E-mu Emulator III

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 10
2.42
Super
Fairly simple, loop feature could be better.
Just got download manuals on Emulator archives. Thank god.

Features: 10
Very good, keys fairly weighted.
No real build in effects, has big chorusing, minor digital delay, Vca panning,
fair midi, supermode,
16 track sequencer is bomb. Easy to use once you get the hang of it.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
Just about all instruments are realistic, and all are big.
For rap it's a must, dance too.
On board effects are limited. It doesn't matter though. This thing sounds like a Dr. Dre production.

Reliability: 10
If you take care of it like a baby it'll be better anywhere than a ten year wife. If not, look out for the burning bed.

Customer Support: 4
They are ass holes. Don't even bother. Try there offset archive repair service. They at least know about it.

Overall Rating: 10
Yes,
I own a EIIIxp also.
I love the sound. I hate the SCSI being outdated for external CDroms.
I wish it had more RAM. It would be over.
The best sounding keyboard in life. Besides old analog stuff.

Submitted by spaide at 10/25/2001 18:26

Price Paid: US $1600 used

Ease of Use: 10
I'm using software 2.4.
This has to be the easiest sampler to use.
The preset library has some useful strings and some nice percussion sounds.
The manual is very easy to follow.

Features: 9
16 voices of polyphony.
Has a built in chorus and a number of digital FX: exciter, compressor,
transform multiply...
Has a nice feeling semi weighted keyboard that responds to velocity and aftertouch. As well it has velocity switching and velocity crossfading.
The on-board sequencer is 16 tracks and resembles the sp-1200. It's easy to use and quick to write songs with

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
It is the most clean/warm sampler on the market. It holds its ground even compared to the synclavier or the fairlight serise III.
I've used it for ambient, industrial, techno/house and experimental music. It is very flexible and is capable of changing the sound of the sample drastically.
Definitly is the warmest!!!

Reliability: 4
Older Emulator III's are fairly unreliable. It depends on which serial number it is. My EIII keyboard crashes once in a while. My EIII rack works stabily.
I would say it's good to keep at home.

Customer Support: 5
Emu are terrible for customer support on their older gear. I had my EIII repaired and it came back with a burnt out LCD. They blamed the damage on UPS. They're parts are expensive ($450 canadain for a reconditioned power supply with out warranty).
The repair was fast though, and I had it back to me within the month.

Overall Rating: 8
I would definitly buy another one as long as it were a later serial number.
I love the way it sounds. I hate that it relies on the internal hard drive.
It has defined the sound of my music for the last 5 years. I still don't think that any of their new products come close.

Submitted by mark at 09/18/2000 12:15

Price Paid: US $3500.00 used

Ease of Use: 8
I'm using v2.4 which to my knowledge was the last version released. Version 2.4 had an improved SCSI arbitration protocol as well as rather nifty digital effects.
I have at one time or another owned every Emu sampler starting with the Emulator one on through the EIIIx series, and by far... I mean by far the EIII with its analog processing is the warmest most soultry sounding sampler I've ever heard(notice I said heard and not analyzed with a spectrum analyzer).
The EIII made use of a feature called zones which was not available on the Emax series, this made preset setup and analog processing very easy and intuitive. I use Passports Alchemy which helps a bit. The manuals are written in English what else can you say :-)

Features: 7
Polyphony is 16 glorious analog voices. The keyboard action is middle of the road. No built in effects, other than the non-realtime digital effects i.e(equalizer, compression etc.) Memory was maxed out at 8megs not bad for a '88 design. The sequencer was laid out for postpro with a nice SMPTE section.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
IT'S A SAMPLER

Reliability: N/A
Definitely a studio piece, it can be rather touchy needing lots of TLC

Submitted by L. Pestana at 09/04/1998 13:25