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E-mu is undeniably the most iconic manufacturer of "Samplers for the Masses". We enjoyed the Emulator I, were fascinated by the Emulator II, and continued to admire the Emulator III and the Emax. Then something went in another direction. The Emulator IV was again the best in all aspects, but competitors, first and foremost AKAI, did the same, and another epoch came. At that time, musicians were totally consumed by the idea of producing high-quality tracks, and the charm of 8 and 12 bits was suddenly stolen by Hi-Fi machines, computers, and digital workstations. After a series of supernovae like E-synth and Ultra, E-mu did what people wanted - combined all their sample history into the final Proteus, which wasn't even a sampler, but a rompler. Creative Labs did the rest. Rest in peace, E-mu.

But now it's time to dive into the past and recover some flashbacks. Here is a list of all E-mu samplers of the 4th generation, including its sub-generations. Just in case you have already forgotten how fantastic those machines were. Feel free to add your opinion in comments.

What to choose - the flagship DJ-808 model or the DJ-707M - a controller from the middle price segment, and for the money saved - a separate drum machine, for example TR-8?

Sequential will release a limited version of the Prophet 12 synthesizer in December of this year, and this will complete the release of this model. Prophet 12 will differ only in design, the sound engine, the interface and the price will remain unchanged.

2018 is the year of hybrid sound synthesis. Half of the synthesizers in the ranking is a delicious blend of analog + digital synthesis in different proportions. Sometimes even digital + digital, which is also interesting. Another half is an attempt to recreate the behavior of cult synthesizers of past years. This is our only chart for 3 years in which there are two MOOG synthesizers at once! This is an interesting and versatile chart, which you should familiarize yourself with and express your opinion, because otherwise you definitely risk missing something important!

Roland continues to delight us with new instruments! Not so long ago, a new version of the vocal effect processor from the AIRA line, the Roland VT-4, was released. It received several very significant improvements in comparison with its predecessor, the main of which is, of course, the ability to control vocoder using MIDI.