*Sampler / synthesizer debate* The Emulator II has samples at the beginning of the signal chain. These run into analogue, resonant, low-pass filters and analogue amplifiers with envelope generators for control, allowing for changes in the harmonic content over time. The Emulator LFO also runs into the audio range and can modulate sample frequency, filter frequency and amplitude, allowing for both low frequency and audio rate FM and AM. Many synthesizers have digital samples at the start of the signal chain, whether they're loaded from ROM or they use RAM to allow for user flexibility and custom sound creation, the result is the same; digital samples playing into filters and amps with control and modulation from envelopes and LFOs (and more). The Korg DW-6000/8000, the PPG Wave synthesizers and all granular synthesizers work like this because they rely entirely _upon_ digital samples. Korg's DSS-1 moniker even meant "digital sampling synthesizer". There's no definition anywhere that says those samples have to load from ROM and not RAM to make it a synthesizer or not a synthesizer. I think most arguments I've seen use a pre-digital, 1960s definition of synthesis that uses the word "generate" that's being interpreted without the context of when it was written. New forms of synthesis have since emerged and definitions have evolved. Furthermore, even if that was accepted, as you can "generate" sine waves from the self-oscillating filters and control them with envelopes and LFOs, the Emulator would _still_ be a synthesizer, even by that definition. So yes....it's a synthesizer! A sampling synthesizer. Just stick "sample based synthesis" into Google for more.
👏👏 I love the term "sampling synthesizer". Of course I took it from my DSS-1, but I apply it to most samplers, for some reason specially if they have analogue filters.
I absolutely call a rompler a synth, but I’ve seen others that disagree. It almost feels like a purist/elitist thing. A wavetable synth is essentially a single cycle rompler but I have not heard anyone saying a wavetable synth isn’t a synth. Great presentation in the video! I really enjoyed it!
My favourite anecdote about Vangelis and the Emulator was during a TV special about him, he was flipping through his sample floppy disks and then exclaimed "I lost my harp".
@@dizzy2020 I know the percussion library he used quite a bit through the 1980s albums: Antarctica, Mask, Soil Festivities. In fact, that aforementioned special has him playing the Emulator and you hear this cluster of percussion all at once.
Musicians in 1984: Holy crap, this is truly a revolutionary product. The amount of power, the unlimited amount of sound possibilities, built like a tank, this is just incredible. This is going to change the world of music production. Other people in 1984: Haha, look, you can play funny dogs barking on this piano.
I downloaded a wav sample set from the EII a while ago. After going straight to the Marcato strings to recreate the intro to "Papa Don't Preach", I had a quick play with the loon garden samples and the shakuhachi, but then spent about twenty minutes playing with the samples in a folder called "Sick day". My brain will always be a teenage Ferris Bueller that gets a strange satisfaction from the sound of burps, farts, coughs, and vomiting. Whichever foley guy originally recorded those samples about 40 years ago has made an old guy happy.
that digital for you, that the one thing it does best, it not the best, as the very highest Analog audio, but wants its in there, it not going to degrade, un less the data is corrupted some how, errors in the zeros and ones?
Videos like these redeem TH-cam. Such very iconic sounds back then, and beyond reading some articles in Keyboard magazine, I never knew anything about it. But today? This. Nice. Thank you.
Heck yeah. It was at the time the best sounding sampler at 12-bit (it used 8-bit u-Law which expanded to 12-bit on playback). Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys made good of use of it.
Definitely right in my wheelhouse this one. Mid-80s Depeche Mode machine. PS Alex your music is mighty fine. Always seems so happy and in days like these thats a gift.
Cheers! Glad to bring a smile whilst we get a face full of effing January. It is probably the most Depeche machine, and they've had a couple. Maybe even three or four. 😉
Alex you have to be one of the most through presenters on TH-cam. You don't just dink around and pluck keys here and there, you give histories and examples and produce some great music on top. Great show mate! P.S, the 80's called and want their era back.
The price of the Emulator back in the day, meant that Ferris's family was rich. I was a recent college grad working in an electronics engineering company in the 80s and couldn't afford one, even on an engineer's salary . But it was a dream machine that I wished I could afford. So cool. Thanks for the video showing what it was capable of. Awesome!
At 15:56 onwards - those juicy chords OMG! There’s something so evocative and 80’s about this. It transports you to a time and place that you remember well, even though you were never there.
Man, you “get it” more than most. There is a certain fundamental with the music you make with these classic instruments that (seriously) can take one back. Well played again Sir
Wonderful video! I had lusted after an EII since I was a kid and finally found one a few years ago and it immediately became my desert island synth. I play it every day and it still takes me to a very happy place every time. It is huge and I sometimes regret how much space it takes up, but it's a situation where there is something really inspiring about using the hardware over a VST. The perfect balance between limitation and playability.
And the most fantastic innovation on this gear is to have printed "Wheels" above the wheels... and to have specified "left wheel" for the left wheel and vice versa... this would allow a large number of keyboardists to no longer mix their right and their left handside... this video is a marvel and the final track... well... is so brilliant ! I watched it over and over again ! Congratulations Alex ! You're the best 😛
Swedish band Twice a Man made one of their albums (Slow Swirl) entirely on an Emulator II. And on their tour of that album they on stage had an Emulator II, a guitar and a microphone. (And a ladder and a box with a stone and a string, but those made no sounds 🙂) So between each song, during the singer's small talk, you would hear the Emulator loading the next song from floppies. And then they pressed a button and a wall of sound punched you in the gut. So yeah, definitely top of the game for that time.
Best Emulator II video ever. Period. And your creativity is still amazing! That song at the end is a pure 80's gem! Human League class (the Jam/Lewis era…) and needs to exist as a full blown song! :)
You missed perhaps the most critical use of the EII in pop history. Rick Astley on "Never Gonna Give You Up" where he only sang "never gonna" once,... into the EII. Every time you hear those words it's the EII playing. The producer apparently wasn't sure Rick could nail it each time and that was the hook, so he sampled it. Now that you know that, you can't unhear it.
