Emax

> chip with some neat DSP tricks to reduce pitch shift distortion (for
> 12-bits....). Not at all like a 12-bit linear sampler like the Akai 

Strange. Everyone I know who's interested in the Emax, likes the way 
the emax mangles samples during pitch shifting.  The draw is that 
this is the closest thing to SP-12/1200 pitch shifting.  

I don't know for sure, but I imagine the circuit for pitch shifting 
in the SP is to simply repeat or drop samples as needed to produce 
the required pitch change at a fixed sample playback clock.  This 
would account for the square wave sound on top of the pitched SP 
samples.  However, this requires no dsp power whatsoever, other than 
an adder with some fractional precision.  So although all the other 
stuff in the Emax might be complicated, I never imagined the pitch 
shifting would be complicated.  Is that true?

BTW I have an S950 and the pitch shifting on it (not to be confused 
with time stretching) is fine.  I never notice artifacts like on the 
SP.