E-MU EMULATOR X2 (software sampler)

[Anderton]

After you have a bunch of samples, it’s time to think about creating presets. Once you create the Preset, then when you expand it in the Tree view, you’ll see Voices and Zones, Links, and Voice Processing options. Clicking on Voices and Zones initially opens up a page that contains basically nothing. Click on the attachment to see the opening screen. You then drag samples over, where you can do a variety of mixing, tuning, key switching and crossfading/layering, velocity switching and crossfading, and linking to various controllers. Each of these editable functions is tabbed, and a variety of fields across the bottom give numeric or visual feedback on your edits. So, let’s create a preset.

[Anderton]

I dragged over four samples from the DPM PICKBS set of samples I’d swiped, then selected them and combined them into a multisample. That way they could be manipulated as a group, although you can also “open up” the multisample to see each one. I also dragged over a SLAPBS sample. I didn’t bother doing a multisample, as I just wanted to tie it to velocity so that hitting notes hard would bring in a hint of the slap.

Click on the attachment to see the Mix/Tune page. Here you can mute and solo individual samples, change their levels, panning, transposition, and even the looping characteristics (forward, forward loop, backward, backward loop, or one-shot). The bottom section gives info about the selected sample, as well as whwere it’s placed on the keyboard.

[Anderton]

Here the lower section is the same as the previous window, but click on the attachment to see how the samples are placed on the keyboard, and the cool way the X2 handles positional crossfading. You set the upper and lower ranges by just grabbing the right and left edges of the bar that represents a sample, and dragging them to the desired range. But here’s the cool thing: When you Alt-drag, you select a positional crossfade zone. For example, you can see that the four samples that make up the multisample are crossfaded so that as a lower sample fades out, the next sample up fades in. This makes for totally seamless sample transitions; it’s literally impossible to tell where one sample begins and the other one ends (note the red vertical line in each sample; it indicates the root note).

The slap sample isn’t faded, and simply extends the entire range of the keyboard.

[Anderton]

Click on the attachment to see the X2’s velocity crossfading window.Actually I didn’t use any velocity fading in this preset, but the principle is the same as positional crossfading: You drag the bar to set the upper and lower velocity limits that will trigger the sample, and if you Alt-Drag, the samples will “morph” from one to the other rather than switch abruptly.

 

Of course, both techniques are useful. For example, with a snare drum, the various multisampled drum velocities could morph into each other, but at a very high velocity, you could bring in a hard rim shot hit.

[Anderton]

The preceding windows are the main ones that most samplers have (although few software samplers seem to do positional crossfading), but there are other windows too:

The Real-Time Window allows tying volume crossfades/switching to a controller (including LFO, envelopes, etc.) instead of velocity. For example, the Mod Wheel can crossfade between two different sounds to give more variations within a single preset, or switch between two entirely different sounds altogether. Note that you can also set up random switching and fading. However, this is a fairly complex process as it involves setting up software “patch cords” on the modulation section (something we haven’t covered yet).

The five Continuous Controller Window tabs do almost the same thing as the Real-Time Window page, except that changes occur coincident with note-on messages, so you can’t alter a note after it’s been played, but you can cause a different sample to be played next time you hit a note-on. This is simpler to set up, as all your controller info is available right in the window fields – you don’t have to go into the modulation area and mess with the virtual patch cords. A special mode, Keyboard CC, allows triggering particular samples with particular keyboard keys; instead of playing notes, these are basically “switches” for various samples. Another useful option, Cycle Groups, triggers different samples within the same group as you play either successive notes in the same MIDI channel, or successive notes on the same key (your choice). This is like the “round robin” approach used in other samplers.

This is by no means the end of what you can do with the Zones and Voices window, but it’s the end of the evening for me…and the next tab we need to cover, the Regions window, requires knowing about beat markers and other fun stuff I haven’t learned yet. So I’m going back to do a little more research, then will dive into the remaining features.

[ICHi]

Originally posted by dahkter
Hi Ichi,

per craig's request:

"Now, if we could just have a "render with processing and save as WAV" file"

Is this possible yet? If I run a sample through the x2's effects, whether it be the slicer or the sp12ulator, can I export through the x2, or do I first need to render as a wav in the host?
***All real time synthesis(including FX) need to be rendered via a host at this time. The main reasoning is that they are "real-time" and can be modulated thus need a time base and control track. Making X2 FX into file based DSP routines is certainly possible so I will add it to the wishlist for future consideration.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[ICHi]

Originally posted by Rique
Hi Craig, I’m glad your doing such a thorough review of the X2.

I’m a Mac guy and I’m considering getting a PC just for the X2 or will
an dual core intel Mac be just as good?

Looking forward to your Twistaloops and Transform multiply review.

