Emax II operation manual
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WHAT’S AN EMAX II?
Emax II is a responsive, low cost, surprisingly easy-to-use musical instrument with
staggering creative possibilities. It’s also a composer’s personal orchestra, a recording
studio’s chance to have hundreds of acoustic and electronic instruments “on call” at any
one time, a university’s research tool...but most of all, it provides the means for some
truly special musical experiences. To give you a better idea of its capabilities, here are
just a few of Emax II’s highlights:
In addition to synthesizing sounds, Emax II digitally records (“samples”) real-world
sounds into its memory with 16-bit, CD quality in either mono or stereo (optional). If you
want Emax to sound like a piano, sample a piano; if you want it to sound like a barking
dog, sample a dog. Pre-sampled sounds can also be loaded into Emax II’s memory from
disks. Emax II also contains Spectrum Synthesis, a powerful additive synthesizer.
These sounds may then be modified with Emax II’s synthesizer processors and/or state-
of-the-art digital processors. The synthesizer-type processors include:
● Dynamic digital lowpass filters (VCF) with AHDSR envelope generators
● Digital amplifiers (VCA) with AHDSR envelope generators
● LFOs with adjustable rate, delay, and speed variation
● Two programmable wheels for real-time control over pitch, filter cutoff, AHDSR
attack rate, level, LFO modulation index, etc.
● Two programmable footswitches for real-time control over sustain, release,
sustenuto, “patch” change, and sequencer start/stop
● Velocity sensitive keyboard, where keyboard dynamics can control any or
all of the following: VCA level, VCA attack, VCF cutoff, VCF attack, and VCF Q.
The keyboard can play up to sixteen notes simultaneously; however, Emax II can chorus
its voices or play in stereo with no loss of polyphony! Note that like standard analog
synthesizers, there is a complete set of modifiers for each note. Therefore, when we refer
to the “filter”, "LFO" or “VCA," we are really talking about sixteen filters, LFOs and
VCAs.
Digital processing techniques include:
● Truncation (shortening the beginning and/or the end of the sample)
● Looping the sample (or any portion thereof)
● “Crossfade” looping for smooth, clean loops
● Digitally combining (mixing) two samples
● Sound reversal, as well as sample rate conversion and pitch conversion
● Transform Multiplication™, a powerful new DSP effect
● Splicing two or more samples together (imagine a piano that turns into a voice, that
turns into a seagull...)
● Advanced split capabilities and the ability to layer four presets on a single key
● Easy doubling, plus velocity-controlled crossfading and switching between
samples
● Individual tuning and attenuation for each sample
● Ultra-flexible, programmable arpeggiation
● 16 track “scratchpad” sequencer
INTRODUCTION
Emax II Features
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