Emax

I can say that in a recording studio enviroment the real difference in units is the filter. It 
really is noticeable. The filter on the Emax is a true analog filter, it has a definite warmth 
and punch that the Emax II does not have. The Emax II sounds a cleaner which means it 
sounds a little thinner.

the Emax was designed to primarily be an affordable solution to the Emulator II. I've 
never personally been able to play an Emulator II, but I think it's safe to assume that with 
the Emulator being made from primarily "off the shelf" parts as compared to the Emax 
using specific E-mu designed hardware the Emax would have some distinct sound and 
reliability advantages. 

Certainly most people say and Emulator II or Emax will give you that "Depeche Mode 
type sound" But the reality is there isn't a sampler that has the DM sound, they used just 
about every sampler out there while recording. From the big boys of the era the 
Synclavier and Fairlight to every E-mu and most Akai's as well, even rare samplers like 
the Prophet 2000. It's not really the sampler that makes the difference for DM, but rather 
what and how they sampled. Unlike a lot of artists at the time who thought samplers were 
great for recreating "real instruments" DM always saw a sampler as being a great way of 
incorporating "found sound" samples into their music. A technique that comes from 
"musique concrete" (been a long time hope I spelled that hope it's right). A song like 
"Master and Servant" has (if memory serves me) has over 100 different samples on it 
from water drops to jack hammers and cement mixers (and of course the notorious 
"martin getting spanked). DM would take recorders out into construction sites record 
interesting sounds, then run them through outboard processing like compression, delay, 
reverb... blah blah blah, record them to tape then sample the end result. It's fairly easy to 
get DM-type sounds out of any sampler, just focus on sampling metallic objects and 
percussive sounds. Of course, using those sounds in the same types of way DM did is a 
big part of it as well.

just my opinion :)

On 14 Feb 2005 at 20:29, Daniel J. Litwin spoke unto me:  

>  As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I am curious if anyone knows of
> any appreciable sound differences between an Emax 1 and Emax 2. 
> 
> For that matter, how do either of these compare to a real Emulator II unit? 
> 
> I am still looking for an Emax I unit.  I recently have been scammed
> out of $$ on Ebay because I paid but got no Emax I sent.  Still
> working on that one....
> 
> I do see more Emax 2 units on Ebay, and the SCSI does interest me.  I
> don't care about the memory limitation - I'm looking for a low-fi
> "Depeche Mode"-type sound.  hence, the above part about the "real"
> Emulator II.  I know they used those quite a bit.
> 
> Any help would be most appreciated, as well as any offers for a synth.
> 
> -Dan
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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-- 
                          John Silveria II
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