FERRIS BUELLER'S SYNTHESIZER
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
- A look at the E-mu Systems Emulator II from 1984, famously used by a certain Mr Bueller.
0:00 Day Off
0:40 The Emulator
1:30 Interlude 1: Some Sounds
1:59 The Emulator II
2:27 Interlude 2: 80s TV Score
3:03 Sampling Explanation
4:34 Sampling Demonstration
7:48 Multi-track Sequencing
9:34 What could you use it for now?
11:45 Computer Interface & Famous Users
13:53 Feature Track (mixed by Jakob at Sonic Peak)
Tonelab as mentioned:
/ @tonelab - Hudba
*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!!!
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.
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.
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. 🤦🏾♂️
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?
czcams.com/video/6VMOlZ3q1ao/video.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.
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? 😂
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.
Videos like these redeem CZcams. 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!
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.
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 :)
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.
I'm an 80's kid. That track at the end hit hard. Took me back. You are talented, Sir.
Cheers Ronald.
It's always incredible how listening to those few sounds instantly brings you back to the 80s, if you were alive then
Wow. That final track was phenomenal.
A work of art. The synthesizer's cool too.
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
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!
Love the interlude at 2:28! It makes me think of something Nobuo Uematsu would have composed for a Final Fantasy soundtrack
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!
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 🌹
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.
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!
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
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!
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.
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.
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!
The lighting in your studio is like the lighting in a horror videogame. I love it.
This instrument was marvelous.
I never thought it was that advanced.
Cool isn't it!
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!
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.
Alex you have to be one of the most through presenters on CZcams. 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!
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.
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.
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!
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! :)
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!
What a beautiful synthesizer.
Modern art look, matching to functional implementation.
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.
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
Specifications, features, and sounds that still make one salivate in 2023. One output per voice! Sample, the play immediately after. Imagine if we saw that stuff more, these days…
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.
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
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 :-)
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. 😊😊
The end jam made me feel ten years old again. Dead center of the decade!
This synth and Depeche Mode literally shaped my musical taste in the 80s.
Alex's vids are so delightfully informative and humorous, and the compositions are always top notch representative uses of these instruments.
Thank you!
I grew up in the late 80's and early 90's in an Amiga, then PC environment. I loved electronic music, but I was the only one in my family figuring it out. Now, I couldn't afford every accessory I ever wanted, but in 1999, Creative Labs released the Sound Blaster Live! It was an amazing PC sound card with all the functionality of a sampler synth. It was the SoundFont format, along with any MIDI keyboard, and the included drivers that basically turned your Pentium computer into an Emulator II without any additional software. As a kid, I found ways of composing tracks using that and Sonic Foundry's Acid 2.0... no quantinization, no MIDI recording tracks in this version, everything was dubbed using the sound card's ability to "hear itself", then I would edit the 44.1kHz tracks and processed the sound using the onboard effects... no VST's... a process I wouldn't dare use today.
Thank you for this video. You let me see the roots of my childhood equipment (all the functions you illustrated, and more). I have yet to explore your videos, but that may be a point in synth and sampler history to cover. EMU into Creative Inc. In the day when all-in-one Workstations like the Motif were popular, Creative Inc. was allowing you to do the same with your computer... and may had been the first consumer level sound card to allow such functionality.
the vocal stems of tableau are super interesting to listen to. lovely singing :)
to me it always is fascinating to hear the building blocks of songs.
We tend to love exactly what couldn't be engineered out of a product at the time. From valves distorting to wobbly VCOs, tape hiss and later aliasing and 8 bit crunch etc. We do $hit on them at the time, but we will pay mad Euros for them in 35 years time.
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.
Wow. You have seriously grown in popularity since the last time I checked up on this channel. Gives me hope that my artistic endeavors will be recognized to the same extent some day.
Sorry that this comment totally unrelated to the video. Onward and upward, Mr. Ball. Onward and upward.
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!
Your demo jams are always so damn good!!
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.
80s Style Music at the end ROCKED!!
Alex another very made video. I think most of us take sampling into a DAW for granted these days but interesting seeing one of the first machines to do record and sample manipulation.
Hello Alex: Your mention of the limitations of pitch shifting dredged up one of my old memories. In the late 1980's I was lucky enough to go for a tour around Fairlight. Our guide said that for the piano sound, they had sampled every fourth note, because if they just had one note and pitch shifted it, it didn't sound like a piano. On the subject of how widely used the Emulator II was, Clive James mentioned it one of his novels. Stay well and safe.
Thanks for mentioning Front 242, my personal favorite OG Emulator II users.
I CAN NOT stop listening to the song at the end. This is mind blowingly good! The is legit the best song Howard Jones, never did! ;) Incredible nostalgia.
