E-MU E6400 Ultra

Version 4.61. The Presets are very clear and much better than the ASR-10 I now use. Most of the samples on the E-Mu CD set are lame but quite a few are very good. The sampler is a cinch to use, thick manual not to bad to use. Thats E-MU Enosniq, something you get use to is your are one of their fans.

Mine is set for 64 polyphony, have not seen a need to upgrade to the 128. Built in effects are very clear, easy to use and do the the job. Midi is easy to use and no problems.

I use the unit for Mellotron sample reproduction. It is simply the best I have used so far. I use the Mike Pinder Mellotron CD and it far outways the ASR-10 I now use for that purpose. On board effects are very good, easy to use. Playing reaction is not even a thought.

So far so good, no failures that I have not been able to recover myself from. I never go out without some kind of fall back of some sort.

N/A

I would not hesitate to replace this unit! More than enough memory for stage work, sounds are second to none. Love E-MU Ensoniq equipment. The only equipment I have been able to break and fix myself without it leaving my side.

The e-64ultra with the latest os from E-mu is the most creative machine for the money on the market. Aside from that it doesn't come with a key-board controller/scsi cd rom drive/ more ram and an internal hd; this is a most professonal piece, as such accessories are usually owned already by the musician/producer who is likely to buy such an item. Ease of use -very. Every function is a button punch or two away. Presets supplied by e-mu are excellent. By far the best sample library available for a sampler/workhorse that rivals the best modules out there. The manual is a bit-redundant. Proper terms for presets and bank/bank name , multi-set up are not as well described in terms of saving as could be. Can't expect the world -can you? The sampler more than make up for any short commings of the manual to the experienced programmer.

With 64 voice polyphony, upgradeable to 128 this is a machine well suited for any sound designer to fim-scorer of sound tracks. Trigger action is easily tunable for senitivity to many controllers but-for optimum control a computer based sequencer yields the most editing power. Effects on the unit are good and clean to down right maddeningly dirty- I only use them sparingly. Expansions such as 8 outs, 2nd scsi, RFX, ASEBU word clock are more than enough to break the bank. If these are what one wanted they should buy or have bought the e-4ultra or e-platinum flagships. Midi capabities up the wazoo fully re-programmable controls additional to unassigned controllers labeled A trough L? On-board sequencer is by far the probably most untapped excelling feature for rythm oriented music creation. One can rough out a track with ease with the onboard 48 track sequencer. Easy to use -delicate edits once again more suited for the computer sequencer to deal with. Not really a downside- that's what computer sequencers where invented for.

Excellent for all genres of music. Excellent again and again.

The "Mac Truck" of the sampler world. Although much more as a sequencer, sound-design, and fx tool. Can emulate practically anything -sample and even dump sys-ex data for presets into it creating a "emulation" of the delicate machine too valuable to be traveled with. A favorite for many performers. Rock solid performance.
No gig would really be safe without a back up drive.

Exellent costomer service. Have overnighted things for free to me and even touch base on problems with regional reps.. Can't say more good of any company in this regard.

I would buy the flagship if this were stolen. It is worth it -for the library I own with scsi peripherals as a 2nd reason. I have been using E-mu samplers for 8 years and no akai or kurzwiel can compare to features, library, ease of use, exellent LCD display, and among numerous other reason above all -Excellent and Superlative sound quality and sampling converters; I have neither used, or came close to any equal in my work as a producer/musician.

EOS 4.61 Presets....its a sampler, what can I say?
Editing patches could not be easier. Once you get around the learning curve, it is the most fluid system out there. I'd say you'd need a computer to get anything easier. Manual...didn't need one!

