I have a bunch of old E-MU romplers (CS) but I am gasing at a mc-707 right now.
I was wondering if selling my E-MUs for the MC-707 I would regret any sound I can make with the E-MU.
I have following E-MU roms : Planet Earth, Rob papen TSCY and Beat Garden, Vintage collection, Protean drum, World expedition, X-Lead, Pure Phatt.
So question is, can I just replace all that with a Zen-Core engine and call it a day ?
Is Zen-core like waaaaay better than that ?
I realize that there’s a 30 years of technology gap there so it must sound much better.
Thanks for helping if you have experience with both !
Personally I love the particular sound of some old rompers (pads mainly) and I don’t think they can be replaced entirely. But if you’re no longer feeling inspired by them I’d say go for it. Roland sounds have a different vibe to EMU stuff, but you’ll probably find enough of what you need in the 707. Plus, the more modern UI/workflow might be an exciting change.
Newer definitely does not equate to better in regards to romplers. Even between the JV and the XV series using the same waveforms, many prefer the older units.
E-MU always had all those Z-plane filter types (especially in the Morpheus/UltraProteus/E-Synth) that made them unique in the market, and they still are today.
I vaguely remember reading that some of the old emu ultra samplers you could install those ROMs and copy the raw waveform data, if not the presets. That might be a way to consolidate. Either way, you would want the z-plane filters for authenticity still which would require something e-mu.
Alternatively wasn’t there the E-mu Emulator X or Proteus VX software plugins? maybe that’s a possible option if they can still run.
I used to have a command station fully loaded, as well as a proteus 2000. The Integra, system 1m and Boutiques I have now definitely have more modern sounds with higher definition, but its a different sound, so still won’t be a 1 to 1 replacement.
That’s how I still feel about the filters today. Pretty unique and hard to let go. Funny about that debate between jv and xv. I wasn’t expecting this. Thanks for bringing this.
Yeah use to have that emulator x. Only reason I kept the hardware was for the interface. Couldn’t tell any difference sound wise. Good to know you have integra. I am also concerned about all these nice drum kits I have in these roms. Will I find a replacement for all these percussions and stuff.
Even more crazy, even WITHIN the JV/XP line there is a debate (Don Solaris et al) of certain ones sounding different than others… apparently the humble JV-880 and JV-1080 sound “better”.
And that’s not even to mention the whole JV vs JD debate…
Nice selection of ROMs. I have pretty much the same in my Command Station XL-7.
No. you can get a Zen-Core if you want but it won’t be a replacement, any more than a jar of peanut butter replaces a stack of your favorite chocolate bars.
Not better, just different. I haven’t heard any Zen-Core sounds/tracks that are “better” than the Emu ones posted by balma, the Wizard of E-Mu romplers. balma knew every trick in the book for getting sounds out of the E-Mu modulation matrix, Z-plane filters, etc.
fwiw, I have a Roland MC-101 Zen-Core machine. I got it to be a little multi-timbral sound machine. The one drag for me with the XL-7 is it needs some repair, as the slightest bump causes something on its internal board to unseat itself.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s not just that some people prefer lower rate converters and lower definitions. Could make sense to me, why not ? Like, I had a DX7 and even though that you could play these sounds with a software, it wasn’t sounding the same. Not better or worse just different. Different enough that you could prefer one or the other. Also have a nm G1 here and still prefer the sound of that one today versus the G2 that I also had in the past. What I would qualified as more character which is probably just a less defined sound.
I use the Proteus VX on Windows hosted in Reaper all the time. It is a pain, there are some quirks with the UI and saving/loading patches. But the sound is excellent. To me it sounds exactly the same as the XL-7 and PX-7 command stations I have, but has more features, better FX. Its super cool. Also sounds vastly better than the Roland JV-1080 (edit: I have the Don Solaris patches too–which help) to me which sounds like a compressed mp3 by comparison. But this is all subjective. All romplers are cool and useful.
Yeah still some ROMS I would love to have bought (like orchestral one) but I can’t just justify the price nowadays.
Thanks for confirming that, I was thinking it would be like day and night in terms of quality
Good to know too, there are some pads I just love and I am kind of afraid I would miss.
Sorry to hear about your XL-7, I pretty much feel I need to cross my finger every time I start it because of these notorious PSU failure. I actually have 4 ROMS in my CS and 3 in an Orbit 3.
I totally agree that sound wise it was just as good to me that the hardware. I just wanted to have these interfaces even if know that can just sound stupid. And I know I could map that to a midi controller and everything but that wouldn’t help me selling the hardware. If keeping hardware was a rational thing I guess that I would pretty much just have my laptop now
since I am personnaly a pad lover I have too keep that in mind