E-MU EMULATOR X2 (software sampler)

[Anderton]

It’s hard to believe that over 20 years ago, I wrote the manual for E-Mu’s Emulator II. With the ability to expand the memory to a mind-boggling half megabyte, and dual 5” floppy drives, it was considered the first really affordable sampler – with a list price of almost $9,000. Well, compared to a Fairlight or Synclavier, it was affordable.

A lot has changed since then, but one thing that hasn’t changed is E-Mu still makes Emulators. Only this time, the software in front of me lists for well under 5% of the E-II, and what it can do compared to the original E-II is like comparing a 747 to a Cessna.

I reviewed the original Emulator X, and it was very impressive. However, the only way you could buy it was bundled with E-Mu's 1820m interface, and it required the 1820m to work (also note that the software is XP only). If you didn’t have an interface, the bundle was a great deal: The 1820m has earned a reputation for sound quality, especially its mic pres. But if you already had a good interface, it meant adding another card to your computer that you really didn't need. With lots of competition that didn’t require a particular interface (GigaStudio, EXS-24, HALion, Kontakt, etc.), the Emulator X was at a disadvantage.

But no more. The X2 requires only that you have some piece of E-Mu hardware in your system – card, USB interface, or keyboard. If you already have a suitable piece of hardware, you can buy the X2 with one sound CD (the TwistaLoop Xperience – more on this gem later) from the E-Mu web site for $249.99. If you already have the original Emulator X, $79.99 (again, from the web) will upgrade it to X2 status. As you’ll find reading through this review, that’s a helluva deal.

The full retail package is not available from the web but from retailers, and lists for $399.99. It includes the X2 software, a sample library with four CD-ROMs (about 3GB total), and the Xmidi 2x2 USB interface (think of it as a dongle that actually does something). Note that the X2 can work as a stand-alone instrument with 64 MIDI inputs, or as a VST plug-in with 16 MIDI inputs (although you can insert multiple instances of the X2, assuming your computer can handle it).

To get an overview of the X2 with specs and such, click here (http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=501&subcategory=168&product=14928) for the X2 landing page.

For info on available sound libraries, click here (http://www.emu.com/shop/shopcategory.asp?category=526&).

[Anderton]

This Pro Review is going to take a while. There’s a lot going on here, and I’m going to treat the X2 as a new product rather than just go over the new features, as I believe that separating the sampler from the 1820m is going to attract a lot of people who may not have really paid attention to it before.

Speaking of hardware, my qualifying piece of E-Mu hardware is an 1820m PCI card/dock that co-exists happily in the same computer along with my Creamware Scope card (if only ASIO was multi-client...). Although as mentioned you can run the X2 with just about any E-Mu hardware, the 1820m (and other E-Mu PCI and cardbus cards, of course) has the benefit of all those cool PatchMix DSP-powered VST effects that you can use with the X2, or with your DAW of choice. I won’t dwell on that here – after all, this is an X2 review – but will certainly answer any questions people might have about E-Mu’s digital audio system, which I’ve always felt has been very underrated.

Incidentally, there has been some grousing on various bulletin boards about E-Mu’s drivers for their digital audio system. However, I think those comments are from people who haven’t downloaded a recent set of drivers; my system has been rock solid for well over a year now. And even before then, it didn’t hiccup much more or less than anything else.

Anyway, unlike most Pro Reviews where I come in knowing almost nothing about a product and explore it, in this case I’m already familiar with the Emulator X. But the new features look fascinating, and I can hardly wait to dig into them. Still, I’ll resist the temptation for now as I cover the more “ordinary” features (that is, if you consider features like 50+ filter types ordinary).

Oh, one other warning: There are so many features that the review will likely jump around a bit. I’ll try to keep it coherent, though :)

[Anderton]

Normally this is where I get to mention the difficulties I had authorizing some dongle or whatever, but not this time. I downloaded the latest drivers from the web (I’ve learned never to use whatever drivers are provided on a CD), installed the various sound libraries, and was good to go.

Upon calling up Sonar’s VST-DX adapter, the X2 asked for authentication via the original distribution CD. Okay. I inserted the CD, and apparently the Protection Gods were satisfied because it hasn’t asked me since. I don’t think this is a “insert the CD every now and then” kind of thing, I’m assuming it’s an “authenticate until you make a big system change” form of protection. So basically, the protection is unobtrusive in terms of operation.

So I loaded the X2 into Sonar 5.2; click on the attachment to see what showed up. Okay, not too intimidating, although I sure wish E-Mu would implement Tooltips given the large number of buttons and icons.

I figured a good place to start would be loading the General MIDI bank, so I went to File > Open, navigated to the E-Mu Sound Central folder, and found a General MIDI bank in the X Producer folder (which I think contains presets from the Proteus 2000 hardware module). Simple enough. This is just one of many screens, though.

To give a “big picture,” the buttons on the top are not from the latest version of Microsoft Word – those are all for the X2. On the left are the presets from the General MIDI bank. The large section in the middle right shows the currently selected Preset, with volume/pan controls and associated effects toward the right. The bottom third toward the right is where you assign MIDI controllers, master settings, filtering, and other parameters.

You can change presets easily; just drag one from the preset list into the main preset window.

[Anderton]

Click on the 1-16 tab, and you get an overview on what presets are on what channels, along with volume and pan controls. As with the “Single” page, you can drag presets into the channel slots and change the makeup of instruments instantly. Click on the attachment to see the 16 channel view (the rest of the X2 screen is not shown for clarity).

Now, I admit that loading a GM set into the X2 and creating a nice collection of presets is sort of like taking a Lamborghini to the supermarket, but you gotta start somewhere! Anyway, before going any further, we need to understand the X2’s architecture. I’ll be working on that overview later, and posting it tomorrow so we can get into the more advanced concepts. For now, I just wanted to make sure it was installed, making noise, and happy. So far, so good.

[D Charles]

Hi Craig. I recently ordered the 1212 system with X2 upgrade from EMU. I've mostly been messing with the synthswipe feature and it's pretty cool so far.

On the general midi bank, I fed it some of my sequences and couldn't for the life of me make it call up program changes. I had the accept program changes box ticked. Did you try that?

(I was running sequences in Sonar 4 with X2 as a VST plug).

I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on this very cool new software!

[Anderton]

<<I've mostly been messing with the synthswipe feature and it's pretty cool so far.>>

It's one of the new X2 features and I haven't played with it, but I hear it rocks.

<<On the general midi bank, I fed it some of my sequences and couldn't for the life of me make it call up program changes. I had the accept program changes box ticked. Did you try that?>>

Not yet, but that's the nice thing about a Pro Review :) -- I'll check it out and get back to you!

[nat whilk II]

Re: New Pro Review: E-mu Emulator X2


oboy oboy oboy oboy oboy!!!!!

Seriously! :) :) :) :)


nat whilk ii

[Anderton]

<<oboy oboy oboy oboy oboy!!!!!>>

Agreed. This is one cool piece of software.

I'm serious, though, this one is going to have a long run. Don't know if it will match the Onyx 400F's record performance, but if anything does, this has a shot.

If there's a lot of interest in the X2, I may ask E-Mu for some loaner sound libraries and fold them into the review as well.

[D Charles]

Originally posted by Anderton


If there's a lot of interest in the X2, I may ask E-Mu for some loaner sound libraries and fold them into the review as well.


Please do!

I'm especially interested in the vintage synth/keyboards bundle (synthswiping my vintage synth rom in my P2K might be too time consuming) and on their website today they have a new one that's out of stock but all drums I think. It would be totally cool if they came up with something along the lines of Battery, BFD, DFH etc. in the X2 format. I don't really need all the bleed mic stuff, just good basic drum sounds.


I'm really looking forward to this review!

:thu:

[fetishfrog]

I have the X2 and really like it. Unfortunately I have not had the time to really put it through its paces. I am really looking forward to your review.

[modul8]

Of those numerous filters, did they happen to include a good, resonant, LPF at least as good as that of the Emax II (a filter WAAAAY ahead of it's time in my opinion)?

I haven't had any experience with anything E-mu beyond the EIIIx and my darling Emaxes are showing their age. I love their distinctive sound but, I know I will have to move on some time...

How come hardware manufacturers don't make an optional 12-bit output card? Dither doesn't quit have the same magic... I'm pretty sure I could R&D a company into oblivion ;-)



edit: I should have said truncation and not dither.

[Anderton]

<<How come hardware manufacturers don't make an optional 12-bit output card? Dither doesn't quit have the same magic... I'm pretty sure I could R&D a company into oblivion ;-)>>

There are so many lo-fi plug-ins you should have no problem finding one to do 12 bits out...and a 32kHz sampling rate!

[Anderton]

The X2 architecture with respect to samples is as expected: You have individual samples, and they can be combined into multisamples with splits, layers, and crossfades. This collection is called a Preset, that lives in a Bank. You can also create a “Multisetup” that allows assigning presets to MIDI channels (64 in stand-alone mode, 16 as a plug-in).

As to effects, there are two series effects, FXa and FXb. These modify the sounds of individual presets. Their outputs go to the main output, but on the way, there are also taps for three aux bus effects that dump into the main output. These work like aux effects in any mixer, i.e., you can apply effects to various presets or not, like having reverb on some sounds but not on others.

Frankly, it's a relief that I don't have to learn some whole new weird architecture...

[Anderton]

Before continuing, there was a mention of not being able to make the program change function work witinh Sonar. Well, I couldn’t get it to work either, but I could do program changes easily with Cubase.

I suspect this may have something to do with the VST wrapper, but that's just a guess. Another possibility is that Sonar has multiple options to do Bank Select, so this may be a case of pilot error. But I tried all of them, and various permutations and combinations, to no avail.

Perhaps someone from E-Mu or Cakewalk could let me know if I’m doing something wrong, or whether there’s some kind of bug.

[Anderton]

At this point, the responsible part of me was saying “Now, let’s start with things like multisetups, and explain how to use the effects, and assign aux buses, and build up slowly.” But the other part of me said “Hey, screw that, have some fun!”

I couldn’t resist, and besides, it had been a while since I’d played with the original Emulator so it would would be a good way to re-acquaint myself.

First up: The filters. These are, to put it simply, outstanding. Click on the attachment to see the choice of filters. There really is more to life than the usual LP/BP/HP/notch collection, and the way some of the filters morph their response (with appropriate eye candy on the cool filter graph) is vivid and animated. And can it do a convincing lowpass? Yup. However, E-Mu puts its own stamp on that traditional sound; the sweep is very distinct and defined, which come to think of it, seems to be a general X2 characteristic. This is a very clean-sounding instrument.

I wanted to apply the filter to all notes over the full keyboard range, so I checked out the Group parameter toward the lower part of the screen, above a keyboard showing the various notes and zones. Bingo: Setting it to “All” affected everything. So far so good. I then got lost for about half an hour checking out the various responses.

So, are they musically useful? 55 responses may seem like overkill, but they do allow for a variety of sounds – particularly animated, atmospheric effects – you simply won’t find anywhere else. This is definitely one of the strongest points of the X2.

But wait – there’s more. A Global Control, Filter Override, allows applying a single filter type to all voices in a preset, regardless of how the voices are programmed individually. I don’t know how much I would use this; if I went to the trouble of programming a bunch of filter responses for a zillion voices, I don’t think I’d want to override them. On the other hard, perhaps it’s just another way to squeeze more sounds out of a single preset: Override the weird filters with something more normal.

If other Emulator fans have a cool use for this, let me know...and if I come up with a cool application, I’ll mention it later on.

[Anderton]

As I can attach only one picture per post, I wanted to also show an example of the type of curve that’s shown when you select a filter. Click on the attachment to see the “Deep Bouche” filter curve, which has a formant-type response. This illustration also shows the matrix modulation setup in the lower right corner. E-Mu gives you 36 “virtual patch cords” that connect a source to a destination.

I should mention that when I moved the Filter frequency control, I could hear stair-stepping. This was also the case when driving the filter frequency from an external controller (mod wheel). But when driven from the envelope, the response was smooth. Still, I was really bummed that I couldn’t get a smooth response from an external controller, which is important to me.

But then I thought wait – this is an Emulator, so it was designed by people who grew up on modular synthesis. Sure enough, I checked out the modulation destinations and one was named “Lag.” So I fed the mod wheel into Lag, then fed the Lag out to the Filter frequency, and added a slight lag time. Perfect! The response was smooth, but without feeling sluggish.

I then started messing around with other modulation options, like the Function Generator. But we’ll have to wait on that one, as it’s getting late and it is filled with more possibilities than I can mention here.

So far, I’m having a great time...it’s clear there’s a huge amount under the hood. But I must also say that the X2 is almost overwhelming in its options. It's not something that can be mastered in a day, that's for sure!

[Anderton]

Hmmm...seems the Tooltips DO work in standalone mode, and they work with Cubase. But they don't work when the X2 is used as a plug-in in Sonar, so I'm assuming there's some aspect of the VST-DX wrapper that gets in the way.

Ah, the vagaries of modern technology...

I'm going to be on the road until Thursday, so I've installed the X2 on my laptop and hopefully I'll be able to file some reports while I'm gone. I'm using it with E-Mu's 1616 interface, so it sounds REAL good compared to the usual laptop audio!

[modul8]

I am curious about a couple of things regarding laptop performance. I do not own a modern PC since I am primarily a Mac user these days. However, given the Intel transition, my next computer purchase will likely be a MacBook Pro and X2 is a very tempting modern sampler.

I am a Reason and Logic Pro user, so, I do have access to software sample playback systems but, I don't particularly like these options (although, in all fairness, I haven't given EXS24 much of a chance).

I rely heavily on "found sound" sources and sample manipulation (i.e. filtering, modulation, etc...) but I also am in the market for well rounded Orchestral and Ethnic/World Instrument libraries. Is the X2 library competent and competitive with other libraries available? Do you feel X2 on a modern laptop would function well as a stand alone sampler to be integrated as an external hardware unit able to play back reasonably demanding orchestrations?


Sorry for the wordy post. I look forward to your observations.

[psi777]

Originally posted by Anderton
Before continuing, there was a mention of not being able to make the program change function work witinh Sonar. Well, I couldn’t get it to work either, but I could do program changes easily with Cubase.

I just picked up my copy of Emulator X2 a couple days back, and am just working my way through it at the moment...an early issue here in addition to the ones you have mentioned, just in case you come across the same sorts of things (and better yet, their solutions?):

I was hoping to be able to use the MIDI learn functions in Live and Sonar to control the MIDI control nodes in the Emulator from my hardware controller (Axiom 49), rather than the Emulator's own built-in MIDI control functions, for the sake of simplicity and easy automation recording. It's no problem to get the MIDI learn function in Live (also in Sonar) to control (e.g.,) the "A" controller in Emulator, which was hooked up to the "tone" control...problem was, when I adjusted the level from my Axiom, the changes would not take affect until after I had released the note and triggered a new one? This is not the case if you adjust the controls straight within Emulator, only when going through the extra layer of the host software, running Emulator as a plugin. Pretty much ruins this method of using hardware controls...things like slow filter sweeps on a pad just won't happen.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone else tried this out?

[Anderton]

<<Is the X2 library competent and competitive with other libraries available?>>

Thanks to this and another question regarding sound libraries, E-Mu is sending me a complete set of their sound libraries for evaluation...so I'll be working those into the review as well.

However, do bear in mind that the X2 imports several formats -- more on this later. The original Emulator X was pretty good at translating parameters (not perfect, but what is?);I'll be checking out this aspect when I get back home.

[Anderton]

I spent this evening checking out the X2 insert effects, and it was time well spent :)

The X2 has 23 different insert effects, and you can put two of them in series. Click on the attachment to see list of effects that appears. The effect parameters appear in the X2's "TV screen"; there's a picture of this in the next post, along with some conclusions about the effects in general.

Here's a list of the 23 available effects, along with some opinions on each one.

Reverb: Not a bad reverb at all. It's not a spiffy new convolution-based type, but gives a reasonably smooth reverb without begging your CPU for juice.

Early Reflections Reverb: Similar to the above, but a little hungrier for power, and with a more interesting character thanks to the inclusion of early reflection options. With lots of regeneration, this does very cool effects with pads and other sustained notes.

Chorus: Your standard chorus, with initial delay up to 50ms, and choice of triangle or sine waveform.

Chorus/Delay (mono): This gives initial delays up to 1 second, whereupon you add modulation. Modulation rate can tie to pan, which gives a more "spatial" effect. It reminds me a bit of the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man in that you could add chorus to delays, making for a more interesting sound than just delaying.

Compressor: This surprised me with its smooth, even compression action -- a definite plus as an insert effect.

Delay: Stereo delay with damping, with separate left and right delay times, plus four modes (discrete stereo, and three "ping-pong" options).

Delay (BPM): Also a stereo delay, but with rhythmic values for left and right delays. At first I thought it wouldn't sync, but then remembered to check "External Tempo Source" under the X2's Preferences.

Delay (Mono): Same as Delay, but mono.

Early Reflections: A bunch of echoes with several modes, a Room Size parameter, and left/right offset. This didn't really thrill me, but made the more reverb more interesting if you put the two in series.

EQ - 1 Band Parametric: You know what this is. But I didn't like the Frequency being a linear scale; 1/16th of the slider covers 40-1,000Hz. This really should be a logarithmic scale.

EQ - 4 Band: This is a 4-band parametric. Because each band is restricted to a specific frequency range (Hi 4k - 16kHz, HiMid 1 - 8kHz, LoMid 200Hz - 3kHz, Lo 40 - 800Hz), their linear response is not as problematic as the 1-stage EQ. Still, I would prefer a log frequency scale.

Flanger: After the EQ scale disappointment, I was thrilled to see a flanger that not only provides "through zero" flanging, but gives the option to make the through zero in or out of phase. Cool!

Flanger (BPM): Same as the Flanger, except that the LFO syncs to tempo via various note divisions,

Growl: This is sort of a cross between the "growl" that happens at the beginning of a brass note and a weird resonant effect, depending on how you set the controls (Initial, Depth, Color, and Pre-Filter). It's pretty unusual

Limiter: It's your basic limiter, but like the compressor, is extremely useful as an insert effect for things like taming resonnaces, or following a very resonant flanger.

