E-MU PK-6

Version 1.01.
Most of presets(and there are 1024 of them) are good, especially strings, drums, eps, basses.
Editing is very easy, very e-mu ;) Comes with good thick manual that is helpful.

Polyphony is 64. Action is nice, it can be tweaked.
Surprizingly good effects. It is expandable with sound roms, there are some good ones out there, like Beat Garden for electronic sounds or XL rom, Orchestral, etc...
Midi is very good as well. Unfortunatly no sequencer.

Most of presets(and there are 1024 of them) are good, especially strings, drums, eps, basses.
Some nice pianos, also good bells, percussions. PK would work for many types of music, it's the most general purpose board in Proteus Keys series. Velocity action isn't the best, but better then many.

For the price i paid it is a steal! I am keeping it 'cos any alternative would cost much more. I replaced korg n364 with it, in some ways korg was better, but in terms of realistic sounds PK is much better. I also own Korg z1, X-station and softsynths: Absynth3, Pro53 and Imposcar.
PK would worth it for electric pianos or strings alone.

it's fairly easy to use with a fine sized LCD

this is a great controler with 4 assignable knobs that can be reassigned easily!
the keys are heavy and bouncy which i like them alot!
reguart to the sound pitch setting, as on many keyabords and synths the pitch band or often set at +/-2 instead of full octive.

i'm also supprised by the amount of patterns and phraeses are in this keyabord when you press "Audition" almost every sound have it's own short melody to be play and can be recorded into midi onto the sequencer!! it's not a groovebox tho!! check it out!

i would not think the accustic insturments are as good astoday's standard but its at Roland JV1080 level and as being mentioned the bass/efx sounds are phat and punchy and the chorded sounds are great to perform on the fly!
the onboard effects are fine and does the job, but i just wish there are more varity.
it's quite a responisve insturment as most of the sounds response to aftertouch and the controler have varity of velocity curves to choose from.
for the money it sounded decent

it's still alive!

as a synth keyabord it's a 10 for value, 7 for the overall sound
as a controler it's a 9 becasue the lack quick of octive jump feature
one again it's a great controler the aftertouch and semi weighted keys plus the additional sounds!! makes it a much better main controler than M-audio or Edriol at about the same price range!

the sound editing feature is quite easy to operate

no... quick octive key transpose is quite a let down!

all the sounds are sorted (one reviewer said it's not...haha yeah.. right...)

all the patches' pitch range are set at +-2...., in order to do a full octive jump with pitch wheel.... need to go in to patch edit menu to chage that perticully one.... yet... the pitch shifting sound really bad... feel like it's a actaully sample pitch shifting... instead of midi pitch shift

....dont care about the poly, since i'm using this as a controler mainly
i like the keyabord action~ it's heavier~ fast spring~ but a bit loud when the key bounces back
the aftertouch is decent
can change the CC# for the 4 knobs really fast

wish there a ribon controler haha... but oh well...

bass sounds are some of the phatest and punchiest!!!

wind/string/orch.... err...... well...

pads.... only few... very few sound okay....

piano.... okay... fine ... i guess

epiano.... a few good one... lots .... @#$@#$

synths/efx are actually really nice and phat!

drums... with a really nice collections of sounds!!
BUT too bad... with no GM spec, it can't use it as drum machine.... since theres no way you can pan every sounds in the drum patches, nor adjest the send and volume... well..... i guess.... they dont want to pay to patent


there are too many pathes are in 5th 7th...etc chords.... a bit way too much, well,....this can greatly impress newbies or non piano players....
chord patches.... are too commen on EMU roms.... prefer the midi chords like on the roland units

effects are ok... not enough varity.... not try to compite with roland or yamaha...

for some reason sometime the knob will send messages itself.... without me touching it... err....
but it happens rarely

i guess... there will be no real support anymore

not good looking that is for sure
if ur going to buy a all round synthkey, this one should not be considered
this is not a all around synth as EMU claimed, it's good for (house, hiphop, tehcno/experimental kind of eletronic music only (not for trance!!)

anyway, as a controler, it's great! the keyaction is better than other midicontroler with no sounds and "no Aftertouch"!!
plus it's always nice to have some sounds ready to play anytime, without the need of software running~

The PK-6 is much easier to navigate than it's rack mount cousin the Proteus 2000, (which I also own) because it has buttons you can press to take you right to the parameter you want to edit, instead of scrolling that damn cursor around endlessly. There are also software editors out there, if you absolutely can't handle the interface.