ICHi, since this sampler is so complex, any chance of a DVD being made
showing creative uses and EXAMPLES?
***You'll be glad to hear that we are definitely headed in that direction and have already done a quick overview video on TwistaLoop and hope to have more in the near future.
http://images.americas.creative.com/images/local/1/video/twist_loop_full.asx

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Anderton]

Sorry for the long time between posts. I've been working with Twistaloop and it's very deep -- as if REX files went to do post-graduate work. I'll be posting more soon!

[Anderton]

Okay, we’re back in action again, so let’s tackle the whole Twistaloop thing. I’m going to be making some assumptions about how this works, but I’m sure someone from E-Mu can correct me if I’m wrong.

In a nutshell, Twistaloop is a time-stretching thing that has the “look and feel” of something like REX files or acidization, in that there are transient markers that denote beats. However, there are also some significant differences. The Twistaloop automated beat detection process is much less prone to false readings, and you don’t need to mark every single transient; apparently there’s some DSP mojo going on during the beats themselves.

Another huge difference is that you can have loops within a loop, and this is really fantastic. For example, you can take an 8 measure loop, and have three two-measure loops and two one-measure loops within those eight measures. Then, you can assign loop selection to something like a mod wheel, so you can “play” the mini-loops. What’s more, when one loop transitions to another, it’s seamless.

As expected, twisted loops can also sync a particular tempo, like a host’s project tempo if you’re running the X2 as a plug-in, or an internal Twistaloop tempo.

So, here’s how the procedure works.

[Anderton]

I figured I’d start with something simple, but not too simple. So, I picked a Discrete Drums drum loop with drums and percussion, played in a pretty “humanized” way with lots of flams and such, and dragged it into the Voices and Zones window. From there, I went to the Sample Edit window to see what I was dealing with.

Next up is the Beat Analysis process. When you select Beat Analysis, a dialog box pops up where you specify a tempo range, the number of beats per bar, and other parameters. Click on the attachment to see the dialog box, in context with the menu and sample. The only parameter that requires some explanation is “Tempo Variation,” as it offers three options – for samples with small variations in tempo (that’s what I chose), one with sudden tempo changes, and another for short samples with rigid tempos, like a dance-oriented drum machine loop.

After you set the parameters – and in my experience, you can be pretty loose about setting things like tempo range – click on OK, and the X2 does its thing.

[Anderton]

…But sometimes, it doesn’t do its thing right. For example, in the loop that I imported, the timing was off. Although I suppose you can go through the theory of beat analysis and figure out the right settings, I just try different options until it works. In this case, I just clicked on undo, changed meter to Duple to make sure all the little 16th got their props, and everything worked fine. Click on the attachment to see beat markers in place. Note that measure markers (green with a little orange dot) look slightly different from beats (just green), there are tempo indicators for each measure, and additional graphics show the precise measure/beat number. Gee, I feel like I’ve been transported into Sonar’s AudioSnap world…

If further resolution is needed, you can change the sensitivity to place markers at 1/4, 1/8, 1/8t, 1/16th, etc. rhythmic values. There’s also a triplets button to make sure triplets get played back properly when the tempo changes, and a way to make sure that specific note markers are always in play, regardless of the sensitivity setting. And there’s more: You can add more markers, delete spurious ones, renumber beats, change the number of beats per bar, and alter tempo “granularity,” which can be adjusted to make sure that all beats follow the tempo. Fine-tuning a sample like this can help insure stretching over the widest possible range.

It’s worth noting that at this point, if you trigger the sample from an external MIDI keyboard, it will just play the sample. To check out looping and such, you need to use the X2’s transport. Once you’ve set up the sample the way you want, with various loops and such, then you can trigger from an external keyboard and derive all the various twistaloop benefits.

[Anderton]

Now that the sample has been analyzed, what can you do with it? Obviously, tying to tempo is one application. But I really like the “playing the loops” option, as you can turn a loop for a repetitive motif that just goes on and on and on and on and on and on to something you can mold creatively.

For example, as this loop was 8 measures long, I decided to carve it up a bit. Loop #1 was the entire sample – all eight measures. Loop #2 was measures two and three; as measure 1 started with a cymbal on the downbeat, Loop #2 was ideal for just “riding” the beat. Loop #3 was the fill at the end, and Loop #4 was just the first beat with the cymbal crash. I figured why stop there? I added a beat marker after the first 8th note and looped that (Loop #5), and another beat marker after the first 16th note to I could have a machine-gun effect of 16th-note cymbal attacks (Loop #6).

At this point, I wanted to check out the various loops, so I bopped on over to the Voice Processing page, which is where you’ll find the Twistaloop controls. Click on the attachment to see this. For grins, I decided to change the initial tempo; the knob to the right of the tempo control selects which loop will play, and the Start at Loop button determines whether a loop starts from its beginning, or the beginning of the sample.

