Time machine: E-MU Emax performing “Stop And Go”
Vintage gear demo track featuring the E-Mu Emax
The original Emax was released in 1988, after the discontinuation of the Emulator II. The base model cost $2,995; a rack version was also available for $2,695. Although it was fairly similar to the Emulator II in sampling specifications, the Emax used much more reliable parts, and stored sounds on 3½” floppy disks, as opposed to the more antiquated 5¼” floppy disks that the Emulator used. The Emax was advertised as a 12-bit sampler, which was, in reality, only half-true; although playback was 12-bit, only 8 bits were used to store each sample. While this led some to regard the Emax as inferior to its competitors, many modern users consider it to be a key part of the Emax’s sound.
Numerous upgrades were available for the Emax during its lifetime. The Emax HD featured a 20 megabyte hard drive for storing samples. The Emax SE added an additive synthesis engine that let the user create sounds from scratch.
Sample memory remained the same at 512 KB for all models. SCSI can be retrofitted to second and third revision motherboards and was standard on the final model the Plus. The Emax was discontinued, replaced by Emax-II
all sounds: E-MU Emax Sampler from the year 1986
drums: LinnDrum
recording: multi-track without Midi
fx: a bit delay and reverb
Using the internal arpeggiator for sequencing and the original Emax sample library and some own samples for the sounds.
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