Reading this in April 2024 and thinking: this comment is dated '1 year ago' so it could be April Fool's day joke - so if it's a joke it's an excellent joke really and if it's not it's an extremely fun fact 😂
I could listen to you create on this monster all day. You really seem to have an ear for creating flawless retro music. Everything you played could easily be mistaken for original music from the era.
Great rundown of a wonderful bit of technology back in the 80's! I had to wrangle one on the Listen Like Thieves tour with INXS in 1986. There were two banks, and I had to load one bank while Andrew Farriss played the other one live. From memory it took about 30 seconds to load a bank. Had to feed the disks and switch banks in the right order so the right samples/sequences were ready to go on cue. One show, I played a trick on the lighting guy, who used a whistle to signal the rigger to set up the next light in the truss. I sampled his whistle and played it back a few times, and it took a while for them to work out where the extra whistles were coming from (sorry Squirt!). But it backfired on me - I forgot the sample was still loaded, and Andrew started playing it live. Whoops... Not very professional and had to scramble to get the right sound happening.
Wow, now this was a nostalgia overload... it's like a secret sauce/ingredient that I knew was there yet couldn't identify. What a piece of kit and you did us all proud as ever! 🖖😊
in the late '80s, a while after i hung out my shingle as "the MIDIcian" in SF Bay area studio and production scene, i got on famously with the next generations of e-mu kit: EII, eMax, SP-1200 and EIII. Innumerable hours spent in Sound Designer, Alchemy, Turbosynth and Vision/StudioVision, to build sample libraries for my own productions, and tour prep for Timex Social Club, Club Nouveau, Gregg Rolie (the Storm, after his Journey days,) Tony, Toni, Toné and others. I was perpetually leveraging OPS (other people's samplers,) which started when i hired in Paul Fox for an EP i co-produced in '84, and he came up from LA with Wave PPG and Emulator to frost our cake. Paul was in demand in those days for his considerable synthing/sampling skills, as heard on Pointer Sisters' "Automatic," a bunch of Smokie Robinson records, and so forth. I mentioned StudioVision earlier, as that is precisely why i didn't invest in my own sampler (had a Prophet-10 at the heart of my rig, so already had a "monster mortgage," if you will…,) - being able to sequence and manipulate samples within the Mac was a more streamlined workflow, than "shipping" the sample data over RS-422 to the eMax, to trigger via MIDI. Brilliant workup on this landmark beast, and i, too dig the production you realized here! Fun fact: in '96-'97. i was one of a 2-man team building StudioFrames in Richmand, CA, the inheritor to the WaveFrame legacy, and that led me to being recruited as Digital Audio Tech at Skywalker Sound, '97 - '98, a glorious time in the "digitalization" of film Post-production, wherein the ties to Mag recorders and video tape decks were severed, and remoting editing GUIs (via KVM control over Pro Tools and/or StudioFrame systems in the newly-digital Central Machine Room,) became standard operating procedure at SkySound, a facility that had already spawned EDnet - the ISDN-based technology that permitted Ahhnold to do his ADR in SoCal for a dub in Marin, and Spielberg to sit in on dubs for "Saving Private Ryan" form his Amblin screening room, riding herd on the mixers in NorCal.
He took the format of popular UK 70s 80s and 90s Television shows and made that his channel look and feel to match 70s 80s and 90s gear which He would feature. He asked the question "what made those old TV shows so watchable and memorable" and can He bring that to youtube.
Despite continuing to like a fair bit of contemporary music, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the 80s synth / dance like Art Of Noise. I loved the end song!
I watch dozens of TH-cam videos daily. The Ferris Bueller video is one of the best most informative and educational videos I’ve come across in a long time. It is brilliant content like this that keeps me coming back for more. Thank you so much.
Love that the mod and pitch wheels are helpfully labeled "Wheels"! xD Fascinating how good these samples sound even at that low rate and how it has a sound of its own. Great video!
You are so freaking creative it is astonishing. Well done, as usual. With a last name like Ferris, naturally I had to chime in on an Emulator vid. Enjoyed this one particularly. Cheers.
Incredible work alex! loved the song, the production ended encapsulating a little bit of everyone; howard jones vocals, japan crazy signatures too. As always great work, keep it up !!
What an amazing ending track!!! Man oh man, how technology has evolved so fast. Cool video on the iconic Sampler/Synthesizer Keyboard, that changed, the created a whole world of amazing new music, like the Fairlight did too!
I rarely login to YT, but I just had to leave a quick comment and say, that this is quite possibly the nicest video I've seen on this platform. Great work!
Would love to see a video about your vocals for these tracks, particularly around stacking harmonies and your approach (probably not going to get massive views but I'd be interested nonetheless). Also, I like how with each video we get a peek at the tracks for the next album!
Occasionally people ask, but not enough for a video. I work them out at the piano. Melody is most important, so never compromise it for a harmony. Then work out what you can fit around it given the chords happening underneath. The main part of my sound is there's always four parts and I double track all of it. I always loved Queen, so the more vocal harmony and overdubs, the better.
Reminds me of the vocal stacks of the 90s Swedish band Big Money, including songs like “Last Man on Earth”, that were produced by ABBA’s producer Michael Tretow.
The TOTP studio in the mid-late 1980s had a DX7 and an Emulator II that appeared on stage when pretty much any band with a synth player came on to mime their songs. This gave the impression to a young version of me that *everyone* had an Emulator, but I don't think that was quite the case.
@@duncanparsons My understanding is that - except when a touring band brought in their own gear - ToTP performers could just use whatever equipment they could find in the props cupboard at TV Centre. A DX7 and an Emulator were kept there on standby (along with various drumkits, guitars, and Marshall stacks) for anyone that wanted. Obviously a lot of mid-to-late '80s hits were made with DX7s especially, and a few studios had Emulators, but the latter wasn't widely owned by individuals. It's kind of mad, given the price of the instrument, that the BBC one was stored in a cupboard and was rarely even plugged in.
