E-MU Systems today announced its new Emulator X Desktop Sampling Systems for PC that offer E-MU's breakthrough sampling technologies, powerful hardware DSP and pristine sound quality with the latest disk streaming, file management, and interface advantages of software. The Emulator X functions as a VSTi on Windows but requires the included hardware PCI card to function.

The Emulator X and Emulator X Studio are true professional sampling systems from the ground up, delivering unprecedented tools for automated sampling and preset creation, an integrated waveform editor, unrivalled synthesis (including over 50 patented Z-Plane morphing filters), and a mastering-grade 24-bit/192kHz audio interface with hardware-accelerated effects (with comprehensive WDM, DirectSound and ASIO 2.0 drivers for Windows 2000 and XP).

E-MU's Desktop Sampling Systems provide musicians and sound designers with hands-on control over their sounds right down to the sample level with the perfect balance of usability and raw sonic potential. They are set to ship in mid February 2004 with an estimated U.S. street price of $299.99 for the Emulator X and $599.99 for the Emulator X Studio.

Professional Sampling and Synthesis Tools

Emulator X and Emulator X Studio offer a host of professional sampling and synthesis tools, including automated sample acquisition and preset creation, an integrated waveform editor, support for all major sound formats and advanced synthesis. Emulator X makes sampling as easy as loading a preset with intelligent, automated sampling and preset creation from both external audio and batch files, allowing you to turn a .WAV file into a fully functioning preset in seconds with a single click of your mouse.

Emulator X's integrated waveform editor provides you with over 13 professional DSP tools (i.e. Gain Change, Time Compression/Expansion, Sample Calculation w/automatic digital tuning, etc.), for total control over your samples.

In addition to its advanced sampling features, Emulator X also supports a host of major sound formats, including EOS, EIII, GigaSampler, Akai, HALion, EXS24, SoundFont 2.1, .WAV and many more – ships with over 2GB of sounds.

Emulator X provides you with the most advanced synthesis engine of any software sampler to control your sounds, with over 50 patented Z-Plane morphing filters, 36 patchcords per voice, multi-wave LFO's, conditional voice modulation, clock modulation and a host of other synthesis features and parameters. You can even save your favorite synth setups as templates for quick editing.

Hardware-accelerated Effects, Mixing and Monitoring

The Emulator X and Emulator X Studio both feature E-MU's powerful E-DSP chip, an effects processor that can deliver over 16 simultaneous hardware-accelerated effects, freeing your computer from running CPU-intensive plug-ins that limit your audio performance – a feature only offered by the most high-priced DAWs on the market. E-MU's Digital Audio Systems ship with over 500 effects presets, and the effects architecture is fully expandable, allowing you to add more effect plug-ins to your system as needed. The E-DSP chip also provides zero-latency, hardware-based mixing and monitoring via the included PatchMix DSP mixer, delivering unmatched flexibility in routing audio between all of your physical and virtual (ASIO/WDM) inputs and outputs - no external mixer needed.

Total Analog, Digital and Sync Connectivity

In addition to hardware-accelerated effects, mixing and monitoring, E-MU's PCI card also features ADAT, S/PDIF and FireWire interfaces, as well as connectivity to a family of internal and external I/O and sync options.

The Emulator X Studio ships with a 24-bit/192kHz half-rackspace breakout box that features premium 24-bit/192kHz converters - the same A/D converters used in Digidesign's high-end ProTools HD interface. This breakout box offers I/O expansion with everything from 1/4” balanced inputs and outputs to specialized I/O like turntable inputs (with ground lug and hardware RIAA preamp), dedicated speaker outputs and two studio-grade TFPro preamps with 48V phantom power and 40dB of gain. These preamps feature Neutrik connectors and accept mic, line and Hi-Z level inputs for total flexibility in plugging any microphone or instrument straight into the system. The breakout box also provides two sets of MIDI I/O, and is powered over the EDI (E-MU Digital Interface) cable that connects it to E-MU's PCI card - no external power needed. Emulator X offers these same mastering-grade converters on an I/O daughter card, providing a pair of balanced inputs and outputs as well as MIDI I/O.

The Emulator X Studio also ships with a Sync daughter card that allows musicians to lock external analog and digital systems together with a stable, high-resolution time base. The Sync daughter card supports Word Clock Sync in/out for sample accurate phase-lock of your digital studio, SMPTE Sync in/out for stable synchronization of external analog tape and video, as well as MTC (MIDI Time Code) out.

Emulator X Studio I/O Configuration:

• 2 TFPro Mic Preamps (w/48V Phantom Power).
• 6 Balanced Analog Inputs.
• 8 Balanced Analog Outputs.
• Turntable Input (w/ Ground and RIAA Preamp).
• 8 Speaker Outputs (configurable to 7.1).
• ADAT In/Out.
• S/PDIF In/Out (Coaxial).
• S/PDIF Out (Optical).
• 2 Sets of MIDI In/Out.
• FireWire Interface.

Sync:

• Word Clock In/Out.
• SMPTE In/Out.
• MTC Out.

Emulator X I/O Configuration:

• 2 Balanced Analog Inputs.
• 2 Balanced Analog Outputs.
• ADAT In/Out.
• S/PDIF In/Out (Coaxial).
• MIDI In/Out.
• FireWire Interface.