More choices in this product category from other manufacturers:

Quasimidi
309

Yamaha
CS1X

Roland
M-VS1 & M-DC1

Roland
JD800

Roland
JV1080

Kurzweil
K2000

Alesis
NANOBASS

Quasimidi
Quasar

Category:  Products / synthesisers / sample synthesisers

Product:  Emu - VINTAGE KEYS
Name: Joe Gerardi
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 15-Dec-99

Amazing box. I used it for years in bands, and kick myself for selling it.

It was a ROMpler, all vintage synths and keyboards sampled on the legendary Emulator III. And what samples. A kick-ass Yamaha CP-70 Electric Grand; Mellotron Voices, Strings, and Choir; Moog 55 resonant filter sounds; Arp 2600; Fairlight sounds that were used ad nauseum in the 80's, but everyone still wants; Minimoog sounds; Oberheim synths; and amazing Hammond, Rhodes, Wurly, and DX-7 tine sounds also. The list goes on and on.

256 ROM sounds and 128 user-programmable slots made it such that you head the foundation needed to get what you needed. The most important thig was to tweak every sound to *your* specs - we all have ideas as to what these old synths should soung like, and this box really only delivered vanilla - you need to add the spice to the sounds til they fit your idea. Once that's accomplished, this puppy and you will have a love affair that'll never end.

Another fantastic item about this box was the filters. Though digital, they had an incredible analog warmth to them, and could be EITHER 2-pole or 4-pole, so you could match them up to the type of original synth you were trying to recreate. Important point, that, because in the old days the filter was what distinguished the sound.

Modulation routings were wonderful, and the velocity crossfade allowed for the feel of fast/slow Leslie simulations. Tons of chorusing options, and built in effects made it sound even better.

It's only limitation, as I saw it, was that multi-timbral mode had its shortcomings. You needed to have a controller that would send MIDI channel info on each note to create a multi setup. Kind of a drag, but in a full kit, not really a problem.

As to reliability, I think you could drop this thing out a 2-storey window and it would still work. Mine received some brutal abuse at the hands of roadies, and never hiccoughed once.

Their high used price is a testament to their quality. I'd love to find me another.

Product rating out of 5:

Reply |  Add review/comment

Product:  Emu - VINTAGE KEYS
Name: Ezra
Email: Email supplied but hidden
http://www.lenin.nu:8000/~ezra
Activity: part-timer
Date: 29-Jan-01

This was the first multitimberal synth I bought. It has tons of good samples, a passable digital filter and a chorus effect. Programming this synth is as easy as any digital synth I have ever used. This gives you a lot more freedom to experiment than some more complicated but difficult synths. One of the neat things is that you can link patches together to create some really complex sounds. Emu uses this to create some wonderfull Hammond B3 patches. With some simple modification of the extensive "modulation" page you can even set it up to use a Peavy PC1600 (or any other midi controller) as drawbars and switches. I have used patch linking to do simple wave sequencing like a PPG Wave. OK it dosen't sound anything like a PPG Wave but it is interesting. The only thing that is really lacking is a set of analogue drum samples. Supposedly this is fixed in the "plus" version.

Product rating out of 5:

Reply |  Add review/comment

Looking for the manual? - Check this page above under the heading: 'Product manual or files' - We might have it!

Note: To cut down on spammers, cookies must be enabled to post comments to this page.