@@AlexBallMusic and superb synth designs too! I love his Rossum modular filter and oscillator modules for eurorack! He also had a hand in Oberheim too I think.
I am so glad I lived the 80's that was the ERA that was a time music was engineered to make music then non forgettable, and very enjoyable to dance and enjoy to listen no matter what your tasks are during the day. I listen ONLY to the 70's and 80's music today.
We really need to bring back L/R panning in songs. Hearing it in this sounds SO good! It opens it up to so much creativity, and when used tastefully, can truly create a one-of-a-kind epic listening experience.
@@d3maccus definitely still exists, but like you said nowhere near as pronounced. They used to go crazy with panning (in a good way). Today it's hard to find a song that has the drums (a popular instrument to pan) spread across the channels.
15:55 to end is more 80s than the 80s. This slaps! Edit: I got addicted to this track. This is pure euphoria, like driving down the highway at sundown having this melancholic joy - just ahh. Can anyone figure out the vocals? I can just hear "I'll be on your side" and "You'll stay protected"
Don't hide behind this one you know that I'll be on your side. Don't hide behind this one, don't go. Don't hide behind this one you know that I'll be on your side. You'll stay protected.
Great video. The choir patch was used a lot around the mid 80s : from the main melody of 'Always On My Mind' (and most of that period of Petshop Boys until 'Behaviour') to the title theme to 'Howards Way' by Simon May, it was as ubiquitous as the Orchestra Hits. Keff McCulloch also made it the star of Doctor Who from 1987-1989 as his soundtracks are basicsally EII, Prophet 5 and a Linndrum - the Cybermen arriving at the start 'Silver Nemesis' uses 3 of the Orchestra Hits for example. . It even made the 1985-89 'Jim'll Fix It' opening title theme but even the composer wants to forget about that.
@@HOLLASOUNDS Yes it's great. 20 odd years ago it was nearly impossible to find them. I had to buy the full EMAX library that had been converted to a SoundFont which had all of the famous sounds in it . This was before Arturia and many of the other modern libraries existed.
You make this sound amazing. My friend had one back in 1986 and we had lots of fun with it, but never made it sound like this!. Mostly just sampled and made drum loops. You're immensely talented BTW!
The best synth ever made, the EmulatorII. The sounds it makes is fantasic- Just listen to Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Front 242 to name a few that used it.
Fantastic video! The Emulator II nearly didn’t make it, Emu was in a cash crisis in 84 after sales of the Drumulator stalled. Luckily Syco in the UK stepped in and payrolled the initial production, possibly due to the PG connection. Amazingly it has one of the first custom chips in a sampler, the E chip, which is incredilbly reliable. Good job, because once it dies the sampler is toast… it creates all the digital sample manipulation which is the sound we still love…Big thanks to the Emu team of 84, especially Dana Massie who created the Mac software editor and much more. 😊😊
It’s hard to track all the iterations of the EII. The one in the video is very early…serial #84…PSU on the far left rear vs the later amidships. I think this was changed because of early heat issues. Fun Fact: serials 1-25 were all ordered by Peter Gabriel’s company Syco in an attempt to keep E-MU from going bankrupt and sold out of London. Some of those first 25 made it back to the states with Stevie Wonder, Steve Porcaro… I have #27. She def has growing pains. ;)
Cheers! A couple of people have made the same comparison. I know Yes, but haven't listened to all that much of their stuff to be honest. Great musicians obviously.
@@AlexBallMusic I'm thinking the 90125 version of Yes from 1983. I am also realizing that's partly because you played the sampled bit from Owner Of A Lonely Heart starting at 1:30. Perhaps a Yes and vintage Dutch porn mash up is in the future?
Yeah, surprising isn't it! It's probably so famous for the presets that some of the more interesting stuff plays second fiddle. Sampled second fiddle, obviously.
80s rules! watching this evokes "the legend of zelda" for some reason. love it. love the talent too. the end track is just brilliant . and the synth is nuts. so much history. we have these old toys to thank for shaping some of the most iconic music in history and shaping some of the more newer accesable toys as well. big thumbs up.
It's cool seeing all this 80s nostalgia. I was just a kid but yes, it was amazing. Full of life, happiness, and optimism for the future that was on it's way out by the 90s. It could have been that I was a kid, but if you listen to the music of the era it paints a picture of what the cultural zeitgeist was. Compare it to the music now.
You seem like such a natural at this .. feeling comfortable in your mountain of technology really understanding everything down to the nuts and bolts. For me it makes my head explode 🤯
When you sample that strat and demo the looping feature it conjured up so many soundscape type possibilities. Very almost Brian Eno with his Thursday Afternoon album. Great video!!
Outstanding history and overview, but the final track stole the whole show - so much fun - nostalgic yet contemporary in a weird and wonky way and it made me smile (and tap my toes).
I was always fascinated by this keyboard. I saw all my music heroes using it and wanted to know more. Never got one. Waaaaaaay to expensive. I did finally manage to save up for an Akai X7000 which served me very well at the time. This is a great video. Thanks. Some really great jams in there too. 👍👍👏👏👏👏
*Sampler / synthesizer debate*
The Emulator II has samples at the beginning of the signal chain. These run into analogue, resonant, low-pass filters and analogue amplifiers with envelope generators for control, allowing for changes in the harmonic content over time.
The Emulator LFO also runs into the audio range and can modulate sample frequency, filter frequency and amplitude, allowing for both low frequency and audio rate FM and AM.
Many synthesizers have digital samples at the start of the signal chain, whether they're loaded from ROM or they use RAM to allow for user flexibility and custom sound creation, the result is the same; digital samples playing into filters and amps with control and modulation from envelopes and LFOs (and more).
