E-mu ( E-mu Systems , Eμ , Emu , E-MU ) is an American company, a manufacturer of electric musical instruments and equipment for digital sound recording .
| E-mu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Base | 1972 |
| Abolished | 1993 |
| Reason for Abolition | Absorbed in Creative Technology |
| Founders | Dave Rossum, Scott Wedge |
| Location |  USA : Scotts Valley ( California ) |
| Industry | production of musical instruments ( ISIC :3220 ) |
| Products | synthesizers, samplers, MIDI controllers, DSP, software |
| Turnover | about $ 25 million (1991) |
| Site | emu.com |
Founded in 1972 by Dave Rossum and Scott Wage, in the first period produced modular synthesizers, since the mid-1970s, contributing to the introduction of digital technology in the production of electric musical instruments . In the early 1980s - became one of the first manufacturers of samplers and sampler drum machines , later released budget music workstations , sound cards , hardware audio and MIDI interfaces, MIDI keyboards .
Absorbed in 1993 by Creative Corporation, products under the E-mu brand were produced until 2010 .
Background
In 1970, a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz and future founder of the company, Dave Rossum, managed to modify the sound of university Moog 12, and soon he made his own synthesis modules for Moog and the synthesizer [1] . By the fall of 1971, two prototypes of completely proprietary (named Black Mariah and Royal Hearn) were built with two friends from the California Institute of Technology Steve Gabriel and Jim Ketchum [2 ] . Since the purchase of some electronic components required the design of invoices indicating the buyer company, Rossum left the name “Eμ Systems” (from the English electric musical systems ) [3] .
At the end of 1971, Scott Wage , an expelled student at the University of California at Berkeley , was impressed by the sound of Moog and interested in creating his own instruments. At the beginning of 1972, Rossum and Wedge assembled two pieces of synthesizers called “Eµ 25”, differing in the set of modules, but both made in a wooden case and equipped with a three-octave keyboard, the design of the controls was borrowed from both Moog 12 and ARP 2600, the latter is taken horizontal execution of the sliders [1] . Tools were sold, which provided engineers with the means to create a company and further development [1] .
Company
Modular Synthesizer Period
The company was registered in November 1972, Rossum and Wedge received shares of 50%, Wedge led the company, and Rossum became the chief engineer. Office and production from Rossum’s apartment in Santa Cruz moved to rented apartments in Santa Clara .
The company began to develop a large synthesizer and create a variety of modules for it. The first modules were sold separately, in advertisements in the then-only music and technology publication Electro Notes, the modules were offered as English. kit - components for independent amateur assembly [1] .
In the spring of 1973, the company created the first full-fledged serial product - a five-octave modular synthesizer under the name . The instrument was equipped with a large number of modules ready for direct use, equipped with high-quality handles and standard TRS sockets , edged with a stainless steel strip front panel and generally had the appearance of a professional musical instrument [1] . The product was continuously supplemented: during 1973-1977, about 30 new modules were developed, the instrument is equipped with a digital sequencer and a digital polyphonic keyboard. The cost of the instance ranged from $ 3 thousand to $ 5 thousand, about 125 synthesizers were sold in the first 8 years [1] .
The 1974 E-mu digital polyphonic keyboard was the first circuitry solution in the industry to use digital sweeps for practicing pressing: all keyboard keyboard synthesizers used a spring-contact circuit to this point, which significantly limited the possibilities (most instruments were single-voice and the response from the button occurred with a slight delay). The technology was licensed in 1974 by for the 4 Voice and 8 Voice analog synthesizers [1] [4] . The digital sequencer made it possible to record up to 50 channels and up to 512 notes or control signals in each, having a noticeable advantage compared to the eight-analog analog sequencers that existed at that time. Presets of sounds and sequences could be recorded on a tape drive and restored [1] .
A number of works of the mid-1970s are custom-made modular synthesizers for large concert rock musicians, with equipment according to the customer’s request and rich finish ( walnut cases were made by cabinetmaker John Rossum, brother of Dave Rossum), Leon Russell and Frank Zappa are mentioned among buyers of such instruments [2] . In addition to them, among the users of modular E-mu synthesizers were named Patrick Gleeson ( English Patrick Gleeson ), Herbie Hancock , arranger Yellow Magic Orchestra Hideki Matsutake ( Japanese 松 武 秀 樹 ) [4] .