Has four realtime controller knobs that control the most common parameters, but can be assigned to just about anything. It is very easy to tweak Filters, Volume Envelopes, LFO, FX on the fly with the knobs right there, I love it.

The front panel command function buttons can also be programmed to select presets (even on another synth) or can be used to trigger and latch notes. Pretty cool.

I think EMU's manuals are well written, much better than Roland's. This is good because EMU synths are very powerful and take a while to learn how to use to their full potential.

64 note polyphony, but I wish it had 128 like the Proteus 2000. The keyboard action is solid, not flimsy, and includes velocity and aftertouch.

Four layer voice architecture with velocity switching\crossfading. Each voice has the excellent EMU Z-plane filters to mangle your sounds with. Two effects processors, they are decent, but can only be used globally on all channels at once or by preset for one channel only.

Pretty full MIDI capabilites, the realtime controller knobs can transmit MIDI also. "Beats" mode play only sequencer is kind of cool for playing grooves to practice soloing on top of. Synchable arpeggiators that can run on all on sixteen channels at once if you are crazy enough!

Comes with 32 MB of ROM samples, which can be expanded to 128 MB with three of EMU's expansion ROMs (you'll have to look for them on EBAY because they are no longer made and some are highly coveted).

Like the P2k, it has a set of Main Audio Outs and Sub Outs. No SPDIF digital out, though.

Can store 64 User Multi-setups and 100 User Arrpegiator patterns.

PK-6 has the Proteus Pop ROM, not the Composer ROM from the Proteus 2000. All the raw samples are the same, but the preset programming on the Pop ROM is MUCH better IMO. Lots of good synths, EPs, organs, sound effects, drum and percussion sounds. The pianos are OK, but not great, get the ZR ROM for Coakley's Perfect Piano. On the low end are the orchestral, brass and ethnic sounds, but this can be remedied with other ROMs. Yes, there are a lot of garbage presets, (hits and other goofy sounds) but any synth has it's share of those.

As most EMU owners will attest, you get the best results by tweaking or programming your own sounds. I have found that many 'thin sounding' presets are only a single layer, and can be made usable by doubling the layer and tweaking the filters and FX. It IS work, so if you just want to use presets and never program, this synth might not be for you.

The "Randomize Preset" function is a blast to play with if your bored.

Seems pretty sturdy. Very lightweight and portable but made of strong plastic. As long as you dont drop it, I'm sure you could gig with it without a backup.
My only concern is the front panel buttons, they dont really feel very 'solid'.

Forget about it. EMU discontinued all their hardware instruments and now just make sound cards and software samplers. Too bad. I guess everyone wants to use a laptop on gigs now. Not me.

I would buy it again if I could find one. I've always liked EMU stuff, I also own a Proteus 2000 and a Planet Earth module. I bought this PK6 used and loaded it up with the Vintage, Sounds of the ZR, and Ensoniq Project ROMs from my Proteus 2000. Wow! Now I have a little portable monster of a keyboard with TONS of cool sounds in it. I'm mainly a guitarist, and this fills my needs just right. I have no desire to shell out the big bucks for a Motif or Triton.

These EMU keyboards are really underrated and a great value. The only thing I wish it had is a full onboard sequencer. If it had a sampler and sequencer it would be a 10, but for what I paid, it's definitely a 9. If you are in the market for an inexpensive, good quality synth, look for one of these. You might have problems finding some of the expansion ROMs though, since EMU stopped making them and their remaining stock was snatched up a few months ago. You can find them on EBAY from time to time.

I don't get the preset order. It makes no sense. Any musician would've put similar sounds together. But no. The presets are laid out in no logical order, whatsoever. Luckily, EMU saw that it made no sense, and allowed users to search by type of instrument. Unfortunately, the categories don't make sense either. One really great electric piano sound sits in the "Keys" category, another sits in the "Jam" category. Of course, you can always just scroll through the 153 unrelated sounds that sit between them...