The Korg DW-6000/8000, the PPG Wave synthesizers and all granular synthesizers work like this because they rely entirely _upon_ digital samples. Korg's DSS-1 moniker even meant "digital sampling synthesizer".
There's no definition anywhere that says those samples have to load from ROM and not RAM to make it a synthesizer or not a synthesizer.
I think most arguments I've seen use a pre-digital, 1960s definition of synthesis that uses the word "generate" that's being interpreted without the context of when it was written. New forms of synthesis have since emerged and definitions have evolved.
Furthermore, even if that was accepted, as you can "generate" sine waves from the self-oscillating filters and control them with envelopes and LFOs, the Emulator would _still_ be a synthesizer, even by that definition.
So yes....it's a synthesizer! A sampling synthesizer. Just stick "sample based synthesis" into Google for more.
👏👏 I love the term "sampling synthesizer". Of course I took it from my DSS-1, but I apply it to most samplers, for some reason specially if they have analogue filters.
I absolutely call a rompler a synth, but I’ve seen others that disagree. It almost feels like a purist/elitist thing. A wavetable synth is essentially a single cycle rompler but I have not heard anyone saying a wavetable synth isn’t a synth. Great presentation in the video! I really enjoyed it!
@Alex Ball Preach, brother! 🙌
What? No "you're still here" outro in your bathrobe?
@@juno6 I had a DSS1 … loved that beast, paid a whopping $49 with about 25 factory discs … what a machine
Always thought it funny that Ferris complained he didn't get a car - just a sampler that cost more than a rather nice car at the time.
That's precisely why he _couldn't_ afford a car. I admire his priorities.
@@AlexBallMusic right? So forward-thinking.
I looked into the synth when I was 10 or 11 because of ferris bueller and I gave up st that moment. Never could afford one.
I remember thinking the exact same thing!
@@DennisCaunce - And people complain about the prices of instruments today!!!
My favourite anecdote about Vangelis and the Emulator was during a TV special about him, he was flipping through his sample floppy disks and then exclaimed "I lost my harp".
Do you have a link for this, please?
th-cam.com/video/6VMOlZ3q1ao/w-d-xo.htmlm45s
In Alex´s case that would be " I lost my ARP "- I´ll find my own way out, thanks.
Haha. We can all forgive Vangelis for playing with his floppy during a set.
@@dizzy2020 I know the percussion library he used quite a bit through the 1980s albums: Antarctica, Mask, Soil Festivities. In fact, that aforementioned special has him playing the Emulator and you hear this cluster of percussion all at once.
Musicians in 1984:
Holy crap, this is truly a revolutionary product. The amount of power, the unlimited amount of sound possibilities, built like a tank, this is just incredible. This is going to change the world of music production.
Other people in 1984:
Haha, look, you can play funny dogs barking on this piano.
😆
Or farts. Don’t forget farts.
Fancy electronic version of the "Mouse Organ" ( Monty Python ).😄
I downloaded a wav sample set from the EII a while ago. After going straight to the Marcato strings to recreate the intro to "Papa Don't Preach", I had a quick play with the loon garden samples and the shakuhachi, but then spent about twenty minutes playing with the samples in a folder called "Sick day". My brain will always be a teenage Ferris Bueller that gets a strange satisfaction from the sound of burps, farts, coughs, and vomiting. Whichever foley guy originally recorded those samples about 40 years ago has made an old guy happy.
Young musicians in 1984, its a guitar or a mono synth guys.
Almost 40 years old, but still sooo fresh sounding
that digital for you, that the one thing it does best, it not the best, as the very highest Analog audio, but wants its in there, it not going to degrade, un less the data is corrupted some how, errors in the zeros and ones?
Heck, this thing kicks every modern sampler our of the water. There is still no competition for the EMULATOR 2 and Fairlight CMI mark II + mark III.
What are you talking about? This is exactly the OPPOSITE of fresh sounding.
@@chuckschillingvideos right? 😂
Videos like these redeem TH-cam. Such very iconic sounds back then, and beyond reading some articles in Keyboard magazine, I never knew anything about it. But today? This. Nice. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Damn. The last 30 seconds of that track, plus those '80s visuals, were absolutely superb.
Cheers Zachary.
Majorly - as soon as the vhs beta graphics start at 15m35s
Very True, it was amazing. I watch this about 20 times, takes me so back to when times where great. Just Brilliant!
I am a professional musician who started out in 1985. I had a DX-7 and lusted after one of these. What a great video. Thanks for posting!
I bet this was a tasty proposal back in the day! Still is now.
No wonder it was featured in so much popular music of the 80’s. What a machine it was.
Heck yeah. It was at the time the best sounding sampler at 12-bit (it used 8-bit u-Law which expanded to 12-bit on playback). Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys made good of use of it.
@@rommix0 Can't imagine Pet Shop Boys making good use of anything.
@@sportsfreundberlin That says more about you than them. Pet Shop Boys rock.
I'm an 80's kid. That track at the end hit hard. Took me back. You are talented, Sir.
Cheers Ronald.
You need to release an album! That jam at the end was pure bliss!
There are already 2 albums out, in case you didn't know :) / Cheers from Sonic Peak Studio
@@jakobole oh awesome! Thanks for letting me know :)
Definitely right in my wheelhouse this one. Mid-80s Depeche Mode machine. PS Alex your music is mighty fine. Always seems so happy and in days like these thats a gift.
Cheers! Glad to bring a smile whilst we get a face full of effing January.
It is probably the most Depeche machine, and they've had a couple. Maybe even three or four. 😉
@@AlexBallMusic Hence probably one of Mr Wilder's nicknames being "Mr. Emulator".
Second that mate! All good vibes on this channel. Plus, 80s stuff seems so positive
Yep DM used these to death... Love the Emu samplers 🌹
Big shoutout to all my 80s kids that wish we could go back in time.
what a decode for music!
