Price Paid: US $4100
Ease of Use: 9
I'm using version 4.02 with EOS-link, although I prefer to edit the sampler manually.
The good thing is that you have a built-in harddisk, so you can load presets right away and make music.
About the quality of the samples: I'd say 10 % is spectacular, 30 % is good another 30 % are usable, and 30 % are totally worthless in my opinion.
To edit the presets is real easy, easier than on other samplers.
The manual is pretty thorough and made of paper for one thing !
That makes it easier to look things up than opening some acrobat reader file and staring at the screen.
Features: 8
The polyphony is 128 voices which is all I'll ever need.
It has two effect boards that also sound pretty decent.
You can expand the RAM from 64 MB to 128 MB and you can also put flash RAM in it, you can also put an extra 8 analog outputs on it (it already has 8) or an ADAT interface (8 digital out)
It has 32 part multitimbrality which is a good thing and a built-in midi sequencer: it's pretty easy to work with it although I don't use it, I operate the sampler via Logic.
It has also a few extras like beat munging, which is pretty cool: you throw in a drum loop and then you can change the meter or the accents of the loop, totally deforming it. It also calculates your loop tempo if you want.
I rated it with an 8, because the features are great but you also have to pay a lot for it, more than an average computer that is.
Expressiveness/Sounds: 9
Like I said earlier 10 % of the sounds are great, the rest are equally divided (30-30-30 %) good, usable and useless, so I'm quite satisfied. For example, some string samples are very good (arco strings); the same can be said for about half of the synth patches. The piano sounds are a bit dissapointing if you compare them to top of the line sample libraries, the organs on the other hand are very good. The drum kits are 20 % good, but who cares, you'll probably get your own samples, it's good to know that a lot of sounds are good as is.
I have no comment on the effects, they're pretty good.
Reliability: 10
It didn't crash yet, it loads sounds very fast, it's very easy to use, but I wouldn't take it on a gig, it's a bit to expensive.
Customer Support: 5
I ordered my sampler in Germany so I got a German manual!
I called E-mu and asked if I could trade it for an english one.
that wasn't possible so I had to order one (56 $). That was two months ago and I'm still waiting. this sucks !
Overall Rating: 9
If money didn't matter I'd buy it again, but I'd probably buy a new computer. I'm a guitarist for the past 7 years, I own a small home studio with everything you'd expect to be there.
I am a person who always buys the gear everyone (literally) raves about, so I had very good experiences with my gear so far.
since I knew this was a flagship sampler and also easy to use I knew it would be a good choice (a little expensive though)
Most of the sounds are good so you can work with it right away.
Submitted by Niko Mailand at 10/11/2000 02:31
Price Paid: US $4100
Ease of Use: 9
I'm using version 4.02 with EOS-link, although I prefer to edit the sampler manually.
The good thing is that you have a built-in harddisk, so you can load presets right away and make music.
About the quality of the samples: I'd say 10 % is spectacular, 30 % is good another 30 % are usable, and 30 % are totally worthless in my opinion.
To edit the presets is real easy, easier than on other samplers.
The manual is pretty thorough and made of paper for one thing !
That makes it easier to look things up than opening some acrobat reader file and staring at the screen.
Features: 8
The polyphony is 128 voices which is all I'll ever need.
It has two effect boards that also sound pretty decent.
You can expand the RAM from 64 MB to 128 MB and you can also put flash RAM in it, you can also put an extra 8 analog outputs on it (it already has 8) or an ADAT interface (8 digital out)
It has 32 part multitimbrality which is a good thing and a built-in midi sequencer: it's pretty easy to work with it although I don't use it, I operate the sampler via Logic.
It has also a few extras like beat munging, which is pretty cool: you throw in a drum loop and then you can change the meter or the accents of the loop, totally deforming it. It also calculates your loop tempo if you want.
I rated it with an 8, because the features are great but you also have to pay a lot for it, more than an average computer that is.
Expressiveness/Sounds: 9
Like I said earlier 10 % of the sounds are great, the rest are equally divided (30-30-30 %) good, usable and useless, so I'm quite satisfied. For example, some string samples are very good (arco strings); the same can be said for about half of the synth patches. The piano sounds are a bit dissapointing if you compare them to top of the line sample libraries, the organs on the other hand are very good. The drum kits are 20 % good, but who cares, you'll probably get your own samples, it's good to know that a lot of sounds are good as is.
I have no comment on the effects, they're pretty good.
Reliability: 10
It didn't crash yet, it loads sounds very fast, it's very easy to use, but I wouldn't take it on a gig, it's a bit to expensive.
Customer Support: 5
I ordered my sampler in Germany so I got a German manual!
I called E-mu and asked if I could trade it for an english one.
that wasn't possible so I had to order one (56 $). That was two months ago and I'm still waiting. this sucks !
Overall Rating: 9
If money didn't matter I'd buy it again, but I'd probably buy a new computer. I'm a guitarist for the past 7 years, I own a small home studio with everything you'd expect to be there.
I am a person who always buys the gear everyone (literally) raves about, so I had very good experiences with my gear so far.
since I knew this was a flagship sampler and also easy to use I knew it would be a good choice (a little expensive though)
Most of the sounds are good so you can work with it right away.
Submitted by Niko Mailand at 10/11/2000 02:29
