Apologies if this isn't the correct forum to post this in...
I'm a big fan of the sound of classic samplers - EMU, Akai, EPS, etc. I use them often in my music production. Unfortunately none of these samplers operate in a passthrough mode, allowing me to use them as an effect. I have to sample the audio (in short chunks) and record it back in to my audio recording software.
I've built some DIY audio gear in the past, and enjoyed it. I'm always looking for a new DIY project, and thought maybe building my own 12 bit effect unit could be my next one.
I've done enough research to know that it's more than just the converters that gave those samplers their sound. In addition to the AD/DA, I'd like the unit to have a high pass and low pass VCF, and possibly transformers on the input and output for additional coloration options (with input and output gain).
Any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
I'm a big fan of the sound of classic samplers - EMU, Akai, EPS, etc. I use them often in my music production. Unfortunately none of these samplers operate in a passthrough mode, allowing me to use them as an effect. I have to sample the audio (in short chunks) and record it back in to my audio recording software.
I've built some DIY audio gear in the past, and enjoyed it. I'm always looking for a new DIY project, and thought maybe building my own 12 bit effect unit could be my next one.
I've done enough research to know that it's more than just the converters that gave those samplers their sound. In addition to the AD/DA, I'd like the unit to have a high pass and low pass VCF, and possibly transformers on the input and output for additional coloration options (with input and output gain).
Any ideas, suggestions, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
Emax (and afaik all 12bit samplers) use a compression algorithm and an analog lowpass on the output, also the samplerate is somewhat uncommon. There are a lot of bitcrusher plugins that do the bit reduction and samplerate reduction, not so many that do the compression. I would suggest trying some of those to find out what you like. A bitcrusher should be easy to implement on a teensy. And for analog filtering there are the reissues of those old filterchips. I would also suggest adding an envelooe follower and/or lfo for the filter cutoff, which were for me the favorite controls on my emax.
Thanks so much for insight!!
I’ve used almost all the plugins. Some of them are good, but I’m a sucker for a piece of gear that I can get my hands on.
I’ve used a few modern lo-fi effect boxes. They get close, but they’re either too dirty or too clean clean. I think the compression on output is what all of them are missing, and what my ears are missing.
When I hear algorithm I don’t think analog - would it happen in the digital domain before the DA? Do you know how these algorithms were implemented? Was there a microchip on the PCB?
A dsp might be a little too much. Rather use a cheap common microprocessor and an analog filter. A bitcrusher is nothing more than a reassignment of bits (although you could actually use a 12bit da converter or even ad and da) and the „compression“ in the samplers is in reality more a waveshaper. The filter can be controlled by the microcontroller (lfo, env-follower and even midi triggered envelope). I recommended teensy because it can be programmed with the arduino environment if you want and there are nice libraries. Also you will find open source schematics and code examples for adding i2c converters (e.g. radio music and ornamen&crime eurorack modules). A normal arduino will be as easy, but might be a little slow.
For the filter using a chip will be the easiest and alpha and coolaudio(behringer) have curtis 3320 clones, but ssi have recently released a new 2044, which will probably be closer to the chips emu used, which they (ssm) designed back then, and anyway is one of the nicest lowpasses out there, unfortunately i have not found any distributor yet.
For the filter using a chip will be the easiest and alpha and coolaudio(behringer) have curtis 3320 clones, but ssi have recently released a new 2044, which will probably be closer to the chips emu used, which they (ssm) designed back then, and anyway is one of the nicest lowpasses out there, unfortunately i have not found any distributor yet.