Emulator II

Almost a year ago, I found this device at a thrift store.  
I paid less than $20 for it.  If you know of any resources
for cheap software, manuals, or upgrade hacks please 
let me ( emukb@tradica.com ) know.  - thanks.

LMGTFMyself





























Released commercially in 1984 to huge acclaim, the Emulator II 
(or EII) was E-mu's second sampler. Like the Emulator I, it was 
an 8-bit sampler, however it had superior fidelity to the Emulator 
I due to the use of digital companding and a 27.7KHz sample rate. 
It also allowed more flexibility in editing sounds and vastly 
better real time control. It was priced similarly to the Emulator I, 
at US$7,995 for a regular model, and $9,995 for a "plus" model 
featuring extra sample memory. Several upgrades, including a second 
floppy drive, a 20 MB hard drive, and a 512K memory upgrade were 
available as well. Despite its price tag it was still considered 
very good value compared to the Fairlight CMI Series II. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator_II




The Emulator II has a very unique sound due to its DPCM mu-255 
companding, the divider-based variable sample-rate principle and 
analog output stages featuring SSM2045 24 dB/oct analog 4-pole low 
pass resonant filters. Equivalent output stages in modern samplers 
perform similar functions purely in the digital domain and many 
argue that some of the magic is lost. It is due to this special 
sound that the EII is becoming increasingly sought after by vintage 
music gear enthusiasts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator_II




Several highly respected OEM and 3rd party sample libraries were 
developed for the Emulator II including a multitude of superb 
orchestral sounds. Famous samples include the Shakuhachi flute 
used by Peter Gabriel in Sledgehammer and on Enigma MCMXC a.D.
The Emulator II was very popular with famous pop artists in the 80's 
such as The Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode. It even featured in 
the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off , where it was the device Bueller 
used to simulate the sounds of being sick.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator_II


Too Cool for School
The John Hughes Collection