The number that the X2 assigns to the loop relates to the start time and end time. For example, the 16th note loop, which started at the beginning but ended earlier than any of the others, became loop 1. The 8th note one became loop 2, and so on; the next-to-last loop was the one that spanned the entire sample, and the final loop (loop 6) was the one that covered just the last fill of the sample.

Note that you can hold the key down and keeping changing the loop number knob, and the selected loop will wait politely until the previous one stops playing, then the newly-selected loop will start. Also, if you want an instantaneous change, you can type in a loop number into the parameter field under the loop number knob, hit the return key, and the loop will start playing as soon as the one that’s playing currently stops.

Okay, that’s plenty of fun…but there’s more.

[Anderton]

This is the key to creating expressive loop mutations in real-time. For this, you need to dip into the “software patch cords” section of the Voice Processing window. We haven’t discussed this yet, but it’s basically matrix modulation where you select a modulation source, destination, and amount (although the sheer number of sources is pretty impressive, as we’ll get into later).

Click on the attachment to see the controller assignment. In this case, the Mod Wheel feeds the “Loop Select (Jump)” destination (circled in yellow for clarity), which causes different loops to be selected as you move the mod wheel. One big disappointment, though, is that the Loop number control readout doesn’t reflect the mod wheel position, so to a certain extent, you’re flying blind. You probably wouldn’t want to select among ten loops unless you really know your mod wheel. On the other hand, for something less ambiguous, you can use keyboard keys to trigger various loops.

And there’s another way to control loops: “Loop Select (Continuous),” which is similar to Jump except that if there’s part of the sample in between loops, then that will get played before the loop gets played. The easiest way to get this across is with an example: Suppose you have a 1-beat loop (loop #1) at the beginning of a 1-measure sample, and another 1-beat loop (loop #2) at the end of the 1-measure sample. If loop #1 is playing and you “jump” to loop #2, it will start playing immediately after loop #1 finishes. If loop #1 is playing and you select loop #2 in continuous mode, as soon as loop #1 stops playing it will proceed through beats 2 and 3 before reaching loop #2, at which point it will begin looping.

[PubeDread]

Nice write up, Craig.

The red markers are "note onsets" which are simply "where the notes start" ala ReCycle and do not really have any association with tempo markers other than the beat sensitivity settings. The green beats markers are where the beats are. The user can assign their own time signatures by clicking on any beats. This is for labeling and does not impact playback. This is great when a song throws in a 2/4 measure and you are trying to find the downbeats visually thereafter.

Note the "Shift Beats" option in the Beats menu. Sometimes, the tempo analysis will pick an offbeat as a beat. Dixieland is a good example since the off-beats are so strong. Simply nudge the analysis using the Shift Beats to correct it.

You are correct about using the mod wheel (at like kind CCs) for loop selection. It is best to carve out a section of the keyboard using the Key CC Window (preset view) to do loop selection.

The "-3-" button next to the tempo field causes the time scaling playback to scale with a triplet feel versus the default duple.

One of the biggest benefits of the TwistaLoop feature is the ability to assign various samples to voices without having to destructively edit the sample. A whole song can be “cut up” while leaving the song intact.

[tarvini]

I just wanted to say that I have had the X2 for a little while now, and although still feels a bit alien to me, I am becoming more impressed with the product as I use it more (this is unusual). There were a number of things that I found that it could do which were not apparent at first... most everything was/is in the manual but it took a while for certain things to sink in.

For those of you who already have the X2 and are using this thread as an assist (it was very helpful for me) I would recommend reading the manual all the way through (in order to find out what it can do) and leaving the PDF open while you are working (so you can actually do it).

Other than this review, there is not much detailed information around, at least that I have found, about the X2. So thanks to Craig Anderton for posting excerpts from what is apparently his upcoming "Programming the E-mu X2 with Practical Examples" book : ) . Thanks to E-mu as well, of course, for making a sampler that is intended to be more than a preset player.

[Anderton]

>

+1! This is one deep program.

>

I'm always sure I'm missing all kinds of cool things, and one reason why this is taking so long is that unlike lots of devices, you can't just play with it for an hour or so and write up a bunch of stuff. One thing leads to another, and another, and then I find I assumed something incorrectly so I'm glad I didn't write it up, but then I find some other aspect that I hadn't even considered, or some shortcut...this is so much more than just a sample playback device.

>

Excellent suggestion.

>

Indeed, I do feel this is a HIGHLY underappreciated sampler. I do feel that the user interface could be made much more consistent and "friendlier," but from what I understand there will be additional versions in the future and hopefully, E-Mu will figure out how to present the X[next] in a more direct way. Not that it's an easy task with something this sophisticated.