So many things were much better back then.
@@CNC-Time-Lapse music, cartoons, movies 🍿. Toys, friends playing outside. Etc.
@@Melodic623 Yea, I dont think humans were ready for this whole internet thing.
@@masterofreality230 I can’t remember the last time I saw children playing outside. 🤦🏾♂️
Alex you have to be one of the most through presenters on TH-cam. You don't just dink around and pluck keys here and there, you give histories and examples and produce some great music on top. Great show mate! P.S, the 80's called and want their era back.
Totally agree with you.
I've stolen the 80s and it now belongs to me. 😉
@@AlexBallMusic Ha.
@@AlexBallMusic But don't let Espen Kraft know... 8)
@@AlexBallMusic thank God it finally in good hands!
The price of the Emulator back in the day, meant that Ferris's family was rich. I was a recent college grad working in an electronics engineering company in the 80s and couldn't afford one, even on an engineer's salary . But it was a dream machine that I wished I could afford. So cool. Thanks for the video showing what it was capable of. Awesome!
At 15:56 onwards - those juicy chords OMG! There’s something so evocative and 80’s about this. It transports you to a time and place that you remember well, even though you were never there.
Cheers! Yeah, always fun to go a bit 80s.
i was there and the riff is on point for time travel back to 1985
1984 to 1988 perfectly felt in that riff
The Multi-Tracking demo you did was my favourite that you've ever done!
Cheers!
That truly was wonderful.
Yep, really awesome sound 👏
Yeah it was a banger that should be released for real!
A work of art. The synthesizer's cool too.
That sampled guitar patch is utterly gorgeous - loved this video, thank you! And that was an excellent rendition of Ferris ....
Many thanks!
I was thinking that. It sounded lush!
Man, you “get it” more than most. There is a certain fundamental with the music you make with these classic instruments that (seriously) can take one back. Well played again Sir
Thank you. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. 😉
Wonderful video! I had lusted after an EII since I was a kid and finally found one a few years ago and it immediately became my desert island synth. I play it every day and it still takes me to a very happy place every time. It is huge and I sometimes regret how much space it takes up, but it's a situation where there is something really inspiring about using the hardware over a VST. The perfect balance between limitation and playability.
Ah, glad you got to fulfill that dream. Yeah, it's always more direct using a physical instrument than a virtual one.
@@AlexBallMusic Controllers exist.
@@treetopjones737 And it's still not the same.
And the most fantastic innovation on this gear is to have printed "Wheels" above the wheels... and to have specified "left wheel" for the left wheel and vice versa... this would allow a large number of keyboardists to no longer mix their right and their left handside... this video is a marvel and the final track... well... is so brilliant ! I watched it over and over again ! Congratulations Alex ! You're the best 😛
P
I am going to say that for this synthesizer it seems like it was the top of its game for its time
Yeah, imagine going from sawtooth, pulse and triangle at the start of your signal path to this!
Swedish band Twice a Man made one of their albums (Slow Swirl) entirely on an Emulator II. And on their tour of that album they on stage had an Emulator II, a guitar and a microphone. (And a ladder and a box with a stone and a string, but those made no sounds 🙂) So between each song, during the singer's small talk, you would hear the Emulator loading the next song from floppies. And then they pressed a button and a wall of sound punched you in the gut.
So yeah, definitely top of the game for that time.
It's always incredible how listening to those few sounds instantly brings you back to the 80s, if you were alive then
Best Emulator II video ever. Period. And your creativity is still amazing! That song at the end is a pure 80's gem! Human League class (the Jam/Lewis era…) and needs to exist as a full blown song! :)
You missed perhaps the most critical use of the EII in pop history. Rick Astley on "Never Gonna Give You Up" where he only sang "never gonna" once,... into the EII. Every time you hear those words it's the EII playing. The producer apparently wasn't sure Rick could nail it each time and that was the hook, so he sampled it.
Now that you know that, you can't unhear it.
Didn't know that one, although I did mention that Stock Aitkin and Waterman used it in the end.
🤮
Wow didn’t know that. Brilliant!
Wow you’re right I will never not here that now thanks
Reading this in April 2024 and thinking: this comment is dated '1 year ago' so it could be April Fool's day joke - so if it's a joke it's an excellent joke really and if it's not it's an extremely fun fact 😂
TAL-Sampler really does a wonderful job emulating the Emulator II
and the AM6070 as well, so the sampler could sound like something like the Oberheim DMX and Linn LM-1 for example.
I could listen to you create on this monster all day. You really seem to have an ear for creating flawless retro music. Everything you played could easily be mistaken for original music from the era.
Cheers! Much appreciated.
Alex's vids are so delightfully informative and humorous, and the compositions are always top notch representative uses of these instruments.
Thank you!
Great rundown of a wonderful bit of technology back in the 80's! I had to wrangle one on the Listen Like Thieves tour with INXS in 1986. There were two banks, and I had to load one bank while Andrew Farriss played the other one live. From memory it took about 30 seconds to load a bank. Had to feed the disks and switch banks in the right order so the right samples/sequences were ready to go on cue. One show, I played a trick on the lighting guy, who used a whistle to signal the rigger to set up the next light in the truss. I sampled his whistle and played it back a few times, and it took a while for them to work out where the extra whistles were coming from (sorry Squirt!). But it backfired on me - I forgot the sample was still loaded, and Andrew started playing it live. Whoops... Not very professional and had to scramble to get the right sound happening.
Your demo jams are always so damn good!!
I love how it has "Wheels" in a happy friendly font next to the pitch and mod wheels so you know that they are, in fact, the Wheels.
And the entire section for the "Enter" Button
Then "LEFT WHEEL" & "RIGHT WHEEL" clearly marked, just incase you're a kid and haven't learned left from right yet :)
I have "left shoe, right shoe" written on my....what do you call them? Footsie thingies.
