Emulator I : Operating Guide

Overview The Emulator I has a basic and very small operating system which is loaded from disk when power is first switched on. There is no LCD, and all operations are made via the 19 front panel controls. The transformers give an audible buzz !

Sound Storage There are four buttons. Get Upper, Get Lower (each taking 7 seconds to load a sample), and Save (both Lower and Upper samples are saved in 20 seconds) and Swap (switch samples between Lower and Upper zones).

Output A single control knob for Mix output volume, the zone volumes are always at maximum.

Dynamic Allocation Switch this on and the Emulator forgets the 5/3 voice split between Lower and Upper, and allocates voices freely to the keys that are depressed.

Vibrato There is a single Rate knob, and buttons for selecting the Upper or Lower zones.

Sustain/Filter The Upper and Lower zones can be separately selected via two dedicated buttons. Another button switches this module between looping and filter truncation.

There are two dual purpose sliders for both Start Point/Truncate and Loop Length/Filter Cutoff. These controls enable sample looping (by audio not visual means!), sample truncation and the cutoff point of the simple low pass voice filters.

Master Tune Each zone (Upper and Lower) has its own rotary tuning control.

Input There is a sample input level (attenuation), a gain switch (0, -20, -40dB), a start sampling button, and an overload LED.
Filters & Envelopes To put it simply - there aren't any ! Well there is low pass filter cutoff (no envelope) and there is a two mode release function. The two release modes are;

     short release stops the moment the key is released

     natural release continues playing to the end of the
                   sample - no matter when the key is
                   released.

The Release footpedal switches between these 2 modes

Doubling Step on the Accessory pedal and all the notes played on the Lower zone are also played on the Upper zone. This gives some useful chorus effects, especially when combined with the tuning control.

Multisampling  Implemented as a software upgrade this enables between 2 and 12 samples to be recorded over the full 4 octaves, with pitch stretching reduced to 2 - 3 semitones per sample. This makes for much smoother sounds, as the transition between samples is not so radical. But remember with 12 multi-samples, you have only 0.33 seconds for each sample - on average !

Sequencer The EI originally had no sequencer, but most Emulators were upgraded with an eight voice, 900-note, 2 channel sequencer. The sequencer is controlled by a set of eight dedicated buttons next to the control wheels. Real time recording was possible, as well as note insertion at the end and start of a sequence, overdubbing and truncation of the sequence. Sequences could be stored to diskette. Impressive for 1981, but soon surpassed later in the 1980's.