MATRIXSYNTH

An Interview with E-mu's Founder Dave Rossum

This one in via David Vandenborn of DVDBORN on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. theEMUs.com has an interview up with E-mu's founder David Rossum. The following is just the first question and answer for the archives. Click through above for the full interview.

"I read on the internet once that you got inspired to build the first Emulator after having seen the Australian Fairlight CMI at the AES show in 1980. I also want to build a lot of stuff that I see – but I always fail miserably and can’t even get my head around it.
I obviously know that you build modular synthesizers and that you created the technology for keyboards for other companies like Sequential Circuits Inc. and Oberheim Electronics.

What made you so sure you could do a sampler? Had you been experimenting with digital circuitry and RAM based technology prior to this? Did you buy a Fairlight sampler to look at when developing the Emulator – or did you do it differently – from scratch?

To understand fully, you need some background: the situation in May 1980 was that we returned from AES to find that Sequential Circuits was refusing to pay the royalties they had promised, and that we had counted on to fund the marketing of the Audity - which we introduced at the show.

We needed a product soon. Scott Wedge, Marco Alpert and Ed Rudnick had been talking on the drive back from the show, and thought that the Fairlight had one and only one good feature - sampling. We had also seen a Publison Digital Delay that had a capture mode, and the captured (sampled) sound could be played with a control voltage/gate type synthesizer keyboard.

The guys came to me with their ideas, and we had the need for a new MI product quickly to replace the lost Sequential revenue stream.

E-mu was the first company to use a microprocessor in an MI product - our 4060 polyphonic keyboard and digital sequencer, introduced in 1976. We'd done all sorts of stuff with microprocessors - the Audity had a full blown real-time operating system I'd written.

We'd built our own Z-80 development system including disk interfaces, etc. The sequencer in the 4060 used 64K bytes of dynamic RAM. And as I've been previously quoted as saying, "Any asshole can design digital circuits." (Analog is a LOT harder).

We also had been consultants for Roger Linn on the circuit design for the LM-1, so we knew a bit about sampling as well. We'd played with COMDACs in the lab at E-mu as well.

The Fairlight used a separate RAM and a separate CPU for each voice. When Scott, Marco, and Ed came to me with their idea, I knew that such an approach was simply too expensive for an MI product. We'd just have another Audity-class product, competitive with the Fairlight.

So I saw that the key would be to use ONE CPU and ONE memory for all eight voices. The trick was getting the memory bandwidth to accomplish that. The solution was a combination of fast, cheap DMA chips and some FIFO buffers to give them big enough bursts so that the bus negotiation didn't hog too much bandwidth.

So the answer is that we never gave the slightest thought anything but designing the Emulator from scratch. I was revolutionizing the state of the art - building what was in my mind, not duplicating something that I'd seen. And the hardware was the easy part.

The software was the real challenge. The Audity we demo'ed at AES had about 10,000 lines of code, which I'd written in about 3 weeks. The Emulator code base was a similar size, but rather more complex in several ways. Getting both the hardware and software into a form for demonstration at January NAMM 1981 was a real challenge. And that leads to..."

Emu

Korg MS-20 SN 147963 In Original Box

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yousenditworks (RSS)

"This synth sounds amazing, the hi and low pass filters are great. This one has the earlier Korg 35 "noise" filter on the low pass, which gives it an extra gnarly sound. Amazing for bass, leads, effects and especially great for the external processing and running anything you want through it, drums, mics, guitars."

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OBERHEIM OBSX

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Analogue Solutions Leipzig S

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"LIKE NEW IN THE BOX Analogue Solutions Leipzig-S. As we are not an Analogue Solutions dealer it is being sold without warranty but you have the supreme benefit of getting this piece new in the box at an unbelievable price! Analogue Solution's quality is exceptional in the synth world and you can purchase with confidence! We offer a 14 day inspection period to make sure the synth is perfect for you.

Pure analogue voice and modulation circuitry.
Fat Moog style filter.
2 VCOs with Glide and Sub-VCOs.
Osc Sync & Cross-Mod
Plenty of modulation routing possibilities.
Analogue step sequencer – with plenty of clocking options.
Audio input so can be used as a sound processor.
Rugged steel/aluminium construction.
MIDI In for software sequencer control."

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Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter

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thestudiobaron07 (RSS)

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Analog synthesizer JAM - minimoog model D - ARP 2600 - synthesizers.com

Published on Dec 20, 2012

"Jamming, jamming..."

Update:

Analog Baiao - modular synthesizer - minimoog D - ARP 2600

Published on Dec 20, 2012

BACH: Christmas Oratorio on mobile devices - by DigiEnsemble Berlin featuring Tobias Berndt

Published on Dec 20, 2012

"The DigiEnsemble Berlin exclusively uses digital devices to perform the aria "Großer Herr, o starker König" from the famous and glorious Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach sung by Tobias Berndt.

For two years now, the DigiEnsemble Berlin has explored the opportunities of mobile music. This aria, however, is a very important step in the course of the musician's quest, due to the high qualitative aspiration and requirements of the piece. The DigiEnsemble Berlin physically premiers the piece together with the singer Roman Trekel at the Berlin Cathedral on the 16th December 2012.

The realization of the musically challenging aria is a culmination for the mission of acquiring virtuous playing techniques with smartphones. Matthias Krebs chose this aria consciously with the intention of accomplishing a signifying step in the ensemble's development. Experts like music professors from the Berlin University of the Arts were consulted to optimize the musical adaption and musical interpretation.
Furthermore, the technical level was enhanced by utilizing a number of elaborate controllers. An important sound quality improvement for this musical interpretation was enabled by a new motion control app called "MIDI In Motion" by Florian Schwehn.
In the process of the project, the digital devices became serious musical instruments on a high level of proficiency and differentiation that has not been reached before.

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15/8 around the clock

Published on Dec 20, 2012 by Ebotronix

Roland Jupiter 6 & EF303 (15&30 steps)
Logic sequencer 6 tracks
fx Boss SL 20 BSS DPR 402 Lexicon PCM 80 SPL Gold Mike
drums Jupiter 6 odd time 15/8

Update:

15/8 o'clock at Jupiter
Published on Dec 20, 2012
Roland Jupiter 6 & EF303 (15&30 steps)
Logic sequencer 6 tracks
fx Boss SL 20 BSS DPR 402 Lexicon PCM 80 SPL Gold Mike
drums Jupiter 6 odd time 15/8

Styx Fooling Yourself Keyboard Solo Roland Jupiter 8

Published on Dec 20, 2012 by synthartist69

"This was a first take for me on this so I didn't get the exact sound or my timing perfect on the solo but here it is. It seems like I read where he used an Oberheim 4 voice for the lead. I think that the other lead parts in the song are two oscillators tuned 2 octaves apart. I know that my Alesis Ion has that Fooling Yourself patch on it and it is a great one! One of my all time favorite songs by Styx!

I do not claim any rights to the music in this video. This is merely fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act."