Programming is pretty similar - not hard, just dumb. There's a bunch of really great instruments to start out with, but accessing them is a silly process. They should've just included them (individually) in the user presets.

Oh well.

yeah, it's got all the bells and whistles. like, literally.

This thing has so many dumb and useless sounds, it's unbelievable. Seriously, unless you are recording music for video games, almost all of the patches are silly.

But - BUT - the wurlis, tines, rhodes, organs, electric pianos, and vibes sound AMAZING. The synths are pretty cool. For something that's not a piano (and for the price I paid) the pianos are okay.

It seems really well built. Very solid.

I've never dealt with them. the manual is pretty nice. it smells good.

I'm happy with this keyboard. I'd be even happier if they laid out the presets in a logical way, and if they'd key their stupid guitar sounds to themselves. If yer in the market for an easy ep/organ option, the PK-6 should be on your short list.

Very easy to use this synth. This is the first keyboard I've purchased & I did not understand a lot of the terminology before I bought it, but learned a lot after programming it. The menus are easy to navigate and patches are a breeze to edit. The manual is good, but not exceptional. It helps newbies like myself in a lot of ways, but doesn't cover every aspect.

For the price, the features are a 10. The 64 note polyphony is good, but not great. I can make it skip out regularly on some of my large patches. Expansion capabilities are good with three ROM slots. MIDI, velocity and aftertouch are great. The feel of this keyboard is fantastic. Not as solid as some boards, but awesome for the price. Effects and filters are great for the price.

Some good, some bad. What is disappointing is that some of the patches are good over two or three octaves, but then they have three or four notes that sound bad. Some patches are good over only part of the keyboard.

The sounds/patches are not ALL bad as a few of the above reviewers have noted. I've created 6 or 7 really great piano patches (email me if you are interested) by some fancy programming (it just takes a bit of work, the reviewer above who said that he couldn't program ANY good patches just doesn't know how to program). Most of the patches are fine over the whole range (or at least the normal range of the instrument) & they are definately usable & very tweakable.

The piano patches are very good in spots, but probably an 7.5 overall because of a few bad samples. I've gotten a few patches to a 9 with some programming tricks.

Organs are good to great 9

Pads & Synth sounds are great (moogs, minis, saws etc), I've made some killer patches off of these 10.

basses are good 8

guitars are ok 6

strings are good 8

brass/horns are bad 4

rhodes are ok 6

wurleys and tines are great 9

drums and percussion are great 9

Hmmm. I've had a few problems in this department. Every once in awhile I have problems with some slight static and clicking. I've heard that this is due to fluctuating current & have not tried to have it fixed as it is only happens occasionally. I also have a problem with the MIDI knobs resetting themselves occasionally in the first few minutes after I turn it on (others have described this too). It seems to go away after about 10-15 minutes & only happens about every third or fourth time I turn it on. Weird.

Not sure how much you'll get with these boards being discontinued.

I'm pretty happy with this keyboard. I bought it about a year and a half ago & have had time to get used to it and put it throught its paces. Some of the sounds need tweaking, but overall, this board is great for the price. I don't think you can beat it for what it's selling for used on e-bay right now.

very straight forward. Piano presets are a little thin i thought (i usually beef these up by stacking presets & a little outboard EQ)
Awesome drum kits--though it sounds like a little reverb is on each hit making them sound a little samey overall.
Editing patches is fairly easy--i usualy try to do things without consulting the manual at first & the pk-6 is vey user friendly
The manual is very comprihensive

64 voice poly with built in effects---expansion is word for this keyboard--3 extra slots for ROM, full midi implimention
no onboard sequencer--no biggie to me
keyboard action is good for a plastic key setup--i've used worse

this ships with the composer sound set from EMU--like i said earlier, i think the pianos are little thin--but the strings, orchestra, synths, basses and drums are very, very good. I think this is a great keyboad to complement all the zany analogs out there these days, you never know when you need a good clarinet. effect are rich and deep--this is also one of the quietest keyboards i've ever used, virtually silent

i've only had this for about 3 months and i've never had a problem
i actually left this on for 2 straight weeks without a hitch
i don't gig with keyboards

haven't dealt with them on this keyboard--but i bought a emax in 1993
and emu was very helpful in a couple situations