64 note polyphony is usually enough for most projects. And if it isn't you can just re-sample phrases and recylce the polyphony that way. I've tried to use the on-board sequencer, but when you have a computer, it doesn't really make any sense. I will say that I loads standard MIDI filers easily. I used to load the Akai demo to demo the E6400. Built in effects are limited, but the RFX card turns it into a powerhouse. When i get the 4 input expander (for 6 total inputs) I'm not going to need any outboard FX processor. The FX on that card are incredible. Tempo-sensitive delays, programmable multi-taps, and anything else you could think of (even a ring-modulator w/tempo based LFO). And the Beat Munging feature is incredible. It automatically detects the BPM, and allows you to change the tempo in real time without effecting the pitch. It is honestly a mystery to me why people still think Akai is the bomb. Also, this feature will automatically make a sample-correct loop in any time signature you want. it'll also let you drop out any random segment of the loop, making it possible to edit the loop into something totally different from the origional. Niiiiiiiiiice.
The fact that you can expand this unit to be a fully-blown E4xt ultra is a great reason to get it if you're strapped for cash. 8 outputs standard make it hard to pass up. Anyone who gets this, the first thing you gotta get is the RFX card. it's that good. It's about as powerful as a ProTools farm card.

Using the Cords section, you can pretty much route anything to anywhere. I think you can come up with really innovative ideas once you learn this page. The velocity-window programming is a breeze. You can even route controls of the FX on the RFX card to midi. Now I like that!

It's never crashed on me. It's rock solid (which is more than i can say for the Akai S5000 I nearly threw out my window)

Customer support is really good, but I haven't needed it very much.

I cannot live without this piece. In a MIDI studio with about 10 MIDI devices, this is by far the most used piece I have. It sounds better than my DIGI 001 system. I have a friend that samples phrases and sequences the loop triggers and uses that as his "hard disc recorder" Too bad it only goes to 128 megs. But when it came out, I guess that was the standard.

Right I just purchased the '6303 IDE hard drive mounting bay'. And before I return to where i purchased in a hope of retriving my funds I should warn you. All it consists of is and IDE cable, a power cable for the hard drive, 4 screws, a piece of paper. feelin' ripped off yet? Ahh yea-emu, I could of got this all round the corner for $12.50.
Im sure the scsi mounting kit is just as much a fucking rip off.
There is absloutely no point buying this. And the instructions are pretty darn bad anyway [no pictures for people unfamilar with motherboards etc]. Im pretty angry that i couldnt find out what this product consisted of before i ordered it in and paid for it. sigh.

The sampler itself is great, but im throughly unconvinced about emus business ethics / pricing policy.

EOS Version 4.60
The preset patches come across 8 cdroms. Unforunately EMU, in their infinite wisdom, dont supply a cdrom. So untill I bother to get an external case for my SCSI cd rom drive i dont know. From what i hear they ain't much. But, I sneer at people who my machines for the presets.

Editing the voices is like picking candy. Dead easy. The large screen means you never come across bullshit like "ARG DIS=100". There is a lot you can do with the editing as well.

Unforunatlely the software interface for this is crap. Apart from the shear ulginess of it [a bad rendering of the front of the sampler], it compleaty mimics the interface of the sampler except you use a mouse to interact with it! Whats the point it that. The advantage of having things like a computer editor is so you can layout a large amount of info, nicely, on the screen, and get even 'deeper' in your editing. Fortunately this softare is not necessary, unlike say an S2000.

The manual is big, and thick, and heavy. [and ring bound]. But for all of its volumous nature there were pleanty of questions i had that went unanswered. And there are very few interesting examples to try out in the manual. This would of been very useful, particularly with the Z-Plane filters which are cool but its kinda hard to firgure out whats a good way of using it, without spending hours experimenting.

The only other samplers I've used are the EPS-16, ASR-10, & ESI-2000. Its way more feature stacked than any of them [and easier to use].

I've got a rackmount version. I dont know what the polyphony is, but that hasnt been a problem yet.

This sampler comes with two effect buss. And the option to buy some more at a very high price. The effects that come with it are pretty dissapointing. The reverbs are fine [and you get pleanty to chose from], and the delays are similarly ok. But everything is kinda crap, and there isnt alot to chose from. Particularly the distorions. We are the most uninspiring sounds ive heard yet. Emu go and pirate the code to QuadraFuzz and put in out as an expansion. Futhermore you definately dont get any 'werid' effects, like a lofi [but you can do that to a sample], gran synth, envelope filter, etc etc etc. Even/especially a nice EQ to plugin here would be good. Im disapointed to read that the EFX-32 expansion board [which is out of my price range anyway] sticks to this bias towards reverbs and delays as well.