Fantastic viewing! ..love the 'bits' you sampled thru it - sounded great, Cheers Alex! 🙏🏻
🤜🤛
It's amazing how fantastic it still sounds.
Even in 2023, I’m mind blown by this.
Keep coming back to the Multi-track Sequencing track. Love that jam!
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.
Between this and Wargames, Matthew Broderick had some of the most iconic 1980s on-screen electronics interactions
Yeah, he captured the zeitgeist for those of us that were a few years younger than him and that had to make do with ZX Spectrums and Casio keyboards... but we could use our imaginations!
The vocals at the end did it so well. Until those it sounded empty. Yet another job well done.
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!
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 czcams.com/video/lT3JmvcHERA/video.html
Your show is amazing! Thank you for another great episode!
Thank you too!
Wow. The song at 8:20 was the best new 80's thing I have heard in years. Love it, thanks!!!
cnat get enough of your luvly VHS filter on ur cam, mr Ball! Such a delight!
Fantastic video, loved it - great video, demos and brilliant homage to Ferris! Really enjoyed the song at the end too.
Cheers Gordon! Saw your comment about the Alpha Juno, made me chuckle. I used to work near Denmark Street and spent too much money there over the years.
@@AlexBallMusic I honestly believed the Juno could turn me into the next 808 State or something. Absolutely delusional and I also never learn. About three decades later I fulfilled my DX7 fantasy with a Reface, and guess what, I can't play that either. I really ought to take some lessons. Keep up the good work!
@@cameralabs Haha. Very humble of you.
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.
I had one for about 15 years. Used it from everything from creating environmental backgrounds for commercials to sampling individual line from my 3 year old bearly able to speak daughters, then sequencing to play back sample to creat seemless dialog. Wish I still had it.
Saw an Emulator II in my side bar and thought "Cool!" Then I saw your name under it and knew I had to hear what you did with it! You never disappoint!
Turns out I haven't gotten a single notification for your channel for months, despite the fact that I have all notifications turned on. I still can't figure out what the purpose of the bell is for or why it works the way it does.
It always amazes me how good these older synths can sound despite their massive limitations. They come really close to approximating actual sounds that just wouldn't sound right when sampled on newer hardware with the same limitations. I'm not quite sure why that is, although I imagine some of the circuitry is sort of hiding some of the less desirable qualities of the sound. Or perhaps it's more about later hardware with the same limitations being made in cheaper devices with cheaper components that just don't do the job as well.
That said, despite the technical limitations it's amazing what this thing can actually do! One of the artists you didn't mention that allegedly used it was Trent Reznor during the very early days of Nine Inch Nails, at least according to some of the interviews he did in the early 90's. In classic Trent style, he liked to record normal samples into it and pitch them up or down in extreme ways to make totally different sounds, which is probably why, if he did use it, the album is not dripping with that typical Emulator II style. Judging by some of the sounds on Pretty Hate Machine, I think there's probably some validity to this, although in one interview he said that PHM was pretty much entirely the Emulator II, while I'm pretty sure I hear quite a bit of Prophet VS in there as well (Prophet VS is also heard on Broken).
This is one of those synths that not only sounds great, but looks amazing as well. This is a BEAUTIFUL synth IMO. It's also not obnoxiously large like a lot of very early synths, although I'm sure it still weighs a ton. My next-best choice of vintage sampler keyboard would have to be the Ensoniq EPS-16+. I'm not sure if you've made any videos about that yet, but I'm definitely going to spend some time scouring your channel for it.
Thank you for this awesome demonstration of this awesome piece of synth history. This thing STILL gives me goosebumps when I hear it
What a solid writer you are... Loved that track you played at the end :)
Thank you
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.
OMG, this is taking me back decades, the old Emulator III… or “EMU” as it was referred to as.
Green Gartside called, he wants his sounds back! :-) Simply brilliant btw. Thankyou!
God I love this channel.
Cheers Mike!
Very nice vocal harmonies 😊
Thank you!
Forgot how incredible and fun your music was on this one! So creative
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!
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.
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. ;)
Fun fact: I did talk about the 8 to 12 but DAC stuff during my annual appraisal, to which my boss explained that if I’d said that during my interview I’d have never been hired in the first place. So good advice.
Beautiful tune at the end... really captured the essence of that magical beast! Bravo
Consistent awesomeness never gets boring... 😍👍🎹❤
Thank you kind sir. 😀
I’d buy a daft-styled-emulator-remix album of all of all the old alex-hits in a heartbeat! 👌
All your videos are just.. joy all the way thru! An that outro was splllleeendid!
13:15 Kudos for mentioning Front 242. EBM geniuses of Industrial music.
Anyone who used the Roland MC-4 is brethren to me. 😉
The two things that come to my mind when I see this instrument are Ferris Bueller and Depeche Mode!