E-MU Emax 1

load the operating system, and if you wanna sample, hit the sample button. From there, just hit the number pad.. the front of the box tells you what each number can do.. threshold, sample rate, sample start, sample stop, etc.. My screen is a little dim.. your may be too, cuz their damn near 20 years old!

the analog filters are the shiznit! There's a lot of stuff you can do with this sampler. I use an MPC2000XL.. the both of these together are like starski and hutch..

for drums, ohh my goodness!! You haven't heard anything untill you use one of these. I layer my drums in the MPC, and then sample them on the emax.. so instead of having a buncha sounds making up 1 snare, I now have 1 original sound. It adds punch to anything you sample. http://www.soundclick.com/creamofbeats Check out the beat "Truth", or the track "old&dirty" (the end of the beat will show what the analog filters can do"

Never crashed on me.. the power supplies are hard to find, so turn it off when your not using it.

Yea right! It's almost 20 years old! Search for the 'emulator archive' they may be able to help ya.

It samples at 12bit, converts it to 8 bit OUCH! It is the closest thing to the classic SP-1200, and costs a LOT less.. no one is gonna know it's not the actual thing, not even a die hard sp-1200 user. This is a hip-hop classic, flat out. No pro-tools plug in can duplicate it.. this is the dirtiest of the dirt.

I use EMAX I OS 3.2 - enthousiastic old sampler with excellent filters - do not expect sampling minuts and minuts of CD quality sample: EMAX was born to knead your best sounds. All instruction are written on the keyboard, which is a brilliant idea. OS and sounds are on floppy SD disk, which slows down the use of EMAX.

8 voices polyphony, total MIDI implementation, outstanding filters and modulation... 1 Mega RAM (non-extensible) This old sampler is nearly a vintage! Seek one if you want your home-studio to sound differently from those cristallin yamaha and akai samplers.

Fat and warm are the samples... Just take some analog waveform and start the game!

EMAX I was built as a tank. Take care of the floppy drive...

Nearly a vintage sampler, it's warmness and power and expressiveness makes that I love this old fat machine. I would never sell it to anyone!

I have the EMAX SE HD with the highest version software. This baby is never leaving my clutches. Editing is a breeze, the filters are indespensible! The left and right (pitch, mod) wheels can be assigned any number of functions like crossfade between voices, or filtering. I use the mod wheel for filtering and it's perfect!
The hard drive is quick, and it's the original one that came with the unit, still rocking hard after 12 or so years! I can't imagine a day without this baby. When I get home this baby is the first thing turned on and used.

Keyboard action is clunky but classic EMU.

The chorus effect can be very cool on some sounds, annoying on others.

As I stated the sequencer is great as a replay device using externaly prepared sequences. By itself, it's kinda no fun.

This beast is perfect for a more gritty edge to Garage house, techno, or industrial.

Velocity is very adjustable with several preset curves that you can select from, but use the manual!!

I hope I can find a rack mount version in as good a shape as mine for back up. I'm using a weird mix of samplers from AKAI, ROLAND, and Emu Systems, and the Max is my main squeeze. Also, live, this baby is always there for me. Running Cakewalk 6.0 or Vision on my laptop I can actually store bass sequences on the Emaxes' on board sequencer and have it synced to cakewalk or vision and it plays right along with the other sequencer! I can even store sequences from the PC into the Emax and use it as an all in one playback sequencer for drum and bass parts while me and the other guys perform over the top. Great for smaller less demanding gigs. Just take the Emax, and whatever other instruments and leave the Laptop at home!

Emu, well they are Emu, and this thing is long forgotten in their book. I've learned to depend on fellow Emax users via the internet or the Emulator Archive. Those guys know their P's and Q's on this baby and are always helpful.

If I lost this one today, tomorrow I would be looking hard for a replacement. I use it with other more modern samplers and it's still a hard favourite for the "sound" and ease of use. I use Akai SO1's, S700, and S1100, Emu ESI-32, Roland S-550 and Casio FZ samplers as well. I'm kinda a old sampler guru type. I do a large amount of sound designing and sampling/mangling. Never use those presets on a recording. Get a sound, tweek it, and make it your own is my creedo!

The eight outputs take up a whole mixer for individual processing which rocks with drum parts!

Very versatile, and so CHEAP now that they just can't be beat! Be careful of shipping on these bad boys, solder joints that old are easily cracked durring shipping and the unit can look rock-solid and be fu&#ed! I got burned on ebay purchasing one from California, and shipped it here to Florida only to get it DOA and was stuck with it. $400.00 with shipping charges down the drain! I wouldn't really mess with one without the SE or HD for over $150.00! The SE HD are what really work it for me.
I have a HUGE library of custom and factory banks to share or trade with anyone interested. Email me at johnb@mpinet.net. I have the updated SE HD manual and it's the Bible for this thing. Kinda humorous as well. My next venture is to acquire an older MAC and the cable/software to edit the samples using the RS 422 port. Can't wait! For under $300.00 this thing is a complete STEAL!!!