Reverb Lite (Mono): About what you'd expect from an onboard reverb. It's rougher than the far smoother Reverb, and not as interesting as the Early Reflections Reverb, but doesn't do a major hit to your CPU.

Phaser: This is cool. Its choice of 3, 6, 9, or 12 stages lets it do the E-H Polyphase type of phaser sound, but doesn't do the famous 4-stage "univibe" phaser effect. Bonus feature: You can shift the LFO left/right phase among 0, 90, and 180 degrees.

Pitch Shifter (Mono): This sounds like the pitch shift stompboxes of yore; the quality isn't outstanding, but that's its charm. The feedback control allows upward and downward pitch sweeps -- sweet -- although I wish there was also a delay parameter, so you could vary the time between the occurrence of shifted pitches. Still, fun stuff, particularly with weird drum sounds.

Ring Modulator: Okay, I'm a sucker for ring modulators, so kudos to E-Mu for including this. Better yet, it has an Envelope Follower parameter so you can add more animation than usual.

SP12-ulator: A nifty decimator for lo-fi fans with resolution all the way down to 1 bit (yes, it sound wonderfully dreadful!), and the inclusion of the SP-12 drum machine's "sample skipping" sound, which was the heart of transposing SP-12 drum sounds. As far as I know, the sample skipping technology was unique to E-Mu, and it's a quite distinctive sound.

Tremulator BPM: This is an overachieving tremolo, as it does volume and/or filter changes, syncs to tempo, has adjustable L/R phase, and offers 8 waveforms.

Tube: Pretty decent distortion, especially if you follow it with the 4-band EQ. In addition to Gain and Level, it has parameters for Presence, Compresssion, and Bias.

Twin (mono): This simulates a dual-stage tube. In today's world of amp models, it doesn't sound like what most people would expect from an amp sim, but it produces groovy distortion in its own right.

[Anderton]

The effects parameters show up as sliders you can adjust. If there are more parameters than fit on the TV screen, then a scroll bar appears so you access them. Click on the attachment to see the reverb parameters that appear when you call up the reverb effect.

At first, I didn't think you could save presets, because there's no explicit "save as" menu. However, if you right click in the TV screen, you can save the effect settings as a template, as well as access other template settings. You'll see templates for all the effects, so if you call up, say, a reverb effect, it will call up the reverb if it isn't already.

This is a somewhat different way of doing things, but it makes sense. I don't save a zillion different presets; in most programs, I save the equivalent of templates -- points of departure -- that I tweak for the sound at hand. The X2's approach is very much in keeping with how I do things, so it's not surprising I like the way its handled. However, if you like to have folders with different, very specific effects for different processors, the list of templates could become unwieldy.

I'll also add that the effects parameters are automatable, but we'll get into the specifics when we cover automation and modulation.

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the X2 insert effects harken back to stompbox and vintage analog effect sounds, such as through-zero flanging and ring modulation. They're a somewhat "classic" collection, and while you might miss some of the modern goodies like multi-tap delays, I think E-Mu's design philosophy has two main points:

* You have the usual, bread-and-butter effects like delay, compression, and EQ that are essential for all kinds of musical applications.
* There are a lot of "minority" effects, like ring modulation, the SP12-ulator, and growl, that are seldom included in instruments, let alone available as stand-alone plug-ins.

So you don't get glamorous insert effects, like convolution reverb. But you get a mix of useful and innovative effects that add to the X2's value.

[d. gauss]

Originally posted by Anderton It’s hard to believe that over 20 years ago, I wrote the manual for E-Mu’s Emulator II. [/URL].

now i feel really, really old. i'm not a keyboard player, but back in the 80's when i was an assistant, i used to get sooo much work 'cause i was the only person who knew how to work the damn thing... new order, 3rd world, arthur baker... i must have read the manual. :)

curse you 5 1/4' floppies!

-d. gauss

[wwwill]

Originally posted by Anderton
<<Is the X2 library competent and competitive with other libraries available?>>

Thanks to this and another question regarding sound libraries, E-Mu is sending me a complete set of their sound libraries for evaluation...so I'll be working those into the review as well.

However, do bear in mind that the X2 imports several formats -- more on this later. The original Emulator X was pretty good at translating parameters (not perfect, but what is?);I'll be checking out this aspect when I get back home.

I have a Proteus XLE and and number of the libraries: Mo' Phatt, Protean Drums, Beat Garden, Techno Synth Construction Yard, and VintageX 3 Keyboards.

The E-MU library is awesome! I'm not sure what else I want: Street Kits and maybe one of the World/Ethnic sets.

This library has made the Proteus the first instrument I use to start projects. Multitimbral operation (and multiple outs) is one of the things I ALWAYS looked for in my earlier hardware modules: CZ-101, D-110, Mirage, TX81Z, Korg N1R. I'm glad that E-MU made this happen.

Protean Drums is almost making me forget about my need for a dedicated drum machine app like DR-008, RMIV, Guru, or DK+ Drums. Craig, If you could check to see if the sample mapping allows for a random layer selection, then I really won't need a drum machine.

[wwwill]

Originally posted by d. gauss


now i feel really, really old. i'm not a keyboard player, but back in the 80's when i was an assistant, i used to get sooo much work 'cause i was the only person who knew how to work the damn thing... new order, 3rd world, arthur baker... i must have read the manual. :)

curse you 5 1/4' floppies!

-d. gauss

It's funny because the only reference I can give the new commers is "the keyboard in Ferris Beuler's Day Off"
:thu:

[zvenx]

hi,
I currently have proteus LE.
I can upgrade to Proteus X2 for $149.....or Emulator X2 for $249...
two NEW features seperate them, synthswipe, which I have no interest in and transform multiply.
Craig how useful if any or compelling have you found transform multiply if you have gotten a chance to try it out as yet.
thanks
rsp

Transform Multiply
Transform Multiply is a convolution DSP tool that creates new sounds by combining the timbral and time elements of two signals in a way that reinforces frequencies common to both sources and discards frequencies not present in both. This powerful tool is applicable to everything from adding a custom reverb (by adding a reverb impulse to another sound) to full blown voice articulation of musical instruments (combining speech with an instrument).

[d. gauss]

Originally posted by wwwill
It's funny because the only reference I can give the new commers is "the keyboard in Ferris Beuler's Day Off"
:thu:

i remember sitting in the lounge with a client watching the MTV video from the chevy chase movie, "spys like us." client wanted to know why paul mccartney had an emulator III and we only had a II...
"um, because he's paul mccartney and they haven't even released the thing yet." :)

-d. gauss

[Anderton]

Well I hope you all had a great Labor Day vacation, let's get back into the X2.

The roster of effects for the aux buses are the same as for the inserts (see above). They also have the same kind of interface, with sliders for the various parameters.

As mentioned, there are three aux bus effects and as expected, each preset (whether used alone or as part of a multi setup) can feed a variable amount of signal to each aux bus. But that's not all. Each voice also has aux bus controls, so you could feed, for example, the bass split from a piano/bass split to an aux effect, but not the piano split.

Where this really comes in handy is multi-sampled drum kits, as you can keep some drums dry, some reverbed, some delayed, and so on.

On the preset level, you can also determine what bus the aux outs feed, or whether they're turned off. Ditto the main instrument output, so you could, for example, feed the instrument sound only through the aux buses.

It's also worth mentioning that there are several places where you can bypass the insert FX and aux effects so you can compare what something sounds like with and without various effects.

Click on the attachment to see the "lay of the land"; I've bordered various elements so you can see what I'm referring to.

The area bordered in red is where you select aux effects, and vary their parameters. The area bordered in green has the buttons for bypassing the FXA, FXB, and Aux effects. The yellow border shows where you assign the aux outputs to buses; the orange border is where the output gets assigned to a bus. And before signing off from this screen, the area bordered in light blue contains a limiter. This keeps levels under control, which is particularly important in an instrument with this many filters, which can be made very resonant if you so desire.

[Anderton]

At this point, I've played with sounds, loaded them, added effects, created some multis, and pretty much stumbled through finding a lot of the important stuff. But, as pointed out, the X2 is very deep. As a result, we need to get a handle on how its interface is organized.

So, let's sort of rewind back to square one, and go through the X2 in a more methodical manner. We'll start off by covering how you actually find sounds for the X2.

[Anderton]

The left side of the X2 has a browser tree, very much like Windows Explorer. Click on the attachment to see the browser tree. It has three tabs:

* Sampler shows a view of the bank that's loaded in the X2. Here is where you browse presets, the samples that make up the preset, and multi setups.
* System shows an Explorer-type tree of your computer, including hard drive, external drives, and the like. This is where you can look for files, and this is also where you must load E3 and E4 disks, as for some reason they won't load from external USB and FireWire drives.
* Library keeps track of where all X2-related banks and presets reside. This is where you can "take an inventory" of your sample library, browse it, and decide what to load. This is also what allows you to mix presets from various banks, and create a new bank.

As with other samplers, such as Kontakt, indexing your entire system to initialize the library can be time-consuming if you have a lot of big hard drives (and if you have a sampler, I'm pretty sure you have some big hard drives!). Indexing is the kind of thing you want to start happening before you take a break, and let it do its thing while you have lunch or whatever.

The Sampler browser is particularly important, as it controls what you'll be viewing in the main display. This is the heart of the X2 interface, and while it's logical, as you'll see there's quite a bit of page-flipping involved if you're deep into a heavy editing session.

In the attachment, you can see that under Presets, one of the preset folders has been opened up to reveal three entries: Voices and Zones, Links, and Voice Processing. Selecting one of these opens up a corresponding screen (in this case, the voice processing one).

But let's put that thought on hold right now, and get back to a more top-level topic: Single channel view, and multi setups.

[Anderton]

Well, I'm going to sign off tonight. But I have to confess it's difficult to focus on the review, because I keep getting distracted...I wanted to see how easy it was to create a preset, so I loaded up one of my favorite Minimoog samples, and about 10 minutes later, I had a really cool bass sound poppin' out of the speakers.

But what's a real problem is when you start checking out the banks. I loaded the Proteus X Composer bank, and noodled around with some presets. I feel in love with the "Silk OBXsaws" preset and was immediately inspired to come up with a chorus for a tune.

In fact, all the sounds I listened to were stunning in their clarity and sound quality -- like hearing a guitar through a high-impedance DI box. I loaded a sawtooth sample and deliberately stretched it up five octaves to see how it would hold up; there was mild aliasing, but it was surprisingly low. I'll have to do a more rigorous test later.

Anyway, I'll try not to get distracted so I post more about the X2. But I guess the fact that I'm getting sucked into this instrument says a lot in itself!

[Anderton]

<<Craig how useful if any or compelling have you found transform multiply if you have gotten a chance to try it out as yet.>>

I believe this was first included in the Emax or maybe Emax II...there was some sort of convolution thing in there. But I never got into it because it was so computationally intensive, it would sometimes take hours to render a sound...and then I'd find out it sucked :) Then again, this was back in the days where when you wanted to render one frame of animation, you'd wind up your Mac IIci and let it think on it overnight.

I haven't checked out transform multiply yet, but I suspect with my screaming dual core ADK system it will be a somewhat zippier experience than it was with the Emax :D. If you're into sound design, I suspect you might find this to be a very important feature...more later.

[zvenx]

thanks
rsp

[dahkter]

Hi Craig,
My heart's racing after hearing about the SP12ulator insert effect. I've owned both the SP12 and 1200, and hold onto them simply because I love what it does to samples, both the sound and the way it transposes it across the keys.

As you are the author of the manual and have used the SP1200, how is that SP12ulator effect, is it right on, or just another bit reducing effect?

Thanks

[93143]

I noticed you were disappointed by the EQ sliders. You may have noticed this already, but the linear EQ sliders can be bypassed by just clicking on the number above a slider and editing it; this works for all the effect parameters.

It doesn't make it any easier to sweep the peak with a mouse (or MIDI controller, for the 1-band), but it gives you precision once you've picked a frequency.

[Anderton]

<<I noticed you were disappointed by the EQ sliders. You may have noticed this already, but the linear EQ sliders can be bypassed by just clicking on the number above a slider and editing it; this works for all the effect parameters.>>

Yes, good point; you can indeed enter numericals. It's just that a lot of times I need to sweep to find the right area for EQ, and I like log scaling more than linear scaling for that application.

[Anderton]

<<My heart's racing after hearing about the SP12ulator insert effect. I've owned both the SP12 and 1200, and hold onto them simply because I love what it does to samples, both the sound and the way it transposes it across the keys.

As you are the author of the manual and have used the SP1200, how is that SP12ulator effect, is it right on, or just another bit reducing effect?>>

Well, somewhere in between. It processes an existing signal, it isn't a part of the transposition process. So that sort of "ring mod" effect you get when you transpose something takes a little work. But it's more than a bit reducing effect, although it does that too.

But also understand that the SP12ulator has frequency and depth controls, both of which can be messed with via the MIDI patch cords, and you can alter the amount of bit reduction. This is where it gets interesting.

So being that you're a true SP1200 aficionado, I went to the effort to create a patch where I took a Discrete Drums tom sample and tied its pitch to pitch bend, and also tied pitch bend to the SP12ulator frequency control. I then created a short sequence in Sonar that hit the drums and bent the pitch. Actually it took longer to render it to MP3 then it did to create the sound example.

Click on the attachment to download a 128kbps mono MP3 file of this effect. It may not sound exactly like an SP1200, but it has a ton more character than the usual bit reduction processor. Enjoy!

[Anderton]

Single channel view is part of the Multisetup page. This is where you assign presets, volume, pan, and output routing to a MIDI channel (64 in standalone mode, 32 as a plug-in). Click on the attachment to see Single View.

The main "LCD" display shows the preset number and name, and also displays the category and bank/program display (presets are numbered sequentially, but the bank/program number follows the standard MIDI numbering of a bank number followed by one of 128 program numbers).

Below the display are the volume and pan knobs, that (I must point out!) have a cool graphical glow. What I particularly like is the pan button glows more red as you pan left, and blue as you pan right (there's no glow when it's centered). As someone who believes it's easier to parse settings by color than by text, this rocks.

This is also where you set the output, and have enable buttons for the two insert effects (FXA and FXB) as well as an Aux output enable button. These make it easy to hear the processed/unprocessed sounds.

Above the display is where you can inc/dec presets (or type in a preset number), change MIDI channels, and choose a preset via category. There are also tabs for the outs and three aux effects, so it's easy to pull up an aux effect for tweaking. In this screen shot, Aux FX2 is selected, but it's bypassed. That way I hear what the other aux effects are doing.

[Anderton]

This is the go-to place when setting up to do a sequence -- click on the attachment to see Multichannel view. Here you see all available MIDI channels in groups of 16. It's easy to assign presets to channels; you can drag presets over to a channel slot, or click on the slot and open up a list of all available presets in the bank (as shown in the lower left of the picture). If you click on a preset in the list, you can audition it; then double-click to pull it into the current slot.

You can also see that each channel has a level control, pan, FXA and FXB enable buttons, output assignment (as this is being used as a plug-in, it just offers Bus 1 or Off), and the Aux bus enable button.

The lower part of the Multichannel View window deserves some attention of its own, so we'll look at that next.

[Anderton]

I'm a huge fan of using MIDI controllers, such as knobs and faders, to control parameters in real time and add expressiveness...and that's a big part of what the lower section of Multichannel View is all about.

Each preset has 16 available controllers; with something like the Proteus X Composer bank, most of these are assigned to something useful. Someone at E-Mu put some thought into these assignments, as they're very consistent from preset to preset (and given the huge number of presets, that's quite a task).

Now sit down and follow along, as we're going to delve deep into how controllers are assigned. Click on the attachment to follow along with what we'll be talking about.

The 16 MIDI controllers are named CTRL A through CTRL P. You do not assign these by a "MIDI learn" function; instead, you need to make global assignments in advance, via the Preferences dialog box (shown in the upper left). For example, in this case, Ctrl A is being assigned to controller #11. Thus, in every preset where Ctrl A affects something, it will respond to controller #11.

You determine the parameters to be controlled in the Voice Editing window, which we'll get to later. This makes sense; for example, if you want to control something like Filter Cutoff, you'll find that in the Voice Editing window.

Although this is less flexible than the on-the-fly "MIDI learn" approach, it does force a sort of order to your use of controllers: It encourages using a consisten control surface, making your assignments, and learning a consistent set of conventions for all your presets. My first take on this is that it's an inflexible leftover from the way assignments were made in the Emulator II. But as I've used it more, I've come to appreciate that committing to particular controllers leads to a more consistent approach that, when learned over time, becomes second nature.

So where do you edit the names and initial controller amounts? We'll cover that in the next post on Preset Globals.

Now let's look at the other controls in this section.

The Master Settings section has global tune, transpose, and tempo (which is grayed out, because I set up the X2 to follow the host tempo under Preferences).

Below that is the Filter Override option. You can have a different filter for each voice if that's your thing, and this window shows the filter for the first voice in the preset. However, you can click on Filter Override and select a particular filter type which will replace the various filters used in the voices. This may not seem particularly useful, until you release with one click and drag you can change a preset's character pretty dramatically.

Twistaloop Override won't make much sense until we describe the Twistaloop function, but basically, it determines how beats lock to tempo.

To the right of the filter override you'll find the Aux output assigns (again, because this is being used as a plug-in, there aren't multiple outputs so the choices are Aux and Off). In the lower right-hand corner, there are the output VU meters, Volume control, and the limiter. The horizontal meter below the output meters shows the amount of gain reduction that's happening.

Finally, along the bottom, there's a strip with various fields that show the amount of memory a preset takes up, CPU and disk usage meters, the number of samples currently playing, the currently selected channel.

[Anderton]

For now, let's just consider the Controller aspects of this window. One reason for this is because we've been pretty much dealing with controllers, and the other is because my head is about to explode from going through all these possibilities. Really. Hey, I'm a synth veteran, but when you start getting to the point of sectioning off parts of the keyboard so you can use the keys to control modulation rather than play notes...and the alternate tunings...

