E-mu Emulator III
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The E-mu Emulator III is a sampler, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1987 until 1990. A rack-mountable version was introduced in 1988.
It featured 4 or 8 megabytes of memory, depending on the model, and it could store samples in 16-bit, 44-kHz stereo, which, at the time, was equivalent to the most advanced, professional equipment available. The sound quality was also improved greatly over its predecessors, the Emulator I and II, with quieter outputs and more reliable filter chips. However, the Emulator III was considerably less popular than its predecessors, largely due to its price - at a time when manufacturers such as Akai, Ensoniq, and Casio offerred samplers at less than $2,000, the Emulator III's use of high-quality components drove the price up to $12,695 for the 4MB model, and $15,195 for the 8MB model. E-mu had previously been able to sell their Emulators at around the $10,000 range due to the fact that the only alternative was the $30,000 Fairlight CMI; however, times had changed, the technology had become more and more accessible, and E-mu was not able to keep up.
Although the Emulator III may not have been a success with working musicians, it did find a place on the records and in the studios of many prominent artists, including Tony Banks of Genesis, and the members of Depeche Mode, who used it on their successful 1991 release, Violator.
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