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Making unified patch libraries
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Topic starter
October 25, 2022 10:02 pm
I recently discovered that the website Archive.org is housing some pretty amazing samples and music history. My first find was a version of the E-MU Proteus VX library and a standalone rompler engine which would play all of the huge library of sounds via MIDI trigger. I mean there are literally thousands of great (and not-so-great) patches, which are considered "abandonware", since Creative Technologies gave up on the E-MU products, then ultimately gave them away. Now they have landed on Archive.org, a website which specializes in preserving film, video, music, and the written and spoken word. It's a vast library of free video, audio, and print ephemera, all of it in the public domain! You can find Edison's early experimental films, family movies of downtown parades in the 1950s, Encyclopedia Brittanica films, and, of all things, the Proteus and Emulator X synths and VSTs, in both 32- and 64-bit form!
I have downloaded them, and my first experiment failed to work. I could run the freestanding version of the Proteus VX, a free sampler and sample libraries, but only in 32-bit format. I could get the freestanding version to run, and the sounds are amazing! Tried to get it working in both ACID Pro 10 Suite, and Cakewalk - not so much. The VST would install, but the GUI would show up as a tiny, useless box on the screen.
On to my next discovery - while poking through what other samples, samplers, and libraries were there, I noticed that there was an Emulator X listed in my searches! This purported to have both 32- and 64-bit VSTs, so I did a virus scan, installed them (on Win7), and, lo and behold, they show up in Unify! I am just beginning to pick through the monumental number of sample libraries which are there (you have to grab those separately - about a GB maybe). But it's basically everything that was released for the Emulator hardware, then software, then abandonware.
The Archive.org owner is very careful about vetting what he puts up for download, so when he says that these libraries and samples are "Public Domain Mark 1", I believe that they are. The owner was Creative Technologies, and they may still have some claim to the software and samples, but they show no interest in support, other than providing a few drivers for the hardware Emulators.
It would be great if someone took this on to "Unify" some or all of the libraries - there is a huge amount of great stuff there, and free!
This topic was modified 5 months ago by Jowry
Erik van Wees reacted
October 25, 2022 10:25 pm
Hi, Don't know if you know about this company: https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com
I bought some EMU stuff there in the past for Cakewalk. Dunno if they are still active.
But the archive.org collection sounds interesting too.
Topic starter
October 26, 2022 4:19 am
Hi Erik - It appears that DigitalSoundFactory is still going. They seem to be selling the E-MU libraries in bits and pieces, which is fine as a business model. What I like about Archive.org's approach is that they are making something which is gone from the marketplace (the Emulator software and all of the patch libraries) free to download. It is listed as Public Domain, so they appear to have done their homework. I finally got the Emulator VST plugin working in Unify (which means it should work in any DAW), and all of the patch collections can be loaded (.exb file format) into that VST. I used the 64-bit version. It is an immense set of libraries! I may indeed take a shot at Unifying one of the patch libraries, just to see whether I can do it.
This post was modified 5 months ago by Jowry
trusampler reacted
October 26, 2022 9:14 am
I downloaded the software from Archive.org, but am hesitant to install software of such unknown origin.
I have read the nfo document, it also mentioned Digital Soundfactory ... what a coincidence ... 😉
But again, given the other info in that doc, I am hesitant ...
Topic starter
October 26, 2022 5:58 pm
Good morning Erik - the software is indeed safe - I put it through several scans before installing on my workstation. Upon diving further into the .rar archive files and looking at the splash screen on the free-standing version of Emulator X3, the copyright shows as E-MU Systems, and also shows "This product includes software developed by The Apache Software Foundation". E-MU Systems is long gone, but Creative Labs purchased them in the 90s. I'm really not sure how to decide whether or not to use it - I am a stickler for using legal versions of all my software and have invested heavily in fully legal graphics and music software over the years.
The fact that a number of other companies are selling versions of the E-MU libraries would indicate to me that the original sounds are indeed now public domain. I'm not a lawyer though, so I'm simply using my best guesses as I plow through the history and try to figure out who really owns it. There is still some limited support material at the Creative Labs site, but it all applies to the Emulator hardware versions - there's nothing regarding the software. And all of the Emulator hardware products on Creative Labs have an end of life statement on them. The Emulator X3 software in fact, became freeware, and was given away by Creative Labs in the early 2000s. In short, I'm not sure either.
