E-mu 9090 Orbit the Dance Planet V2

Price Paid: 200 (pound-sterling) used

Ease of Use: N/A
The manual is quite well written and explains things in a very direct and often graphical way for complete novices. After a bit of reading and experimenting its a pleasure to use, although the limited LCD means that a pencil and paper are sometimes necessary for keeping track of complicated edits. The beats/song mode takes a bit of getting used to although its a very flexible feature that can be synced to external midi equipment. There aren't many buttons to assist in the edits so the cursor and data wheel get lots of use.

Features: N/A
Its obviously aimed at the dance, trance and hip hop market with a large range of presets (5 banks of 128). 19" one unit high, 32 note polyphony, multitimbral, no fx although the outs (6 in total) can be routed back in if desired. The beats mode consists of 100 preset beats that can be assigned to any preset/kit and transposed so the possibilities for variation are considerable. The sounds are 18bit 39khz, to save sample space I guess, but they sound clearer and brighter than those on my SY99 which is 16bit 48khz so no problems.

There aren't any real controls but the controller modulation routing is considerable so if you have a peavey PC1600x or whatever then virtually everything can be controlled with sliders and footpedals and so on. The EMU sound designers have done a great job of setting up the presets so that they can be filtered via the modulation wheel etc so ther's plenty of scope for realtime manipulation before any deep editing. Actually, EMU released a controller called the launchpad (I think) that controls masses of functions on the Orbit so if you ever see one then it might be an idea to get it.

Expressiveness/Sounds: N/A
This is a great sounding unit. The majority of the presets are really superb, maybe ignoring some of the cheesier hits and fx, and are far wider than I can get out of any one soft synth. The basses are great, easily as good as the ones on my ImpOSCar softsynth, and as punchy as the ones on FM7. The leads are very versatile and the pads sit well in a mix. Its worth buying it just as a sort of drum machine though as the percussion sounds are magnificent, easily as good as the electronic kits I've got for Battery. Once you get programing then you realize this isn't just some straight up preset machine but a very versatile synthesiser with some cracking filters and lots of potential. Its midi spec is also impressive and I control the Orbit v2 from Cubase SX using an MP9500 as a controller/keyboard and the response is excellent.

One other thing worth mentioning is that the outputs are very quiet, about the same as my akai samplers, so recording it into your sequencer of choice should pose no sound problems.

Reliability: N/A
Never had a days problem with it. Its a very solid metal design that seems a good deal sturdier than other rack gear by EMU I've used such as the ESI4000. It looks like its built for life on the road and the LCD is superbly bright and clear.

Customer Support: N/A
Never had to deal with them about it

Overall Rating: N/A
A brilliant little multitimbral unit that takes the strain off the CPU whilst providing a great many high quality sounds. I bought it 2nd hand and would defintitely buy it again if it was stolen as I've used it on so many projects and scores. When its set-up in multi-timbral mode its a very powerful piece of kit and I've made tracks using just the Orbit v2 and outboard FX, especially when pressed for time. Its certainly head and shoulders above the equivalent sounds on my JV2080 cards. A great piece of gear.

Submitted by Jon P Trapek at 07/22/2004 17:33

Price Paid: US $350 used

Ease of Use: 8
very easy if you just try

Features: 10
It can do alot of stuff man!!!!!!!!!!!! I got extremely lucky and just happen to be looking on the E-mu website way back right after they discontinued the V2 dance orbit. ANd was just poking around looking at possibly getting a sampler when on the E-mu clearance webpage on their online store they were selling one, yes just one last new launch pad!! The controller made pretty much just for the Dance Orbit V2, you could use it with others but it was mainly built for the Orbit V2. I thought it was to good to be true because they had it at $35 dollars on clearance plus shipping. I new it was gone!!!! So I tried to order it by website and by phone and yes by the grace of God they still had it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So it is mine!!! It really opens up the Orbit V2 to lots of fun new possibilities!

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
It is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!! I thin it will be a classic one day!

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A
They are to corporate now!!!! They suck! Getting their arse kicked by softsamplers!!!!! And also Virtual softsynths!

Overall Rating: 10
I love her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous at 03/17/2003 00:57

Price Paid: US $450

Ease of Use: 9
The manual is (as everyone else says) too simplified for those of us with a some synthesis background, and it doesnt go into the real features of this machine. It is intuitive enough to figure out after the first few hours though. The sounds are great. I was a little weary
of buying a sample based machine to produce analog type sounds, but the filters are amazing and you can edit alot of parameters just like an analog. The presets are a little over the top for me but are easy enough to fix.

