E-mu Emulator X3 sounds fantastic!

[mxbf]

I bought some EMU X3 banks on Ebay. I hope that wasn't a mistake! I think they should load in Proteus.

Can't for the life of me figure out a solution to buying and running X3, or even off the record options. Seems like it's just not possible any which way anymore.

Seems moronic. I would have payed for it and the company is just throwing away money like imbeciles.

[planetearth]

I guess I'll go with Digital Sound Factory. I bought some SoundFont there - 1500 megapack or something.

I heard the Emu X3 sounds better or something. Why is that?

I'm obsessed with 90s sampler sounds, like Future Sound of London, Prodigy, PS1 games.

The soundfont's from DSF sound pretty great using them with Samplelord but using the Emulator X3 seems like it's considered much better sounding / authentic, so do you think it's worth seeking out?

I have UVI Emu II but I like the sound of having direct access onto authentic sounds.

The Emax / Proteus soundfonts from DSF are a possible purchase for me unless working to get Emulator X3 running is considered significantly better...?

I worked briefly with the dev at DSF, in troubleshooting some E-mu sounds he was making for Kontakt, Dimension and other ROMplers. Tim was very informative and extremely gracious with his time, and I learned quite a bit about how sounds for the early ROMplers were made. (Like you, I'm really interested in how they did so much with so little and how they developed sounds with such character.)

As part of our discussion, he noted that the Proteus sounds you hear in the Proteus VX plug-in were taken directly from the Proteus ROM--there is virtually no difference between the sounds as they were in the Proteus hardware and the way they were in the plug-in. This was particularly true as far as the effects and layers were concerned. (Obviously the Proteus hardware's amplifiers and DAC circuits would have some effect on the sound, but I'm just talking about the sample ROM here.)

He then noted that the sounds you'd get in the Kontakt, Dimension, SoundFont (or other) libraries were not quite the way they sounded in the Proteus. I was able to confirm this with what he sent me for Kontakt and Dimension Pro. In these cases, you'd get the samples and (usually) one or two effects. But those effects were usually just reverb and a bit of delay or chorus. They were not necessarily the same effects that the Proteus used for the same sounds. (And of course, they couldn't be, since each software ROMpler offers different effects and there would be no easy way to make them all sound the same without it being extremely time-consuming and cost-prohibitive.)

And since the Proteus VX and Emulator X3 were very similar under the hood, the sounds made for the Proteus VX sound just fine in Emulator X3, with the same effects and layers that the original Proteus hardware had. They're simply much more expressive, dynamic, and, well...interesting (to me, at least).

Bottom line, if you really want the original Proteus sounds (and not just the samples with some reverb added), try to get your hands on the Emulator X3 plug-in, or use a 32-bit DAW to record and render sounds from the Proteus VX.

Steve

[mxbf]

After messing with Proteus I see why people are not recommending the soundfonts from DSF. Using the filters and effects adds a great deal.

I think I'm giving up on any hope of getting X3 and am starting to consider actually just buying the Emulator 4 hardware possibly. I need to read up more as all the floppy disks and specs and file formats ... information... is confusing to me.

[planetearth]

After messing with Proteus I see why people are not recommending the soundfonts from DSF. Using the filters and effects adds a great deal.

I think I'm giving up on any hope of getting X3 and am starting to consider actually just buying the Emulator 4 hardware possibly. I need to read up more as all the floppy disks and specs and file formats ... information... is confusing to me.

Unless you're comfortable maintaining old synth and sampler hardware and finding the old gear (such as floppy disks and/or SCSI hard drives and optical drives), you may want to look a bit harder for the X3 software.

That said, there is an Emulator support group on Facebook, and there are other groups elsewhere (though not on Yahoo, any longer). These groups can help you get started, tell you the best places to get replacement parts, and/or how to use SCSI2SD devices to bypass the need for SCSI drives.

Steve

[Arcvidean]

I have the Emulator X2 if anyone is interested. 32 bit only otherwise the same. Needs EMU hardware to work but it came with the 0202 usb soundcard when I bought it which I've never used. I don't know if the X2 works in Windows 10, I believe the 0202 has a Windows 10 driver. My Emu 0404 works fine in Windows 10 without.

Arcvidean.

[robotmonkey]

I have the Emulator X2 if anyone is interested. 32 bit only otherwise the same. Needs EMU hardware to work but it came with the 0202 usb soundcard when I bought it which I've never used. I don't know if the X2 works in Windows 10, I believe the 0202 has a Windows 10 driver. My Emu 0404 works fine in Windows 10 without.

Arcvidean.

Pretty sure it wont. It used a horrible copy protection that will not run in Windows 10.

[mxbf]

The EMU banks I purchased on Ebay are working with Proteus VX so far. Pretty hype!

I am still considering buying the Emu 4 Ultra. I didn't know how bad I wanted that specific hardware until yesterday but now I can't stop thinking about it. It looks so cool.

[acYm]

so when you get xtreme lead from DSF in emulatorX format, it's still just static samples and not the actual native proteus format, right?

[midi_transmission]

That why I dont like invasive copy protection. Would also love to use X3 and the EMU stuff. Can happen anytime to every software the they go out of business. Therefore key file or serial numbers are the best and customer friendliest way and I avoiding every other copy protection more and more.

[mxbf]

i think if you look around you might be able to find a solution. i may report back if i figure it out

[mxbf]

a bunch of googling lead me to a solution.

[planetearth]

so when you get xtreme lead from DSF in emulatorX format, it's still just static samples and not the actual native proteus format, right?

Correct. DSF does what they can with the samples, but they're just not as expressive and dynamic as "native" Proteus or Emulator samples.

Steve

[robotmonkey]

The old E-MU Sound Central libraries are the real thing. These are exactly the same as the sounds in Proteus modules.

[planetearth]

The old E-MU Sound Central libraries are the real thing. These are exactly the same as the sounds in Proteus modules.

And someone just shared a boatload of them in his Google Drive account. Read about it here, if you're interested: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/showpos ... stcount=16

He'll be re-organizing the folders in the "Sample Library" folder (and in other folders) and adding more stuff in the coming weeks, he said. But for now, there's a LOT of Emulator I, II and III samples, as well as Emulator X3 libraries and some Emax stuff...among tons of Akai samples.

Steve

[Arcvidean]

I have the Emulator X2 if anyone is interested. 32 bit only otherwise the same. Needs EMU hardware to work but it came with the 0202 usb soundcard when I bought it which I've never used. I don't know if the X2 works in Windows 10, I believe the 0202 has a Windows 10 driver. My Emu 0404 works fine in Windows 10 without.

Arcvidean.

Pretty sure it wont. It used a horrible copy protection that will not run in Windows 10.

Shame that. Not really surprised though.

Arcvidean.