E-mu Systems, Inc.

E-mu Systems, Inc. was founded in 1972 in Santa Cruz, California by Dave Rossum, then a graduate student in microbiology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. An early interest in synthesizers was developed when Rossum happened by the school’s electronic music lab one day in 1970 and assisted in the installation of a new Moog modular system. As the story goes, Rossum was the only person in attendance who could figure out how to patch the machine. While on his Christmas break that year, Rossum visited two friends who were studying at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena and experimented in the construction of their own synthesizer, improving upon those circuits designed by Moog and ARP. In order to obtain the necessary components from electronics suppliers, the trio unofficially adopted the company name E-mu Systems, derived from a combination of the first syllables of the words ‘electronic’ and ‘music’; the earliest instantiations of the company name usually replaced the ‘mu’ portion with its Greek letter counterpart, μ. Their first modular prototype was dubbed the “Black Mariah”, and featured matrix switches not unlike those employed in the ARP 2500 of 1970. In the summer of 1971, the trio expanded to include three more UCSC students and set up their first facility at 625 Water Street in Santa Cruz. Subsequent experiments from that summer yielded two non-modular model 25 desktop synthesizers, and the Royal Hearn; the latter instrument, which was deliberately set out of tune and constructed within a shoebox with a tinfoil keyboard, was built as a joke for Rossum, who was travelling out of country at the time. The model 25 borrowed design elements from both the Moog model 12 and the ARP 2600, once again employing matrix-style sliders similar to those used in the ARP 2500. E-mu’s first future president, engineer Scott Wedge, a friend of Rossum’s from high school, joined the group at the end of the summer.

E-mu was officially incorporated in November of 1972 after relocating several months prior to Santa Clara, California. Their first products consisted in standalone voltage-controlled oscillator, voltage-controlled filter, voltage-controlled amplifier, and envelope generator modules, all of which could be purchased either assembled or as a kit. E-mu’s first complete modular system was sold in April of 1973 to its first customer, Ed Rudnick, who would later become Director of Manufacturing for the company. Much like their east coast competitors, ARP Instruments, Inc., E-mu’s earliest instruments were known for their reliability and precision, particularly with respect to oscillator components, which were relatively stable and not as prone to drift as those offered by other manufacturers. Unlike their earlier designs though, the modular systems employed a Moog-style patching array, requiring the use of 1/4” phone cables. Over the next few years, the modular system became increasingly more sophisticated, offering over thirty different modules, a digital sequencer, and the first digital polyphonic keyboard. Approximately 125 modular systems were sold between 1973 and 1981. Throughout the early 1970s, E-mu produced numerous customized systems for notable institutions and musicians, including Frank Zappa, Leon Russell, Herbie Hancock, Tangerine Dream, and sound designer Patrick Gleeson. That being said, E-mu’s first major contribution would not come in the form of an instrument in itself, but rather in the pioneering of several groundbreaking digital technologies. Notable among these were early digital TTL (transistor-transistor logic, usually just referred to as ‘logic’) integrated circuits (often referred to as ICs or ‘chips’), which E-mu employed in the creation of a digital scanning polyphonic keyboard, released in 1974 for use with the modular system. This circuitry, which replaced the contact springs of earlier analog keyboards, was a unique change, allowing for faster and more direct control. E-mu licensed this technology to Tom Oberheim of Oberheim Electronics, based in nearby Oakland, California, who incorporated it into his Four Voice and Eight Voice synthesizers of 1975 and 1977, respectively. Following this, Rossum and Wedge sought to incorporate a digital sequencer into their modular system, with a sophisticated programmable unit also emerging in 1974. In response to the advent of the first affordable eight-bit microprocessors in the mid 1970s, E-mu continued to further the implementation of digital technology into various other aspects of their instrument, along with upgrading the digital scanning keyboard. The Zilog Z80 microprocessor was released in July of 1976, and remained the basis of E-mu products well into the 1980s. Their newest keyboard based on this technology, dubbed the model 4060 Polyphonic Keyboard and Sequencer, emerged in March of 1977 with sixteen voices and a sophisticated software sequencer, written by Wedge, that could contain what was for the time an astonishing 48 kB of memory. That same year, Rossum began consulting with Ron Dow at the Solid State Music (SSM) integrated circuit manufacturer on a new microprocessor-controlled analog voice card. These voice cards were first used by E-mu in their Blue Box instrument of 1978, which was commissioned by San Francisco-based sound designer Patrick Gleeson. It did not take long for competing manufacturers to heed the benefits of E-mu’s revolutionary approach: in addition to offering a sophisticated alternative to the monophonic keyboards of early 1970s instruments, E-mu’s SSM microprocessor chips enabled synthesizer designers to incorporate the much-needed feature of programmability, all while significantly reducing manufacturing costs. As E-mu was not in the financial position to take such a risk themselves, however, they began licensing their SSM chips along with the new digital scanning keyboards; their first customer was Dave Smith at Sequential Circuits, Inc., also based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who implemented the technology into the company’s hugely successful and pioneering Prophet 5 digital-analog hybrid synthesizer of 1978. While Smith took control of developing the programmable features and interface, Rossum contributed the instrument’s operating system and analog circuit design. In the same year, E-mu relocated back to Santa Cruz, settling in a commercially-zoned house at 417 Broadway Street. In 1979, E-mu began development on the prototype of their first integrated, polyphonic hybrid synthesizer, the fabled Audity, using royalties earned according to an agreement with Sequential Circuits to fund the project. This project had initially been commissioned by Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream in 1977; dubbed the Audity Level I System, it was comprised primarily or the requisite components, but lacked a proper interface and keyboard. This unit is no longer in existence. The Audity Level II System of 1979 employed much of the same technology found in the Prophet 5, and featured sixteen-voice polyphony, a programmable multi-timbral architecture, and the digital scanning polyphonic keyboard and sequencer. The prototype instrument was presented at the Audio Engineering Society’s annual convention in May 1980. Although it did garner early interest, its bulky construction, hefty weight, unreasonably high price tag, and complex albeit state-of-the-art design rendered it largely unappealing to the commercial market. When Sequential Circuits terminated royalty payments the same month, the Audity project was abandoned later that year with only the single unit having ever been produced. As a corresponding result of this separation, Sequential Circuits also discontinued use of the SSM chips used in their Rev 1 and 2 Prophet 5s, and incorporated those manufactured by CEM (Curtis Electromusic) into the Rev 3 Prophet 5.

