these days, expanding a standard model is 
difficult I think. E III XP has some advantages, loads both AKAI S 
1000 and Emax II, expandable to 32 MB, has digital IN/OUT. Remember 
XP has only Digital In/Out, Analog was an option, the XS has them. 

As Rob wrote, E III transposition is dependend on the sample rate.
At 44 khz you can play back a sample (C4) down to C1, at 7000 kHz 
(using Resampling function) only down to G#3. And vice versa, the 
higher the rate the more you can play down > C1, the lower the rate 
the more you can play up > C6. The reason why you can´t hear 
transposition noise is maybe that E III defaults to 1.00 filter
tracking to mask that artifacts. Set to 0.00 and play back a sample 
down to C1 and you hear it (of course only on samples that were 
spread across the whole keyboard, you will not on presets with a lot 
of multisamples). That aliasing can be great on some sounds, has a 
lot of character compared to just noisy digital bit crusher plug-ins
nowadays. Aah, what do I tell you, I still have my E III K, nothing 
comes close to it,it´s just awesome. Period.
 
Regs RR




--- In emax@yahoogroups.com, "tbiggz" <infarmah@h...> wrote:
> Anyone have a favorite?
> 
> My EIII rack is an amazing sounding machine. And I just found an 
Emax 
> II for around $200CDN.  
> 
> I'm thinking the Emax II is a basically the EIII on a chip (as the 
> Emax I was to the Emulator II).  Any one have experience with both 
> and thinks it's worth it to get the EmaxII? Any advantages over the 
> EIII?
> 
> I don't know whether I should get the EIIIxs instead (one day) as 
> I've heard it sounds good too. 
> 
> Anyone knows about these older machines and can recommend?
> 
> Thanks