Digital Development Period
In the early 1970s, the company had experience working with the Grateful Dead group, which ordered an external microcomputer to control synthesizer presets and sequences, and since 1975, the company has been conducting research on replicating this feature and embedding computer control in a tool [1 ] . The new employee Ed Rudnik supervised the work (who earlier, in April 1973, became the first buyer of the E-mu modular synthesizer [2] ). Earlier samples of the eight-bit Intel 8080 processor were investigated, but it was concluded that it was unsuitable for use in a synthesizer, and in 1976 the company opted for the Zilog Z80 being developed at that time, having received prototypes from Zilog . In 1977, a 16-voice synthesizer of the 4060 series was released, equipped with a Z80 megahertz processor, a kilobyte of operational memory and 48 kilobytes of non-volatile memory, which made it possible to manipulate up to 6 thousand notes and events in the sequencer in real time.
Since the mid-1970s, the company began to earn on consulting services , which, in particular, were provided by Solid State Music , a company that developed specialized integrated circuits for electric musical instruments - these chips subsequently formed the digital basis for instruments of many manufacturers, including E-mu itself . A significant part of the company's revenue came from royalties for digital polyphonic keyboards, first from Oberheim, and subsequently from for , in which E-mu took part. Sales of Prophet 5, released in a series in 1978, were extremely successful, due to which E-mu began to receive large royalties [4] , on the other hand, it is believed that the release of Prophet 5 in 1978 actually negated the sales of modular synthesizers of E- mu [5] .
In 1978, instead of a rented office, the company acquired a house in Santa Clara with an office layout, which allowed to expand production capabilities.
In the late 1970s, E-mu began developing a sophisticated instrument - the sixteen- analog synthesizer ; Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream became the first customer, and the Baumann team developed the digital management subsystem. The second version of the instrument is conceived even more complex - in it each voice was equipped with two own VCOs , two voltage-controlled filters , a resonant filter, a and four ADSR envelopes , the control panel consisted of 110 buttons, it housed a 40-character fluorescent display, for recording and loading voices and sequences, two drives for eight-inch floppies are built into the instrument; instrument weighed more than 200 kg. The instrument at that time had no analogues in the world in terms of equipment, similar synthesis capabilities of other manufacturers were first achieved only after 10 years - in the second-generation music workstation Korg M1 [6] . However, due to the large number of expensive components, the price of the serial product was extremely high - $ 69.2 thousand, and there was no reason to rely on significant sales under these conditions, in addition, at that moment licensing payments from Sequential Circuits (which developed their own components for Prophet 5) [1] , and only due to the fact that the company became public in 1979, it was possible to attract long-term funds for research and development [1] . The prototype Audity II was demonstrated in 1980 at the annual exhibition of the Audio Engineering Society ( AES ), and following the success in sales of the first sampler music workstation presented at the same event and the first sampler drum machine , the management of E-mu decided to abandon the release of Audity and master the production of low-cost samplers [2] [4] .
Sampler Period
In the winter of 1981, the prototype of the first sampler from E-mu was shown at the NAMM Show , and in July the first copy was sold to Stevie Wonder . The four- and eight-voice versions were launched in the Emulator I series, both were equipped with 128 KB of memory for samples, the two-voice version released in a single copy was acquired by Yamaha (it is believed that its developers could not understand how the tool works without some, as expected, necessary components ) [1] . The weight of the instrument was only 9 kg, the body was made entirely of steel. In the first months of sales, 25 copies of the sampler were sold, but after that, sales stopped due to a lack of understanding by customers of the capabilities of the new technology. In this regard, it was decided to retrofit the model - a sequencer is built into it, intuitive behavior when pressing and releasing keys is implemented, and measures were taken to create a user infrastructure around the product - a set of more than 100 diskettes with ready-made samples was released, while the price was reduced by 20 % of the original, as a result, the price was $ 7900 (which was significantly cheaper than Fairlight CMI, sold for $ 30 thousand) An improved version of Emulator I in the period 1982-1983 was sold in the amount of more than 400 copies [1] .
Presented in the winter of 1984 at the NAMM Show Emulator II, it became the company's most successful product in history - more than 3 thousand copies were sold during its production until the end of 1987. The tool could work with sample libraries up to 1 MB in size, a sampling frequency of 27 kHz was provided, and a special signal coding system made it possible to increase the to 14 bits. The tool was based on a user-friendly disk operating system and cost $ 7,995 in retail. In the latest versions of Emulator II with a hard disk capacity of 20 MB, a CD-ROM with samples and a sound editor for Apple Macintosh from included in the package for the first time in the industry.
As of 1985, thanks to good sales, the company's monthly net profit was about $ 100 thousand, annual revenue growth was more than 60%, and, following the needs of expanding production, in December 1985 the company moved from Santa Clara to .