Okay. As mentioned previously, you assign MIDI controllers to parameters in the voice editing window. But the Preset Globals window puts a more friendly face on the assignments. Click on the attachment to see the Preset Globals window. This is because the 16 knobs in the lower left control the initial controller amount assigned to a preset. Each knob also has an accompanying "scribble strip" where you can name what's being controlled. These names show up under Single Channel View and Multiple Channel View as well. ("Aha," I hear you thinking, "So that's where the names came from!") And of course, you want to be able to set an initial controller value so that if you're controlling, say, filter cutoff, when you call up the preset the filter setting is in a useful position.

The "patch cords" section toward the lower right is basically a matrix modulation type of setup where you assign modulation sources to modulation and effects-related destinations. Some people find this confusing because they think it crosses over with the MIDI controller sections. Not really; it's just that the MIDI controllers are also available as modulation sources.

[Anderton]

One thing I did notice about the way controllers are handled is that if a physical knob is different from the initial controller setting, and you move the knob, the controller jumps to the new setting. As far as I can tell, there is no controller "offset" mode where moving the knob changes the value relative to the initial value. If there is such a beast lurking among the forty zillion possibilities, maybe if someone from E-Mu is reading this they can tell me where to find it.

I should also mention that I've had a few instances where Sonar just froze. This seems to come after doing truly abusive "learning process" things with the X2; when I've used it in a more normal fashion, it's been very solid.

And before I sign off for tonight, I'd like to reiterate that the sound quality is truly something. As I've been learning about the X2, I've been loading the Proteus X Composer bank a lot. I didn't just luck out and hit a few good patches right off the bat; the more I audition the patches, the more I find out that they're all very solidly crafted and musical, with useful controller assignments and intelligent voicing. There is a real clarity to the sound, a sense of definition, with no trace of "wooliness." It's definitely an E-Mu "sound," but it's a sound that I really appreciate.

Sure, it's great there are all these options and features (except when learning about some of the more esoteric ones starts to make my head explode), but ultimately, it's all about sound. There would be no shame at all if all you did was load sounds into the X2 and played them, and never got into any programming. Just spending some quality time with all the sounds that are available for it could take weeks: There's a tremendous amount of great material here.

[dahkter]

Hey Craig,
Great review so far, really enjoying it.
I appreciate your taking the time to render an MP3 of the SP12 effect, definitely very cool.
My wife says I need to make some music with what I have, hopefully I can put together a good album, then buy it...

[wooden]

What i am anxious to know about is the auto sampling feature (i dont know how emu calls it). Where you can connect lets say an analog synth without memory and make a patch automatically within the emulator.

i hope you have the chance to try it craig:thu:

[Anderton]

<<What i am anxious to know about is the auto sampling feature (i dont know how emu calls it). Where you can connect lets say an analog synth without memory and make a patch automatically within the emulator.>>

That's called SynthSwipe, and it's one of the major X2 features along with Twistaloop. I'll be getting to those soon enough :)

[wooden]

Originally posted by Anderton
<<What i am anxious to know about is the auto sampling feature (i dont know how emu calls it). Where you can connect lets say an analog synth without memory and make a patch automatically within the emulator.>>

That's called SynthSwipe, and it's one of the major X2 features along with Twistaloop. I'll be getting to those soon enough :)



if it works i am sold for this feature alone.:thu:

[Filch]

I'm anxiously awaiting the next update on this :)

[Anderton]

Me too! I've been on the road, which wreaks havoc with Pro Reviews unless I can do the whole thing on a laptop. As I wanted to try Synthswipe with my Ensoniq TS-10, I didn't think TSA would be real happy about trying to treat a keyboard synth as carry-on...

Anyway, I got back Friday night and I'm setting things up for Synthswipe. Here we go...

[Anderton]

The first thing I did was hook the TS-10 into the E-Mu 1820m interface: TX-10 MIDI in to 1820m MIDI out, and line outs from the TS-10 into the line inputs.

I tried setting up the X2 within Sonar, but you need to do Synthswipe in stand-alone mode. No big deal, so I opened up the X2.

The first thing you need to do is ask to "Acquire/Chop Samples." I should probably point out that the X2 is actually a SAMPLER, not just a sample playback device -- you really can SAMPLE into it. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.

Once you have the Acquire/Chop Samples screen happening, then you click on Synthswipe and the fun begins.

[Anderton]

Click on the attachment to see the Synthswipe window.

The whole point of Synthswipe is that it sends out MIDI data to drive the keyboard, then samples the output. As you can see from the attachment, there are several parameters you can set.

First up, you set the note range you want to sample, and the interval at which you want to sample the notes -- every semitone, every few semitones, or whatever. This is global for the notes you specify; you can't "bunch up" samples in one area, and spread out the intervals in other places. What you can do, of course, is eliminate unneeded samples later on in the process.

Then you get to sample at different velocities, and set the number of samples between the lowest and highest velocity. You can set this as high as 126 if you want to sample just about every available velocity, but usually 4 or 5 will do the job.

Finally, you set how long you want the sample to be taken. This involves a key-down value, and a key-up value if there's a release time. You can also specify a pause between these samples.

Then you name it (and save this setup as a template if you so desire), click on record, click on Monitor if you want to hear the samples go by, and sit back and wait.

[Anderton]

Now the samples are loaded into the X2, it's time to save the samples and build a preset (or just save the samples, if you want to create the preset manually). Click on the attachment to see the Save Samples window, with the swiped samples in the background.

You can normalize or not, and if so, choose whether to normalize stereo samples as a linked pair, or normalize each channel individually. You can also choose auto-loop, but don't expect too much from this; if you have a single-cycle sample, for example, the X2 isn't smart enough to isolate that sample and loop. Basically, auto-loop lets you loop the whole sample, just the last half, the last quarter, or the last eighth; you can also throw in crossfade looping if you like.

If you're looping a small number of cycles, auto-loop puts you in the ballpark, or at least in the ballpark's parking lot, and that's about it. However, all is not lost, as tweaking loops is really remarkably easy -- as we'll see in a few posts.

Where auto-loop is effective is on long, sustained sounds. The crossfading looping really does a good job, and you likely won't need to do any additional editing. For example, if the first half of a pad has an attack sound and the second half sustains, choose an auto-loop of half the sample + crossfade, and you'll pretty much get what you want.

Then there's also the issue of building a preset, although you don't have to if you want to create a preset manually. You can name the preset, place the samples where originally sampled, or on consecutive white keys (or chromatically) at a particular starting key.

If you didn't sample every key, there will be blank notes. You can choose whether notes will stretch up to fill in the blanks, stretch down to fill in the blanks, or stretch up and down (my preference for most samples).

[Anderton]

When it works, it works spectacularly, but there are some limitations.

For example, suppose you have a "triggered" percussion sound where you can either hold a note to have it complete its envelope, or "tap" the note and have a release time complete the envelope. With Synthswipe, you pretty much need to sample the entire note, as sampling just the attack and just the release won't give the same kind of "triggered" playability.

In fact, the whole idea of separating the key down and key up is only moderately successful, as you seldom play the same key down time every time you play a note. The whole point is to be able to hold the key down a variable amount of time, then initiate a release; Synthswipe commits to a particular key down time.

But those are really the only hiccups. Remember that you are sampling an output, so something like a clav sound will work perfectly. Ditto pads, especially with the auto-crossfade function. I sampled some kalimba, bass, and pad sounds from my TS-10, and the results were stunning -- great stuff.

But I think there's an even better way to approach Synthswipe...

[Anderton]

Laugh if you will, but one of my favorite synths remains the Peavey DPM-3. But it's now pushing 16 years, and at some point, it's gonna die and there won't be the parts to fix it.

What I like about it is the ROM set and the stretching algorithm Peavey used on those sounds; you can transpose cymbals way down, and they still sound very cool. The DPM-3 was apparently the only synth (aside from some other Peavey products) that used this particular transposition technology, just as E-Mu's SP-12 had a unique "sample-skipping" process.

The rest of the DPM is fairly standard: Filters, envelopes, LFOs, etc.

So here's my plan: I'm going to set up the DPM to play only its sustained waveforms -- VCA on full, VCF off, no LFO, etc. -- and swipe its ROM set. Then, I'll use the X2 to add the filtering, envelopes, etc., which are considerably improved over what the DPM-3 had to offer. I my swipe a few complete patches, but I'd rather have that Peavey "toolkit" available for processing with the X2.

So how hard is it to swipe just the raw waveform and tweak it? Well...

[Anderton]

As a test run of the above concept, I took at TS-10 multisampled bass sound with single-cycle loops, opened the filters/VCAs wide open, sampled every third note, and built a preset. So far so good.

I then played back individual samples within the X2, and was disappointed that each sample's loops were extremely "clicky." I tried manipulating the loop points, but then figured I'd try the X2's automated tools.

The Emulator II had a "find loop point functions" that was pretty basic, but could help a bit. The X2 has gone waaaaaay beyond that. I was able to tweak all the loop points within a matter of minutes by simply selecting the loop, enabling snap to zero crossings, setting the end point to someplace that looked reasonable, and hitting the "autocorrelate" button. Click on the attachment to see the sample loop editing screen.

Sometimes the loop wouldn't be perfect, but that was a very rare occurrence. So I'd just jog the end point and hit autocorrelate again; usually that would fix. For the remaining "problem children," which happened mostly with high frequency sounds, changing the start time by one or two samples would solve the problem. How cool is that?

When I remember how long it would take me to set good loops...all I can say is the X2 came through this test with absolutely flying colors. Doing single cycle loops is a breeze during the editing process.

[Anderton]

Very, very cool, as long as you understand the X2 is recording a sound, not deconstructing it and appying its own filters, LFOs, etc. However, if you take the time to swipe just the raw sound and apply your own processing with the X2, you can achieve remarkable results. You can end up with a sampled sounds that's as playable as the source. Yeah, it takes more work -- but if nothing else, it allows me to keep using my DPM-3 sounds for as long as there's an Emulator to play them back...and beyond, as the sounds will have been saved as WAV files.

This is a great feature...any questions about it before I move on to the next feature?

[Anderton]

And before I sign off for today, I'd like to add that I'm really, really getting into the X2. What started off as a favorable impression, mixed with some exploding head issues due to feature overload, is settling down to the point where I'm starting to feel really comfortable with it. There's much further to go, but even with just what I've experienced so far, this is a wonderful instrument.

[Anderton]

I gotta say, though, I do find the type to be rather unreadable on many of the screens, especially if you're using a monitor with decent resolution. I'd sure like to see the X3 make the labels more readable!

[D Charles]

I guess my main problem with Synthswipe is I just don't know enough about sampling. I know on acoustic instruments the more samples the better, but what about a synth? Do they synthesize a sound and then just transpose it up and down the keyboard? Would it be best to sample one note or one note every octive and stretch it up and down the keys for synthy sounds?

Also, I've been fiddling with my Alesis D-4. I've got some sets that sound identical to the original but I'm not sure which way to swipe them. I think the D-4 only had like 4 megs of samples total but it's velocity sensitive. I'm having a hard time sorting out how to make my swipes velocity sensitive. I tried the every note in the range and three velocity setting and it seems I have three volumes on each hit, but how do you get them all to be as velocity sensitive as the D-4?

Again, I just don't think I know enough about the nuts and bolts of sampling.

[Anderton]

<<I guess my main problem with Synthswipe is I just don't know enough about sampling. I know on acoustic instruments the more samples the better, but what about a synth? Do they synthesize a sound and then just transpose it up and down the keyboard? Would it be best to sample one note or one note every octive and stretch it up and down the keys for synthy sounds?>>

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer; it's different for every sound. For example, if youre just sampling a waveform, you can probably get away with sampling every 3-5 semitones. But if you're sampling something with an envelope that lasts a specific length of time, it will get shorter as you transpose up, and longer as you transpose down. Stretch it a semitone or two and you probably won't notice a difference; stretch it an octave, and you surely will.

<<Also, I've been fiddling with my Alesis D-4. I've got some sets that sound identical to the original but I'm not sure which way to swipe them. I think the D-4 only had like 4 megs of samples total but it's velocity sensitive. I'm having a hard time sorting out how to make my swipes velocity sensitive. I tried the every note in the range and three velocity setting and it seems I have three volumes on each hit, but how do you get them all to be as velocity sensitive as the D-4?>>

I don't reclal offhand how many velocity levels the D-4 has, but if you sampled 10 or 12 different velocity levels per hit, you'd probably be okay. Given the short sample size, you wouldn't have to burn up a whole lot of memory.

Make sense?

[D Charles]

Yes that does make sense. I guess it just seemed weird that the templates don't seem proper for a lot of what you'd want to do. Or it seems like there ought to be a way to play the same sample at a bunch of different velocities which is what I assume something like the D-4 is doing.


I was also wondering about the controllers. The bit that they jump if your hardware controller is set differently. What about something like that little Behringer thing that comes with all knobs or faders and knobs. (BCR2000 or BCF2000) The knobs are endless rotary encoders with little lights around them so do they know where the software knobs are set and light up accordingly with no jumps?

Didn't mean to change the object being reviewed here, but wondering if you'd tried anything with the endless rotary encoders?

[Anderton]

<<Yes that does make sense. I guess it just seemed weird that the templates don't seem proper for a lot of what you'd want to do. Or it seems like there ought to be a way to play the same sample at a bunch of different velocities which is what I assume something like the D-4 is doing.>>

Well don't forget that you can always sample at lots of velocities, then delete the ones that give a duplicate sound. I agree it would be better if you could just type in the velocities you wanted to use.

<<I was also wondering about the controllers. The bit that they jump if your hardware controller is set differently. What about something like that little Behringer thing that comes with all knobs or faders and knobs. (BCR2000 or BCF2000) The knobs are endless rotary encoders with little lights around them so do they know where the software knobs are set and light up accordingly with no jumps?>>

It will still jump if the encoder is set to a value different from what's displayed on the X2, regardless of its physical position.

[Overdrive1]

Craig

Great to finally see someone doing an in depth review of Emulator X 2. I am planning on getting this at somepoint now that you can use it without being tied to one of their soundcards.

I keep hearing people complaining about the sound/filters and how it does not sound as good as the Emu hardware samplers. I take it you have used the Ultra and/or Classic series of hardware samplers. How does the sound/filters of the X2 compare, more so the filters?

[Anderton]

<<I take it you have used the Ultra and/or Classic series of hardware samplers. How does the sound/filters of the X2 compare, more so the filters?>>

Actually, I have not used those samplers...and the filters sure sound a lot better than the Emax :)

Anyway, perhaps someone from E-Mu can comment on this, but I believe that the filters use the same algorithms as those in their recent samplers and hardware units that have the same "look at those 55 filters!" feature. So I expect they're probably pretty similar, if not identical. Maybe their D/As aren't as good as the ones in the hardware samplers...?

Anyway, I can post some audio examples although the 102k file size limitation means it's going to have to be fairly compressed...not really fair to judge fidelity based on that.

[Anderton]

I'll admit it, I've been slacking off on testing out other features because I got hung up on the SynthSwipe feature. I've been sampling DPM3 waveforms on a sort of casual basis, and have now sampled all the digital waveforms and "spectral" waves. Cool stuff, you really can't tell the difference between the sampled version and the original.

I was a little surprised that I didn't need to multisample as many keys as I thought I would. Sampling every 7 semitones or so produced seamless transistions between the different sample ranges, you couldn't really hear any difference. We'll see if this holds up on the instrumental sounds as well.

But actually, this got me into the process of editing and organizing samples, which turned out to be far more painless than I expected. So tomorrow, I'll summarize what I found out, and talk a bit more about sample editing.

[Anderton]

Okay, here's the definitive word about the filters, from Bruce McIntyre, Technical Support Engineer at E-Mu:

"I saw your question from the X2 review on the E-MU filters and thought I would give you some background.

"The Emulator X filter architecture is based on the custom E-MU H series filter chip found in E-MU hardware samplers. The last version being H1.6, which was present in the Emulator 4 Platinum hardware sampler. Essentially, Emulator X software uses our next generation E-MU filters, utilizing new 32 bit floating point code. The architecture is very closely related to the H1.6 but better, more powerful, yet backwards compatible with older filters. This is why the filter types that are now in Emulator X , sound extremely close to those used in the E-MU hardware samplers.

"Also, as a bonus, one of the filter types in Emulator X2 is what we call “Morph Designer”. In a nut shell, this is a 6 stage definable filter that gives you the keys to the X2 filter engine allowing you to create endless new types of filters which can all be stored as templates and recalled for use on any preset you desire."

[Filch]

Originally posted by Anderton


"Also, as a bonus, one of the filter types in Emulator X2 is what we call “Morph Designer”. In a nut shell, this is a 6 stage definable filter that gives you the keys to the X2 filter engine allowing you to create endless new types of filters which can all be store as templates and recalled for use on any preset you desire."


8-o

Okay, I think I'm sold right there....... if only there wasn't a hardware requirement.... :freak:

[Anderton]

<<Okay, I think I'm sold right there....... if only there wasn't a hardware requirement....>>

Well it might be worth elaborating on that. I'm sure someone from E-Mu will correct me if I got this wrong.

If you buy the full X2 package, it comes with a simple USB interface that also acts as a "dongle" in that it's a piece of E-Mu hardware. So even if you don't have an E-Mu sound card or keyboard (the main ways to provide the necessary hardware), you're still okay if you buy the X2 package. This streets for around $300.

The big advantage if you already have a sound card or keyboard is that the upgrade price from the X is like $80 or something, and if you don't have the X, you can get just the X2 software. Not sure what the price is -- it was sold out on the E-Mu web site. Also, FWIW, Sweetwater said X2s were "going fast."

I hope this doesn't mean it's being replaced or something...more likely it's people reading the Pro Review and liking what they see :)

[D Charles]

I did the math and ended up getting the 1212 card with Emulator X straight from EMU and then adding the X2 upgrade. The whole thing came out less than four bills including ship. The card is really hi fi and wonderful and nearly worth the price of admission by itself.

That said, we're here to discuss the X2.

Can we start a wishlist?

