Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

Thanks man, that's very helpful!  I've been debating swapping my XL-7 ROM 
with the Vintage, and I think you may have sold me.  One more question for 
the Vintage Rom owners though:

I typically don't use factory presets in my songs, preferring instead to 
start with a blank Preset and browse the Instruments in order to choose my 
sounds.  So, are the Vintage Instruments good on their own, or do they 
require Preset patchcord work to sound good?  IE, are the factory presets 
good because of the way they have been programmed, or is the source 
material good on it's own too?

rEalm






I almost didn't get this, since I have a Virus which admirably covers 
most of the same bases and is more flexible than a sample player, but 
I'm very glad I did. It's now sitting in the second slot on my XL7. 
Some thoughts, very much filtered through the lens of my own personal 
needs:

Electric Pianos
The Yamaha CP70 was a revelation - if you want a realistic acoustic 
grand for solo use this isn't it, but I just wanted a good, 
recognizable piano sample, and this totally fits the bill. The CP70 
isn't an electric piano so much as a small acoustic stage piano with 
piezo pickups on each string, and I like the slightly lo-fi rock-n-
roll quality. Very pleasant surprise. As for the other electric 
pianos, I can't really comment, as I personally detest the sound of 
EPs, other than to say that as has been pointed out elsewhere, the 
volume levels in the presets are too low relative to other sounds. 
There are lots of them though. Some of the instruments (including the 
CP70) are recorded at different velocity levels, for improved 
dynamics.

Organs and Clavs
I'm not able to comment on authenticity, but there are plenty of them 
and they sound fine (though some could use a volume boost as well). 
Not something I have much use for, but the clavs could be handy for 
some arpeggiated synth lines. My guess is that anyone who wants lots 
of organ sounds is going to be more interested in the B3 ROM, and I 
don't know how many of these were taken from there.

Electric Bass Guitar
There are a couple of these - Fingers sounds like a Fender, and Pilot 
is probably a Guild Pilot played with a pick. Their inclusion is a 
little odd, considering the theme of the ROM, but they sound nice and 
should cover the rare occasions when I want a sampled bass guitar. I 
particularly like the Pilot sample.

Analog Synths
These are very nice, covering many of the classics from Roland to 
Sequential to Arp, Moog, and Oberheim. There are also some Yamaha DX 
samples (ep and bass, of course); but the only Korg seems to be the 
MS-20 drums. The sound of these samples is warm and rich, and there's 
a good variety of waveforms. This territory is well-covered by any 
decent VA, but textural variety is useful, particularly in a sample-
based synth, and there's plenty of it here. In concert with the XL 
ROM I now have a wide range of raw material for the Emu filters, and 
the results both support and complement the Virus.

Analog Basses
My Virus has this nailed, so I wasn't too concerned about the number 
and quality of the bass samples. However, I couldn't help noticing 
that there are several good sounding instruments in this category, 
and I like the Vintage basses better, on the whole, than the XL 
basses. If I want to leave my Virus at home at some point I can count 
on the Vintage ROM to step in and take over the low end.

Pads/Strings
This was a primary consideration in choosing this ROM. As much as I 
love my Virus, it just doesn't have the high-end clarity of the XL, 
and the Emu synthesis engine is well-suited to complex, layered pads. 
The Vintage ROM provides lots of material for these, between the 
rawer synth waves and some Elka, Solina and Matrix-12 samples 
specifically intended for string pads. They sound warm and full, with 
ample detail in the high end, and thanks to the filters and mod 
matrix they can have as much animation as you like.

Vox
There are some choir-ish samples, primarily from the Mellotron; this 
is an area where the XL is a bit weak so it's nice to get some added 
options. The Mellotron samples have a distinctive, rough quality to 
them, but again, I can't speak as to authenticity. There's still no 
realistic choir sound though - for that I guess you need one of the 
pop ROMs, like the P2500 or ZR.

Drums
I figured this category would be redundant in a box containing both 
the XL and PX ROMs (more on that later), but there's less duplication 
of samples than I expected. The focus, of course, is on analog 
beatboxes - the 808 and 909, but also the MS-20, SP-1200, and even 
the Casio SK-1 (they don't sound much like drums, but they're cool). 
I do wish the sample names were more clear about their sources, and 
there's room for a more exhaustive collection of analog beatbox 
samples - the 505, 707, 606, DMX, Drumulator, LinnDrum, etc. don't 
seem to be represented - but I guess we won't ever see that. There's 
a decent variety here, the sound quality is good, and I'm pretty well 
covered now, drum-wise.

In summary, the sound of the Vintage ROM is warmer and softer, on the 
whole, than the XL ROM, which has a cold, hard, modern techno sound 
to my ears. It's a good choice if you want to expand your sonic 
palette, since it complements the XL without much overlap. There 
aren't as many samples as on the XL, but there are still a good 
number and the quality is generally very high. It also may be a good 
choice even if you have a VA - it can augment the sonic range of the 
VA and take some of the polyphony load off as well. I'm very happy 
with it. Thanks to everyone who gave input on my decision, and to 
Matt Picone, a fellow Virus owner who argued in favor of the Vintage.

I also picked up a Protean Drums ROM from a list member (thanks, Tom) 
and will be posting a review of that once I've had some more time 
with it. 



 
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