Emax

Although I cannot add anything technical to this thread I have been 
following it with great interest. Skip is undeniably correct in 
saying that the Emax II is obsolete and that the effort by any normal 
comparision far outweighs the benefit. But on the other hand, there's 
also the challenge aspect of it. I'm sure like me anyone else who's 
paid for a memory upgrade in the past still winces at the thought of 
how much it cost compared to what memory does now (or for that matter 
not long after the Emax II went out of production)! For years I've 
been sort of hoping someone would find a way of cracking this not 
only to get the final 4MB I need at a reasonable cost but simply for 
the satisfaction of being able to do so without being forced to pay 
Emu what very quickly became a nonsense price. I know they had their 
reasons at the time but I think it would have been a better customer 
relations policy (at least once the general memory trend went the 
SIMM route) to help those who invested in their product a way of 
maximising its potential cost effectively rather than force them to 
buy its successor.

If anyone does manage to crack this problem then I would certainly 
consider doing the final 4MB mod if it can be done cost effectively. 
I use my Emax II live and so far it's the only sound source I need. 
Although I could buy an ESI or similar and hook it up via midi, I 
much prefer keeping it simple and only relying on one box! In that 
sense I don't consider it obsolete at all (don't think there are any 
dedicated sampling keyboards going now anyway and the Emax still 
looks great). Also, I probably will upgrade the sampler soon but 
after some positive experiences with the likes fo Reaktor, rather 
than get a hardware box I'm very inclined to go the software route - 
which of course doesn't help in the live situation (unless you're 
VERY brave!).

Actually, while we're on the subject, what's the likelihood of Emax 
library compatability when the EOS Soft Sampler comes out?

Anyway, for what it's worth, I appreciate the efforts everyone on the 
list trying to keep the Emax alive - even if it does defy common 
sense!

Steve  

======================= http://www.steveadam.co.uk =====


-- In emax@y..., "Richard Spoula" <skiplay4@m...> wrote:
> 
> A few comments.
> 
> ("What I'd be inclined to do is just copy the EEPROM
> from the 8M machine")
> 
> Last time I looked the EEPROM was soldered to the board you mean to 
tell me that someone wiling to sacrafice a perfectly working EmaxII 
to an overheated pc board when removing the chip let alone loosing 
the chip?
> 
> ("The PALs can be easily reverse-engineered.  Quite simple.  Pull 
the PALs
> from a known good 8M Emax II, power them up on a test bench, then 
feed
> inputs in and see what comes out. ")
>   
> I can verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the PALs from Emu have 
the fusible link blown.
> this means that you can't just read the PAL. By testing IO you may 
solve the logic but will you solve the RAS & CAS timing issues 
associated with the dynamic ram timing?  
> 
> The other problem is that the EmaxII is obsolete. Useful yes but 
not necessarily worth such a gallant effort. I have purchased EmaxII 
racks with 8mb for as little as $120.00 and I beleive that as they go 
by the wayside that you will find the parts you need to convert the 
EmaxII without the extended effort.  
> 
> Upside: I applaude the effort and if it works I may be interested 
in the upgrade.  
> 
> Downside: Anybody who wants to do this has a tremendous amount of 
work ahead of them probably not worth the effort. You can buy an 
ESI32 for around $200.00 and use midi to play the sounds with your 
Emax II. Then you have the capability of 32 MB, Emax/Emax II, Akai, 
and EIIIX library.
> 
> Currently I beleive that you can purchase an EmaxII memory upgrade 
kit from Mik at Sound Logic and I beleive it has the fabeled upgrade 
disk needed to write the EEPROM.  
> 
> Thank you group,
> Skip