I've got a bit of a prob with the 'save' and 'save as' functions. The 'save' works exactly as it should, but the 'save as' addresses the entire bank. If I'm perusing sounds and edit something that sounds cool, I just want to save that preset and it's associated samples to say a user bank. I realise I can drag presets into a user bank, but if I'm exploring and hit on something, I wish I could just hit 'save as' and the menu bit come up with brouse and let me just put that edited preset where I want.

[Filch]

Originally posted by Anderton

If you buy the full X2 package, it comes with a simple USB interface that also acts as a "dongle" in that it's a piece of E-Mu hardware.



Actually, I'm getting a new laptop for music work end of this month. I'm in need of a USB soundcard and could go for an E-mu 0404 USB.... and then pickup the X2,

but I have no reference for their computer hardware or the quality of their drivers. I guess I'll have to go hunting for reviews.

[Anderton]

<<but I have no reference for their computer hardware or the quality of their drivers. I guess I'll have to go hunting for reviews.>>

Not to hijack my own thread, but I use the 1616m for my laptop and it's a helluva interface. Probably far more than most people need, though...you can run it in two ways. You can insert a PCMCIA card into the laptop, in which case it provides an audio out. Or, there's an external dock that connects to the card through a CAT-5 cable. The dock requires external power and is relatively large, so this is more for field recording. But you get dual mic pres (good ones, too), MIDI I/O, ADAT I/O, headphones...you get the idea.

The only thing I don't like is it replaced an Echo Indigo card, which has both out and in; if you want to record with the 1616, you have to use the dock.

E-Mu's drivers were suspect early on, but at this point, they've been through a lot of revs and they're solid. The big deal is the collection of VST "powered effects" that are a part of the sound card (like the Creamware concept), but the DSP power is indeed finite -- you can't just pile on a zillion effects -- and AFAIK they won't run over 48kHz, even though the interface will. But the whole way that you can create custom interface setups is very cool.

Anyway, not to get off track, but I've found the E-Mu sound cards to offer a pretty sweet combination of software/hardware. I do get occasional crashes, more than "dumb" sound cards, but not at a deal-breaking level -- one every couple of nights when I'm pushing things hard. Frankly, I would never have gotten into the E-Mu sound cards if I hadn't reviewed the original Emulator X, but I feel they are really underrated.

Currently my computer has both Creamware and E-Mu PCI cards, and they get along okay although of course, in ASIO-land, I can't access both with a single program. But the way the X2 works these days, I can use it with a host running in the Creamware SCOPE environment as long as the E-Mu card is plugged in.

Okay, I'll stop myself. The key point is I don't really "get" why E-Mu cards don't recieve more notoriety, they seem like overachievers to me. Anyone had any problems since upgrading to the most recent drivers? Any other fans out there?

[1manband]

Hello Craig,

How many mega bites does a typical synth swipe patch take up?

[Dino321]

Craig,

How about Gigasampler import? Since my Gigastudio 3 is so buggy I can't use it I want to import the GigaPiano II in to somthing. I own an XBoard 49 and have been looking at Emulator X. Emu says they can't be sure if it would work well or not. The said their import function was done by Chicken Systems. Can you shed any light on this? Do you perhaps have GigaPiano II? (it is in the Gigastudio 3 format)

Thanks,

Dean

[Anderton]

<<How many mega bites does a typical synth swipe patch take up?>>

It depends entirely on how long a sample you take, how many samples you take (pitch and velocity), and whether you edit them. For example, with the DPM3 waveforms samples, I had about 10 seconds of sample time. After trimming them down to shorter loops, there ended up being about 1.5 seconds of samples.

[Anderton]

<<How about Gigasampler import? >>

Excellent question! However, I'm leaving for AES in a matter of minutes, and won't be able to check this out until next week. Sorry...

[the otter]

what about Mac support?

[Anderton]

There is no Mac support, it's Windows only. However, I would assume it works under Boot Camp...not that it does you any good if you're, say, a DP or Logic user.

[Anderton]

But one other thing...just as people bought PCs just to run Giga and use it as a "hardware sampler," it would make sense to do the same thing with the X2 if you're really into it.

[the otter]

Originally posted by Anderton
But one other thing...just as people bought PCs just to run Giga and use it as a "hardware sampler," it would make sense to do the same thing with the X2 if you're really into it.


<edit>I reread what you typed... "if you're really into it".... so my first "opening line" was kind of off the mark. Nice.

but here... </edit>

No it doesn't make sense and EMU is basically snubbing Mac users. I use mac because I like mac.. I don't want a windows machine. How does this compare to a Korg Oasys (PCI version)? Why not just get another mac and a used Oasys card? It can be used a sampler and so much more :)

[Anderton]

<<I reread what you typed... "if you're really into it".... so my first "opening line" was kind of off the mark. Nice. >>

Not sure what you mean by this...

<<No it doesn't make sense and EMU is basically snubbing Mac users.>>

It takes more effort to support two platforms and E-Mu has always been a PC-centric company. I presume they don't want to have to spread their resources over two platforms, but maybe someone from E-Mu could speak to that. I also don't know whether it will run under Parallels or Boot Camp; my Mac is a dual G5 so I use it solely for Mac functions, not emulating PCs.

<<I use mac because I like mac.. I don't want a windows machine. How does this compare to a Korg Oasys (PCI version)? Why not just get another mac and a used Oasys card? It can be used a sampler and so much more.>>

I'm pretty sure the Oasys PCI card drivers do not support OS X. You're probably better off with Mach5, Kontakt, HALion, etc. or some other sampler that runs on the Mac.

[tarvini]

I recently got a 1212m and bought the X2 a couple of days afterward in a rare lapse of self discipline.

I must say that the 1212m is the best sounding card I have ever used, and Craig's comments regarding it, and the x2, are right on the money.

Having never used emu products before (the Emulators were a bit out of my price range when they were in production), I'm still coming to grips with the way they do things; the interfaces are a bit different than what I am used to.

I have already used it to (succesfully) tackle editing a sample set that was giving me some trouble on Halion, and came away quite impressed with the whole deal. Sample importing is mostly straightforward and it has tools that help quite a bit with the process.

Both products are exceptionally good... the only gripes I have are with the gui's and general ergonomics; for example, they are not resizable and are difficult for me to read at high screen resolutions (I just change the display res temporarily), you can't hear pitch adjustments to samples in realtime which made it a pain to tune the solo violin I was working on, etc... there are other idiosyncracies, but it's getting late and I write very slowly.

In any case the quirks are not showstoppers (by any means), and I would certainly buy these products again if given the choice, and would recommend them highly.

Anyway, thanks to Craig A for a very useful and interesting review (there will be more of this I hope?) and to emu for some very cool and useful (and great sounding) stuff.

[Dino321]

tarvini,

You don't by any chance have any Gigastudio samples to try importing do you? I have the Proteus XLE and am very happy with it. I really like their "usable dongle" scheme. I have a mountain of headaches trying to run Gigastudio 3 with Sonar and am wondering if I could successfully run my Giga samples in Emulator X.

Dean

[Anderton]

<<I must say that the 1212m is the best sounding card I have ever used, and Craig's comments regarding it, and the x2, are right on the money.>>

I would definitely recommend stretching the extra $$ for the "m" versions with the better mic pres. What you get in return is worth it.

<<Having never used emu products before (the Emulators were a bit out of my price range when they were in production), I'm still coming to grips with the way they do things; the interfaces are a bit different than what I am used to.>>

Yes, and thanks for bringing that up. I was raised on the Emulator many years ago, so for me, it was more like hooking up with an old friend. As a result, I cannot look at the GUI from a neophyte standpoint. I CAN look at the soundcard GUI from a neophyte standpoint, and at first, I found it very confusing. Eventually I wrapped my head around it, but (for example) expected that when I clicked on the FX button that I would be able to choose FX, not just see them.

<<Both products are exceptionally good... the only gripes I have are with the gui's and general ergonomics; for example, they are not resizable and are difficult for me to read at high screen resolutions (I just change the display res temporarily)>>

E-Mu...are you listening? I mentioned how hard it is to read the labels, and apparently I'm not alone. I would strongly suggest ditching any aesthetic concerns in the X3 or x2.1 or whatever and making the knob/button labels LEGIBLE!

<<you can't hear pitch adjustments to samples in realtime which made it a pain to tune the solo violin I was working on, etc... there are other idiosyncracies, but it's getting late and I write very slowly.>>

And you need to hit play when you change sample loop start or end using the loop markers, although if you change the loop time by adusting the loop start or loop end numeric fields, you can hear the changes in real time. I'm with you -- these aren't dealbreakers, but it takes a little effort to get used to how it works.

<<Anyway, thanks to Craig A for a very useful and interesting review (there will be more of this I hope?) and to emu for some very cool and useful (and great sounding) stuff.>>

This is nowhere near ending :) I haven't hit the Twistaloop feature, and I didn't get to post my sample editing screen shots before leaving for AES. There will be plenty more...the deeper I dig into the X2, the more I find.

I even have it installed on my laptop, but given how nuts AES is, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do with the X2.

HOWEVER -- E-Mu will be at AES, so if you have any tough questions, post 'em and I'll get an answer for you.

[Dragonfyre]

Originally posted by Anderton
It takes more effort to support two platforms and E-Mu has always been a PC-centric company.


Being a fan of the E-Mu products and their filters, I also would love to use this on my Mac. Maybe I'm wrong, but I remember the original Emulator editing software was Mac based ONLY. This complete PC-based product line was fairly recent. Oh well.

[Tony Scharf]

Ive been a big fan of the Emulator X software since it came out (I grew up on EMU samplers) and the X2's features (including their bringing back transform multiplication) look really sweet...

anyway, I believe that the fact EMU is actually owned by Creative Labs, who made their mark on the world by selling (you guessed it) Sound Blaster cards for the PC may have a lot to do with why they are PC only. I dont believe creative makes anything for the mac, at least not that I am aware of.

[tarvini]

Originally posted by Dino321
tarvini,

You don't by any chance have any Gigastudio samples to try importing do you? I have the Proteus XLE and am very happy with it. I really like their "usable dongle" scheme. I have a mountain of headaches trying to run Gigastudio 3 with Sonar and am wondering if I could successfully run my Giga samples in Emulator X.

Dean

The only .gig files I have at the moment are the freebies which came with GS3 Solo. Just after I got the 1212m/X2, I tried to import a few of the instruments which came with GS3 and can safely say that none of them were successful (it imported the samples but didn't create the presets correctly... could have been my ignorance).

I'll try again when I get a chance (now that I've had X2 for a few days) and post the results here afterward, if the moderators allow. But, I strongly suspect that you will need something like ChickenSys's Translator to help things along, especially if you have complex libraries to translate. Even with Translator (or whatever) I would expect to have to do a fair amount of work to get things right, at least that has been my experience so far with this sort of thing.

[tarvini]

Originally posted by Dino321
tarvini,

You don't by any chance have any Gigastudio samples to try importing do you?...

I tried this tonight; here are some notes I took along the way:

- Drag and dropped the Megapiano-II off the GS3 Solo 'content' cd

- The conversion completed with no errors

- It created a bank called MegaPiano-II.exb

- It created a preset within the bank called MegaPiano-II as expected but produces no sound, hmmm...

- All of the converted samples are in the samples folder (several hundred/numbered 00-105 for each velocity layer) but 'Voices and Zones' has no voices or zones allocated, so of course there is no sound (ps - why isn't the keyboard at the bottom live?)

- No problem, I thought, I'll just move the first 106 samples (chromatically as the lowest velocity layer) into a new zone

* As far as I can tell, you cannot select multiple samples and drag them into a zone/region/whatever (say it isn't so ... please)

- Tried another GS3 instrument (DX7classic), got same results
- Tried another (Composer's Choice... a solo violin), got same results
- Tried another (World Percussion), got same results

- At this point it seems safe to say that GS3 files do not work with the converter (unless I'm missing something of course... maybe these files are copy protected and that is interfering with the process)

HOWEVER... GS2 WORKS:

Trying to convert a GigaStudio2 (GS2) file was the the next logical step, so I converted an instrument from the Roland LCDX-04 CD (using Translator - a sample conversion pgm by ChickenSys) to GS2 format. I am pleased to say that this worked very well. The loops were perfect, the tuning was perfect, the only change I had to make was to remove a highpass filter that it applied improperly. So, there is some hope :) I'm a couple of hours into this and out of time, so I'll leave it at that.

[tarvini]

[i]Originally posted by Anderton

... E-Mu will be at AES, so if you have any tough questions, post 'em and I'll get an answer for you.

Well, this might be an easy one, but anyway...

If I have hundreds of samples to assign to a zone, for example, a typical velocity-layed piano sample, and they are already in a patch (with no zones defined) is there no way to pull more than one at a time (as a chromatic range or spread by their original pitch like in the synthswipe routines) from the 'Samples' folder into a zone??? This was actually the situation for me after attempting to import a GS3 piano earlier tonight (please see my earlier post) and I could not see how to do it. There are ways around this of course, if it can't be done directly.

Thanks

ps - don't let up on E-mu on the font-sizes/screen-scaling... they need to show some mercy

[Dino321]

Originally posted by tarvini


The only .gig files I have at the moment are the freebies which came with GS3 Solo. Just after I got the 1212m/X2, I tried to import a few of the instruments which came with GS3 and can safely say that none of them were successful (it imported the samples but didn't create the presets correctly... could have been my ignorance).

I'll try again when I get a chance (now that I've had X2 for a few days) and post the results here afterward, if the moderators allow. But, I strongly suspect that you will need something like ChickenSys's Translator to help things along, especially if you have complex libraries to translate. Even with Translator (or whatever) I would expect to have to do a fair amount of work to get things right, at least that has been my experience so far with this sort of thing.





Thanks tarvini. That's what I needed to know. I have GS3 files and EMU told me that Chicken Systems is the one that did their conversion routines. Perhaps the full version of Translator would do it but after hearing of your problems I've decided get the upgrade to the VST version of Gigasampler ($125 for GS3 owners). I don't expect to have driver probems with the VST version and that should solve my GS library needs. Thanks again.

Dean

[wooden]

I have the 1616m and it came with proteus x le.

When i have proteus x le running within cubase i experiment a noticeable latency while other vsti's in the same project dont present this problem. I have my asio latency at 10ms for real time playing, that is when this issue happens. HAve any one ran into this? would this be an issue with emulator x2?

[Tony Scharf]

are you running off of disk or RAM? I have Emultor X, and there is definitely more latency when running it from disk. Of course, you need to have a lot of ram for the samples to live in as well.

[wooden]

well no, i am not running out of ram or disk. ANyway it is so wierd that i have created a project with just proteus x le and pro 53, proteus and fm7, and when i play native instruments VSTi's everything is ok, but when i play proteus le it has noticeable latency.

[Tony Scharf]

Originally posted by wooden
well no, i am not running out of ram or disk. ANyway it is so wierd that i have created a project with just proteus x le and pro 53, proteus and fm7, and when i play native instruments VSTi's everything is ok, but when i play proteus le it has noticeable latency.

I dont think you understood me. are you running the emulator X so that it loads its samples into RAM or streams them off of your hard disk?

If your streaming from hard disk, you can definitely get some latency issues. I usually run from RAM.

[wooden]

Yeah i missunderstood, but i was asking about proteus x le, and wondering if this would be a issue with emulator, because while it is just a little bit noticeable, it is noticeable and bothers me. Thanks, i learned something from yout answers though. So you can use disk streamming or ram streamming using the same samples? nice

[Anderton]

I talked to the E-Mu folks at AES, and they said the legibility thing was due to being locked in to bit-mapped graphics, which is something they plan to change in the future.

[tarvini]

Originally posted by Anderton
I talked to the E-Mu folks at AES, and they said the legibility thing was due to being locked in to bit-mapped graphics, which is something they plan to change in the future.

That's what I thought... thanks for asking. I sent them a list of concerns and this one was featured prominently, since it causes me actual physical discomfort (muh seein' ain't too good now); however, it is probably fine for those with younger eyeballs.

They responded quickly with sensible responses, and promised to pass my thoughts and (brilliant) suggestions for improvement on to the appropriate people... good enough.

On the more positive side, I have since made a few more multisamples with the X2. A basic couple-of-samples-per-octave-type multisample can be created *very* quickly, thanks to the Split-at-silence/spread-by-pitch routines; I can just record a bunch of notes to a single wav file and split them automatically... *very* nice. Modulation routing is intuitive and extremely flexible. The filters work well... lotsa good stuff, as well as a few quirks to spice things up.

I'll let Craig take it from here, I reckon.

[Anderton]

<<I'll let Craig take it from here, I reckon.>>

Hey, a Pro Review is all about interaction!! Feel free to weigh in as much as you'd like. You have some good observations.

[tarvini]

Originally posted by Anderton
<<I'll let Craig take it from here, I reckon.>>

Hey, a Pro Review is all about interaction!! Feel free to weigh in as much as you'd like. You have some good observations.


Thanks Craig, I will be working more with X2 over the weekend, so I'll try to have something for show-and-tell.

PS - there aren't many people to ask this question of: I am using pitchbend (with a guitar+breath controller) to do slurs and vibrato, etc, with solo orchestral instruments, among other things; it works great except that the samples don't 'stretch' with the pitchbend, and sound less than optimal as a result (particularly with > Major 2nd hammer on's) ... do you know of ANYthing -- software or hardware -- which compensates for this in realtime? I've piddled a bit with X2's 'Twist a Loop' but may not have the hang of it yet. Thanks again

[wooden]

Could someone post clips of the sound library?

pianos, organs, brasses, strings?

Thanks.

[tarvini]

Originally posted by wooden
Could someone post clips of the sound library?

pianos, organs, brasses, strings?

Thanks.

Here's a sample of the excellent piano (definitely NOT played by me). Uploaded attachments are limited to 100k or so here so I posted it at the link below (there is also a little clip of a Proteus2k acoustic guitar on the same page which I did with MIDI guitar). On the piano, I used the first patch in the set (sorry forgot the name) and kept the velocities below the highest velocity layer of the sound (which is a bit unbalanced with the others I think); BTW, the piano is capable of sounding wildly different than the clip I posted. On the guitar, I only made a small adjustment to the decay, which was too short originally.

