peterpiper wrote:I think you're very welcome here 
I just read your work experience with E-mu. I've never heard about that digital mixer from them. Could you tell us about it please?
peace
I came on board E-mu specifically to lead this project. I also did some other things. The mixer, which went by many names, was a 96 input, 32 bus digital mixer. Inputs or outputs could be analog or digital. E-mu created their own custom chips, and this was built around two new chips they had developed.
It consisted of a 3u Main Mixer Module, which had all the processing power and some I/O, and separate analog and digital expansion modules, which were the main path to get inputs and outputs. There was also going to be an automated mixing control surface for it. Originally, it was going to be the first firewire mixer, but firewire just wasn't there yet in terms of development. So, it had the usual ADAT and AES/EBU digital inputs, as well as something we called G-Wire, named after the engineer who invented it. G-Wire was a 16-channel bi-directional digital interface.
We had a large engineering team working on it. Out of that, we actually made a prototype of the main mixing module, one digital module (I think) and a Windows application to control all the mixer functions. Every input channel had 4-band EQ, as well as our own FX processor, which you could create your own FX with.
I went on an extended trip with drawings and specs to Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, London and other places in England, and Munich, Germany. My goal was to get as much feedback and suggestions from professionals as possible. At each studio, I videotaped their layout and the recording engineers explain how they were using each piece of gear. This was for our engineering group at E-mu, who never got to go out and see these places. I still have that videotape.
After the trip, we got the main module built. I was concerned that the EQ sound as good as possible. So, I went out on another trip with the module, and letting recording engineers play with the EQ, as well as try all the other functions. Strong Room studio, in London, let us have one studio for a day and they invited all these people in to check it out. Orbital was working in the studio, and they checked it out too. Everybody liked the sound the EQ.
We debuted it at the NAMM Show in 97 or 98. I wanted to do a full 5.1 surround sound demo and to have the demo as loud as possible, but there are severe restraints on loudness at the NAMM Show. I really wanted the bass to shake people, so I borrowed an idea from a friend that had a Bodysonic chair. These chairs had built in transducers to shake the chair with bass signals. The transducers produced no sound, just vibration. So, we built a platform for the audience to sit on, and underneath the platform were a number of 15 or 18 inch transducers. We split the subwoofer output to the sub speaker and the transducer floor. It worked great. Peter Gabriel was an E-mu sampler user, and he sent us a 24 track recording formatted for three E-Mu Darwin 8-track digital recorders. I spent a number of days doing a surround mix for it. The mixer got a good reception.
I was gone from E-Mu by the next NAMM Show, but I think showed it again. It never came out as a product, but E-mu gave it to an engineer in Nashville, who was one of the people I visited on my big research trip. I was at his studio a few years later, and he had the main mixer module and was using it as a router.
Here's a press release about it:
http://www.harmonycentral.com/blogs/New ... ital-mixerPeace,
Mike
)
