An affordable classic early eighties sampler/workstation synthesizer. It's a sampler that sounds like an analog synth because it has analog filters! It samples at a low 8-bits (up to 17.6 seconds) so it's got that lo-fi sound which is great for some types of electronic music. Especially nice is its ability to create warm analog-ish pads and sounds. It uses those giant 5" floppy disks for storage. Also on-board is a useful 8-track sequencer. It can be hooked up to a Mac for easier editing using software such as Digidesign's Sound Designer.

The Emulator II had many new features for its time. MIDI, SMPTE and computer control. Editing samples includes truncating, manual/auto looping, reverse, velocity switch cross-fading and splicing samples together. A great feature is the 24 dB/oct analog 4-pole low pass filter. There are eight separate LFO's and eight extra individual outputs for each voice. Make no mistake, the Emulator II was a long standing professional sampler of the mid-eighties for musicians and sound designers.

The Emulator II received numerous upgrades during its four year production run from 1984 to 1988. These included the Emulator II+ with double the sample memory and the Emulator II+HD which adds a 20MB internal hard drive. The Emulator II series was replaced by the much improved Emulator III in 1988. Although both have definitely been overcome by modern samplers and workstations the Emulators remain as classic music machines. The Emulator II has been used by Depeche Mode, ABC, Genesis, Paul McCartney, Tangerine Dream, New Order, Front 242, Brian Wilson, Simple Minds, Enya, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Stevie Nicks, Yes, filmaker/composer John Carpenter, ABC, David Frank Of The System, Mr. Mister, Phillipe Saisse, Stevie Wonder, David "Hawk" Wollinski, Pet Shop Boys; even Ferris Beuller!

visceralvoids

August 15, 2011 @ 4:16 pm

Emulator II is one of the biggest and baddest sounding synths of them all. It was used on the Terminator 2 soundtrack to unbelievable effect. Tony Banks created the cool backwards strings intro to Genesis' "Its Gonna Get Better" with it, as well as the pan-flute sounds on "Domino" (so breathy!) Peter Gabriel used the shakuhachi sounds for his biggest hits. Musicians like Alan Wilder and Pet Shop Boys pushed it to its limits during the 80s. This synth also kick-started the Digidesign company who created ProTools. Fascinating piece of old-school technology with quite a legacy built around it!

OTSIOR

June 10, 2011 @ 8:05 am

more like 1800$-2000$ todays, four years ago you could find one for 700$, man these are going to be so much sought after in future.. you need one "usher" pretending to play one in some [beep] ty music video, prices go to heaven, it becomes minimoog of the samplers.

dino vicente

October 19, 2010 @ 4:25 pm

kraftwerk not used one too?

dino vicente

October 19, 2010 @ 4:23 pm

I have one Emu II.
Sound warm and fat!

Ross

September 16, 2010 @ 11:03 pm

Rush used 5 of these on the Power Windows Tour.

<987654321>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (Required.)

Email Address: (Required, not published.)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

Posting Rules:
Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

I have read and understand the posting rules.