October 26, 2022 9:54 pm
Thanks for your extensive reply, I now feel a lot more secure about it all. Will try an install in my morning ...
Topic starter
October 26, 2022 10:46 pm
Good luck with it Erik! If you want any guidance on how I installed it and got it working on my system I'll be glad to help you out. It was the Emulator X3 version which I finally got to work on my Win7 system in the latest version of Unify. The freestanding version also works. The complete library collection was downloaded from the Proteus VX version that I had attempted to use earlier (it worked freestanding, but not as a VST). The library files seem to be the same for either version. I downloaded the 7Z (7Zip compression) version of 35 library files. I also noticed that they are here on Archive.org - they look to be the same libraries:
E-MU exb Sound Banks : E-MU : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This post was modified 5 months ago by Jowry
Topic starter
October 28, 2022 10:05 pm
I surely understand. I've been purchasing too many Spitfire Originals and Unify libraries lately! Time to start using them to create something!
Erik van Wees reacted
November 11, 2022 4:21 pm
Hello, following on from seeing this thread, I thought I might have a go at looking at the Emulator-X plugin. Some nostalgic sounds hidden amongst them! Trouble is... I can get it to work in Reaper (using VoiceMeeter ASIO... see graphic). I cannot get the VST2 (64bit) to load in Standalone Unify ??? (I have attached a zip with the Emulator-X dll).
I can't seem to attach the zip file (even though I got it down to less than 7MB) don't know why the forum doesn't like it.. may I email it for testing please??
November 11, 2022 8:13 pm
Do you use Dropbox or any other file-hosting service? If so, put the file there, and put a link to it here. If you have any trouble inserting the link, spell it out e.g. dropbox <dot> com <slash> ... etc.
UPDATE: I got the installer for the 64-bit plug-in from https://archive.org/details/setup-emulator-x-3-x-64-v-3.0.0
I can't scan the plug-in into Unify, because it triggers some kind of memory-access violation when it loads. This is a pretty fatal bug.
November 12, 2022 4:13 am
I think that the version of Emulator X that I found has been "ethically hacked!!!" to remove the pointless security (the shared serial for the abandoneware)...
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19m4g8BpKveiijcbqHM54eCfhXZMCJbir?usp=sharing
It seems strange that I can get the above dll (VST2 64bit) to work in Reaper, but it appears to loop when I try to introduce the same dll to Unify Standalone edition.
November 12, 2022 1:51 pm
That DLL is identical to the one I have. It still attempts to access memory at an invalid address.
Many DAWs and other plug-in hosts are specifically built to tolerate all sorts of bugs in plug-ins. The Windows version of Unify has some of these adaptations, but apparently not enough for this particular old plug-in.
November 12, 2022 2:29 pm
It works in Mixcraft 9, but not in Mulab 9; have not tried with E-Mu libs yet, but it plays .wav
November 12, 2022 2:36 pm
I came across this today...
https://web.archive.org/web/20130317080302/http://www.creative.com/emu/proteusvx/
I'll have a go at installing it to see if it reads the Emu Emulator X libraries???
Looks like it's 32bit. JBridge here we come!
or not... as the case may be!! (Turns Red in Unify Standalone)...
November 12, 2022 3:35 pm
I have played my first E-mu library! (not yet in Unify, but Mixcraft)
as Shane already reported, Unify crashes ....
Oh well, to be honest 25500 Unify patches might prove to be more valuable than these very old samples ... but
This post was modified 4 months ago 3 times by Erik van Wees
January 5, 2023 9:59 am
I came across this:
Free wav files of the Proteus VX library to be found here: https://www.wusik.com/online-store/EMU-Proteus-VX-Collection-In-Wav-Format-p518161298
Also from Ensoniq Mirage: https://www.wusik.com/online-store/Ensoniq-Mirage-Sound-Collection-In-Wav-Format-p518892207
Enjoy!
This post was modified 2 months ago by Erik van Wees
