NESynth is a virtual synthesizer designed to capture the 8-bit glory of old-shchool video game sounds.

Details on NESynth are available at the Newforestar site.

Now available in the App Store.

If you’ve used NESynth, leave a comment with your thoughts!

These videos demo Emu Emulator II sampler library sounds.

Recognize the sounds of hundreds of 80’s songs?

Click here to view the embedded video.

via JMPSynth

Emulator II demonstration by Alan Wilder

via Turrican101:

Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode 1982-1995 Keyboarder) demonstrates the use of the Emulator II (French TV, around 1986)

The E-mu Emulator II was E-mu’s second sampler, released in 1984. Like the Emulator I, it was an 8-bit sampler, however it had superior fidelity, and allowed more flexibility in editing sounds.

It was priced similarly to the Emulator I, at US $7,995 for a regular model, and $9,995 for a “plus” model featuring extra sample memory. Several upgrades, including extra disk drives and a 20 MB hard drive, were available as well.

Notable users include: Depeche Mode, Enya, badass keytar player Herbie Hancock, Jean Michel Jarre, Orbital, Paul n-n-nine-nine-nineteen Hardcastle, Tangerine Dream & Ferris Bueler.

If you’ve used the Emu Emulator II, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Specifications:

• 8 voice polyphony
• Sampler – 27kHz; 8-bits; 512 KB to 1 MB storage
• 8 parts (8 midi channels) multitimbral
• 8 sequencer tracks
• 61 keys w/ velocity & aftertouch sensitive keyboard
• 24 dB/oct 4-pole lowpass filter with resonance

Resources:

• Wikipedia entry for the Emu Emulator II
• Emu Emulator II at VintageSynth
• The Emulator Archive
• Video of the Emu Emulator II via JMPSynth

Source material was recorded at 24 bit from the Mini Moog, ARP 2600, Moog Opus 3, ARP Odyssey, and Oberheim SEM.

Developed by Terry Grame, who was a sound developer for many of E-Mu Systems’ hardware sound modules, the intent here is to be much more like a virtual sound module then just a collection of raw samples—not just to emulate the old synths, but instead to use their sounds as source material to build new and exciting sounds using Emulator/Proteus X’s advanced synthesis engine—including the morphing filters, LFO’s, integrated effects, mono mode, portamento and more.

You can preview the sound library below:

The MSRP is $39.95.

Synths of the 1970s specs:

• Version 2, 2.5 or 3.0
• 374 megabytes
• 474 Presets
• 24/44.1

Also available for Kontakt.

The E-MU Emulator products represent twenty years of cutting edge sound content that has been used on numerous music recordings and film scores including Marcato Strings, the Shakuhachi from Sledgehammer, the X-files flute, and many others.

Digital Sound Factory has available a massive library of over 10,000 instruments and growing. Prices range from $14.95 to $69.95.

Emulator X2 Platinum features E-MU’s Xstream streaming sound engine with up to 192kHz sampling and playback, an arsenal of automated sampling/beat analysis/editing tools and almost unlimited sound manipulation that builds on E-MU’s 35 years of synthesis experience.

Emulator X2 Platinum will ship in late Spring 2007 at an estimated street price of $499.99. A 64-bit upgrade will also be available to all current Emulator X2 owners direct from E-MU for $79.99.

Emulator X2 Platinum ships with:

• 32-bit Emulator X2 Application (Windows XP/Vista)
• 64-bit Emulator X2 Application (Windows x64/Vista)
• Over 20GB of Sounds
• Xmidi 2×2 USB MIDI Interface

Emulator X2 Platinum features

Streaming:

• Xstream™ 24-bit/192kHz Streaming Engine, featuring E-MU’s patented pitch interpolation and precision 32-bit floating point processing for unmatched sound quality
• 32-bit and native 64-bit applications included (32-bit: Windows XP and Vista; 64-bit: Windows x64 and Vista)
• Optimized for Multi-core and Multi-Threaded processors to intelligently balance the processing load across all available resources for exceptional performance
• Standalone (64 MIDI Channels) or VSTi (16 MIDI channels per instantiation) operation

Sampling:

• ASAP™ Automated Sampling and Placement

• Sample, Chop and Place
• Load, Chop and Place
• SynthSwipe™ automated hardware and software instrument sampling

• Integrated Sample Editor
• Auto-Correlation Looping
• Crossfade Looping
• Comprehensive DSP Tools including Transform Multiply
• External Editor Link
• Beat/Loop Tools
• Beat Analysis and Markup
• TwistaLoop™ non-destructive audio manipulator
• Xplode™ beat slicer with MIDI and Tempo Map Export

Synthesizer

• Advanced Modular Synthesis and FX Engine (from your initial sample’s tempo through Emulator X2’s entire synthesis and FX architecture, all time-based parameters syncable to BPM clock)
• 12th Order Z-Plane™ Morphing Filters (over 50 types) including the Morph Filter Designer
• Multi-Function Generators/Arpeggiators (can be programmed to modulate pitch, filters, volume, retrigger samples or LFOs, change tempo or trigger other events)
• Virtual PatchCord Modulation Matrix (over 100 modules)
• Integrated Modulation FX engine (23 core effects), including SP12ulator, Tremulator, Reverbs, Delays, and many more
• Over 20GB of sounds (over 5,500 instruments) from E-MU’s premier sound library, including:
• Platinum 88 and Studio Grand piano libraries
• Vintage X Pro Library – three volumes of classic keyboards and synths (over 10GB)
• Every last sample from E-MU’s legendary Proteus 2000, Xtreme Lead-1, Mo’Phatt, Planet Earth, and Virtuoso 2000 sound modules and PX-7 Command Station – everything from Hip-Hop and Dance genres to comprehensive orchestral and world instrument collections
• Comprehensive sound format support, including EOS, EIII, GigaSampler, MP3, REX2, .AIFF, SoundFont 2.1, .WAV and more

Xmidi 2×2 USB MIDI Interface

The Xtreme Lead X has been meticulously programmed to the powerful integrated synthesis and effects parameters of E-MU’s Emulator X and Proteus X, offering real-time control over a host of morphing filters, tempo-based synth parameters, effects and much more.

Xtreme Lead X will ship March 2007 at an estimated street price of $49.99.

In the early 70’s, E-MU competed in the market pioneered by Moog, custom-built modular synthesizers. While E-MU’s designs derived from the work of Moog, they were also innovative in their own right. Their oscillators were much more stable than Moog’s, and they had a huge number of unique modules. Their shiny metal panels were a colorful alternative to the plain black panels of other systems, too.

The E-MU Emulator is one of the first great keyboard samplers. The Emulator was inspired by the Fairlight, but was much more affordable. Unfortunately, early digital synthesizers have not aged as gracefully as analog ones. The Emulator is very big, has a whopping 128k of memory and uses funky old technology like large floppy diskettes. While it seems primitive by today’s standards, the Emulator offered 8 voices of sampled polyphony.

The Drumulator was a sample-based drum machine built with much of the same technology as the Emulator. It tried to be a Linn LM-1 at a price that musicians could afford. The drumulator had eight drum sounds that were sampled and stored on ROM chips. These lo-fi samples were gritty and distorted, but had a great sound nevertheless.

More recently, E-MU has created several lines of products that continue to be popular with musicians. These include the Proteus rackmount synth modules, and synth modules designed for specific styles of music.