@@stheil Haha! Hadn't actually noticed that.
@@AlexBallMusic and now you can look at your emulator 2 to remember which side the left and right foot gloves go!
Wow, now this was a nostalgia overload... it's like a secret sauce/ingredient that I knew was there yet couldn't identify. What a piece of kit and you did us all proud as ever! 🖖😊
Yep, so damn familiar.
Wow. That final track was phenomenal.
in the late '80s, a while after i hung out my shingle as "the MIDIcian" in SF Bay area studio and production scene, i got on famously with the next generations of e-mu kit: EII, eMax, SP-1200 and EIII. Innumerable hours spent in Sound Designer, Alchemy, Turbosynth and Vision/StudioVision, to build sample libraries for my own productions, and tour prep for Timex Social Club, Club Nouveau, Gregg Rolie (the Storm, after his Journey days,) Tony, Toni, Toné and others. I was perpetually leveraging OPS (other people's samplers,) which started when i hired in Paul Fox for an EP i co-produced in '84, and he came up from LA with Wave PPG and Emulator to frost our cake. Paul was in demand in those days for his considerable synthing/sampling skills, as heard on Pointer Sisters' "Automatic," a bunch of Smokie Robinson records, and so forth. I mentioned StudioVision earlier, as that is precisely why i didn't invest in my own sampler (had a Prophet-10 at the heart of my rig, so already had a "monster mortgage," if you will…,) - being able to sequence and manipulate samples within the Mac was a more streamlined workflow, than "shipping" the sample data over RS-422 to the eMax, to trigger via MIDI.
Brilliant workup on this landmark beast, and i, too dig the production you realized here! Fun fact: in '96-'97. i was one of a 2-man team building StudioFrames in Richmand, CA, the inheritor to the WaveFrame legacy, and that led me to being recruited as Digital Audio Tech at Skywalker Sound, '97 - '98, a glorious time in the "digitalization" of film Post-production, wherein the ties to Mag recorders and video tape decks were severed, and remoting editing GUIs (via KVM control over Pro Tools and/or StudioFrame systems in the newly-digital Central Machine Room,) became standard operating procedure at SkySound, a facility that had already spawned EDnet - the ISDN-based technology that permitted Ahhnold to do his ADR in SoCal for a dub in Marin, and Spielberg to sit in on dubs for "Saving Private Ryan" form his Amblin screening room, riding herd on the mixers in NorCal.
Man how do you make all you videos so interesting and enjoyable to watch every single time?
He took the format of popular UK 70s 80s and 90s Television shows and made that his channel look and feel to match 70s 80s and 90s gear which He would feature. He asked the question "what made those old TV shows so watchable and memorable" and can He bring that to youtube.
Love the interlude at 2:28! It makes me think of something Nobuo Uematsu would have composed for a Final Fantasy soundtrack
Despite continuing to like a fair bit of contemporary music, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the 80s synth / dance like Art Of Noise. I loved the end song!
I watch dozens of TH-cam videos daily. The Ferris Bueller video is one of the best most informative and educational videos I’ve come across in a long time. It is brilliant content like this that keeps me coming back for more. Thank you so much.
Thanks very much!
Love that the mod and pitch wheels are helpfully labeled "Wheels"! xD Fascinating how good these samples sound even at that low rate and how it has a sound of its own. Great video!
Ferris was the coolest because of this sampler. I was so envious when I saw this as a teenager back in 1986!
I agree! Everything else was insignificant - he had a sampler!
Well, more like the sampler AND the girlfriend
@@marsupialmicron "Do you have a kiss for Daddy?"
@@marsupialmicron A rare combination indeed.
@@jamesKneen Then mom says you have a sampler at home. (Insert pic of Casio SK-1.)
That EII looks brand new! What a wonderful machine & piece of history - Thx for sharing your magic take on it!
It was restored both cosmetically and internally. I saw it when it was first acquired, it looked nothing like this. Lovely to experience it like new.
@@AlexBallMusic Hats off to the tech!
Not often I hear Front 242 mentioned in synth vids. Props!
No Comment was basically Emulator II and a DX 7, 242 really went down the digital synthesis rabbit hole after the very analog Geography
I was keeping my ears open to make sure he mentioned them! They were effusive in their praise in gear mag interviews!
You are so freaking creative it is astonishing. Well done, as usual. With a last name like Ferris, naturally I had to chime in on an Emulator vid. Enjoyed this one particularly. Cheers.
Incredible work alex! loved the song, the production ended encapsulating a little bit of everyone; howard jones vocals, japan crazy signatures too. As always great work, keep it up !!
What an amazing ending track!!! Man oh man, how technology has evolved so fast. Cool video on the iconic Sampler/Synthesizer Keyboard, that changed, the created a whole world of amazing new music, like the Fairlight did too!
Fantastic viewing! ..love the 'bits' you sampled thru it - sounded great, Cheers Alex! 🙏🏻
🤜🤛
This instrument was marvelous.
I never thought it was that advanced.
Cool isn't it!
I rarely login to YT, but I just had to leave a quick comment and say, that this is quite possibly the nicest video I've seen on this platform. Great work!
Thank you!
Alex the amount of melodic and harmonic ideas you get through in your songs makes me feel so inadequate as a song writer. Superb stuff!
Would love to see a video about your vocals for these tracks, particularly around stacking harmonies and your approach (probably not going to get massive views but I'd be interested nonetheless). Also, I like how with each video we get a peek at the tracks for the next album!
Occasionally people ask, but not enough for a video. I work them out at the piano. Melody is most important, so never compromise it for a harmony.
Then work out what you can fit around it given the chords happening underneath.
The main part of my sound is there's always four parts and I double track all of it. I always loved Queen, so the more vocal harmony and overdubs, the better.