The strings are excellent-sounding; they don't have multiple articulations, but do have multiple sections with different sized groups so you can do divisi, etc. I doubt I will have time anytime soon to demonstrate them... perhaps someone else has a demo they can render.

The Proteus 2000 sounds are just like the Rompler's I believe (and there are a bunch of them... with lots of bass and organ and brass)... . The presets sound very good for their size (the samples are teeny tiny) and also when compared to other romplers of the era. On the negative side, I noticed a lot of variation in the velocity response across the patches, so some will probably require adjustment (big deal); Anyway, Buying the X2 for the "presets" is missing the point, in my opinion, since it seems to be geared more toward producing your own.

It's a very useful sound bundle, for me, particularly the piano and strings. I ain't complainin'.

* there are basically three packages in the sound bundle: a piano (with multiple variations), strings (also with variations plus sections are broken out), and the entire (I think) Proteus2000 soundset

...no more time to piddle, sadly



http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=614318

[tarvini]

Where did everyone go???

If it was because of the little demo clips, I promise not to make any more. On the other hand, maybe E-mu would *pay* me to stop...


"Honey, I'm quitting my job..."

[Anderton]

My apologies. I've been in video edit mode after AES, there are 30 videos waiting to go live any day now. But I'm almost done and can get back to the X2 shortly. I even have screen shots of the sampling/editing process all ready to go...I just need a couple hours to prep them and write the text.

Then it's time to twist some loops...heh heh......

Hey, I said this was going to be a long one!

[dahkter]

Hi Craig,
Can you clarify a few basics for me regarding workflow?
1. I understand you can record right into it, is this only as a stand alone, or can it also do this when it's launched in a host (cubase/live/tracktion)
2. Once the sample is in there, how easy is it to quickly divide it into different regions, whether it's taking a fifteen minute clip, and dividing it into thirty slices, or a two second clip, dividing into ten slices. I know you're a fan of wavelab, curious if the interface is similar, easy to zoom in and out, left and right.
3. Once the samples have been tweaked (with x2's effects, filters, slices), how easy is it to export the sounds out of it? It would be nice to take the tweaked samples out of it, and load the wavs into my MPC.
4. Any chance of an EMu demo, or are there any stores in the NYC area which have the software on display so I can try before buy?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Anderton]

<<1. I understand you can record right into it, is this only as a stand alone, or can it also do this when it's launched in a host (cubase/live/tracktion)>>

Stand-alone only for recording or SynthSwipe. You can load or import in any mode.

<<2. Once the sample is in there, how easy is it to quickly divide it into different regions, whether it's taking a fifteen minute clip, and dividing it into thirty slices, or a two second clip, dividing into ten slices.>>

Not quite sure I get exactly what you're driving at, but in terms of SynthSwipe, everything ends up just where you want it in terms of splits etc. Or do you mean something like recording dialog and chopping it into phrases?

<<I know you're a fan of wavelab, curious if the interface is similar, easy to zoom in and out, left and right.>>

Yes and no. The biggest limitation is that you can't resize the window -- another victim of being tied to bit-mapped graphics. Within that constraint, though, the most important factor in getting around the UI is to learn the various shortcuts for zoom in, zoom out, etc. The really helpful ones are things like go to selection end, go to selection beginning, zoom to selection, go to loop end, go to loop start, and the like. These are accessible via toolbar buttons, but you really want to take the time to learn the keyboard equivalents.

However, there is an "open in external editor" button. Say you have a waveform open in X2. You can click on the button to open it in Wavelab or Sound Forge or whatever (and stretch it across two monitors, of course!!), and if you make changes in the editor (including changing loop points or whatever), then save the file, when you go back to the X2 the waveform will reflect these changes.

[Anderton]

<<3. Once the samples have been tweaked (with x2's effects, filters, slices), how easy is it to export the sounds out of it? It would be nice to take the tweaked samples out of it, and load the wavs into my MPC.>>

As far as I know, there's no easy way to do this. My assumption is that this is because you have the raw files and the processing, and there's no way to "render" or "apply" the effects to the raw waveform. There are no export options other than E-Mu centric ones.

The workaround for this would be to load the X2 as a plug-in within a host, and play a note to trigger the file. Bounce it to a track, then export the audio from the track.

Does anyone from E-Mu have a more elegant way to do this?

<<4. Any chance of an EMu demo, or are there any stores in the NYC area which have the software on display so I can try before buy?>>

Someone from E-Mu would need to answer this. I don't know of any downloadable demos.

[dahkter]

Thanks Craig,
Much apprecaited.

[Beatsmyth20]

Do you know how easy it would be to swipe my sound module and then convert those pathces into reason refills. Reason has a sampler called the NN-XT that allows you to map wav files across the keys (whether it transposes one wave file or you map individual waves for each note to each of the keys) and you can also layer samples so that a different sample will be played if the same key is pressed at different velocities. Does the X2 create seperate wav files for each note in a patch that can be loaded into an external sampler?

Thanks for your help.

[Anderton]

See my reply two posts above regarding the question of transferring samples to an MPC. The X2 doesn't seem to have any way to export standard wav files.

However, you CAN open the samples in an editor and save as WAV or AIFF or whatever you want. But of course, these are just raw files with loop points; they won't be subject to the filtering and such that the X2 offers.

So the bottom line is this is how you'd do it:

1. Swipe the synth.
2. Open each sample in an exteranl editor and save as WAV.
3. Load in the NN-XT and apply your various splits, layers, processing, etc.

[PubeDread]

Originally posted by Anderton
The X2 doesn't seem to have any way to export standard wav files.


To export a sample, R-Click in on a sample in the left pane. Select Export.

[ICHi]

Originally posted by PubeDread
To export a sample, R-Click in on a sample in the left pane. Select Export.
***Another option you have for any output of [ASAP] Auto-Sampling And Placement is to choose the "to files" option in the save section. This is the alternative to sending the chopped files back "to sampler" for placement. Some cool ways to use this...
-Strip silence from Audio Sampling CD tracks and generate seperated/named files rapidly.
-Take stuff you recorded in your DAW or Acapella tracks and split so you can load into any sampler for more flexibilty when doing remixes.
-Chopping up long contiguous dialog or sound effects recordings.

Craig, thanks very much for such a thorough review. We really appreciate your support. Will be checking in from time to time and will try and answer any questions directed our way.

Best Regards,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Anderton]

<<-Strip silence from Audio Sampling CD tracks and generate seperated/named files rapidly. >>

That is brilliant!! Thanks for chiming in, I know the X2 is very, very deep and I can't catch everything. Any hints, tips, and comments will be most appreciated.

Also, thanks to PubeDread for the export tip. Much easier than opening in a waveform editor and saving.

Now, if we could just have a "render with processing and save as WAV" file...the X2 is such a sound design monster, a command like this would make it very easy to create sound libraries.

[Charm]

Craig

I'm wondering about upgrading from Emulator X to X2, but just for one specific reason: I want a VST instrument with the sound and response of an Emu Proformance/1 piano module, and I wonder whether SynthSwipe could help.

Together, Chicken Systems 'Free' and Emulator-X's sample-import features have given my Emulator-X access to my eight old Emu EIIIx CD-ROMs: Vol 1 (Emulator Standards) to Vol 8 (Vintage). Using Bank 5 in Volume 7 (Emu Classics) I've made faithful reproductions of old sequences that used to play the Proteus/2. (I played back a sequence simultaneously on a Proteus/2 and on Emulator-X (equivalent instruments), and made "A/B" comparisons whilst adjusting levels in Emulator-X.)

So, it seems my Emulator-X can stand in for my EIIIXP and my Proteus/2. But it can't (yet, anyway) simulate my Proformance/1. No piano sound on these Emu CD-ROMs is a good match with the Proformance/1. The nearest match is one of the Bosendorfers - very similar in part of the keyboard range. I don't know whether a closer match would be possible by cobbling together the close-matching samples from that Bosendorfer with samples from one of the others, but I suspect not.

SynthSwipe to the rescue?

Or not?

Ought it to be feasible to use it to get Emulator-X2 to simulate a Proformance/1? What would I do - break the keyboard range into sections and sample each section, setting a note length covering the full decay of the longest note in the range? Then set envelope release times to deal with playing shorter notes? And how fill in the gaps between the different velocity levels? - Or does the software deal with that?

Is the record level the same throughout the automatic sampling? - If so, I suppose the low-velocity samples woud be be inherrently noisier?

Would it be very time-consuming to construct a usable fake Proformance/1 this way?

Of course, the best solution would be to persuate Emu to sell a "real imitation" ("real" because it used the original samples, etc) of the Proformance/1 - whether for loading into the Emulator or as a purely-Proformance/1 VST instrument.

[ICHi]

Ought it to be feasible to use it to get Emulator-X2 to simulate a Proformance/1? What would I do - break the keyboard range into sections and sample each section, setting a note length covering the full decay of the longest note in the range?
***There are 2 approaches.
1) Sample the raw waveforms(by undoing all the programming), reloop and reprogram with envelopes etc.
2) Sample the synth as is and just make it a streaming copy.

Then set envelope release times to deal with playing shorter notes?
***Adding ENV's to a streaming copy is kind of redundant since you've already recorded it's dynamic response. For the most control, use approach 1. It's more work but you'll be able to manipulate the sample set pretty much as you wish.

And how fill in the gaps between the different velocity levels?
***It will setup velocity layer switches. You can tune these of course after the fact.

Or does the software deal with that?
***You will need to experiment a few times but SynthSwipe will sample all the levels you want.

Is the record level the same throughout the automatic sampling? - If so, I suppose the low-velocity samples woud be be inherrently noisier?
***Depending on the amount of layers you choose the MIDI device will be triggered and recorded at x velocity and thus the volume would be relative to the velocity. You can choose to normalize if you want, and yes the quiet samples will have more noise if you did this.

Would it be very time-consuming to construct a usable fake Proformance/1 this way?
***Approach 1 is definitely more work than 2 but both can deliver very good results. Approach 1 is very flexible and is probably very small and resource efficient, 2 is brute force so it will be a very big sample set.

Of course, the best solution would be to persuate Emu to sell a "real imitation" ("real" because it used the original samples, etc) of the Proformance/1 - whether for loading into the Emulator or as a purely-Proformance/1 VST instrument.
***The Stereo Grand in the Proteus Composer EXB(AKA PROTEUS 2000) is pretty much the Proformance piano. It's been tweaked, but we think for the better. This is probably the easiest way to start if you are trying to emulate the Proformance/1.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Anderton]

"Approach 1" is what I'm doing with my Peavey DPM3 samples. It is more work, but far more flexible. The filters in the X2 are close enough to the Peavey I can get the sounds I need; what makes the DPM3 distinctive is how it transposes sounds, and the X2 captures that essence as part of the waveform.

[dahkter]

Hi Ichi,

per craig's request:

"Now, if we could just have a "render with processing and save as WAV" file"

Is this possible yet? If I run a sample through the x2's effects, whether it be the slicer or the sp12ulator, can I export through the x2, or do I first need to render as a wav in the host?

Thanks

[Rique]

Hi Craig, I’m glad your doing such a thorough review of the X2.

I’m a Mac guy and I’m considering getting a PC just for the X2 or will
an dual core intel Mac be just as good?

Looking forward to your Twistaloops and Transform multiply review.

ICHi, since this sampler is so complex, any chance of a DVD being made
showing creative uses and EXAMPLES?

Thanks to you both.

[Anderton]

<<I’m a Mac guy and I’m considering getting a PC just for the X2 or will a dual core intel Mac be just as good?>>

I don't have an Intel Mac, just a dual G5...so I can't really test this. I can't imagine someone from E-Mu not testing this, however...especially because they have a USB interface that the Intel Macs should get along with.

E-Mu is monitoring this thread, I think it's very likely you'll get an answer.

[Anderton]

Before moving on to additional features like TwistaLoop, I’d like to wrap up the sample/program creation end of things.

As you may recall, I’d been using SynthSwipe to grab a bunch of waveforms from my DPM3. At this point, I’ve “swiped” 11 complete multi-sampled sets of waves. When I did, I knew I’d be doing pretty much single-cycle loops, so I “swiped” with the loop points enclosing the last eighth of the sample.

When it’s time to actually edit samples, you look under the Samples folder in the browser tree to find the sample(s) you want to edit. I would find it more convenient if you could open up a Preset to expose the samples from there; I really can’t think of any downside to doing things this way, unless there’s some kind of problem that could occur if multiple programs point to the same samples, and you can’t include some kind of “alias” to the point to the sample you want.

Click on the attachment to see what a raw sample looks like.. On the left, in the sample browser, you can see a series of waves labeled “DPM DGW5 [key name].” There are 13 samples for this multi-sampled instrument. On the right, you can see the waveform; I sampled one second’s worth of audio at 44.1kHz, so you can see there are 44,100 samples, with loops around the last eighth of the sample. Let’s get to work and trim this into something that a) doesn’t take up as much memory, and b) has seamless looping.

[Anderton]

The first thing I did was move the loop points arbitrarily to around 3,500 and 5,000 samples. I figured that would be more than enough to cover a waveform, but would cut the memory requirements by about 90%.

Then, I hit the Autocorrelate button. This analyzes the loop, and moves the start point to a portion of the wave that most closely resembles the end point. Sometimes it’s a direct hit, sometimes a miss. If it misses, you move the end point and try again. It often seemed to be perfect except for being off by one sample. In this case, there’s a numerical field for the loop start, end, and length that you can “nudge” one sample at a time (or type in a value, if you’re so inclined). Most of the time, just nudging the start one sample later produced a perfect loop.

Click on the attachment to see the loop points selected by auto-correlation. It’s pretty impressive; this was one of those “hit the bulls-eye immediately” acts of correlation. In this screen shot I also clicked on the “Select Loop” view, which highlights the loop and sizes it to take up most of the waveform view.

The final step (other than saving, of course!) was selecting the waveform just a little past the end of loop, and selecting Truncate to cut off the excess amount of signal. Done – one sample trimmed and ready to go.

[Anderton]

That left me with 12 more samples to do. Time for an experiment: How fast could I loop and trim 12 samples? So, right now it’s 9:38 PM…let’s see what happens.

9:45 PM…12 samples looped, trimmed, and saved: Not bad at all, and that’s taking my time and making sure the loops were good before truncating. The higher the note frequency, the more likely that I had to nudge the sample start one sample later to make it all work out okay.

Of course, these are just the raw multisamples; I haven’t added any filtering, LFO, effects, etc. That’s a whole other thing.

(By the way, in case some of you have noticed that the time on these postings doesn’t really correlate with real time, here’s why: I’m writing this and posting on my Mac, while doing the X2 work on my Windows XP machine. I save the screen shots to a USB drive, and wait until I have a batch of at least two I three before I transfer them over to the Mac and actually do the posting. Yeah, I know, I should network the two…maybe next month LOL.)

[Anderton]

The toughest waveforms to loop were the SPEC waveforms, which are strange, looped digital sounds. Here, there was no chance of creating a single cycle, because that would destroy the sound's essential character.

I decided the best strategy was to find the original loop points as closely as possible, then use the Loop Processing options to help smooth things out. Click on the attachment to see the Loop Processing dialog box. This is the box that enables crossfade looping.

For those who need to get up to speed on crossfade looping, the basic idea is that a little bit of the signal prior to the loop start is crossfaded in just prior to the loop end, and a little bit of the signal just past the loop end is crossfaded in just past the loop start. That way, there’s a smoother transition when the loop end jumps back to the loop start.

The Loop Processing dialog box may not seem very deep, but there’s enough to create seamless crossfade loops. The “Compress Loop” option evens out levels throughout the loop, which promotes better looping as it minimizes big volume differences between the loop start and loop end. “Truncate After Loop” is something I never check; maybe I’m just hyper-cautious, but I always like to leave some signal after the loop just in case I need to retweak the loop someday.

Crossfade lets you specify a length in samples, but conveniently, it won’t let you specify a range longer than the maximum range that can be crossfaded (i.e., you can’t mix in signal before the start of the sample or after the end of the sample). You can also specify a linear or equal power crossfade. I just try both, undo, and use whichever one sounds better.

Getting a good crossfade is much more difficult than getting a good single-cycle loop with a constant waveform, but it wasn’t too hard to whip the waveforms into shape. I also learned to always try the Autocorrelate button first: With a surprisingly high percentage of loops lightning would strike, and I’d get a perfect loop without even having to crossfade. But I'd add a 20 ms crossfade or so, just in case :)

[Anderton]

Just for kicks, I thought I’d do another “timed trial” on how long it would take to do these more difficult crossfade loops. I started at 10:21 PM, and finished doing crossfades on 11 loops by 10:36 PM – much better than I expected.

[Anderton]

X2: OTHER EDITING TOOLS

So far, I’ve touched more on looping than anything else. But there are several other editing tools.

I’m not sure I mentioned there’s multiple undo, so you can try out quite a few processes on your samples and always get back to where you started (I have my history size set to 100 edits I the Preferences dialog box). You can clear this if desired, and specify automatic clearing when saving. However, note that this is not an undo history where you can arbitrarily go back to a particulary step; it’s a one-step-at-a-time “serial” undo.

As to other editing tools, here’s the story:

Fade: Click on the attachment to see the fade dialog box. This is more versatile than you might expect, as there is a choice of four curves (linear and three exponential), and you can set separate Start and End levels. So you can fade in, fade out, fade from partway up to partway down, etc. This affects only the selected portion of the waveform.

Normalize: This raises the level to maximum, but is fixed at maximum – you can’t normalize to, say, -1dB. For this, you would instead use the…

Adjust Gain: You can boost up to 96dB, and take the level down to minus infinity. You can also normalize from within the Adjust Gain dialog box.

DC Filter: Removes DC offset from the sample.

Reverse: .it desseug uoY
Swap Channels: Simply swaps the left and right channels.

Bit Reduction: OK dirtmeisters, this goes from 16 bits all the way down to 1 bit.

