Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

--- In xl7@y..., erik_magrini@B... wrote:
> Personally, 
> while the sounds they offr are cool, I think people put to much stake in a 
> synth being labelled VA.  It's just a label and as long as you get cool 
> sounds, what difference does it make what you used.  Quite honestly the 
> XX-7's are way more flexible in terms of synthesis, and they've got more 
> than enough knobs for controlling most features. <<< 

The sound is what counts, but the nice thing about VAs is not that they 
emulate analog (so what) or even that they have knobs (very cool but not 
exclusive to VAs) but that they offer a wider range of continuous parameters 
than most sample players - including things like FM, ring mod, waveshaping 
and distortion in the voice path. In my experience sample players, even the 
really nice ones, often lack these features (K2ks excepted) and have more 
"discrete" (switchable) parameters. The Virus for instance has at least five 
realtime control axes in its filter section, versus one on even the Z-plane filters. 
On the other hand the E-mu's have more filter types and a better mod matrix, 
so they hold their own pretty well.