Reminds me of the vocal stacks of the 90s Swedish band Big Money, including songs like “Last Man on Earth”, that were produced by ABBA’s producer Michael Tretow.
Probably the most sound defining instrument of the 80s after the DX7.
It's up there.
The TOTP studio in the mid-late 1980s had a DX7 and an Emulator II that appeared on stage when pretty much any band with a synth player came on to mime their songs. This gave the impression to a young version of me that *everyone* had an Emulator, but I don't think that was quite the case.
@@AutPen38 I don't base my opinion on totp, but on magazines of that era, interviews, (real) live shows, studio pics, etc.
@@AutPen38 Many bands would rent a synth or two for TOTP appearances.
When Dave Stewart played a Prophet 10 for It's My Party, it wasn't his..
@@duncanparsons My understanding is that - except when a touring band brought in their own gear - ToTP performers could just use whatever equipment they could find in the props cupboard at TV Centre. A DX7 and an Emulator were kept there on standby (along with various drumkits, guitars, and Marshall stacks) for anyone that wanted. Obviously a lot of mid-to-late '80s hits were made with DX7s especially, and a few studios had Emulators, but the latter wasn't widely owned by individuals. It's kind of mad, given the price of the instrument, that the BBC one was stored in a cupboard and was rarely even plugged in.
It's crazy how much stuff Dave Rossum has done
His story is like the Star Wars saga. So many stories within stories. Amazing.
@@AlexBallMusic and superb synth designs too! I love his Rossum modular filter and oscillator modules for eurorack! He also had a hand in Oberheim too I think.
@@GuitarsAndSynths He did. I talked about in my Oberheim Two Voice video just last week!
@@AlexBallMusic And apparently in the filter section of the Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave, or so RMR mentioned in his recent review.
Right? The guy's a legend
I am so glad I lived the 80's that was the ERA that was a time music was engineered to make music then non forgettable, and very enjoyable to dance and enjoy to listen no matter what your tasks are during the day. I listen ONLY to the 70's and 80's music today.
You are the king of synth/sampler tribute videos! Every single time you absolutely nail it. Kudos!
Cheers Nick!
Your show is amazing! Thank you for another great episode!
Thank you too!
We really need to bring back L/R panning in songs. Hearing it in this sounds SO good! It opens it up to so much creativity, and when used tastefully, can truly create a one-of-a-kind epic listening experience.
Thanks! Some of the samples were panned themselves, some of them I did.
it still exists haha -- but I suppose in modern pop its less pronounced?
@@sonicpeakstudio541 nice nice, I was wondering how the stereo effects were achieved.
@@d3maccus definitely still exists, but like you said nowhere near as pronounced. They used to go crazy with panning (in a good way). Today it's hard to find a song that has the drums (a popular instrument to pan) spread across the channels.
@@a1hero_ You're right, you hear it sometimes with vocal harmonies but def not drum panning action like the 80s
Beautiful tune at the end... really captured the essence of that magical beast! Bravo
Fantastic video. And my does that sampling sound good.
Yeah, for sure! I bet you'd have some fun with it.
What a solid writer you are... Loved that track you played at the end :)
Thank you
15:55 to end is more 80s than the 80s. This slaps!
Edit: I got addicted to this track. This is pure euphoria, like driving down the highway at sundown having this melancholic joy - just ahh.
Can anyone figure out the vocals? I can just hear "I'll be on your side" and "You'll stay protected"
Don't hide behind this one you know that I'll be on your side.
Don't hide behind this one, don't go.
Don't hide behind this one you know that I'll be on your side.
You'll stay protected.
@@AlexBallMusic You're a legend.
Great video. The choir patch was used a lot around the mid 80s : from the main melody of 'Always On My Mind' (and most of that period of Petshop Boys until 'Behaviour') to the title theme to 'Howards Way' by Simon May, it was as ubiquitous as the Orchestra Hits. Keff McCulloch also made it the star of Doctor Who from 1987-1989 as his soundtracks are basicsally EII, Prophet 5 and a Linndrum - the Cybermen arriving at the start 'Silver Nemesis' uses 3 of the Orchestra Hits for example. . It even made the 1985-89 'Jim'll Fix It' opening title theme but even the composer wants to forget about that.
Most of these patches come included in most DAWs or sound librerys, I know for a fact I have used many of these exact sounds.
@@HOLLASOUNDS Yes it's great. 20 odd years ago it was nearly impossible to find them. I had to buy the full EMAX library that had been converted to a SoundFont which had all of the famous sounds in it . This was before Arturia and many of the other modern libraries existed.
@@culttelevision That's pretty epic, is there anywhere I can hear your music?
@@HOLLASOUNDS th-cam.com/video/lT3JmvcHERA/w-d-xo.html
yo that Feature Track at the end is the JAM. Thanks for such a great informative visit to EMU Land! Cheers!
All those nostalgic sounds makes me cry. Thank You so much for all the emotions you give. I love you !
6:33 surprisingly Boards of Canada like circa The Campfire Headphase album :)
Actually the next example at 7:16 even more so lol
My thoughts exactly! The second example is so Boards of Canada-like to the point that it sounds straight out of a few old tunes.
This synth and Depeche Mode literally shaped my musical taste in the 80s.
That jam at 8:20 is so funky, man. Do you have a full version of it?
Straight out of Beverly Hills Cop I thought? Could picture Eddie Murphy sneaking round the bad guys warehouse to that?
Hell yes. He's channelling Soulwax/Deewee there.
What an outstanding production the last piece was. I can't figure out whether I'm reluctant or inspired to return to the studio now. Wonderful stuff!
You make this sound amazing. My friend had one back in 1986 and we had lots of fun with it, but never made it sound like this!. Mostly just sampled and made drum loops. You're immensely talented BTW!
It's amazing how fantastic it still sounds.
The last song flashbacked me really hard back to my youth. The first girls, the first homecomputers, the first hifi. The future will be great. ❤
It provoked a negative reaction in me. We didn't all have a wonderful time in the 1980s. You fitted in, I am guessing.