a very professional sounding keyboard with great effects and truly awesome expansion capabilities. i bought this brand new for less than 400 bucks, an astounding bargin in my opinion. I have a collection of keyboards ranging from a juno106 to a nord lead 2x to a moog source and the pk6 is an instant classic. if this were stolen it would make me sad, so lets not even mention that. the one thing i wish this had was digital outs, i honestly think this should be a standard feature on all music based equipment from the cheapest dj mixer to high end workstations. i had the pk6 up and running in minutes with instant gradification--worth every penny

i thought it was alittle difficult to figure out at first. (especially the simultanious arpeggiators) thankfully the manual is well written and quite helpfull

well i payed 400$ for this board and it does every thing i need it to do and more. wich is electronic (trance and ebm mostly)

I was not and am still not too impressed with the sounds on the composer's rom. the pianos organs and strings are usefull, but alot and the synths are good ,but alot of the extra sounds are alittle to jazz/fusion for me. I upgraded it with the beat garden(cool) and vintage synth (very cool especially when used with my electrix filter queen. makes for very convincing analogue synth sound. i've got it sounding damn close to a Nord Lead and did alesis Ion emulation dead on regarding filter sweeps)I thought the onboard filters where kinda thin. 8 for the composer's rom 9 for the other roms not kurzweil but pertty damn good.

Well the volume knob stopped working the day i got. other than that everything else has worked well. i trust gigging with (with a good case)

takes alittle while to get the warenty registration back. other than that i havne't delt with them i have an e-mu authorized service center in my city

10 great value! i love it even though the volume knob messed up the first day i got it. add some extra effects and eq and you've got a top notch board (and great midi controller)

version 1.0 bought 11-2003 for $319 NEW.

Presets sound good, but I am not much of a programmer, so I need good sounds out the box. Manual is top of the line.

HATED the keyboard acyion at first but I did some adjusting on the keyboard action by editing MASTER VELOCITY CURVE to 3 and KEYBOARD VELOCITY CURVE to soft #1......Now it's got a GREAT FEEL! Not expressive like my old ENSONIQ VFX-SD but I'm used to it now.

Pianos are quite good. Looking for the Expansion Rom Z-76 which they just discontinued for PERFECT PIANO BY WILLIAM CLOAKEY. No luck though. Strings are weak in my opinion. VFX-SD blew it away, plus I had some after market single string (VOICE CRYSTAL) which was by the the best I ever heard including TRITON. Drums are awesome. the effects are there. Works great for Rock and Ballads. Bottom line is you either can sing, play, or write or you can't. And all the latest gizmo's won't help you. It's the song that matters after all. And this modest puppy is ALL you need at a GREAT price.

Had it 3 months with no problems at all. I only use one keyboard at a time on stage and would feel safe with it.

Great tech support---ALWAYS patient with my needs.

ABSOLUTELY i would buy another one if I lost it.........They are blowing these babies out, and to get a professional sounding keyboard for under $400 is UNREAL. I have been playing for 14 years. I needed a board after having lost my ENSONIQ VFX-SD & KORG TRITON STUDIO and because of budget was looking at portable keyboards like CASIO......ugh!!! Well I took the CASIO back and another salesman at guitar center sold me this one for $319. I can write on it and the beats are inspiring...for $319....YOU CAN'T TOUCH THE VALUE ANYWHERE!

This is version 1.0...the only? version I think that there is. I submitted a review previously, but I had onlt owned the unit for a week or so, and since then I have had the chance to really get into it. The manual has been helpful at times, but generally, when you get around the board and start playing with it, you can see how the OS works. I must say that for practice with the band and with the few patches that I have made, it is very versatile. Having a bigger viewscreen would be a major improvement, but I understand that raises the cost.