After the start of successful sales of Emulator II, the company entered the market of sampler drum machines, presenting a prototype under the working name Drumulator II at the 1985 NAMM Show, and by mid-year began mass production of the machine under the name , sold at retail priced at $ 2745 per copy. The machine worked with a sampling frequency of 27 KHz with a depth of 12 bits, later modifications were supplied with a CD with a set of samples and drum loops from Digidesign. One of the innovations of the instrument is the force-sensitive button pads, while Wedge has patented the technology. In 1987, the company launched the next drum machine, the , which differed slightly in technical specifications, but was released intermittently for another 11 years, and used by hip-hop artists even in the 2010s, who considered it to be low-quality in modern sounding specific to the golden era of their style .
In the summer of 1986, the budget-launched sampler with a 32-bit processor was launched, which was produced both in the classic format with a keyboard for $ 2995, and in a keyboardless version as a module mounted in a telecommunication rack , with a retail price of $ 2690. A year later, the hard drive version was released; in the 1988 Emax SE modification, additional sample processing functions and the ability to connect external SCSI drives were added.
In 1987, the company hired a general manager, Steve Tritto, who held this position. Wedge became president, and Rossum remained the chief engineer.
In the same year, the third version of the older line of samplers - Emulator III , working with a sampling frequency of 44 KHz and a depth of 16 bits, was released. The package with a 4 MB drive sold for $ 12,695 , an eight-megabyte model for $ 15,195 , and such a high price was one of the reasons for low sales, since the samplers from Ensoniq , Akai, and Casio that came out in the same years, with similar characteristics, cost significantly cheaper. Another reason for the sales failure is the numerous hardware failures in the first instances - due to defective RAM connectors and hard drive failures, the first lots of instruments had be . In total, only 120 copies of Emulator III were sold, which led to cash gaps , which could only be resolved through the introduction of Wedge’s personal savings and difficult negotiations with banks on debt restructuring conducted by Tritto [7] .
Late Period
By 1988, the company came with annual revenues of about $ 10 million, but with vague prospects due to the failure of Emulator III, increased competition from Japanese manufacturers, and also because of delays in the production of new specialized integrated circuits developed by Rossum [8] . Given the inaccessibility of the necessary chips for a full-fledged digital music workstation, it was decided to focus on the production of inexpensive romper , and in 1989 the line was launched. The modules were made in enclosures one assembly unit high, and were equipped with a predefined set of short 16-bit samples from Emulator III; первый выпуск включал звуки для рока и популярной музыки (Pop/Rock), вслед за ним вышли модули со звуками оркестра (Orchestra) и народных инструментов (World). Только в первые дни после представления первого модуля на зимней NAMM Show 1989 года было заказано более 5 тыс. экземпляров, таким образом уровень выручки фирмы был сохранён.
В конце 1990 года, несмотря на выход из кризиса, компанию покинул генеральный директор Тритто, и руководить фирмой приглашён Чарльз Арканзас, получивший пост президента (который ранее занимал Уэдж). Арканзас нанял новую управленческую команду и приступил ко внедрению популярных в то время практик всеобщего управления качеством , только на тщательный разбор причин провала Emulator III компания потратила год [9] . План развития, подготовленный командой Арканзаса, предполагал фокус на недавно зародившийся и быстро растущий рынок звуковых карт для персональных компьютеров , с ожиданием роста годовой выручки компании до уровня $100 млн, что вчетверо превышало результаты 1990 года.
Основу для вхождения на рынок звуковых карт обеспечила специализированная микросхема G-chip, применённая в линейке Proteus: она стала центральным сигнальным процессором для звуковых адаптеров фирм Digidesign, IBM и . Но поставленных финансовых целей к 1992 году достичь не удалось, и компанией было принято решение по поиску стратегического инвестора и партнёра из числа крупных производителей (переговоры велись в том числе со Стивом Джобсом , возглавлявшим Apple ). В июле 1992 года заключено лицензионное соглашение с Creative, доминировавшей на тот момент на рынке звуковых карт для персональных компьютеров, согласно соглашению чипы и технологии E-mu планировалось использовать в планируемой линейке звуковых карт MIDIBlaster. Через несколько месяцев после этого Creative осуществила первичное размещение , вырученные средства было решено направить на поглощения, и E-mu с интегральными схемами разработки Россума была сочтена удобной целью.
В марте 1993 года состоялась сделка по поглощению, сумма которой не раскрывалась, доли совладельцев выкуплены полностью, и E-mu стала подразделением Creative. На следующий же день после поглощения был уволен Уэдж, поскольку Creative нуждалась в инженерных знаниях Россума, но не в управленческих качествах Уэджа [10] .