@@douglasfreeman3229 I did not fit in at all, was on ther nerd side of life. Glad my puberty was finally over :-)
The best synth ever made, the EmulatorII. The sounds it makes is fantasic- Just listen to Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, Front 242 to name a few that used it.
Fantastic video! The Emulator II nearly didn’t make it, Emu was in a cash crisis in 84 after sales of the Drumulator stalled. Luckily Syco in the UK stepped in and payrolled the initial production, possibly due to the PG connection. Amazingly it has one of the first custom chips in a sampler, the E chip, which is incredilbly reliable. Good job, because once it dies the sampler is toast… it creates all the digital sample manipulation which is the sound we still love…Big thanks to the Emu team of 84, especially Dana Massie who created the Mac software editor and much more. 😊😊
Another excellent ,informative and entertaining video. Alex is on-the-Ball when it comes to musicology . He is the Meister of Memberberries.
It’s hard to track all the iterations of the EII. The one in the video is very early…serial #84…PSU on the far left rear vs the later amidships. I think this was changed because of early heat issues.
Fun Fact: serials 1-25 were all ordered by Peter Gabriel’s company Syco in an attempt to keep E-MU from going bankrupt and sold out of London. Some of those first 25 made it back to the states with Stevie Wonder, Steve Porcaro…
I have #27. She def has growing pains. ;)
Has anyone ever mentioned that your harmony vocals, like these, sound a bit like Yes with Trevor Rabin? In any event, love your music.
Cheers! A couple of people have made the same comparison. I know Yes, but haven't listened to all that much of their stuff to be honest. Great musicians obviously.
@@AlexBallMusic I'm thinking the 90125 version of Yes from 1983. I am also realizing that's partly because you played the sampled bit from Owner Of A Lonely Heart starting at 1:30. Perhaps a Yes and vintage Dutch porn mash up is in the future?
@@pembrokerise Owner of a lonely arse?
@@AlexBallMusic 😆Yesh!
It writes itself: th-cam.com/video/vpIduDaggVA/w-d-xo.html
Consistent awesomeness never gets boring... 😍👍🎹❤
Thank you kind sir. 😀
Best thing is that you make such great music using all this wonderful equiment.
Another superb video. Fascinating to see the capabilities of something that is 40 years old. I didn't know it could do so many things.
Yeah, surprising isn't it! It's probably so famous for the presets that some of the more interesting stuff plays second fiddle.
Sampled second fiddle, obviously.
@@AlexBallMusic yes indeed. The sequencer is a prime example of that. Thanks again for such an informative video
Very nice vocal harmonies 😊
Thank you!
I’d buy a daft-styled-emulator-remix album of all of all the old alex-hits in a heartbeat! 👌
6:24 Alex does a Madonna impersonation!
Rita Hayworth gave good Face...
🤣
Strike a pose...
@@AlexBallMusic Expect a call from Malcolm McLaren's estate..
@Perisho I prefer to Moog.
@@AlexBallMusic come on, Moog! Let your circuit groove to the music!
You Sir, have the midas touch. Everything you've shown off is immensely listenable. Super nice sounds.
80s rules! watching this evokes "the legend of zelda" for some reason. love it. love the talent too. the end track is just brilliant . and the synth is nuts. so much history. we have these old toys to thank for shaping some of the most iconic music in history and shaping some of the more newer accesable toys as well. big thumbs up.
1:35 every 90's atmospheric song ever... jesus I hate that sample.
Awesome video Alex! That turn around with smirk killed me.
It's cool seeing all this 80s nostalgia. I was just a kid but yes, it was amazing. Full of life, happiness, and optimism for the future that was on it's way out by the 90s. It could have been that I was a kid, but if you listen to the music of the era it paints a picture of what the cultural zeitgeist was. Compare it to the music now.
You seem like such a natural at this .. feeling comfortable in your mountain of technology really understanding everything down to the nuts and bolts. For me it makes my head explode 🤯
Aleeeex
your videos/mini docs/music tracks always get me pumped and ready to go jam on my synths at home. Thanks for all the fun. my dude.
Thank you! Nice to know.
When you sample that strat and demo the looping feature it conjured up so many soundscape type possibilities. Very almost Brian Eno with his Thursday Afternoon album. Great video!!
Thanks. Finally meet my nemesis and why the 40's to the 90's were excellent decades of music, subtracting a large portion of the 80's.
Outstanding history and overview, but the final track stole the whole show - so much fun - nostalgic yet contemporary in a weird and wonky way and it made me smile (and tap my toes).
Thank you very much! Nice to know.
@@AlexBallMusic Full version please!
@@hangingwithhenry5857 I'm currently working on the extended version of it. Greetings from Sonic Peak Studio
Thank you this brought me back when I was a kid with my grandpa. I miss him. But this made me happy. Thanks again
I was always fascinated by this keyboard. I saw all my music heroes using it and wanted to know more. Never got one. Waaaaaaay to expensive. I did finally manage to save up for an Akai X7000 which served me very well at the time. This is a great video. Thanks. Some really great jams in there too. 👍👍👏👏👏👏
Dude, I'm ready to pop collars again! Nice 80's feel from your closing song and the video was flawless..very nice!
Honestly for the money and time it was released this is one of the coolest things a kid could have had in the 80s. Endless fun and it sounds amazing.
Wow. The song at 8:20 was the best new 80's thing I have heard in years. Love it, thanks!!!
The vocals at the end did it so well. Until those it sounded empty. Yet another job well done.
This really was soooo good, if TH-cam as a whole was this good, I would have a serious problem. I would do NOTHING else. Thank you.
Thanks for mentioning Front 242, my personal favorite OG Emulator II users.
Very exciting harmonic progressions in the final tune. Really exciting indeed :D. I love me some innovative use of harmony :).