It has 64 Note Polyphony, and nowadays, that is pretty much standard. I will say that with up to four layers per sound, you can eat the poly very quickly. The effects seem to be fine. I do like the separate Chorus on each part of the voice; that works out well. I have had to add a lot of chorus to my patches for me to like them. It is an expressive board and it blends well with its friends in the recording studio. There is definitely a 'sound' to it that makes it different from the others. There is not a sequencer on this unit, but there is an arpeggiator and it does 16 at once. Not too bad. I have not used the sequencer yet but palying around with it has some fun stuff. I do seem to like the one on my Roland XP60 better. I suppose the one things that really bugs me is that it always seems to me in Multi-mode. I like to use it for a just a few patches when I am using it as a module onstage (to compliment the XP60). There is a string patch Bank 0 #79 (BroadFilmPad) and when I go into sequencer mode on the XP60, I get all of the other channels on the Emu to play too. I do not like that. When I simply turn them down, that helps, but all of that extra polyphony is still being used up by sounds I do not want to hear. I would like to have a Patch Mode where is in monotimbral or something so I do not have to unhook the MIDI cable. Maybe I am stupid or something....If you know, please help.

The sounds to me are a mixed bag. The pianos are so empty to me. I am not sure what others are talking about when they say the pianos are good. To me, they are very empty and almost sound like my pianos on my Alesis QS6 (the original). They are very lifeless and increasing the Cutoff Filter simply gives them a brighter but grainy tone. Too much chorus puts me in the ragtime mood, so I am lucky to have the Roland that I have (not that it is super like my Technics was) but it cuts through the mix and sounds very good). I do like the Rhodes sounds and the Wurly and Clav sounds (just add more chorus to them). I do like the patch I talked about earlier. It really supplements my string sounds in my mix. I like the EP as well, it has that FM like quality to it, but yet sounds warmer. The woodwinds are marginal at best and sound better in an ensemble (which is how I use them anyway). The leads sounds to me do nothing. The only board that has good leads (for me anyway) have been my Ensoniq SQ2 and the Alesis QS6. Those two are great for sounds like that. The strings are passable, but I would rather stick with Patch 79 and strings from the Rolands and the Ensoniq. I do like the Super Beats Mode though and it is fun to play with every now and then. I do wish there were more pads in this thing, since I am trying to only bring 2 boards to my gigs now. I still find myself bringing the Korg X5 to the gigs to make the pad sounds (which means I gotta bring a mixer, etc....)

I think that I could use this unit without a backup, but my sounds would be severly limited. The pianos just don't have the sustain that I would like and it just doesn't cut through as a main board for me. As a second board it really works well and that is how I use it. I do use it sometimes at practice by itself, but that is just for the time and laziness factor. Overall, it is a good board and the expandability of it makes it worth while. I will be getting some expansion ROM for it and I think that will help too.

I have not dealt with customer support with either E-Mu or Ensoniq. I suppose that they are like most of the others....not very helpful unless you are willing to pay $$ for the help.

Overall, I think that it is a good investment. You have to know what kind of board you are buying, becuase they all have their own place in the audio society. I have yet to see a board that can do all styles and be all things and be very well priced.
Here is how I use my setup:

Ensoniq SQ2 - Oboe, Violin, Flute, Clarinet, Strings, Soprano Sax.
Korg X5 - Pads, Lead Sounds, Guitar (lead sounds), sax.
E-Mu PK6 - String (Patch #79) and EP type sounds.
Roland JV880 - Drums and Bass (On sub outs), EP (on main outs).
Roland XP60 - Drums and Bass (on sub outs), Piano, Strings, some Synth Pads.
Alesis QS6 - Leads, Pads, Synthy type stuff.
Yamaha TG33 - Pads (great vector stuff with it).
Yamaha DJX - Dance beats and that is about it.

The point is that you can have great sounds if you buy the right boards. I stress this all the time. I think that if we were all just a little more educated when buying our equipment, we would be much happier with the results. I have made some big purchasing mistake in the past (I remember a Kawai KC10 that just sucked big time and my Yamaha QY10) I also remember unloading a Kawai K3M, two Korg Poly 800's, two Poly 800 MKIIs, Ensoniq Mirage...should I go on?

Anyway, I like the E-mu. It is a good instrument with a lot of possibilites. To be honest, I would buy another one too, but I might make it one of the other models of *K-6 or the Ensoniq Halo. I would like to have a variety (just like I already do).


Gear I currently own;

Alesis QS6
E-Mu PK6 (this is reviewed here)
Ensoniq SQ2 32 Voice
Korg X5
Roland JV880
Roland XP60
Yamaha DJX
Yamaha TG33
Roland VG-8