There are pleanty of expansion cards. All cost pleanty. some should of been standard. Shipping a high end sampler without and Digital I/O [other than SCSI] is just fucking stingy. Futhermore Im disapointed that the machine didnt come with a built in zip drive...or the option to install one internally. Severals samplers have gone that way and it seems pretty wise.

The midi is fine. IF you buy the digital IO card you get another 16channels of midi I/O as well, so you can have a 32 channel sampler. There is no explicit 'Panic - all note off' button, but jumping to sample edit, does this just fine anyway.

As far as i can tell the on board sequencer is a waste of space. But I will give it some more time one day, maybe. Its very feature limited.

My main BONE with this box, and its one that i wouldnt expect, is that all the outputs seem really low in level. I've goofed with the headroom, and +12dB output options, but it all seems a bit quiet.

The preset editing capabilites are great. There is one window in voice edit that rules. It's un glamoursly called CORDS. in this window they have grouped togethor all the modulation functions for each voice. And you can have up to 24 of them. I've never gone anywhere near usething them all. But it really is this section that allows you to make really intersting sounds. Well this and the filter section.

The filters are fine, and there is a lot to chose from. Often when I want to create a voice, the first part of it i will edit is the filter, because that [usually] drastically effects the sound more than anything else. I particuarly like the contrary bandpass filter, though the manual does very little to explain how this differs in operation from a normal bandpass. My slight bitch here is that unlike spinning a mod wheel to change filter settings, you have to retrigger a sample to hear filter changes if you did it in the filter window. And resonance is only modulatable as a note-on value - but i dont really care.

The sample editing functions are pretty exelent. and you have some really interesting options to mangle sounds here. LoFi, Doppler, Convultion. I don't think beat munging is as cool as emu make out... I dont often make beat music though... but as far as i can tell it would be vastly more useful if it acted as a recycle-chop your samples up type deal.

One of the few things that dissapointed me with this box is that there are a few neat features present in the old old old ensoniq samplers [eps 16, Asr-10] that arent in this much newer sampler. [Esp given EMU is now EMU-Ensoniq]. These are looping. All the emus only support forward looping. And whilst you can do some neat things [x-fade loops, loop release]. This doesnt make up for reverse/bidirectional looping. Futhermore because the loop info is stored as part of the sample and not the voice. to have the same sample with different looping setting means you need two copies of the sample loaded...meaning uses twice as much ram. sigh.

And the volume envelope window is a standardish 6 part [AADDSSRR envelope] the ASR/EPS series had a pair of 6 part envelopes that you could crossfade between depending on the velocity of the note...hmm Im sure i can figure out how to do with in the cords window with the Auxilarly envelope. maybe that isnt such a problem...

And the Lag function is cool. You get two of them per voice, they function like a slew device from a modular synth.

I've played one solo gig with it. worked fine. I've had zero trouble with it.And can't afford a backup. So I have to rely on it. Will gig more with it in the future. But its mainly getting studio use at the mo'. It seems well built though.

Never spoken to them. From what i read here, sounds like it would stay that way even if i tried to change it.

I think all samplers are over priced, there are many pieces of software that are challenging their turff now. And despite being a long time pc user I opted for the hardware route cause i dont trust the software to work enough, certianly not for live stuff. And there is something nice about working with hardware. The interface makes it pretty efficient to use.

I got this hmm In may or june, 2001.

I love this boxes modulation capabilites. and the easy with which i can navigate it. I wish it had better looping facilites. I dont mind too much about the effects, cause i wasnt really expecting to get/use them anyway.

The other products i considered were the Yamaha A4000, and the Akai S3000XL. This is more expensive and better than either i think. but there are things to be said for them im sure. I only ended up getting this cause i found it 'relatively' cheap second hand.

I think its a shame it didnt come with some free SPDIF I/O. and its probably the only upgrade i might buy. [other than a hard drive].

