{"id":758,"date":"2021-09-22T06:03:25","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T06:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=758"},"modified":"2024-01-31T03:32:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T03:32:52","slug":"see-ya-later-emulator-or-leaving-on-a-z-plane","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/see-ya-later-emulator-or-leaving-on-a-z-plane\/","title":{"rendered":"See ya later Emulator (leaving on a Z-Plane)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the recent release of the Rossum Z-Plane<\/a> Filter there’s been a renewed interest in E-Mu’s strange filter technology, once featured in the Morpheus and UltraProteus racks. Actually I wouldn’t know if anyone gives a shit about Z-Plane, this is just one of those gambits to get you to read my stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UltraProteus is a favourite of mine – a strange beast<\/a> with a number of odd E-Mu ideas folded inside – it makes a very distinct and pretty noise once you grok Santa Cruz culture. 12 years later E-Mu’s last gasp was the EmulatorX3<\/em>, a software sampler of some considerable complexity and idiosyncrasy (based loosely on their Proteus 2500 hardware). While the Ensoniq FIZMO is rightly treasured by lovers of WTF, the EmulatorX3<\/em> is neglected which is a pity. I hope to change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of its problems was the FLEXnet copy protection, which was broken in Windows 7 and never updated. Another was a mistake in the 64 bit version that wrongly registered the software causing instability. There is a cracked\/repaired version by R2R around that I will not link, but you can find all the patches and sounds on sale legitimately here<\/a>. I don’t know about OSX, probably nuh uh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not an attractive interface, being that early 2000’s sort of thing. Have a look and I’ll point out a few features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The left column is all about the virtual rack you either bought, or are creating. So when you load a virtual Orbit here you see that unit and its presets. Look at all those menu bars, Jesus, let’s just skip that. Instead you can see how E-Mu still designed like they were making modular. CORDS are available at the bottom right – yep, we are plugging in CORDS. I’ve plugged one from the FUNCTION GENERATOR 1 to the Fc\/MORPH setting of the FILTER. The Function Generator in the Morpheus is a set of points linked by different selectable curves but here it’s a much simpler draw-your-own-squiggle. You also miss out on the random and noise segments and programmable subroutines and all that but it’s much more humane – a trade off that depends on where you are on the spectrum. I am purple and like the programming thank you very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now up in that filter there’s a bunch of selections which are ready to morph, but no actual mention of Z-plane. Instead we are given six control points we can position – each of which can be HP, LP or EQ (which is much the same as peak). That’s it. Chose your six types, position their frequency at the start and the end of the morph and wiggle it so they go everywhere like a bag of cats. Is this all that Z-plane is about? If you call up a larger set of ‘Morph Designer’ templates you will find some more of those mysterious names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crackberry indeed. They SOUND<\/em> like Z-plane … and in the EmulatorX<\/em> manual there’s a diagram that’s kind of specific<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the manual for the UltraProteus there’s a huge appendix which lists each and every filter’s purpose. Many are combs. Many are flanges. Some are attempts to craft an instrument’s resonance. There are none that you couldn’t build with the EmulatorX, and to be honest there’s more effective<\/a> and fun means to get that kind of filter sound<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why buy the Rossum module? I guess one difference is every filter in the Rossum device is a ‘cube’, with three parameters available. Only a few ‘cubes’ came with the Morpheus and two of those parameters were frozen at the beginning of a note. Current software is way beyond this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am poised to accept contrary advice but in terms of music making the EmulatorX is close enough. If you think this is an endlessly fascinating subject you will find a deep discussion<\/a> here about that ‘E-Mu sound’ (and they are right, a lot of this is about the distortion inside the machinery).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the recent release of the Rossum Z-Plane Filter there’s been a renewed interest in E-Mu’s strange filter technology, once featured in the Morpheus and UltraProteus racks. Actually I wouldn’t know if anyone gives a shit about Z-Plane, this is just one of those gambits to get you to read my stuff. The UltraProteus is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-758","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-sampler"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}