Торговая марка в составе Creative
Creative на базе E-mu создала подразделение, занимавшееся разработкой специализированных интегральных схем, при этом сохранены ряд серийных потребительских продуктов под маркой E-mu: перезапущено производство семплерной драм-машины SP1200 (прекращённое в 1990 году), продолжен выпуск новых серий ромплерного звукового модуля Proteus. Попытка выйти на рынки цифровых систем многодорожечной записи (проект Darwin) и цифровых микшеров (проект Mantis) оказались неуспешными и были свёрнуты из-за неспособности составить конкуренцию продукции Roland и Yamaha [11] .
В 1998 году Creative купила производителя семплеров и звуковых модулей Ensoniq , и объединила активы двух поглощённых компаний в едином подразделении «E-mu / Ensoniq»; считается, что поглощение было неудачным, и лишь один продукт, унаследованный от Ensoniq, некоторое время производился в рамках нового подразделения (цифровой микшер Paris). Наиболее значительный вклад в технологии Creative подразделение внесло разработкой специализированных интегральных схем для звуковых карт, в частности, цифровой сигнальный процессор EMU10K2 стал основным в ветке Audigy 2 линейки SoundBlaster ; на этом же чипе была основана линейка звуковых карт, выпускавшихся в 2003—2007 годы под торговой маркой «E-mu. Creative Professional».
В 2004 году выпущен полностью программный вариант линейки семплеров Emulator — , работающий под управлением Windows как отдельная программа, либо как VST-плагин ; изначально в качестве системного требования накладывалось использование звуковых карт марки E-mu, впоследствии такое ограничение снято. В 2005 году был выпущен программный аналог Proteus — . С 2010 года конечной продукции с торговой маркой E-mu не выпускалось.
Products
Галерея основных серийных продуктов, выпускавшихся компанией:
| Старт производства | Окончание выпуска | Model | Class | Price | A photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 1979 | модульный синтезатор | $3000 — $5000 | ||
| 1979 | 1981 | мультитембральный аналоговый синтезатор | $ 69 200 | ||
| 1981 | 1983 | Emulator I | семплер | $ 7900 | |
| 1984 | 1987 | Emulator II | семплер | $ 7995 | |
| 1986 | 1987 | семплерная драм-машина | $ 2745 | ||
| 1986 | 1995 | семплер | $2695 — $2995 | ||
| 1987 | 1998 | семплерная драм-машина | |||
| 1987 | 1991 | Emulator III | музыкальная рабочая станция | $ 12 695 — $ 15 195 | |
| 1989 | ромплерный звуковой модуль | $ 1000 |
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Кибл, 2002 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Creative, 2011 .
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «The parts were bought from local electronic stores, but a company name was needed on the invoices. Dave came up with Eµ Systems, which was short for Electronic Music Systems».
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Дженкинс, 2007 , p. 125.
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «Emu agreed a royalty from Sequential that provided strong revenues once the Prophet 5 took off like a rocket in late 1978 and 1979. Unfortunately, the Prophet also killed sales of the Emu Modular<…>».
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «The Audity was a concept nearly 10 years ahead of the first digital synth workstation, the Korg M1».
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «Whilst the EIII was never planned to sell in high volumes, it sold only 1200, and it showed that Emu had a big problem getting a product to market. Worse still, the company was once again in a major cashflow crisis, and in 1988 they faced extinction. Only some personal financial help from Scott Wedge, and careful negotiation by Steve Tritto with the banks kept the company afloat».
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «In the spring of 1988, Emu Systems reviewed progress on the new generation of chips that Dave was now furiously developing. The sample replay G-chip was close to manufacture, but the digital filter H-chip was nine months away. This meant that a fully digital sampler would not come on-stream until mid-1990 — by which time the company would be out of business!».
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «Charlie immediately brought in a new management team and implemented 'Total Quality Management'. Emu spent the next year learning all about quality as a result of the Emulator III problems!».
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «They soon realised that Dave Rossum's digital engineering skills could form the basis of this plan, and that an acquisition of Emu Systems would ensure exclusivity<…> The founders, shareholders and staff shared many millions of dollars, but the following morning Scott was sacked, and Charlie made his exit».
- ↑ Кибл, 2002 : «Emu boldly tried to break into the digital workstation market with a Digital Audio Recorder (Darwin, shown right) and a stillborn digital mixer entitled Mantis<…> These aborted projects <…> proved that Emu and Creative could not compete with Roland and Yamaha».
Literature
- Rob Keeble. 30 years of Emu. The History Of Emu Systems // . — 2002. — № 9 (September) .
- Mark Jenkins. Analog Synthesizers. Understanding, performing, buying: from the legacy of Moog to software synthesis. — Focal Press, 2007. — P. 322. — ISBN 978-0-240-52072-8 .
Links
- E-MU: Birth of a Species (24 сентября 2011). — история E-mu на сайте Creative