Following the dissolution of the Audity, E-mu decided to turn their attention toward more streamlined, commercially viable instruments, accompanied by a more aggressive business plan that employed advertisements created by their new Marketing Manager, Marco Alpert. Feeling an ability to compete with the rising Japanese synthesizer manufacturers of the early 1980s, and ever interested in exploiting emerging technologies, Rossum and Wedge looked toward digital sampling instead. In late 1981, inspired by instruments such as the Fairlight CMI digital sampler-synthesizer of 1979 and the Linn LM-1 digital sample-based drum machine of 1980, E-mu released the musical instrument for which they are best known, the Emulator, which is widely recognized as being the first affordable digital sampler. The Emulator I was offered in either an eight- or four-voice configuration and contained 128 kB of sample memory; the first buyer of the Emulator was famed musician and keyboard enthusiast, Stevie Wonder. The Drumulator, a twelve-voice, programmable, digital sample-based drum machine meant to compete directly with the LinnDrum and Oberheim DMX emerged shortly after in early 1983, followed by the hugely successful Emulator II, the cost-effective Emax (essentially a stripped-down emulation of the Emulator II), and the Emulator III series of digital samplers in 1984, 1986, and 1987, respectively. In 1989, E-mu debuted the Proteus I rackmount sampler, capable of 32-voice polyphony and containing a large library of high-quality stereo recordings. E-mu Systems continues to operate out of Scotts Valley, California, with satellite headquarters based in Ireland and Singapore. As of March 1993, the company is currently owned as a subsidiary of Creative Technology, Ltd. alongside the Ensoniq synthesizer and sampler manufacturer. Founders Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge are no longer directly associated with the company.