Time Compression: This ranges from a ratio of 50% (twice as fast) to 200% (twice as slow), with your choice of 12 different algorithms. It works about the same as other time compression algorithms – really well on some material, not so well on others. It also includes a handy calculator that shows the final time and BPM after tweaking. This is for display purposes only; you can’t actually enter numbers in there and have the ratio change automatically – all changes are done with the ratio control.

Pitch Shift: This covers –1200 to +1200 cents. You can shift pitch by nudging samples, or using something called “Gossett-Smith” tuning (which is not explained, and I have not idea what it is – other than the fact that using either of these two options doesn’t mess with whatever loop points you’ve set up). A third option, Constant Time, shift pitch while retaining duration. As with Time Compression, you have 12 possible algorithms. This option does mess with the looping, so you want to apply it before you start setting loop points.

Transform Multiply: Copy a sample to the clipboard, and Transform Multiply multiplies the current waveform with what’s in the clipboard. There’s but a single control, Intensity, and thankfully the process takes much less time than it did back in the days of the Emax – because you still don’t have a clue about what the final result will sound like until you play it back! At least know you know you’ve created a clunker or a masterpiece in a matter of seconds, not hours.

Convert to Mono: I’m sure you can figure this out.

Convert to Stereo: Ditto.

Sample Rate Conversion: Here you enter the target sample rate numerically. This also changes key, of course, and a little calculator shows you what the end frequency will be.

There’s also a beat analysis option, but we’ll get into this later.

As I worked with these various options, the exceptional sound design possibilities started to dawn on me. No law says the waveform has to be something you bring into the X2 and layer across a keyboard; you can treat the X2 sort of like Wavelab, Sound Forge, Peak, or other waveform editors. In fact, I’ll try that offline and report back if it’s either something that’s really cool or something that’s really cumbersome.

[Anderton]

I was about to wrap up for the evening, when I figured I'd import a short musical piece and do some sound tweaking. I copied a drum part from the beginning of the piece, and transform multiplied it with the entire piece.

Whoa! It produced this primitive, rhythmic Peter-Gabriel-meets-digeridoo sound, but it was sort of muffled and strange.

So I kicked it up an octave, then up another octave. It sounded even better. I didn't have to do much more to figure out that you can just throw sounds at the X2, mess around, and get some really cool sounds. And this was just a quick experiment before shutting down! Yeah, I keep getting more and more impressed...

[Anderton]

I freely admit this is addictive, and I just had to try "one more" thing.

I wanted to put together a new preset with the waveforms that I'd swiped, and started paring down the multisamples and checking out some layers and...well, suffice it to say it didn't take much enveloping and filter tweaking to come up with some really fun sounds.

[dahkter]

Good read, thanks Craig

[Anderton]

After you have a bunch of samples, it’s time to think about creating presets. Once you create the Preset, then when you expand it in the Tree view, you’ll see Voices and Zones, Links, and Voice Processing options. Clicking on Voices and Zones initially opens up a page that contains basically nothing. Click on the attachment to see the opening screen. You then drag samples over, where you can do a variety of mixing, tuning, key switching and crossfading/layering, velocity switching and crossfading, and linking to various controllers. Each of these editable functions is tabbed, and a variety of fields across the bottom give numeric or visual feedback on your edits. So, let’s create a preset.

[Anderton]

I dragged over four samples from the DPM PICKBS set of samples I’d swiped, then selected them and combined them into a multisample. That way they could be manipulated as a group, although you can also “open up” the multisample to see each one. I also dragged over a SLAPBS sample. I didn’t bother doing a multisample, as I just wanted to tie it to velocity so that hitting notes hard would bring in a hint of the slap.

Click on the attachment to see the Mix/Tune page. Here you can mute and solo individual samples, change their levels, panning, transposition, and even the looping characteristics (forward, forward loop, backward, backward loop, or one-shot). The bottom section gives info about the selected sample, as well as whwere it’s placed on the keyboard.

[Anderton]

Here the lower section is the same as the previous window, but click on the attachment to see how the samples are placed on the keyboard, and the cool way the X2 handles positional crossfading. You set the upper and lower ranges by just grabbing the right and left edges of the bar that represents a sample, and dragging them to the desired range. But here’s the cool thing: When you Alt-drag, you select a positional crossfade zone. For example, you can see that the four samples that make up the multisample are crossfaded so that as a lower sample fades out, the next sample up fades in. This makes for totally seamless sample transitions; it’s literally impossible to tell where one sample begins and the other one ends (note the red vertical line in each sample; it indicates the root note).

The slap sample isn’t faded, and simply extends the entire range of the keyboard.

[Anderton]

Click on the attachment to see the X2’s velocity crossfading window.Actually I didn’t use any velocity fading in this preset, but the principle is the same as positional crossfading: You drag the bar to set the upper and lower velocity limits that will trigger the sample, and if you Alt-Drag, the samples will “morph” from one to the other rather than switch abruptly.

Of course, both techniques are useful. For example, with a snare drum, the various multisampled drum velocities could morph into each other, but at a very high velocity, you could bring in a hard rim shot hit.

[Anderton]

The preceding windows are the main ones that most samplers have (although few software samplers seem to do positional crossfading), but there are other windows too:

The Real-Time Window allows tying volume crossfades/switching to a controller (including LFO, envelopes, etc.) instead of velocity. For example, the Mod Wheel can crossfade between two different sounds to give more variations within a single preset, or switch between two entirely different sounds altogether. Note that you can also set up random switching and fading. However, this is a fairly complex process as it involves setting up software “patch cords” on the modulation section (something we haven’t covered yet).

The five Continuous Controller Window tabs do almost the same thing as the Real-Time Window page, except that changes occur coincident with note-on messages, so you can’t alter a note after it’s been played, but you can cause a different sample to be played next time you hit a note-on. This is simpler to set up, as all your controller info is available right in the window fields – you don’t have to go into the modulation area and mess with the virtual patch cords. A special mode, Keyboard CC, allows triggering particular samples with particular keyboard keys; instead of playing notes, these are basically “switches” for various samples. Another useful option, Cycle Groups, triggers different samples within the same group as you play either successive notes in the same MIDI channel, or successive notes on the same key (your choice). This is like the “round robin” approach used in other samplers.

This is by no means the end of what you can do with the Zones and Voices window, but it’s the end of the evening for me…and the next tab we need to cover, the Regions window, requires knowing about beat markers and other fun stuff I haven’t learned yet. So I’m going back to do a little more research, then will dive into the remaining features.

[ICHi]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dahkter
[B]Hi Ichi,

per craig's request:

"Now, if we could just have a "render with processing and save as WAV" file"

Is this possible yet? If I run a sample through the x2's effects, whether it be the slicer or the sp12ulator, can I export through the x2, or do I first need to render as a wav in the host?
***All real time synthesis(including FX) need to be rendered via a host at this time. The main reasoning is that they are "real-time" and can be modulated thus need a time base and control track. Making X2 FX into file based DSP routines is certainly possible so I will add it to the wishlist for future consideration.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[ICHi]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rique
[B]Hi Craig, I’m glad your doing such a thorough review of the X2.

I’m a Mac guy and I’m considering getting a PC just for the X2 or will
an dual core intel Mac be just as good?

Looking forward to your Twistaloops and Transform multiply review.

ICHi, since this sampler is so complex, any chance of a DVD being made
showing creative uses and EXAMPLES?
***You'll be glad to hear that we are definitely headed in that direction and have already done a quick overview video on TwistaLoop and hope to have more in the near future.
http://images.americas.creative.com/images/local/1/video/twist_loop_full.asx

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Anderton]

Sorry for the long time between posts. I've been working with Twistaloop and it's very deep -- as if REX files went to do post-graduate work. I'll be posting more soon!

[Anderton]

Okay, we’re back in action again, so let’s tackle the whole Twistaloop thing. I’m going to be making some assumptions about how this works, but I’m sure someone from E-Mu can correct me if I’m wrong.

In a nutshell, Twistaloop is a time-stretching thing that has the “look and feel” of something like REX files or acidization, in that there are transient markers that denote beats. However, there are also some significant differences. The Twistaloop automated beat detection process is much less prone to false readings, and you don’t need to mark every single transient; apparently there’s some DSP mojo going on during the beats themselves.

Another huge difference is that you can have loops within a loop, and this is really fantastic. For example, you can take an 8 measure loop, and have three two-measure loops and two one-measure loops within those eight measures. Then, you can assign loop selection to something like a mod wheel, so you can “play” the mini-loops. What’s more, when one loop transitions to another, it’s seamless.

As expected, twisted loops can also sync a particular tempo, like a host’s project tempo if you’re running the X2 as a plug-in, or an internal Twistaloop tempo.

So, here’s how the procedure works.

[Anderton]

I figured I’d start with something simple, but not too simple. So, I picked a Discrete Drums drum loop with drums and percussion, played in a pretty “humanized” way with lots of flams and such, and dragged it into the Voices and Zones window. From there, I went to the Sample Edit window to see what I was dealing with.

Next up is the Beat Analysis process. When you select Beat Analysis, a dialog box pops up where you specify a tempo range, the number of beats per bar, and other parameters. Click on the attachment to see the dialog box, in context with the menu and sample. The only parameter that requires some explanation is “Tempo Variation,” as it offers three options – for samples with small variations in tempo (that’s what I chose), one with sudden tempo changes, and another for short samples with rigid tempos, like a dance-oriented drum machine loop.

After you set the parameters – and in my experience, you can be pretty loose about setting things like tempo range – click on OK, and the X2 does its thing.

[Anderton]

…But sometimes, it doesn’t do its thing right. For example, in the loop that I imported, the timing was off. Although I suppose you can go through the theory of beat analysis and figure out the right settings, I just try different options until it works. In this case, I just clicked on undo, changed meter to Duple to make sure all the little 16th got their props, and everything worked fine. Click on the attachment to see beat markers in place. Note that measure markers (green with a little orange dot) look slightly different from beats (just green), there are tempo indicators for each measure, and additional graphics show the precise measure/beat number. Gee, I feel like I’ve been transported into Sonar’s AudioSnap world…

If further resolution is needed, you can change the sensitivity to place markers at 1/4, 1/8, 1/8t, 1/16th, etc. rhythmic values. There’s also a triplets button to make sure triplets get played back properly when the tempo changes, and a way to make sure that specific note markers are always in play, regardless of the sensitivity setting. And there’s more: You can add more markers, delete spurious ones, renumber beats, change the number of beats per bar, and alter tempo “granularity,” which can be adjusted to make sure that all beats follow the tempo. Fine-tuning a sample like this can help insure stretching over the widest possible range.

It’s worth noting that at this point, if you trigger the sample from an external MIDI keyboard, it will just play the sample. To check out looping and such, you need to use the X2’s transport. Once you’ve set up the sample the way you want, with various loops and such, then you can trigger from an external keyboard and derive all the various twistaloop benefits.

[Anderton]

Now that the sample has been analyzed, what can you do with it? Obviously, tying to tempo is one application. But I really like the “playing the loops” option, as you can turn a loop for a repetitive motif that just goes on and on and on and on and on and on to something you can mold creatively.

For example, as this loop was 8 measures long, I decided to carve it up a bit. Loop #1 was the entire sample – all eight measures. Loop #2 was measures two and three; as measure 1 started with a cymbal on the downbeat, Loop #2 was ideal for just “riding” the beat. Loop #3 was the fill at the end, and Loop #4 was just the first beat with the cymbal crash. I figured why stop there? I added a beat marker after the first 8th note and looped that (Loop #5), and another beat marker after the first 16th note to I could have a machine-gun effect of 16th-note cymbal attacks (Loop #6).

At this point, I wanted to check out the various loops, so I bopped on over to the Voice Processing page, which is where you’ll find the Twistaloop controls. Click on the attachment to see this. For grins, I decided to change the initial tempo; the knob to the right of the tempo control selects which loop will play, and the Start at Loop button determines whether a loop starts from its beginning, or the beginning of the sample.

The number that the X2 assigns to the loop relates to the start time and end time. For example, the 16th note loop, which started at the beginning but ended earlier than any of the others, became loop 1. The 8th note one became loop 2, and so on; the next-to-last loop was the one that spanned the entire sample, and the final loop (loop 6) was the one that covered just the last fill of the sample.

Note that you can hold the key down and keeping changing the loop number knob, and the selected loop will wait politely until the previous one stops playing, then the newly-selected loop will start. Also, if you want an instantaneous change, you can type in a loop number into the parameter field under the loop number knob, hit the return key, and the loop will start playing as soon as the one that’s playing currently stops.

Okay, that’s plenty of fun…but there’s more.

[Anderton]

This is the key to creating expressive loop mutations in real-time. For this, you need to dip into the “software patch cords” section of the Voice Processing window. We haven’t discussed this yet, but it’s basically matrix modulation where you select a modulation source, destination, and amount (although the sheer number of sources is pretty impressive, as we’ll get into later).

Click on the attachment to see the controller assignment. In this case, the Mod Wheel feeds the “Loop Select (Jump)” destination (circled in yellow for clarity), which causes different loops to be selected as you move the mod wheel. One big disappointment, though, is that the Loop number control readout doesn’t reflect the mod wheel position, so to a certain extent, you’re flying blind. You probably wouldn’t want to select among ten loops unless you really know your mod wheel. On the other hand, for something less ambiguous, you can use keyboard keys to trigger various loops.

And there’s another way to control loops: “Loop Select (Continuous),” which is similar to Jump except that if there’s part of the sample in between loops, then that will get played before the loop gets played. The easiest way to get this across is with an example: Suppose you have a 1-beat loop (loop #1) at the beginning of a 1-measure sample, and another 1-beat loop (loop #2) at the end of the 1-measure sample. If loop #1 is playing and you “jump” to loop #2, it will start playing immediately after loop #1 finishes. If loop #1 is playing and you select loop #2 in continuous mode, as soon as loop #1 stops playing it will proceed through beats 2 and 3 before reaching loop #2, at which point it will begin looping.

[PubeDread]

Nice write up, Craig.

The red markers are "note onsets" which are simply "where the notes start" ala ReCycle and do not really have any association with tempo markers other than the beat sensitivity settings. The green beats markers are where the beats are. The user can assign their own time signatures by clicking on any beats. This is for labeling and does not impact playback. This is great when a song throws in a 2/4 measure and you are trying to find the downbeats visually thereafter.

Note the "Shift Beats" option in the Beats menu. Sometimes, the tempo analysis will pick an offbeat as a beat. Dixieland is a good example since the off-beats are so strong. Simply nudge the analysis using the Shift Beats to correct it.

You are correct about using the mod wheel (at like kind CCs) for loop selection. It is best to carve out a section of the keyboard using the Key CC Window (preset view) to do loop selection.

The "-3-" button next to the tempo field causes the time scaling playback to scale with a triplet feel versus the default duple.

One of the biggest benefits of the TwistaLoop feature is the ability to assign various samples to voices without having to destructively edit the sample. A whole song can be “cut up” while leaving the song intact.

[tarvini]

I just wanted to say that I have had the X2 for a little while now, and although still feels a bit alien to me, I am becoming more impressed with the product as I use it more (this is unusual). There were a number of things that I found that it could do which were not apparent at first... most everything was/is in the manual but it took a while for certain things to sink in.

For those of you who already have the X2 and are using this thread as an assist (it was very helpful for me) I would recommend reading the manual all the way through (in order to find out what it can do) and leaving the PDF open while you are working (so you can actually do it).

Other than this review, there is not much detailed information around, at least that I have found, about the X2. So thanks to Craig Anderton for posting excerpts from what is apparently his upcoming "Programming the E-mu X2 with Practical Examples" book : ) . Thanks to E-mu as well, of course, for making a sampler that is intended to be more than a preset player.

[Anderton]

<<just wanted to say that I have had the X2 for a little while now, and although still feels a bit alien to me, I am becoming more impressed with the product as I use it more (this is unusual).>>

+1! This is one deep program.

<<There were a number of things that I found that it could do which were not apparent at first... most everything was/is in the manual but it took a while for certain things to sink in.>>

I'm always sure I'm missing all kinds of cool things, and one reason why this is taking so long is that unlike lots of devices, you can't just play with it for an hour or so and write up a bunch of stuff. One thing leads to another, and another, and then I find I assumed something incorrectly so I'm glad I didn't write it up, but then I find some other aspect that I hadn't even considered, or some shortcut...this is so much more than just a sample playback device.

<<For those of you who already have the X2 and are using this thread as an assist (it was very helpful for me) I would recommend reading the manual all the way through (in order to find out what it can do) and leaving the PDF open while you are working (so you can actually do it).>>

Excellent suggestion.

<<Other than this review, there is not much detailed information around, at least that I have found, about the X2. So thanks to Craig Anderton for posting excerpts from what is apparently his upcoming "Programming the E-mu X2 with Practical Examples" book : ) . Thanks to E-mu as well, of course, for making a sampler that is intended to be more than a preset player.>>

Indeed, I do feel this is a HIGHLY underappreciated sampler. I do feel that the user interface could be made much more consistent and "friendlier," but from what I understand there will be additional versions in the future and hopefully, E-Mu will figure out how to present the X[next] in a more direct way. Not that it's an easy task with something this sophisticated.

I realize this review has "stalled" for a bit, but not just for the reasons above; I've also been out of the country and while the X2 does work on my laptop :) , it's rather difficult to write a Pro Review without having two computers open at the same time, and my usual image processing programs. But this review is definitely not over yet.

I've kind of adopted the X2 as my sampler, which means it will get used in more and more projects in the future. I expect to keep adding tips to this thread as I find out more goodies, as well as include reviews of some of the [excellent] sample libraries, so this might end up running forever...and ever...... :)

[tarvini]

For the benefit of anyone struggling with Patchmix, there is an excellent article on SOS titled "Emu's Patchmix DSP Demystified..." (below)

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov05/articles/emupatchmix.htm

PS - thanks Craig, looking forward to your future posts

[Tidda]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.
I own an Emulator X2 for a month now and very happy with it. I wasn't really looking for a sampler but was looking into the Emu Planet Earth with an XL-1 expansion card when I noticed the X2 for about the same price. To make a long story short, I bought the X2 and haven't regret it.

