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software for vintage EMU samplers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features

Following features are supported by EMXP version 3.11 (new = red):

 

Disks and files:

-          Compatibility with widely spread file formats:

o    Emax-I and Emax-II EMX file layout (.EM1, .EM2 files)

o    Digidesign SoundDesigner for Emulator II files

o    Digidesign SoundDesigner for Emax files

o    HxC floppy emulator files for EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Akai S1000 and Emulator-III/IIIX operating systems (.HFE files)

o    SoundFont2 files (.SF2)

o    Emulator-III and Emulator-IIIX bank (aka ESI-v2) files (.EB3, .E3B, .E3X)

o    ESI-v3 bank files (.ESI)

o    DREM Emulator-II hard disk image files (.DSK)

-          Compatibility with the HxC floppy emulator for  EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II and Akai S1000:

o    Native support for HxC .HFE files: all EMXP functions available for any other file type are also available for .HFE files

o    Moreover EMXP also supports the input files for the HxCFloppyEmulator software

-          EMAX-I and EMAX-II EMX files (.EM1, .EM2) and EMAX operating system files (.EMX) as input for creating .HFE files

-          EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III OS and Emulator-IIIX OS floppy disk image files (.EM1FD, .EM2FD, .E3OFD, .IMG) as input and output for converting to/from .HFE files

-          Emulator I disk images (.EMUFD files)

-          Emulator II disk images and OS overlay files (.EMUIIFD files)

-          Akai S1000 disk images (.IMG files)

-          Floppy disk support: (not available yet when using EMXP in Wine on macOS)

o    Read, write and format Emax-I and Emax-II floppy disks (DSDD disks, 800 Kb)

o    Read, write and format Emulator-III and Emulator-IIIX operating system floppy disks (DSDD disks, 800 Kb)

o    Read, write and format Akai S1000 floppy disks (both DD and HD)

-          Hard disk (ZIP, CF, ...) and CD-ROM support: (not available when using EMXP in  Wine on macOS, but a work-around is explained in the EMXP macOS manual)

o    Read, write and format EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESI removable hard disks, such as ZIP disks, CF and SD cards (note: internal Emu SCSI hard disks connected to a Windows computer via a SCSI adapter may not be accessible by EMXP if the driver does not assign a drive letter to the disk)

o    Read, write and format Emulator-II hard disks (note: at this moment no method is known yet how to connect an original Emulator-II hard disk to a computer)

o    Read EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESI CD-ROMs

o    Backup and restore EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESI hard disks and CD-ROMs

-          These backup images can also be accessed in read and write mode as virtual hard disks

-          These backup images can also be burned to an EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX or ESI-compatible CD using any CD burning software package (besides being written or restored to any removable hard disk such as ZIP disks or CF cards) (not applicable for Emulator-II)

-          These backup images can also be created from scratch: this allows you to create your own sound libraries which then can be written to EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX or ESI removable hard disks or CD-ROMs, or specifically for the Emulator-II as .DSK files in the DREM emulator.

o    Reading and writing EMAX-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESI formatted hard disks of more than 4GB is supported; formatting is limited to 1GB for EMAX-II and Emulator-III, 4GB for Emulator-IIIX and 14GB for ESI (because larger sizes don't make sense)

o   Compatibility with SCSI2SD

-          Read, write and format up to 7 EMAX-I, EMAX-II , Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX or ESI partitions  (called "devices") on a single SD card used in the SCSI2SD

-          Backup and restore of entire SCSI2SD cards (all partitions at once) and of each individual EMAX-I, EMAX-II , Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX or ESI partition of a SCSI2SD card

-          In a nutshell:

o     each individual partition on a SCSI2SD card is treated just like any other (normal, un-partitioned)  hard disk in EMXP - all functions available for hard disks are available for SCSI2SD partitions as well

o     each individual partition in a SCSI2SD disk image file is treated just like any other (normal, un-partitioned) hard disk image file in EMXP - all functions available for hard disk image files are available for SCSI2SD partitions as well

-          Hard disk image support for EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESI

o    The same features are available as for hard disks and CDROMs (see previous topic)

o    Emulator-II hard disk images are compatibel with the DREM hard disk emulator (DSK files). EMXP can also generate DREM config files (.CFG) when creating a new Emulator-II hard disk image

-          EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III and Emulator-IIIX file and disk support is available for both sound banks and operating systems

-          Akai S1000 file and disk support is for programs, samples, drums and operating systems

-          A file and disk manager is available for exploring any disk or any folder for selecting files and sound banks

Copying:

-          Copy sound banks and sound data from any file or disk type to any other file or disk type within a sampler family, e.g. copy a set of related Emax-II EMX files to an Emax-II hard disk

-          Copy operating systems to/from floppy disks, floppy disk images, HxC floppy disk images, hard disks and hard disk image files (EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX, Akai S1000)

-          Raw copying between floppy disk image files and HxC floppy disk image files (EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III OS, Emulator-IIIX OS, Akai S1000)

-          Removing sound banks and operating systems from hard disks and hard disk

-          Backup/restore of hard disks (EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-II, Emulator-III/IIIX/ESI) or SCSI2SD hard disk partitions (EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III/IIIX/ESI) and floppy disks (EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Akai S1000)

-          Support for fully automated batch processing as well as for fully manually controlled item-per-item processing

-          Detailed copy execution reports are produced for each copy process

-          Target bank names and file names can be defined based on user-configurable naming rules

Conversions:

-          Conversion of samples to WAV files from EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2), ESI-v3, SP-12, Akai S1000 or SoundFont2 banks on any disk or in any file; this includes the possibility to convert the sample's loops to WAV loops as well (besides simply converting the audio part).

