SN - Sweetwater Tours E-mu Systems

The very last jet flight I took in the 20th Century was to one of the most beautiful places in the United States: Santa Cruz, California. Gary Phillips (Assistant Soundware Engineer) and I flew to the headquarters of the E-MU / Ensoniq company in order to learn the secrets of creating E4 Ultra and Proteus 2000 ROM cards.

On our way from the San Jose Airport we saw magnificent cliffs with the ocean pounding against them and later drove up, then down a long, winding mountain highway with endless stretches of tall trees towering above us. And the E-MU building itself is also quite spectacular with its dark-wood exterior against a spectacular background of the giant Redwood forest with clouds hanging so low into the trees that you could almost touch them. Because of all this, and since E-MU is literally the oldest existing synthesizer company in the world, they've managed to lure some of the best audio design and music engineering talent in the world to their doorstep. As we walked inside and up the long staircase we saw each and every U.S. Patent that has been awarded to E-MU since the early 80's. It was quite clear that they've been responsible for quite a few of the most significant advances in sampling technology.

Our tour guide and instructor for the week was Tim Swartz, the Director of Sound Design at E-MU (see picture 1). Tim oversees the expansion of E-MU's sound libraries for their professional products as well as SoundFonts, CD-ROMs, and downloadable soundware. Along the way we learned the history of E-MU and got to see some of their earlier products including the E-MU Modular System and the famous Emulator I Sampler (see photo in "Soundware Scene"). When I was a teenager I used to dream of owning both of those products, but never came any closer than looking at the ad photos.

Down the hall was E-MU's "Million-Dollar-Machine" (picture 2), a huge computer box with ribbon cables spilling out from every side that can emulate future VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) chips. This allows the engineers to experiment with various ideas before having to commit to the very expensive process of masking onto silicon. Downstairs was E-MU's Assembly areas where we saw new E5000 Ultras being born (picture 3) and Proteus 2000s going through their customary Quality Assurance testing and burn-in process (picture 4). Climbing up to the Soundware Studios, with their lead-lined doors, nonparallel acoustically-treated walls, floating floors and room-to-room signal panels, we were treated to a preview of their latest $328,000 sampling session of a famous orchestra (sorry, can't say who) in both the actual concert hall, as well as in an isolated studio. Needless to say, the results were stunning and will be featured in several projects including CD-ROMs and ROM cards for the Proteus 2000 and Ultra-Series.

One of the “mad-scientist types” (Jean Laroche) dragged us into his office as we passed by and showed us the mind-boggling pos-sibilities that Beat Munging offered. He took ordinary groove loops and instantaneously changed their tempo, meter, and feel, and then warped them into futuristic tonal palettes that were unrecognizable from the original. Clearly, one could spend days and days experimenting with the Beat Munging before realizing that food, water and sleep were actually necessary.

Then came the sneak-peek at the Ultra-Series tools that will allow you to save your 16MB and 32MB sample collections as Flash ROMs that can then go into a Proteus 2000 (list $995). Imagine having all your favorite samples permanently stored in a single-rackspace unit with 128 notes of polyphony. Performers and Studio musicians alike are going to love the convenience that these modern, low-cost wonders provide. All-in-all it was a very interesting and educational tour of the "oldest synthesizer company in existence." It makes you wonder what they'll come up with for this Millennium.