I have used samplers before but never owned one.
Had great fun sampling the single cycle waves of my VA and swiping TM my old Proteus/1, for practice sake as I'm sure most of these sounds or similar are available in the included libraries, you can probably buy the libraries of the exact sounds as well.

As I was already familiar with the Proteus/1 I feel very at home with this software and using it is dead easy.

The only 'con' for me is that I can't use the Patchmix DSP options as I don't have any Emu hardware connected besides the supplied MIDI-dongle. I downloaded the program from the website but it can't find any appropriate hardware. Does anyone know of an alternative for Patchmix DSP?

Tidda

[Anderton]

Patchmix DSP is specifically designd to work with E-Mu interfaces. The only alternatives are other "closed" systems whose DSP is tied to the interface, such as Creamware.

[Tidda]

Thank you mr. Anderton for your quick reply.
I am currently using an Edirol 2 in 2 out interface which suits my needs as a digital interface between my mixer and PC.

I might consider adding an Emu 0404 to my setup. Some thinking ahead; I already know I don't need the included MIDI interface as I somehow acquired one recently without needing it. :)

Merry Christmas,
Tidda

[ICHi]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tidda
[B]Thank you mr. Anderton for your quick reply.
I am currently using an Edirol 2 in 2 out interface which suits my needs as a digital interface between my mixer and PC.

I might consider adding an Emu 0404 to my setup. Some thinking ahead; I already know I don't need the included MIDI interface as I somehow acquired one recently without needing it. :)
***Hi Tidda,

Don't chuck that Xmidi 2x2 MIDI interface just yet as that is the "dongle" for EX2 if you don't have any other E-MU Hardware in your computer. We tried our best to make the dongle "functional" and it's not a "throwaway" interface. MIDITEST can verify that it performs at the head of the pack of USB interfaces right near the edge of PCI performance in regards Message Latency and Jitter.

Best Regards,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Tidda]

ICHi,

I didn't mean to sound negative about the included MIDI-interface of the Emulator X2 package.
I was really talking about the internal MIDI interface in the 0404 audio interface that would be redundant for me.
It would be my 5th IN/OUT pair.

The included double MIDI inteface with Emulator X2 (nr. 3 and 4 ) was a nice addition, not essential for my setup. Still I already put it to use to connect some MIDI stuf to sample, without disrupting the 'old' setup. Btw. it was nice to see I could select a MIDI port as well as channel for SynthSwipe without changing interfaces in the preferences!

I actually applaud the idea of the functional dongle. Also, I realize that if I decide to add the 0404 audio interface, that would free up the 2x2 MIDI interface from its 'dongle-duties'. I would still hold on to it though as I can't find anything wrong with it.

It was just that my studio seems to be floodied with MIDI interface all of a sudden. I guess I shouldn't complain.

Best regards,
Tidda

[ICHi]

***No worries, just wanted to make sure you knew that you need the Xmidi 2X2 as a dongle.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Overdrive1]

I have tried modulating the resonance on various morph filters (morph designer in particular) and it seems that it can only be modualted at note on values even if realtime resonance has been selected on the cords page. This is not the case with the other filters.

Am I missing something? Is this a bug or have E-mu implemented this behaviour on purpose and if so why?

Perhaps ICHI or Bruce from E-mu can shed some light on this.

Thanks.

[Tidda]

It's not just you, I just tried it myself and I get the same result.

I don't think I will miss it much though.
You are already modulating (multiple) cutoff frequencies and resonance(s) at the same time with the filter cutoff control (which isn't of course a real cutoff control, but controls the morph %)

I guess realtime modulation of the resonance (gain) in the morph filters would complicate the interpolation between the two sets of filters quite a bit by adding yet another dimension to the Z-planes.

Still would like to know what E-mu has to say about it or even better, our beloved reviewer :D

Tidda

[Overdrive1]

The thing is I only want to sweep the cutoff and resonance with a midi controller but on Emulator X2 you can't do it with any of the programmable morphing filters.

I know this can be done as I can do it on my E-mu Ultra samplers with EOS 4.7 but they lack the morph filter designer. Plus I don't really like the lowpass filters you get as standard but the ones you can make yourself in morph filter designer are quite cool!

[Tidda]

Well, you are sweeping the actual frequency and resonance when you have filter frequency selected as a destination in the modulation matrix. It's just mislabeled and should read 'morph (%)' IMO.

How did it work on the EOS 4.7 then? Morphing ctrl + filter freq ctrl + resonance ctrl all going on at the same time seems very complicated to me, not only to handle for the sampler, but also to control live. That is of course if I understand correctly that that is what you want to do
Also I'm curious as to how the X2 compares to the different hardware models, especially the filters.

Tidda

:wave: Patch request to E-mu:
Can we have the values displayed in the destination boxes in the 'cords' section of the Voice Processing page change to the context of the filter type that is set in the filter section? (e.g. 'Filter Resonance becomes Body Size) In the pop-up selector as well of course. If you add all posibilities and grey out the ones that are not applicable, the number of modulation sources would look even bigger than it already is :thu:

[Overdrive1]

The 2 controls are totally seperate, there's nothing complicated about it. In the cords section when morph filters are being used or any filter for that matter, filter frequency controls the morph/cutoff frequency and filter resonance controls the resonance/q /gain etc.
Taken from Emualtor X2 manual:-

Filter Frequency - Controls the frequency (or morph) of the filter.

Realtime Resonance - Realtime control of filter resonance (Q, gain, body size).

Filter Resonance - Filter resonance control which is set at note-on time only.

On the Ultra series you only had the option of selecting Filter Frequency or Filter Resonance as a destination in the cord section but when they released EOS 4.7 you were able to control the resonance in realtime if using a midi controller. Before 4.7 you were only able to modualte the resonance at note on values meaning that you will only hear a change in the resonance level when you play a new note.

All I want to do is connect 2 midi controllers, 1 to control filter frequency and the other to control filter resonance. The same as you typically find on a standard synth, its just that I want to do it on a lowpass filter created using morph designer.

EG:- midi a>filter frequency midi b>filter resonance

The same should be possible on Emulator X especially with the realtime resonance control.

As for the difference between the filters on the hardware vs software. I loaded a bass that I made on my E4Xt Ultra into the Emulator X2 and had them playing side by side. With the bass solo'd the Ultra sounded better but in the context of a mix the Emulator X sounded better. The hardware version sounded a bit flat in comparison, like there may have been some clipping going on. I have not had time to do a full comparison on all filters but from what I've heard they are very similar, and both do a great job.

[Tidda]

The 2 controls are totally seperate, there's nothing complicated about it. In the cords section when morph filters are being used or any filter for that matter, filter frequency controls the morph/cutoff frequency and filter resonance controls the resonance/q /gain etc.

It's not that I do not understand it, I do not find it that complicated.

The big benefit would be that we would have a common frame of reference.
You were talking about modulating the cutoff frequency of the morph designer filter.
I now understand is that what you meant was:

modulating [the parameter that is normally controling] the cutoff frequency [but now as this is a morphing filter, obviously controling the Morph (%) parameter]

I now have an eerie feeling that you just tried to explain something to me that I was trying to explain to you

If the destinations would change in the cords section and we were talking about modulating gain and morph in the first place....
BTW the labels in the filter section above the big horizontal wheel controls DO change from 'Q' to 'gain' and I do not think of that as an insult of my intelligence for the reason that I would understand it anyway if they wouldn't have!


Taken from Emualtor X2 manual:-

Filter Frequency - Controls the frequency (or morph) of the filter.

Realtime Resonance - Realtime control of filter resonance (Q, gain, body size).

Filter Resonance - Filter resonance control which is set at note-on time only.

I did not find the exact quote in the manual, but for the morphing filters, Realtime Resonance doesn't control Q. I get my info from p.138 and p.139 on the right hand side. The little diamond notes give the translation between the real parameter and what you must select to control it.
There's no 'Realtime Resonance' to be found on the right side of any of the equal signs, only Filt.Resonance.
And in this context that's the (specific) destination value, not either realtime or initial resonance destinations.

:wave: I would like to extend my patch request to E-mu. Please grey out the realtime resonance in the cords section when the filter has no use for it. We should still be able to select it though, in case of a filter override.

Now to get to the real issue, why no realtime resonance control in the morph designer?

Maybe best illustrated with p.136 of the manual Explore the Morph designer, after setting up a first (LP) stage. and I quote:

10. Now play the keyboard and turn the Morph wheel. You have just created the classic synthesizer lowpass filter response, but in case the Q turns up automatically when you change the filter frequency. If you turn up the Q Wheel, you get even more Q. (the Q control adds to Lo and Hi Q settings.)

So why no realtime Q control? Because it adds to Lo and Hi Q settings. That is 12 settings. Not only that, the Morph wheel is at a certain point as well, so the real 6 Q settings have to be interpolated from the 12 that you want to change in realtime.

So my well educated guess is that it's too hard on the CPU and implementing it would destroy the reputation of the filters.
Currently the Morph Designer counts as a 12th order filter (max). That is dividing polyphony by 3 already.

Tidda

[Overdrive1]

Well I know what I'm doing with the E-mu filters and cords section, I have been using them for nearly 10 years, even if I don't always explain myself very well.:D

Now if anyone from E-mu actually knows for a fact why you cannot control the filter resonance parameter cord destination otherwise known as gain/expression/q/peak on the morphing filters in realtime please respond.

Tbh I have nothing else to say on the matter unless someone can give a factual based answer.

PS:- For anyone thats interested here is a comparison between the 4 Pole High Pass Filter on the E4XT Ultra and Emulator X2, there is quite a big difference.

Download comparison here. http://www.sendspace.com/file/0x0uts

[ICHi]

Now if anyone from E-mu actually knows for a fact why you cannot control the filter resonance parameter cord destination otherwise known as gain/expression/q/peak on the morphing filters in realtime please respond.
***Sorry so late guys, tradeshow season:eek:
The reason that we went with the conservative approach in regards real time rez in morphing filter types is for safety. As these exotic filters can be unstable we didn't want folks blowing up speakers or damaging hearing. We actually added per voice limiters for Morph Designer just in case.

No promises or dates, but we will look into this problem again to see if we can make it happen in a future update. Thanks for the feedback.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[hallowed1]

Has anyone been successful with importing any Giga libraries or files into Emu X 2?

[tarvini]

Has anyone been successful with importing any Giga libraries or files into Emu X 2?

I'm not sure what the deal is exactly, but I had trouble importing the giga files that came bundled with Giga. However, I had no trouble at all importing files converted from Roland s7x > giga with the Chickensys Translator (BTW Chickensys wrote the e-mu import routines... may or may not have anything to do with it).

I do not own any commercial Giga libraries (other than the bundled ones) to test with. If anyone can try this, there are at least two people who would be very interested in the results :) Perhaps someone from E-mu could comment on this as well.

[ross g]

I talked to the E-Mu folks at AES, and they said the legibility thing was due to being locked in to bit-mapped graphics, which is something they plan to change in the future.


any word about this in the new version? i agree, way too small...the karoke function looks fun, but nothing to upgrade for...this a difficult choice: if you don't keep up with the versions now, will it be too expensive later?

[ICHi]

I'm not sure what the deal is exactly, but I had trouble importing the giga files that came bundled with Giga. However, I had no trouble at all importing files converted from Roland s7x > giga with the Chickensys Translator (BTW Chickensys wrote the e-mu import routines... may or may not have anything to do with it).

I do not own any commercial Giga libraries (other than the bundled ones) to test with. If anyone can try this, there are at least two people who would be very interested in the results :) Perhaps someone from E-mu could comment on this as well.
***The current translator only supports GS2 format, so make sure your not trying to convert GS3. The GS2 conversion was done jointly by ChickenSys and E-MU and is very good based on our testing. If folks find any problems please let us know specifically what title and what part of the conversion and we can look into improvements.


Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[tarvini]

***The current translator only supports GS2 format, so make sure your not trying to convert GS3. ...
Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

Thanks, they (the GS bundled sounds) were indeed GS3, and GS2 works fine. Is there a program that can convert GS3 to GS2 that you know of? I actually own GStudio but it wont run without a "GStudio Compatible" card (which you-know-what is not unfortunately), and it stopped working, anyway, after an upgrade hosed the licensing somehow ("this product is already registered" or somesuch... then aborts").

[ICHi]

[QUOTE=ross g;20530232]any word about this in the new version? i agree, way too small...the karoke function looks fun, but nothing to upgrade for...this a difficult choice: if you don't keep up with the versions now, will it be too expensive later?
***Are you talking about X1.x to X2 or X2 to the new X2.1(also to be released as EX2 platinum)?

If the former there are massive changes that are definitely worth the money.
The highlights of X2
-Morph Filter Designer
-TwistaLoop
-SynthSwipe
-Transform Multiply

If it's the latter the changes are more subtle but nonetheless substantial
The highlights of X2.1
-Xplode (beat slicer with MIDI and tempo map export)
-Xtractor (dsp tool that allows you to isolate, edit or remove things in a mix)
-X64/Vista support
-Native 64-bit version of standalone and VSTi
-Multi-Core, Multi-Thread optimized (substantial peformance gains)
-Library has been optimized (substantial speed increase)
-Streaming engine optimizations

We can't say specifically how we will price future upgrades but we will always try to make it as affordable as possible. If what we've done up to now is any indicator, incremental upgrades have been free, major new features have been 79 bucks. We think this is pretty reasonable.


Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[ross g]

[QUOTE=ross g;20530232]any word about this in the new version? i agree, way too small...the karoke function looks fun, but nothing to upgrade for...this a difficult choice: if you don't keep up with the versions now, will it be too expensive later?
***Are you talking about X1.x to X2 or X2 to the new X2.1(also to be released as EX2 platinum)?

If the former there are massive changes that are definitely worth the money.
The highlights of X2
-Morph Filter Designer
-TwistaLoop
-SynthSwipe
-Transform Multiply

If it's the latter the changes are more subtle but nonetheless substantial
The highlights of X2.1
-Xplode (beat slicer with MIDI and tempo map export)
-Xtractor (dsp tool that allows you to isolate, edit or remove things in a mix)
-X64/Vista support
-Native 64-bit version of standalone and VSTi
-Multi-Core, Multi-Thread optimized (substantial peformance gains)
-Library has been optimized (substantial speed increase)
-Streaming engine optimizations

We can't say specifically how we will price future upgrades but we will always try to make it as affordable as possible. If what we've done up to now is any indicator, incremental upgrades have been free, major new features have been 79 bucks. We think this is pretty reasonable.


Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

sorry, i have X2 atm...not planning on upgrading my computer for now...

i'm most interested in resizing the screens etc:

(Originally Posted by Anderton
"I talked to the E-Mu folks at AES, and they said the legibility thing was due to being locked in to bit-mapped graphics, which is something they plan to change in the future")


the new functions look fun, but i'm pretty happy with X2 atm (besides what's been mentioned)

rg

[fetishfrog]

If the multi-core support reduces the CPU load when running as a vsti, the price with be worth it to me. The extra sound sets will be the icing.

Can I assume that the 32bit version will still install on x64 and run as a vsti in 32 bit hosts, as it does currently? Also, will I be able to install both the 32 and 64 bit versions on x64?

I may switch to 64 bit Sonar once the update is released, but I may not if too many plugin conflicts exist. Bit-bridge performance in 64 bit Sonar has been a little touch and go with some plugins.

Sounds like a great upgrade though!!! When???

[ICHi]

[QUOTE=ross g;20545096][QUOTE=ICHi;20537175]

sorry, i have X2 atm...not planning on upgrading my computer for now...

i'm most interested in resizing the screens etc:
***Unfortunately dynamic resizing will be difficult as long as we try to make both Standalone and VSTi as VSTi does not allow for dynamic resizing. It's still quite risky to assume that all users are using resolutions above 1024X768 so one way or another we are going to have to decide to leave people behind.

What screen rez are you currently using? Also what in the UI do you find small and that needs the most attention? There are several ways to solve the problem but we need to think about all users.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[ross g]

[QUOTE=ross g;20545096][QUOTE=ICHi;20537175]

sorry, i have X2 atm...not planning on upgrading my computer for now...

i'm most interested in resizing the screens etc:
***Unfortunately dynamic resizing will be difficult as long as we try to make both Standalone and VSTi as VSTi does not allow for dynamic resizing. It's still quite risky to assume that all users are using resolutions above 1024X768 so one way or another we are going to have to decide to leave people behind.

What screen rez are you currently using? Also what in the UI do you find small and that needs the most attention? There are several ways to solve the problem but we need to think about all users.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

thanks for your quick replies...


1280 x 1024 is my resolution...i've played with adjusting the screen res as suggested in an earlier post, and also thought of getting one of those monitor extendo-arms to simply move the screen closer (my eyes ain't so good)...i like working at full res, it's just sharper and everything is where it should be...i just think things are a little too small and hard to read overall, all the small text, and not being able to open the window larger when sample editing seems to be against the norm...

i understand what you're saying about standalone vs. VSTi, would it make sense to have standard (or even smaller) VSTi window and resizable standalone? i know next to nothing about about these things, i'm just an old audio guy that used the old Emax II and Sound Designer setup on a nubus mac...i'm overall very happy with X2, it's very powerful and a few workarounds ain't gonna kill me...i dunno though, decent LCD monitors are pretty darn cheap nowadays...


on another topic: what does Beat Xplode do that Twistaloop don't? does it allow one to apply different grooves to a beat? and what exactly does the "karoke function" (sorry, don't remember what it's called) do that the normal voice removal function doesn't?

thanks much,
rg

[ICHi]

[QUOTE=tarvini;20536372]Thanks, they (the GS bundled sounds) were indeed GS3, and GS2 works fine. Is there a program that can convert GS3 to GS2 that you know of? I actually own GStudio but it wont run without a "GStudio Compatible" card (which you-know-what is not unfortunately), and it stopped working, anyway, after an upgrade hosed the licensing somehow ("this product is already registered" or somesuch... then aborts").
***No only GS2 now. But if there is enough demand I think you will find that translator companies like ChickeySys will add it to their Translator software. Just go visit their sites and let them know.

