The Emax is a classic sampler workstation from E-mu. It is sort of a next generation Emulator II, it's not as good as an Emulator III but it's more powerful than previous EII's. The Emax can be found in several forms: the Emax, the Emax Rack, the Emax HD (built-in 20MB hard disk), the Emax HD Rack and the Emax SE (Synthesis Enhanced) with a built-in synthesizer section. The Emax's editing system will be familiar to users of E-mu's excellent ESI series.

The Emax has an extensive library collection of samples that can be loaded via the built-in 3.5" hard drive. Or you can sample your own sounds. The Sampler is powerful, but lo-fi. It samples at 12-bit resolution with variable sample-rates up to 42kHz. The built-in memory is 512K which only gives you a few good seconds really. Sampling and editing is easy, complete and intuitive with auto sample placement, auto-looping, truncating, reversing, velocity cross-fade, etc. The Emax also features individual channel outputs and stereo outputs and extensive MIDI implementation.

The Emax features many common analog synth-type controls for easily shaping your samples. Tune, filter and shape the envelope or use LFO's and chorus to liven up your samples. There's also an on-board sequencer section. A real-time only 16-track, non-quantizable sequencer for basic scratch-pad use or simple arpeggios or patterns. The SE and SE Plus models, the most advanced of the 12-bit Emax's, add a synthesizer section, newer advanced digital signal processors for sample editing and a SCSI port (standard on the SE Plus). The Emax instruments were the most advanced of the classic keyboard samplers of the late 1980's.

The Emax II which was released in 1989 brought the Emax series up to modern specs with 16-bit sampling, 16-voice polyphony, 16 MIDI channels, stereo samples, 1MB RAM expandable to 8MB, SCSI, 8 assignable outputs and the SE's synthesis functions. And finally, the Emax II Turbo came with 4MB RAM standard and a 4MB hard disk. Whichever Emax you choose, they're all classic machines still capable of professional quality results when used in making the music of today. It has been used by U2, Orbital, Astral Projection, Skinny Puppy, Meat Beat Manifesto, Nine Inch Nails, Mouse on Mars, Richard Barbieri and Depeche Mode.

my name is required?

July 24, 2011 @ 6:15 am

You can actually download a sequence to the Emax II from an external sequencer. I think it's a bit complicated but it should work.

Bobby Simons

July 23, 2011 @ 8:42 pm

I still have my Emax HD in a spare room closet. It was not as expensive as you've remembered, more in the neighborhood of about $3,500 USD.

atte

July 23, 2011 @ 9:18 am

I remember testing one in a music store directly after it came out...the crazy price tag caught my attention and I still remember the sum, it cost 72 000 swedish crowns (about ten thousand USD); it was the most expensive synth I've ever seen, at least here in Sweden. Was drooling a long time for this one...lol

Emax4ever

May 6, 2011 @ 11:08 am

Also used by Faith No More's Roddy Bottum. There are many videos from their concerts that show Roddy with two Emax II's.

Reinaldo

June 28, 2010 @ 11:39 pm

I have 3 Emax II, I have just been buying them to build a perfect one. The last Emax II I got came with a bunch of discs. The reality is that the Emax II sounds weak. At least the discs I tested. I have some sounds in another Emax II that are huge. I believe that you need to sample your own stuff. But again, the sound hmmmm... The Emax I has more to give.

Still, the architecture of the Emax II is awesome, is fun to play with, specially because the entire menu is printed on top. I will keep one of them. But for serious work I would go for the Ensoniq ASR 10, THAT is machinery.

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