Released commercially in 1984 to huge acclaim, the Emulator II (or EII) was E-mu's
second sampler. Like the Emulator I, it was an 8-bit sampler, however it had superior
fidelity to the Emulator I due to the use of digital companding and a 27.7 kHz sample
rate. It also allowed more flexibility in editing sounds and vastly better real time
control. It was priced similarly to the Emulator I, at US$7,995 for a regular model,
and $9,995 for a "plus" model featuring extra sample memory. Several upgrades, including
a second floppy drive, a 20 MB hard drive, and a 512K memory upgrade were available
as well. Despite its price tag it was still considered very good value compared to
the Fairlight CMI Series II.
The Emulator II has a very unique sound due to its DPCM mu-255 companding, the divider-based
variable sample-rate principle and analog output stages featuring SSM2045 24 dB/oct
analog 4-pole low pass resonant filters. Equivalent output stages in modern samplers
perform similar functions purely in the digital domain and many argue that some of
the magic is lost. It is due to this special sound that the EII is becoming increasingly
sought after by vintage music gear enthusiasts.
Several highly respected OEM and 3rd party sample libraries were developed for the
Emulator II including a multitude of superb orchestral sounds. An excellent demo
of the library sounds can be found on Youtube (link). Famous samples include the
Shakuhachi flute used by Peter Gabriel in Sledgehammer and on Enigma MCMXC a.D. Also,
the male choir sound on New Order's Blue Monday and the Marcato Strings heard on
many 80s records including Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls. In fact, every single sound
on that track was made with an Emulator II (ref: Pet Shop Boys interview on "Synth
Britannia" BBC4, 16 Oct 2009.)
The Emulator II was very popular with many other famous artists in the 80s such as
Depeche Mode and Talking Heads.