I use this box quite a bit to make nice [and strange] atmospheres for soundtracks. I't does this job relatively well. It was only recently that i wrote a 'normal' piece of poppy music with it [and lots of other stuff]. The sounds i got from this were great. Although [by my choise] pretty odd.

Im also dissapointed at the lack of much in the way of user groups et al for any of the new emu samplers.

EOS 4.02
Presets --Supplied CD's are VERY limited in terms of breadth of style - they're generally boring, classic synths (poorly chosen at that) or orchestrals. Some unoriginal "ethnic" percussion, nothing that Ensoniq's ESQ-1 didn't do 15 years ago. Snore. I agree w/previous commenter that the CD-ROMs aren't filled to 680MB max, which is really cheap, considering the enormous Emax/EOS library that's floating out there.
Editing patches -- good, pretty straightforward, though the supposedly "hi-res" LCD screen isn't used for graphic filter/fx edits.
Manual is poorly organized, undetailed (esp. re: sequencing).
General Ease of Use --
Sampling is so straightfoward with the machine, you can figure it out within a few minutes of playing with it. Editing samples is a snap. If all you need is a hardware sampler that's pro-quality, you probably can't do better if you need to samplerightthisinstant.

Polyphony -- is 48-voice, i *think*.
FX -- very easy to use and work with; very pretty, i think.
Expansion -- this is my biggest beef; it CAN be expanded, but it comes pretty durn stripped-down. you have to expand it for AES/EBU, believe it or not, and for S/PDIF, and for ADAT, and for enough RAM memory to hold a decent bank of sounds, and it doesn't even come with a hard drive(!). it's a pro quality machine with amateur data/sound transfer hardware. so if you then spend the extra money for it's incredible expansion potential, you really get a pro machine. so yes it's expandable, but then, it has to be. shame on e-mu for that.
MIDI capability -- very nice, quick response; use as master or slave clock, fx can be clocked, arpeggiator, etc.
Sequencer -- onboard, very simple to use *but* can't edit note-by-note (e-mu defends this by letting you punch in/out, but whatever, that's not the same thing). you WILL need an outboard sequencer (i'm using emagic's logic) for fine-tuned sequencing.

Realism -- samples are good, but they must go through some kind of filter bc they *are* a *bit* softer sounding. it affects hard kiks and other sharp, snappy percussion samples, but only if you're really paying attention and make an A/B comparison.
Music -- it's a sampler, good for anything.
Onboard fx -- great, easy to use, musical.
Reaction to touch -- very nice, smooth, expressive and sensitive response (it's a rack, so obviously i mean response via MIDI commands).

Can i depend on it? HECK NO. I had the motherboard replaced TWICE (tho under warranty, whatever) and the LCD screen and keypad replaced once, all within three months of buying (and barely using) it.

Customer support is AWFUL. No reply to emails, or, the one time i did get a reply, it was SIX WEEKS and they didn't answer the question. in addition, it didn't come with all the CD-ROMs it was supposed to, and i requested the missing one, and they answered (six weeks later) that they'd be sending it, and they never did.

Overall --
I'd buy another sampler if i lost it/had it stolen. But I'd see what else is out there right now. It's already 2 years old or so.
What i do love about it is it's ease of use for sampling (not ease of use for anything else).
I compared it to the akai s whatever (5000?) but bought it on salesman's rec., bc he said the e-mu can read all other sample libraries and the akai can't.
i wish it had a good manual, not a fat book with screen shots and disorganized comments.
i wish it didn't break twice (note: mounted on a non-moving rack in a studio, never taken on the road and barely used at first).
does it help me make music? ... eh. it samples, i needed a sampler.
jerry's final thought: if a competitor comes out with an equally-easy-to-use sampler, but gives it customer support, a good manual and built-in memory/hard drive/digital ins'n'outs, check it out.

