E-mu Systems

Lore & Background

E-mu Systems was founded in Santa Cruz, California by Dave Rossum, a UCSC student, and two friends from Caltech, Steve Gabriel and Jim Ketcham, with the goal of building their own modular synthesizers. Scott Wedge, who would ultimately become president, joined later that summer. In 1972, E-mu became a company, developing and patenting a digitally scanned polyphonic keyboard in 1973, which was licensed for use by Oberheim Electronics and by Dave Smith in the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. E-mu, along with Solid State Micro Technology (SSM), also developed several synthesizer module IC chips used by many synthesizer companies. With royalties from these partnerships, E-mu designed the Audity, its first non-modular synthesizer, shown at the 1980 AES Convention; priced at $69,200, only one machine was ever produced. At that same convention, Wedge and Rossum saw the Fairlight CMI and the Linn LM-1, recognizing the trend of digital samplers and realizing E-mu had the technology to bring a lower-priced sampler to market. The Emulator debuted in 1981 at a list price of $7,900, significantly less than the $30,000 Fairlight. Following the Emulator, E-mu released the first programmable drum machine with samples built-in priced below $1,000, the E-mu Drumulator. Its success was followed by the Emulator II and III, the SP-12 drum sampler, and the Emax series of samplers. In 1987, the SP-1200 drum sampler offered an all-in-one box for sequencing drum sounds and looping samples, quickly becoming the instrument of choice for hip hop producers.

Reader's Guide

E-mu Systems left a lasting mark on music production through its affordable samplers and drum machines, which made digital sampling accessible to a wider range of musicians. The Emulator, priced far below the Fairlight CMI, brought sampling into the reach of many studios, while the SP-1200 became a defining tool for hip hop production. The Proteus series of rackmount sound modules, introduced in 1990, offered a large library of high-quality samples at a competitive price, spurring multiple versions including orchestral and world music variants. After its acquisition by Creative Technology in 1993, E-mu began working on PC sound card synthesis, contributing the EMU8000 effect processor to the Creative Wave Blaster II and Sound Blaster AWE32. In the early 2000s, E-mu designed a series of high-fidelity Digital Audio Systems computer sound cards under the name E-MU with a Creative Professional label, including models such as the 0404, 1212m, 1616, 1616m, 1820, and 1820m. These cards used the same core DSP chip as Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy2 but were developed in-house and omitted Creative's proprietary EAX routines and wavetable MIDI synthesis, distinguishing them from the parent company's products. Subsequent E-mu products were exclusively in software form, including the Emulator X and Proteus X. The company's legacy is also preserved through Digital Sound Factory, which licenses and remasters original Proteus and Emulator sound libraries.

Did You Know?

• E-mu's first non-modular synthesizer, the Audity, was priced at $69,200 and only one unit was ever produced.
• The E-mu SP-1200 drum sampler became the instrument of choice for hip hop producers.
• E-mu's sound cards used the same EMU10K2 DSP chip as Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy2 but were developed independently.
• In 1998, E-mu was combined with its former arch-rival Ensoniq, another synthesizer and sampler manufacturer acquired by Creative Technology.

Note

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