Emu Systems Emax
- At May 05, 2018
- By amsynths
- In Sampler
1
Introduction I first bought an Emax rack sampler back in 1989 for £1200 and spent a lot of time making samples and trying to find the factory samples on diskette, which were really expensive in those days.
In 1991 I visited the Emu Systems factory in California and tried to get a SCSI upgrade for the Emax, but of course I had an early model and the upgrade was impossible. I did get to go round the factory though!
I then moved onto using Emulator II and III samplers in the 1990’s, whilst also finding an Emax SE HD keyboard which I used with a SCSI ZIP100 and factory library before I had to sell all my studio gear in 2003.
Emax 2018 Fast forward nearly 30 years from my original purchase and I found an Emax keyboard for sale at a reasonable price in Portsmouth and in good condition. I upgraded the LCD to a very nice blue OLED display that is an exact replacement, as well as a new USB floppy emulator replacing the rather old and damaged floppy drive.
I have five USB sticks, with two containing the Emu Systems factory library and the other 3 for my samples. I am now sampling a range of synths in the studio as well as using found sounds.
OLED Display is a Vishay O016N002CBPP5N0000 available from Mouser for £15, its an exact drop in, you just need to add a 14 pin male header. It has a wide viewing angle, is very clear and not too bright.
Christopher
I’ve been looking for Emulator samples with the Emax extension that can dropped onto a USB virtual drive ever since I got a hold of a cheap Emax a few years back. I have 100 of the Emax library sounds, that I was given with the USB drive, some of which are ok. But I never thought it would be so difficult to get these early Emulator sounds onto the Emax.