The equiptment i'll be reviewing is the e6400 ultra sampler, RFX-32, 128 poly and operating system 4.5. After owning a a5000 for three months and having it break down on me almost immediately it was a relief to finally get my hands on an emu. The ease of use is simplicity itself thanks to the many buttons that are spread out across its front panel. I personally though the a5000 wasn't so difficult when i got it but in comparison to the emu, well there is no comparison. The spead at which i was doing things with the emu made the limited matrix system and knobs on the yamy inadequate. Editing a sample is simplistic. The editing system on the emu is sheer intelligence perfect loop points are found nearly automically. The manual... Well it's alright but they are missing a few things in it. There definately needs to be a better getting started guide because the version i got was of zero help. There are other things that the manual doesn't go into enough detail with and you may be wondering what certain features do. There are areas that also need simplifying. Having said all that though it isn't the worst manual in the world.

I purchased the e6400 with the rfx-32 effects board. Good effects but they could have included a few special effects rather than your bog standard flange, chorous, delay etc. However, this should not put you of. Emu apparently are developing new effects which can be downloaded from the internet. The upgradeability on the emus ensures that you'll be keeping this sampler for a long time. If you need great effects with a sampler this instant get a yamaha a5000 you'll be able to mangle sounds into pblivion on it. Other features on this machine include beat munging which is nothing like recycle which various shop assistants had told me. This tool loops sounds for you perfectly (but does not rearange it) and allows you to change the tempo, swing and take out portions of the beat. I personally think emu should upgrade this feature e.g. add reverse to some drum hits or allow you to split the munged drums down the keyboard. Well luckily emu do seem commited to the expansion of thier samplers so who knows! Filters are smooth but not really that tweakable you've got q and filter frequency luckily the filters can be patched to almost anything e.g. the synthesis capabilities. One thing emu would do well to add to its filter section is a graphic display of the filters.

This is a sampler the sounds you put into it is very important. Saying that the emu seems to put something onto the sound which just makes the sound, sound better when sampled?! Softer is how i'd decribe it. Perhaps this is not so good for drums(?) but it seems to do them aswell as any other sampler. The machine has huge synthesis capabilities but the sampling features are so good it'll be while before you really get to the bones of the synthesis. This machine is good for any typ of genre. Samplers have been revolutionairy for dance music and the munging effects on this machine makes the emu particuly suitable for loop based music.

Don't know about taking it out live. I think i could depend on the machine but when it's a central feature of my studio why risk getting beer spilt on it.

Rubbish... I've emailed questions to them a few times they take days to get back to you and sometimes they can't be bothered at all. I've asked questions relating to features on the e6400 with reply's like 'we don't have that function on your sampler' only to find a couple of weeks later the very feature the sampler didn't have.

I don't know whether the e6400 is worth the price i paid. I did have trouble with the shop i bought it of because i exchanged my broken a5000 for one and paid an inflated price for the e6400 because the a5000 was old! (capitalist swines). Other equiptment i have include 2x technics + a vestex pro6 mixer, a boss sp202, korg trinity, and a electrix warp factory. If i had to keep just one piece of equiptment it would be this one it certainly helps with quick simple music production. I obviously compared this sampler to the a5000 before i got it and the akai's. The a5000 is great for features and price (absolutly amazing) unfortunately it isn't a professioanl sampler and its reliability is disgusting which highlights why it's so cheap. The akai's are overpriced with few features which is why i went for the emu - horribly overpriced but at least there are some good features.

This is my first "professional" quality sampler I've ever owned, so you will have to bear with my naivete. It took me a long time to decide that a sampler was even what I wanted (First I thought Triton). Then I toyed with Akai, Yamaha and Emu. I went with Emu because of the larger feature set, ease of use (Yamaha was not user friendly) and quality of sound. I love the sound of the clarinet and this does a great job.

In general, I've found the interface very intuitive and using the manual isn't overly complex.

I've left the polyphony at 64. I bumped up the sample memory to 128, because it takes standard 72-pin simms which you can find at Egghead auction for relatively cheap. (<$150 for 128MB).

The other nice feature is the ability to add a scsi or IDE hard-drive. The expansion kit is not necessary IF you can find a cable to take power from the motherboard to the hard-drive.

The proprietary expansion is a bit pricey.

Built in effects are numerous. Delay, reverb, chorus, flange, rooms like hall, gymnasium, tiled bathroom.

