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Short question - Dave Stewart from Eurythmics


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Hi All,

 

I remember reading something in Keyboard magazine ages ago-

It was an interview with Dave Stewart back in the golden days of Eurythmics.

 

He said he has a secret trick programming the E-mu Emulator II, and that he would never tell what it is.

Has he changed his mind about revealing his trick since then?

Does anyone know?

 

Thanks in advance :-)

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Cool links bieke - thanks for posting them! :cool2:

 

 

From the first link:

 

 

"And there's one sinister problem which takes a few months for you to realise. If you sample something with a fast attack, that attack time will be shortened when you play in the upper registers." The principle of the 'lator is, after all, along the lines of a digital tape recorder. As you run the 'tape' faster, it rises in pitch. But of course, it's also finished in a shorter time. But THAT'S not the end where the trouble occurs.

 

"It will be double the length in the lower octaves, so the attack will be slower. To the ear it sounds as if it's being played out of time. That happened to me a lot. I'd be recording in the studio thinking 'I can't be playing THIS badly'."

 

For similarly afflicted Emulator owners, Dave has found one way round it. Press B3 which reverses the direction of the loop so the sound is playing backwards. Then cut off the end — which is really the beginning — go back to normal and there you are with a tightened up attack time. Ten points to the Stewart cranium. Pass go, collect 200 floppy discs.

 

 

I'm not sure if that's the "trick" the OP was referring to, or even if that comment is E-II specific (they show a picture of the original Emulator in the article, and the article seems to be focused on the first model), but it's a good suggestion, and you should be able to do that sort of edit with just about any sampler.

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