E-MU E5000

EOS 4.0
no presets included, just some cheesy sample disks and a piano on floppy.
editing patches is easy..the machine is easy to use overall.
manual is in pdf format on a cd-ROM!
you'll be spending long hours and big bucks on printer ink and paper, hunched over your inkjet and at kinkos to have it bound.

multitimbral and polyphonic for ally your needs.
onboard efx ok.
The E5000 sequencer is linear, offers no pattern based sequecing and does work but time consuming to use when cutting pasting etc.....

excellent

yes

excellent

I woulnd't buy it again
A note about the Emu samplers and groovesampling in general


The e-5000 is a nice machine, but it is a sampler best utilized for *note pre-arranged* music rather than beat manipulation. Why?
Well, after delving deeply into the machine last week I discovered that multisamples within a preset cannot be tuned individually....bad news indeed, for many of us take a variety of samples from different sources and want to tune, time-compress or pitch correct them to fit our individual beat and bassline loops. This must be done quickly and we must be able to audition the sample as we make calculations to its aforementioned in real time, whilst playing it in conjunction with the sample to which we wish to tune, pitch correct etc. The e5000 does no allow this. If you wish to tune a sample in a multisample setup, you must exit the 'preset mode' and go into 'sample edit' mode, then tune the sample. Problem is, you can't listen to the other samples in the multisampled preset while you do this, as you can do on an ASR-X (poor disk operation...don't EVER buy one) or MPC 2000 (great machine..I own one). The problem with this is that you never know if the sample you are editing will be rhythmically correct or in tune when you return to the preset mode from the sample edit mode. PSHAW!!! BAD BAD BAD! I called EMU and they stated that I would have to use an external editor like Soundforge to tune the sample prior to sending it to the sampler, and audition the sample on the keyboard while using the editor to get it in tune.. Great...a lot of extra software and hardware needed for a machine that is based on the operating system, and is the little brother to the supposedly the best rated sampler ever (E4Xt ultra). Yeah,
Greatest sampler if you are sampling a Piano, or horn with predeternmined scales, but unusable
if you are a collage artist grabbing samples from a variety of sources and wanting to put it all together into something in sync, and listenable. Ultimately, I had to go buy an MPC 2000Xl (best sequencer i EVER USED) to get the both of best worlds.

Even So, with all the fancy shmancy gizmaroos these EMU samplers claim they can do (time compress, expand, pitch shift, yada yada yada), it does you no good if you can't listen to the samples in a multisample TOGETHER and audition the sample editing in real time and in relation to the other samples. EMU needs to fix this problem big time. All in all, it is a decent machine with extreme limitations, but on the other hand you get insane sonic and efx manipulation capabalities in comparison to other samplers and it gives you the option to have 12.6 minutes of stereo sampling at 44.1k 16bit., plus a pro-quality efx processor (TOO EXPENSIVE, THOUGH) option (RFX-32) which does some great things like sound-gate splicing etc. The beat munging is also very cool..it is like a cut down version of Recycle, and takes components of the sample and lets you remove them for interesting rhythmic effects. Also, another plus is when you do edit with it, it is fast and reliable, and hasn't yet locked up on me or crashed (MPC and ASR-X!)yet. It also lets you use very large (and cheaply aquired at that) internal IDE drives so you won't have to spend eons searching for some overpriced (like everything Macintosh)external SCSI drive
One does need a decent PC and a good sample editor in conjunction with their rack sampler...yes they stated that it would work miracles with your music but they lied. you gotta be able to time compress quickly, or know the percentage if compression expansion needed if you want your samples in sync. The rack samplers are slower than computers at this, and emu won't even allow you to listen or audition what you are editing..how do you know if it will work? If you are working with loops on traditional instruments, I suggest Soundforge or Wavelab, and have the sampler and the computer both monitored. In this you can quickly edit , and determine i

Using EOS v4.01, which came stock with the unit. New upgrades are easily downloaded and installed via the front panel floppy drive. This is a sampler so a discussion of the presets is not critical... however I must point out that this thing comes with tons of amazing sounds. After dealing with ROM-based modules with such tiny memory footprints, I was astounded at the sheer quality of many of these sounds. Not everything is perfect, but hey, unlike a tone module, you can import better sounds or record your own! Patch editing is very straightforward. Nice big LCD with dedicated function keys. Not as ergonomic perhaps as the Akai S-series, though I haven't spent much time with those. There is a "getting started" manual that ships with the E5000, but no printed manual! It comes with a bunch of PDF documents on CD which you can either browse on the computer or print out. I would have preferred a printed manual but I suppose I saved $30 by E-mu not including it. This is a very minor gripe for an otherwise incredible piece of machinery.

64 voices of polyphony which is not upgradeable (unlike other E series models). Just use your polyphony wisely and you'll be fine. The built in effects are very smooth. Some subtle reverb brings out a lot in the acoustic voices. Editing and toggling effects is simple and can be done in about three keystrokes at any time. As for expansion - this thing *begs* to be expanded. To really get the most out of the sampler, you'll definitely need to upgrade the RAM (it only comes with 4MB, but can go as high as 128 if you are willing to shell out). I have a PC with IDE so I needed to buy an external SCSI CD-ROM, plus I bought an internal IDE hard drive. Your sampler is an investment that will pay off! Unless you already have a studio set up for one with SCSI and all, you'll need to shell out. As for MIDI capabilities, it will respond to all the basics (mod wheel, pitch, pressure, etc.) plus you can define 8 controllers for realtime control over instrument parameters. I assigned the knobs on my Z1 to the first five and presto... tactile control over cutoff frequency! Brilliant! The onboard sequencer seems flexible and powerful, but I haven't used it. I have Logic and Cakewalk.

This is what sets E-mu apart from the competition. I could have bought an Akai with its much prettier front panel, or an A5000 if I hadn't previously owned an EX5 and become permantently soured towards Yamaha products... but I bought the E5000 because its sound is in another realm. Special signal processing helps the pitch modulation for sampled acoustic instruments so they sound more realistic across the entire keyboard. *Nothing* sounds "bad" coming through this thing. I loaded in a 5Kb piano mono-sample, and it actually sounded decent. Not as nice as the 8MB one you could load off the CD, but it had a richness even in the lower register where notes tend to be inaudible, or in the high end where notes usually get tinny and buzzy. None of that on the E5000. Listen to the synth sounds in the preset banks and you'll agree - this thing sounds just as sweet and warm as a lot of real analog gear. The filters are pristine - they are superior to anything I have ever heard elsewhere... and this is a sampler, not a synth! Although you may forget this at times because it is just so darn programmable. You can stack 128 samples into a patch, layered and split however you want, and use complex envelopes and LFOs to govern the sound as it is shaped. Awesome levels of expressivity that the competition simply cannot touch. Remember, you can load any sound you want in this thing so it can be used for dance, orchestral, rock, new age...

Could it be any more reliable? Owned mine for several months and never had the slightest problem with it. E-mu's engineers know how to program.

E-mu is well-known for their tech support. They stand behind their products, unlike a few unnamed Japanese companies whom I have had the displeasure of dealing with in the past. Call them up if you have any questions about the operation of the unit. I only had one question about CD burning and the guy emailed me a text file the same day.

If it were lost, it would be the second piece of gear I would replace after a controller keyboard. This is perhaps the first piece of gear I have ever owned which I have had no major gripes with. It's more expensive than your average tone module, and you do have to wait 4.5 seconds for the banks to load, but the versatility and SOUND QUALITY is worth it. Nothing else can sound so warm and syrupy on one patch, then jagged and icy on the next. The stock sounds will have your jaw drop...