There is a mediocre 48 track sequencer...I'd recommend using a computer for sequencing...its just easier. If you need to take the sequence on the road, save it to a midi file and load it up on the sampler.

8 CDs of samples, but I was dissapointed in how sparse the CD's actually were. I dropped a 2 Gig hard-drive inside and was able to load all 8 CDs onto it (through the nifty backup utility) without maxing out the space. I'm guessing that each CD is about 200MB of actual sample - I guess Emu makes more money by not filling up the CDs in their library. :(

I can't get the external SCSI to talk to my computer. It may be my card or my cable. I penned an email to tech support, no response. I'll probably end up solving the problem on my own.

I love this thing. I've been having so much fun with it and don't regret buying it one bit. If it were lost or stolen, I'd have to figure out a way to replace it, because it is such a great tool for musical expression.

The one feature I wish this thing had was a way to use different scales.

I have had my 6400 for about two weeks. I couldn't resist the opportunity to comment. I will make it clear that I have alot to learn about the machine but so far so good.
As this is a sampler there are of course no presets but the sound quality of the unit is as good as what you put into it. It adds very little noise. I think I see what some say about the sound of the emu being "softer" than other (i.e. AKAI). But then again to my ears I think of it as smooth as opposed to mushy. The Akai's ARE probably punchier for drums.
Editing is very easy and the 6400 gives you many options. The filters are lovely and I have found each one to be useful. I love the routing this things gives. The "cord" system it uses is brilliant. You can route your sounds through so many controllers and filters it isn't even funny. That is the main reason I got it over the Akai 5000. It gives so many ways to manipulate a sound. I have alot to learn about how to maximize all of these options but experimenting is alot of fun.
The EOS link (as of 12/17/00) is hardly worth installing. Not that it is hard to install. It is just not that useful. I am hoping they will do some serious work on it. As of now there are many functions that are not accessable with it. I am blanking on what they are at the moment.
The manual is great. I have never used an EMU before and after a couple of days of playing. I was able to do quite a bit. There is alot to cover but they devote over 400 pages to it.

Stock polyphony is 64 voices. Which for my needs (experiemtal Hip Hop, etc) is plenty. This is probably going to limit you if you score films or do alot of orchestral programming but it is expanable to 128 voices which should set you.
It also comes with 16MB of ram. This can be quite a bit if you are mostly sample 1 to 2 bar loops and progam around them. If you go crazy and start loading huge piano libraries things, of course change. I am going to max mine out to 128MB ASAP.
There are many expanansions in addition to the ones mentioned above. You can add the following: 8 more outputs, word clock, hard drive mounting kits, add a 2nd SCSI port, ASCI keyboard interface, sounds ROMs (orbit, planet Phatt, etc) and ADAT intefaces. These are all quite expensive though. By the time you add the polyphony upgrade you could by another sampler and have the same polyphony as well everything else that goes with said sampler.
The MIDI capabilities are very full. The only "down" side is that it comes with only one MIDI port. But the one you get is handle flexibly by the software inside. As I said above it allows you to assign just about any controller to just about any source or destination. I am sure the more experienced can find limitations but this MIDIOT will be happy for a while, I think.
The sequencer is only okay. I would not recommend using it as anything but something to tide you over until you get a decent program like (Logic, Cubase or Cakewalk, etc). There are 48 track and it does have cut/paste. It also has input quantize but nothing compared to the options of a dedicated sequencer. It is realtively easy to put data in but its editing is not very deep. I even like the sequencer on my old ASR-10 alot better in that respect.
The FX are pretty good to my ears. There are quite a few usable reverbs, choruses, and delays. There are two sections "A" and "B" each can be routed into the other. I am definitely going to get a dedicated multi-fx unit though.

The sounds that come with it (all 8 CD-ROMs) are okay for the most part. I am honestly still wading through them all. There is alot of variety but many of them are not that great. There are a few string patches I can use though. The drums are okay but not great. There is a great amount of 3rd part stuff available though that I hear is very good.
Aside from that you get very clear sound and little noise from the sounds you put in. That is whats important to me anyway.