-          Conversion between EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2),  ESI-v3, SP-12 and SoundFont2 banks to and from any disk or any file.

-          Conversion to Akai S1000 programs and samples is only supported for Emax-I and Emax-II sound banks

-          Native conversion between Emax-I and Emax-II, preserving the sequence and SE data

-          Support for sample rate conversion and adapting sound bank memory size for conversions to EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2) and ESI-v3

-          Sound attenuation/amplification support for conversions to and from Emulator-I

-          Possibility to choose between keeping stereo sample characteristics or converting them to mono

-          Support for fully automated batch processing as well as for fully manually controlled item-per-item processing

-          Detailed conversion reports are produced for each conversion

-          Target bank names and file names can be defined based on user-configurable naming rules

Construction:

-          Simple construction of sound banks from scratch: definition of presets and assigning WAV files to key areas (or sounds for SP-12). Banks can be created for EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2), ESI-v3, SP-12and SoundFont2. A possibility to convert the WAV loops to sampler loops during construction is included as well.

-          Real time validation of constructed sound banks against the target sampler's limits

-          Generation of constructed sound banks to any file or disk type supported for the target sampler.

-          Possibility to change the original note, tuning and transposition mode of each assigned sample (WAV file)

-          Possibility to copy presets and to choose between generating different occurrences of the same WAV-file into different samples or into the same shared sample

-          Possibility to monitor the total sample size that will be used in the target sampler

-          Target bank names and file names can be defined based on user-configurable naming rules

Communication:

-          Transferring sound banks between EMXP and Emax-I, Emax-II, Emulator II or Oberheim DPX-1 via RS422 (Emax-II: only transfer of compressed Emax-I banks towards the Emax-II)

-          Transferring sound banks and sequence files between EMXP and SP-12 via MIDI  (not available yet when using EMXP in Wine on macOS)

-          Transferring individual sounds and segments from EMXP to SP-12 via MIDI (not available yet when using EMXP in Wine on macOS)

-          Transferring individual samples (WAV-files) between EMXP and Emax-I or Emax-II via RS422 or MIDI (*). This includes the transfer of loops.

-          Transferring individual samples (WAV-files) between EMXP and Emulator-II via RS422. This includes the transfer of loops.

-          Transferring individual samples (WAV-files) from EMXP to SP-12 via MIDI. This includes the transfer of loops. (not available yet when using EMXP in Wine on macOS)

Viewing:

-          Show details of EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2) and ESI-v3 banks, presets, samples and voices on-screen

-          Show details of SoundFont2 banks, presets, instruments, zones and samples on-screen

-          Show details of SP-12 sounds, samples, songs, segments and mixes on-screen

Audio play:

-          Play EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-I, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2), ESI-v3, SoundFont2, SP-12 and Akai S1000 samples (without having to export them to WAV files first)

-          Play WAV files

-          Sequential playing of multiple (all) samples of multiple selected sound banks/files without any user intervention. This allows for fast auditioning and for quickly searching a specific sound bank.

-          Sample loops can be played as well.

Other:

-          Runs on Windows and in Wine on macOS

-          Physical and logical formatting of floppy disks for EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-III OS, Emulator-IIIX OS, Akai S1000

-          Physical and logical formatting of hard disks for EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESI

-          Bulk replacement of operating system on EMAX-I and EMAX-II floppy disks, floppy disk image files and HxC floppy disk image files; bulk replacement of operating system on Emulator-I and Emulator-II floppy disk image files and HxC floppy disk image files

-          Generate reports in TXT or CSV format containing an overview of any selection of EMAX-I, EMAX-II, Emulator-II, Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX (ESI-v2), ESI-v3 or SoundFont2 banks and their presets

-          Generate reports in TXT or CSV format containing an overview of any selection of SP-12 sound banks and their sounds, or any selection of SP-12 sequence files and their songs and segments

-          Change bank names of Emulator-III, Emulator-IIIX and ESIv3 banks in any file or on any disk

-          Change EMAX-I, EMAX-II and Emulator-III bank names on hard disks and hard disk images

-          Assign user-defined names to SP-12 sounds, songs and segments

-          Change the boot rom protection on Emulator-I disk images

-          Compatibility with the OmniFlop floppy driver software, no licensing required anymore

-          Wide use of user preferences and settings related to automation/workflow, copy/conversion behaviour, look and feel, file and disk location, MIDI and RS422 communication, logging and reporting

-          User definable screen size

 

(*) You may encounter some problems with RS422 sample transfer towards some Emax-II samplers. This problem is caused by a bug in either the Emax-II Operating System or in the Emax-II chipset for some PCB board revisions.

Note that these problems do not exist with the Emax-I.