Best Regards,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[ICHi]

[QUOTE=ross g;20550943][QUOTE=ICHi;20549764][QUOTE=ross g;20545096]

thanks for your quick replies...


1280 x 1024 is my resolution...i've played with adjusting the screen res as suggested in an earlier post, and also thought of getting one of those monitor extendo-arms to simply move the screen closer (my eyes ain't so good)...i like working at full res, it's just sharper and everything is where it should be...i just think things are a little too small and hard to read overall, all the small text, and not being able to open the window larger when sample editing seems to be against the norm...

i understand what you're saying about standalone vs. VSTi, would it make sense to have standard (or even smaller) VSTi window and resizable standalone? i know next to nothing about about these things, i'm just an old audio guy that used the old Emax II and Sound Designer setup on a nubus mac...i'm overall very happy with X2, it's very powerful and a few workarounds ain't gonna kill me...i dunno though, decent LCD monitors are pretty darn cheap nowadays...
***Thanks for your feedback.

on another topic: what does Beat Xplode do that Twistaloop don't? does it allow one to apply different grooves to a beat? and what exactly does the "karoke function" (sorry, don't remember what it's called) do that the normal voice removal function doesn't?
***Xplode is basically a non-destructive beat slicer. Using the Twistaloop beat analysis and note/beat markers you can segment the audio chopped by amplitude level, or note subdivisions(1/4, 1/8, 1/16T)..etc) then spray them to keys in various ways(start x key, white keys, black keys, chromatic). You can now perform parts or slices of a rhythmic sample in any order by triggering them on different keys. Utiling the Voice Region editor the segmentation can be reedited at any time because regions are just start/stop markers with looping. This tool allow so many possibilities to turn 8 bars into 4 minutes.

There is also an option to Xport a midi file to replay the slices and a tempo map of the groove which can be applied as a conductor track in a DAW to "groove" the timeline.

TwistaLoop is our new Advanced Tempo and Beat analysis algorithm which allows note/beat markup and fluid audio stretching so that sample's pitch and speed can be manipulated independantly. Just take a bunch of rhythmic samples regardless of tempo, spray them on the keyboard with ASAP(automated sampling and placement) Beat Analyze them then pick a tempo. All the samples will now lock to whatever tempo you have set in EX2 Master or via your DAW's MIDI clock. This is a great way to JAM with samples to create new lines and grooves.

Xtractor AKA "karaoke function" is a new File Based DSP algorithm that allows you sort of a Audio Flashlight. It allows you to aim the flashlight L>R in the stereo field and has a pair of super steep brick wall filters to isolate any frequency. Once you have your light on the "spot" you can take that section and edit it's level and pitch. It is defininitely pan and mix dependant so don't expect the holy grail of perfectly unmixing a track. Even when it's having a tough time though it can generate some pretty cool sounds.


Best Regards,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[ICHi]

[QUOTE=fetishfrog;20546304]If the multi-core support reduces the CPU load when running as a vsti, the price with be worth it to me. The extra sound sets will be the icing.

Can I assume that the 32bit version will still install on x64 and run as a vsti in 32 bit hosts, as it does currently?
***Yes.

Also, will I be able to install both the 32 and 64 bit versions on x64?
***Yes.

I may switch to 64 bit Sonar once the update is released, but I may not if too many plugin conflicts exist. Bit-bridge performance in 64 bit Sonar has been a little touch and go with some plugins.

Sounds like a great upgrade though!!! When???
***Approximately Late Spring 2007

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Charm]

I don't think this was covered earlier (sorry if it was and I've missed it).

I use Emulator X (ie the original version).

Sometimes I want to use presets from different banks - stored in different folders - in the same Cubase sequence, but Emulator X holds just one bank. I could open multiple instances of the VST version of Emulator X with a bank in each, but for (a) memory-saving reasons and (b) clarity, I usually prefer to have a single instance containing a bank made up of just a selection of presets - so I have to construct a new bank made out of the existing presets. This bank has to be saved to disc - Cubase won't re-construct it. But, unless I'm doing something wrong, it seems that you can't avoid also re-saving all the samples (which are already on the disc) - they get saved in a new folder, with new names based on the name given to the new bank.

So:

. . (1) Am I wrong? - In Emulator X (original), can you actually save a bank in such a way that the samples don't get saved again? (And, if so, how?)

. . (2) If you can't do that in Emulator X, can you do it in the new version?

[ICHi]

[QUOTE=Charm;20720781]I don't think this was covered earlier (sorry if it was and I've missed it).

I use Emulator X (ie the original version).

Sometimes I want to use presets from different banks - stored in different folders - in the same Cubase sequence, but Emulator X holds just one bank. I could open multiple instances of the VST version of Emulator X with a bank in each, but for (a) memory-saving reasons and (b) clarity, I usually prefer to have a single instance containing a bank made up of just a selection of presets - so I have to construct a new bank made out of the existing presets. This bank has to be saved to disc - Cubase won't re-construct it. But, unless I'm doing something wrong, it seems that you can't avoid also re-saving all the samples (which are already on the disc) - they get saved in a new folder, with new names based on the name given to the new bank.

So:

. . (1) Am I wrong? - In Emulator X (original), can you actually save a bank in such a way that the samples don't get saved again? (And, if so, how?)
***In all versions of EX, if you just hit Save after loading a bank that already exists only edited data will be re-saved. Sample data will not be duplicated. When you do any "save as..." operation, OR if you create a new bank by aquiring, merging samples, or presets you will create/recreate sample data.

The rationale behind this file system(and it's been around since the Emulator HW) is that it is simple, transparent, robust, portable and assumes that this is a SAMPLER and that sample data can be destructively manipulated at any time.

There are a 2 tools that we have implemented to help manage file size for save and archiving efficiency.
1) is Delete Unused Samples. To use this, just clean up your preset list to what your using or likely going to use. Rt. Click on the Sample Folder and choose Delete Unused Samples. This looks at your Preset list and deletes all samples from the pool that are not in use.
2) is Export MultiSetup. This is similar to Delete Unused Samples but instead of looking at your Preset List we look at your Multisetup, assuming that you only want what you have assigned to a MIDI channel. This will export a bank with only the preset/samples that are assigned in the Multisetup.

Note that we do have a class of sounds that we do treat "virtually" and those are our red colored ESC Libraries(Mo'Phatt, Planet Earth, TSCY Etc.) in which we treat samples as ROM like in our Sound Modules. For these libraries we deny edit access to the samples themselves and since they will never change, you don't need to save/resave any sample data. We keep track of where the ROMs are via the registry so that regardless of where you put the library (drive or path wise) when you say get new drives or update your PC and put them somewhere else all your banks will still work fine because we will find the ROMs via the registry.


Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Charm]

ICHi

Thanks for the info. I do see the logic behind making extra copies of the samples so as to prevent the newly-saved presets being undermined by a subsequent edit of the original samples.

However, as a grown-up, I make risky decisions every day, and I wish there was an option to over-ride this foolproof default behaviour and just save links to the original samples instead of being forced to store multiple copies of samples. I'd use that option whenever I was using EX with properly finished samples that I wouldn't edit, whether purchased samples or my own. If I was worried about the possibility of subsequent sample edits undermining the new presets, I could either use the default (current) saving behaviour or set the sample files as read-only.

And, don't forget, I could use back-ups (or original sample media, for purchased samples) to restore the unedited versions of samples, in the unlikely event of mistakes.

And on the subject of back-ups, I don't like having to make multiple back-ups of identical sampe data, which is a consequence of the philosophy of enforced re-saving of sample data - especially because of the altered file names - when new banks are created.

I daresay the current method offers advantages in the case of transferring banks to a new computer, but - in my own case - I'd rather bear the effort of going through a special exercise in the event of any such transfers, rather than accommodate multiple copies of identical samples, both on the hard drives and in back-up disks.


Clive

[ICHi]

Thanks for the info. I do see the logic behind making extra copies of the samples so as to prevent the newly-saved presets being undermined by a subsequent edit of the original samples.

However, as a grown-up, I make risky decisions every day, and I wish there was an option to over-ride this foolproof default behaviour and just save links to the original samples instead of being forced to store multiple copies of samples. I'd use that option whenever I was using EX with properly finished samples that I wouldn't edit, whether purchased samples or my own. If I was worried about the possibility of subsequent sample edits undermining the new presets, I could either use the default (current) saving behaviour or set the sample files as read-only.
***We have discussed the possibility of allowing users to "ROM"plify samples. Perhaps this could be implemented in the future as a lot of the system is already there, although this alone would not be enough, there will likely be the need for utilities to scrub/relink, fall back when samples are missing etc... so this is not a completely trivial feature to implement. No file system change ever is.

And, don't forget, I could use back-ups (or original sample media, for purchased samples) to restore the unedited versions of samples, in the unlikely event of mistakes.

And on the subject of back-ups, I don't like having to make multiple back-ups of identical sampe data, which is a consequence of the philosophy of enforced re-saving of sample data - especially because of the altered file names - when new banks are created.

I daresay the current method offers advantages in the case of transferring banks to a new computer, but - in my own case - I'd rather bear the effort of going through a special exercise in the event of any such transfers, rather than accommodate multiple copies of identical samples, both on the hard drives and in back-up disks.
***When we thought about this problem we thought that with drive prices plumetting, drive sizes and transfer speeds increasing, and collaboration becoming more and more prevalent due to the liquidity of data over networks that the EXB would be more appreciated.:cry: Thanks for your feedback.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[zvon]

I bought EmulatorX2 yesterday and found this thread googling for info about it.
Great and useful thread! Many thanks to Craig (for starting it and all your hard work) and to everyone who contributed.

So far I am very impressed with the Emulator X2. It is indeed very deep, powerful and the sound quality is gorgeous (love the filters). On the other hand, as it have been noted too, I am one of those who find the interface complicated and confusing.

[zvon]

There's one thing that I really would like to know is how do I save an edited preset without overwriting the original one in the Emulator X2? Or is there a way to save an edited preset under a new name in a bank, thus adding it to the bank?

For instance, let's say that I have a bank with 3 presets, I edit preset 1. If I save the bank with the "save" or "save as" command, I will still have 3 presets but preset 1 will now be the newly edited version and the original version will have been overwritten. What I want to do is to save the edited version as "preset 1a" thus now having a bank with 4 presets containing both "preset 1" and "preset 1a".

I understand that if I can plan the edit, I would first make a copy of "preset 1" and rename the copy "preset 1a" and then edit the copy. But most of the time, I lack that foresight and just twist those knobs.

[Overdrive1]

I understand that if I can plan the edit, I would first make a copy of "preset 1" and rename the copy "preset 1a" and then edit the copy. But most of the time, I lack that foresight and just twist those knobs.

Thats the only way I know of really. If you have already saved the bank before tweaking then you could import the pre-tweaked preset. I think you may also be able to export the tweaked preset, undo all changes so you are back with the original, and then import it so you have both versions. A bit long winded but it should work.:D

[zvon]

Thanks for the reply Overdrive1,

I did export the edited preset and then imported it back in the original bank but, as you said, this not really convenient or quick. Hopefully there's another way or there will be soon (maybe with the Emulator X2 Platinum).

[dalvo]

Here is one out of left field.... I have started working with synth swipe a lot over the last week and am very happy with it. My problem is that it records at 32 bits. When I try importing my "swiped" instruments into Ableton Live's "Sampler" the samples play back at the wrong speed and pitch! So the question is this....

Q: Is there any way I can use Synth Swipe in a 24/96k sampling mode?

[dalvo]

Seems that the internal sampling rate is actualy 24bit and the problem was actualy with the translator software I was trying to use. There seems to be big issues with Extreme sample converter. That or I am just not understanding it.

[ross g]

does anyone know if it's possible to use X2 as a vst while using another driver/audio card? i've got the original Emu X package, but i'm thinking of using a different card for more i/o, can't get the Emu breakout box anymore...

[Tony Scharf]

if you have X2 AND some other piece of EMU hardware (i.e. one of their MIDI interfaces) I believe you can use that and that X2 will then use that as its 'dongle'. this includes the EMU controller boards, if I am not mistaken.

You may want to confirm that with EMU, however. I am in the same position you are - I dont want to loose X2.

Synthswipe is the greatest thing EVER.

[ross g]

i found a used Audio Dock on ebay, seemed the easiest way to go....


thanks...

[sivaji]

How much does this X2 have in common with Emu E4 Ultra?

[ross g]

anyone know what's up with the beta drivers? are they going to be officially released? gonna expire soon...

[ross g]

anyone?

no one from Emu seems to read the Unofficial Emu Forums anymore....

[Consul]

I'd heard some disturbing rumors (and yes, only rumors) that the parent company for Creative and E-mu were planning to ax everything they owned that wasn't Creative due to bad economic times. That means everything from E-mu would no longer have any support. The fact that EX2 Platinum, which was supposed to be released in May from what I recall, is not out yet, seems to support this idea.

Is there anyone who can confirm or deny this? I have an Emu 1212M and would love to own EX2.

[Consul]

Heh, I was half-expecting at least a quick message from Craig along the lines of "please don't spread rumors." Again, that's not my intention. It's just that an official denial from someone in the company would make me feel a little better about my impending decision.

[vask100]

hello all; new purchaser of emulator x2! the sounds are blowing me away? i've already had to get an upgrade of ram for my CPU, but it's worth it! i'm having difficulty getting sonar 4 to recognize it as a vst insert (or recognize it anywhere!). i use reason as well, and sonar had no problem with it. i'm also able to hear midi triggered through my keyboard controller, and when recording i can hear the ex2 sounds getting triggered; on playback however, i only hear the midi data that was playing through my kybd controller, even though the local control on the keyboard was turned off.

i'd like to use ex2 on my next project, but i'm having a heck of time figuring out how to get sonar to recognize emulator. what's the problem?

thanks in advance.

[drayon]

Where is E-MU EMULATOR X3 info????

Manual available yet?

EMU dumped us again eh?

1) No info on assigning individual Voices to physical outputs.

EmulatorX needs "Submix" parameter (the same as the E4 hardware), in the "Amplifier Controls" section of Voice Processing This should provide a link to ALL the physical outputs on the selected audio card in the "Preferences". For example, the 1820M has : 1L, 1R, 2L, 2R, 3L, 3R, 4L, 4R (Monitor out) physical outputs. Each of these should be available for selection for ANY VOICE as an output.

Another example - 8 voice preset with 8 drum hits, one on each voice (to use different filters for each hit), each voice has submix physical output assignment, outputs of audio card goes in to analog console for mixing.

2) No OS X Version

3) No PCIe/ExpressCard/34 Audio Interfaces.

4) No RTAS/OSX Plug

[Tony Scharf]

They dont make software for Mac. Thats just how they want to be.

Also, the new software is no longer tied to having a piece of EMU hardware installed. So, if you need a better card you arent stuck. This makes me *very* happy, as I am tired of loosing a PCI slot to what has essentially become a dongle.

About the other issues, I havnt had a problem. I just open another instance and use my DAW to route the audio.

[renk900]

Well I know what I'm doing with the E-mu filters and cords section, I have been using them for nearly 10 years, even if I don't always explain myself very well.:D

Now if anyone from E-mu actually knows for a fact why you cannot control the filter resonance parameter cord destination otherwise known as gain/expression/q/peak on the morphing filters in realtime please respond.

Tbh I have nothing else to say on the matter unless someone can give a factual based answer.

PS:- For anyone thats interested here is a comparison between the 4 Pole High Pass Filter on the E4XT Ultra and Emulator X2, there is quite a big difference.

Download comparison here. http://www.sendspace.com/file/0x0uts

Great thread, any chance you could re-up that file Overdrive? I own a e6400 classic and love the filters, the high pass especially is very present and full of character, I understand Emu wanting to implement smoother more natural filters for general use but they should keep the original ones in as an option - that's easily my biggest request.

Question for Ichi. As so many people would like to see the original filter types included and you have the original code, would it not be possible to port the code over and have these filters as an option i.e. Emulator E6400 series LP, HP, BP etc, would it really be that hard?

[Anderton]

Question for Ichi. As so many people would like to see the original filter types included and you have the original code, would it not be possible to port the code over and have these filters as an option i.e. Emulator E6400 series LP, HP, BP etc, would it really be that hard?

FYI - Ichi no longer works for E-Mu, he is now at Universal Audio (and yes, they consider themselves very lucky to have him on board).

[depulse]

Where is E-MU EMULATOR X3 info????

Manual available yet?

EMU dumped us again eh?

1) No info on assigning individual Voices to physical outputs.

EmulatorX needs "Submix" parameter (the same as the E4 hardware), in the "Amplifier Controls" section of Voice Processing This should provide a link to ALL the physical outputs on the selected audio card in the "Preferences". For example, the 1820M has : 1L, 1R, 2L, 2R, 3L, 3R, 4L, 4R (Monitor out) physical outputs. Each of these should be available for selection for ANY VOICE as an output.

Another example - 8 voice preset with 8 drum hits, one on each voice (to use different filters for each hit), each voice has submix physical output assignment, outputs of audio card goes in to analog console for mixing.

2) No OS X Version

3) No PCIe/ExpressCard/34 Audio Interfaces.

4) No RTAS/OSX Plug

My faith in EMU is less than zero. Creative Labs have been in financial trouble for a long time. First EMU promised the X2 Platinum, then nothing, then they presented the X3 (for a ridiculous price of 699), now nothing for a year. With Ichi leaving, there can't be many left. I have bought the X, the X2 and the Proteus X. Now they give away the Proteus for free, this free version also works for Vista, something they did never do for the paid version. Where is the dual/quad core support?

When was the last time EMU had some new stuff? I haven't seen any new hardware for years. Not even their keyboard controllers have been updated. Too bad, I really liked their products (too bad they don't always work correctly).
:confused:

[Pilotwings]

Has anyone here upgraded to X3 yet???

[itisaniceday]

I have the X2 and really like it. it's pretty cool so far!

[itisaniceday]

I have the X2 and really like it. It works so cool so far!

[itisaniceday]

I have the X2, and it woeks good so far!

[itisaniceday]

I already have x2, it works cool so far.