So far the machine has locked up exactly once. I am not sure if my newbie-ism caused it or what but I have been spending many long nights play with it so that is a decent batting average in my book.
I use it strictly for home studio work and seriously doubt I would ever use it live. Not because it couldn't handle it as much as I just dont play out much. I am not the best one to ask about this.

I have not had to call them yet. Before I bought it I did email one of their reps who spends ALOT of time on the emulator mailing list. He never got back to me. My questions were a little trivial in retrospect, maybe that is why. I don't hold that against them really. The users from the list seem to have had varied experiences.

If it were lost or stolen. I would likely get another one. Maybe i would get a E5000 and live with its 4 outputs.
The more I use it and learn about it the more I like it. The first couple of days were really frustrating because I was starting totally from scratch but now I am getting very attached.
I have been sampling since 1990. I have had an Ensoniq EPS and ASR-10 and have played with a few AKAI MPCs. For a minute I thought about getting another ASR-10 (because I no longer have my old one) but now I am glad I went this way.
I compare this mostly to the AKAI 5000. I liked the AKAIs wav support, large screen, dual midi, and its standard ASCI keyboard features.
I got the EMU because the OS bugs in the Akais scared me away and I wanted the sound shaping possibilites the emu had. I wish the emu had the above features but I am not sorry one bit.
Overall, this is a very musical machine and it is ver capable of making some nice noise as well. I am slowly becoming at one with it and I can't wait to see what I can make with it once I get more comfortable.

Using EOS.402 classic upgrade.
Sampler, no presets.
Patches are edited very easy and deeply both. One of the
nicest LCD interfaces. EOS Link SMDI editor makes things worse
because of its bugs.
The manual is good, at least much better than Akai 3200's.

POLYPHONY:
The polyphony is 64 voices (128 voice upgrade available from E-mu).

OUTS:
8 outs ( 4 stereo pairs )

FX:
I use the FX-board upgrade - almost useless. Very boring effects,
also it seems adding noise to main outputs.

EXPANSION:
A WHOLE LOT of expasions: AES - SPDIF, Adat outputs, 128 voices,
32 MIDI channels, 16 analog outputs. Read about them at www.emu.com.
But FX option mentioned above is the worst of them.

MIDI:
Responds to user defined (for each voice) midi controllers.
All standard (Vel, Pan, Mod, Pitch) present as well.
But user-defined controllers are limited to range 0-32.
So my Roland MCR-8 is unusable for tweaking with its hardcoded
ctrl values.

SEQUENCER:
Present - 48 tracks with EOS 4.01. Did not try it.
I use my e6400 with cakewalk.

MORE:
Filters are nice. Dynamically allocated, per-voice assignable,
about 20 different filter algorythms. Especially I love 2 formant
filters - very impressive in ambient parts.
What is astonishing about this machine is its so called 'patch
cord architecture' when every parameter can be modulated by
another at your will. The SCSI hard disk compatibility is very
good. With EOS 4.02 it can use drives up to 19 GB. I simlpy
went to store, bought an inexpesive HDD (3.2 GB), plugged it, and
now it works. For instance older Akais can't stand nothing
bigger than 512 MB.
E6400 can import patches from AKAI and Roland CDROMs.

Everything is OK. It can be used in any kind of music from film
scores and pop'n'rock to industrial (which I do).
Some say Emulators sound a bit weak (in comparison with Yamaha A3000,
for instance). But I think it's personal opinion. I love
specific Emulator sound - i've read that COIL uses it in particular.
The dynamic reaction is good, and also it can be tuned for each
voice.

Shure, it's reliable in studio. But it is a very complex machine
with HD drive inside. Gigs can be different - some like to kick
and drop their gear. I don't think Emulator can stand it.

E-mu a couple of times replied my e-mails within a week.
Yes, I puchased some upgrades from E-mu ditributors in Moscow, Russia
(AT-trade). They did their job.

Definitely this machine is great, and I miss it if it were stolen
or broken. But my eyes are on E4 Ultra and their announced R-chip
FX board (the only reason I did not give 10s to all the topics).
I want to buy the Ultra machine as the pair for mine.
Best wishes, try Emulators.