I realize this review has "stalled" for a bit, but not just for the reasons above; I've also been out of the country and while the X2 does work on my laptop , it's rather difficult to write a Pro Review without having two computers open at the same time, and my usual image processing programs. But this review is definitely not over yet.

I've kind of adopted the X2 as my sampler, which means it will get used in more and more projects in the future. I expect to keep adding tips to this thread as I find out more goodies, as well as include reviews of some of the [excellent] sample libraries, so this might end up running forever...and ever......

[tarvini]

For the benefit of anyone struggling with Patchmix, there is an excellent article on SOS titled "Emu's Patchmix DSP Demystified..." (below)

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov05/articles/emupatchmix.htm

PS - thanks Craig, looking forward to your future posts

[Tidda]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.
I own an Emulator X2 for a month now and very happy with it. I wasn't really looking for a sampler but was looking into the Emu Planet Earth with an XL-1 expansion card when I noticed the X2 for about the same price. To make a long story short, I bought the X2 and haven't regret it.

I have used samplers before but never owned one.
Had great fun sampling the single cycle waves of my VA and swiping TM my old Proteus/1, for practice sake as I'm sure most of these sounds or similar are available in the included libraries, you can probably buy the libraries of the exact sounds as well.

As I was already familiar with the Proteus/1 I feel very at home with this software and using it is dead easy.

The only 'con' for me is that I can't use the Patchmix DSP options as I don't have any Emu hardware connected besides the supplied MIDI-dongle. I downloaded the program from the website but it can't find any appropriate hardware. Does anyone know of an alternative for Patchmix DSP?

Tidda

[Anderton]

Patchmix DSP is specifically designd to work with E-Mu interfaces. The only alternatives are other "closed" systems whose DSP is tied to the interface, such as Creamware.

[Tidda]

Thank you mr. Anderton for your quick reply.
I am currently using an Edirol 2 in 2 out interface which suits my needs as a digital interface between my mixer and PC.

I might consider adding an Emu 0404 to my setup. Some thinking ahead; I already know I don't need the included MIDI interface as I somehow acquired one recently without needing it.

Merry Christmas,
Tidda

[ICHi]

Originally posted by Tidda
Thank you mr. Anderton for your quick reply.
I am currently using an Edirol 2 in 2 out interface which suits my needs as a digital interface between my mixer and PC.

I might consider adding an Emu 0404 to my setup. Some thinking ahead; I already know I don't need the included MIDI interface as I somehow acquired one recently without needing it.
***Hi Tidda,

Don't chuck that Xmidi 2x2 MIDI interface just yet as that is the "dongle" for EX2 if you don't have any other E-MU Hardware in your computer. We tried our best to make the dongle "functional" and it's not a "throwaway" interface. MIDITEST can verify that it performs at the head of the pack of USB interfaces right near the edge of PCI performance in regards Message Latency and Jitter.

Best Regards,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Tidda]

ICHi,

I didn't mean to sound negative about the included MIDI-interface of the Emulator X2 package.
I was really talking about the internal MIDI interface in the 0404 audio interface that would be redundant for me.
It would be my 5th IN/OUT pair.

The included double MIDI inteface with Emulator X2 (nr. 3 and 4 ) was a nice addition, not essential for my setup. Still I already put it to use to connect some MIDI stuf to sample, without disrupting the 'old' setup. Btw. it was nice to see I could select a MIDI port as well as channel for SynthSwipe without changing interfaces in the preferences!

I actually applaud the idea of the functional dongle. Also, I realize that if I decide to add the 0404 audio interface, that would free up the 2x2 MIDI interface from its 'dongle-duties'. I would still hold on to it though as I can't find anything wrong with it.

It was just that my studio seems to be floodied with MIDI interface all of a sudden. I guess I shouldn't complain.

Best regards,
Tidda

[ICHi]

***No worries, just wanted to make sure you knew that you need the Xmidi 2X2 as a dongle.

Best,
ICHi
E-MU Systems

[Overdrive1]

I have tried modulating the resonance on various morph filters (morph designer in particular) and it seems that it can only be modualted at note on values even if realtime resonance has been selected on the cords page. This is not the case with the other filters.

Am I missing something? Is this a bug or have E-mu implemented this behaviour on purpose and if so why?

Perhaps ICHI or Bruce from E-mu can shed some light on this.

Thanks.

[Tidda]

It's not just you, I just tried it myself and I get the same result.

I don't think I will miss it much though.
You are already modulating (multiple) cutoff frequencies and resonance(s) at the same time with the filter cutoff control (which isn't of course a real cutoff control, but controls the morph %)

I guess realtime modulation of the resonance (gain) in the morph filters would complicate the interpolation between the two sets of filters quite a bit by adding yet another dimension to the Z-planes.

Still would like to know what E-mu has to say about it or even better, our beloved reviewer

Tidda