Emulator II Vintage Sampler/Synth with Case of Disks

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"Upon closer inspection, rummaging through the discs, it became apparent that maybe she had a much distinguished home prior to mine. Some of the discs were labelled "In Living Color," and "Pee Wee's Playhouse"--now I'm not saying the instrument came from the studios where these shows were produced, but it's a good possibility because the seller was from Hollywood. Once she got to me, I never toured with her. She either stayed in my studio, or in the case as my space was limited.

THE GRITTY:
This keyboard/synth/sampler is used. She's seen better days. But she works. The discs (those horrendous 5 1/4 ones that scream old school) take their merry time to load. It's a miracle bands could even tour with this thing back in the day. You need a boot disc (this is the data disc required to boot up the unit--it goes in the bottom slot). The top slot, or drive, uses the many, many discs that are shown in the case. It's archived by sound/type, but I've rummaged through it so many times that many are in no particular order. Some are actual Emulator II discs--the famous "Marcato Strings" disc is in it--you'd recognize that off the Pet Shop Boys' hit "West End Girls." Others are 3rd party (Northstar) and some are studio formatted discs. I never really dove into using the sampler on it, or editing sounds. The discs that I bought after I got the keyboard pretty much did the trick. The backlight on it (the light from the display window so you can read what you've selected) is out. It worked, faintly, when I first got her, but with time they do fade away. You can see this in the photos I've included.
Both drives work; they load discs--but slowly as I mentioned previously. The infamous "clicking"it gives off when loading is like Chinese water torture. Some discs in the case gave me "error" messages when trying to load, but on other times they loaded fine. It's a hit or miss. I do know there is an Emulator site online that gives detailed information on how to convert the top drive to a 3.5 size disc format and also how to change out the backlight. By doing so, you eliminate the need for the aging top drive. You still have to get the sounds transferred to 3.5 from 5.25 discs, and the speed of the loading process isn't increased. It's the same, just a more of a dependable drive. The bottom drive on these particular models (This is a standard Emulator II Software Rev 2.3/3, NO built in hard drive, all sounds come from the included discs and NONE can be stored to the keyboard as there isn't any memory to do so) is there to stay. I don't have a manual--I do know there are manuals available online for many of the vintage synths in existence.

I've tested the keyboard. Apart from the usual scuff marks (see pics), you should be able to get some playing use out of it easily. I've always plugged a cable in the "MIX OUTPUT" slot and ran it in mono. If you plug stereo headphones in that port, you're gonna hear it on one side. So don't freak out. She works, and with the exception of a pressed down key (the lowest key on the unit--this can be fixed…the note sounds if you press it, there's a broken spring action or something going on I think) I think could add a good 5-10 years in someone's home studio. You would need to know a little about these things. Software has replaced (somewhat) the technology that had us in awe in the 80's. The sampling time on an EII is 8 seconds if I'm correct--which is NOTHING compared to today. It's also 8 bit sampling. The quality is dull and gritty. However, there is "flavor" to that and many, many producers actually wanted that low quality edge in their work back in the day. There was a filter that the E-mu line of samplers had…that basically it was a sampler combined with the editing capability of a synthesizer. You could loop sounds, you could adjust the ADSR so that the sound came in and played exactly where you wanted it to do so. For an instrument that was used extensively from 1984-1987 (and beyond) it was seen up there in a keyboard rig likely next to a DX7, Roland Jupiter 8, etc. There was no mistaking the sound of the legendary Emulator II..."