This week's Fess Find is an 80s classic, the E-MU Emulator II. Listed in very good condition, this was one of the first units off the production line—serial number 27, to be exact.
When the Emulator II came out, it was groundbreaking due to its MIDI support and floppy disk sound storage. Although mostly digital, its 24dB/Oct low pass filter gives it a warm analog character that producers still love today, especially for those who make lo-fi electronic music.
Its creator Dave Rossum took inspiration from acoustic instruments when he designed it, and even though it is an eight-bit sampler, the sounds emitted are of much higher quality than what its true fidelity suggests. According to Rossum himself, they were able to make it sound closer to 16 bits by using a mix of digital converters and an analog feedback encoding system.
The Emulator II is a workstation synth that was ahead of its time and still sounds great. You can edit samples through reversal, looping, or automatically truncating and splicing them together. Additionally, it has eight LFOs, individual outputs for each voice, and an eight track sequencer. The synth was frequently updated from 1984 to 1988—the Emulator II+ boasted double the sample memory and the Emulator II+HD which added an internal hard drive.
This was the go-to choice for musicians and sound designers in the mid-'80s, including Depeche Mode, Genesis, and Pet Shop Boys. This classic synth also made an appearance in a pivotal scene in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off: packed into Ferris' bedroom along with other hi-tech gear of the 80s, this is the same model of synth that he used to trick his friends and his high school into thinking he was sick. Considering its place in film history; the seller could have submitted this gem to a museum, but they're allowing Reverbers to own it for a bit less than its current value. It even comes with the original dust cover, making this a great find!
Check out the the full listing for more photos and to make an offer now.