Features: 8
32 voices of polyfony. I personally dont need more. There is a couple of effects (phaser, chourus) but you dont have much control over the parameters so I use other means of effecting (I like the sound to be pretty dry before it gets into my computer anyhow, so I can effect it there). No expansion that I am aware of. The sub outputs would be useful.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
Sound great for a variety of electronic music. Its aimed for dance and the like but I use it for some rhythmically oriented experimental stuff. The drum sounds are some of the best synthetic Ive heard. Also the you can assign a ton of different parameters to realtime midi control.

Reliability: 9
Seems sturdy enough. So far so good.

Customer Support: 10
Ive had other E-mu gear and have never had to contact customer support. Therefore not having to ever deal with them gives them a 10 in my book.

Overall Rating: 9
I love this thing. The control over the sound is great. Been doing electronic music for about 5 years and this piece of gear would be hard to part with. I am surprised however at how much people have paid for it. As much as I love it I would not have spent more than $650 on it.

Submitted by Anonymous at 07/28/2000 23:16

Price Paid: US $1000

Ease of Use: 9
The presets are ace! Editing is nice and straightforward. The manual is a bit too simplistic.

Features: 8
Polyphony is 32 voices. No expansion capabilities, I think.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
TECHNO JUNGLE ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
The filters are totally kick-ass, up to 6-pole! Lo/hi/band/phasing/ bass boost...

Reliability: N/A
Had it for a short time only.

Customer Support: N/A
Hope I don't have to find out.

Overall Rating: 10
Buy it.

Submitted by Anonymous at 06/17/1997 14:20

Price Paid: US $750

Ease of Use: 7
The presets sound great if you're into dance music. This is a pure niche market device. The V2 has added plenty of LFO and new drum sounds. This doesn't have as good of pads as I was hoping, and many of the synth bass sounds are not what I want to use, but overall it has very hip presets.
In order to edit the presets and create your own, a patch editor would seem to be an incredible help...there are a few on the way, but I have yet to see one. The cool thing about the Orbit is that there are a billion parameters to edit, so once you get your hands around what to do (and how to save it), there's about nothing you can't do to the sounds.
The manual is great for beginner-intermediate levels, but it is hopelessly short on some of the more advanced level things. They seem to begrudgingly have a list of SYSEX settings, but it by no means seems to be complete.

Features: 4
This is not a feature rich module. As such, it has no on board effects, rather it has 3 outputs - 1 master and 2 specific outputs that you can roue channels through to an external effects box and apparently back into the Orbit to be routed out the main output.
This box has 32 voices of polyphony, 640 presets, 100 "beats" mode beats. Beats mode is a mode that has hard coded beat loops integrated into the module. These are great for "rapid application development". Don't waste your time building a beat when you can pick a pre made one. Then get into the heart of the song. And to top it off, you can buy the beats on disk as midi files, so once you've built the song to a point, import the beats and add your customization and control to them.
The V2 has a song mode addendum to beats mode that allows you to link multiple beats in order to create a song. Also, there is a re-trigger mode that basically restarts the presets at a given interval, for example 16th notes. This allows for rapid fire stutter effects.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 9
If you are into dance/techno/whatever, you can't live without this thing. It has high highs, deep basses, all the techno hits and raves sounds you could ever want. It responds to 4 realtime controllers at a time, giving you the ability to mold the sound real-time. It responds really well to keyboard velocity and modulation, etc.

Reliability: 5
I don't know what the reliability is - I've had it for two weeks. It's made out of real solid feeling materials and is designed to be rackmounted. My 5 rating is purely a reflection of "the jury is still out".

Customer Support: 6
I originally got the V1, but had it upgraded to the V2. The upgrade was quick and easy. As for tech support, I got an email address of a guy at E-Mu and he never responded to my query. Punk.

Overall Rating: 9
I love this thing. It's reinvigorated my music making and it sure helps me map what I have in my head to what I want to hear. I compared it against a Roland MC 303 and the 3030 is an utter piece of junk compared to the Orbit. I love just about everything about it, except for the difficulty I'm having in accessing the hidden inner secrets. The manual was marginal, and E-Mu won't reply.
I wish it had an easier midi interface, but that gets back to the support problem, not the box itself.
For tech info, you can check the E-Mu Orbit Web Page of Love at:
http://www.iei.net/~mtressle/orbit

Submitted by Michael Tressler at 05/11/1997 23:00