**From Emulator to Emulator II.** By 1984 E-mu Systems — founded by Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge, who began building synths as Caltech friends in 1971 and incorporated in Santa Clara in November 1972 — had proven that sampling could be affordable. The original Emulator (1981) made the case; the Emulator II, launched at NAMM in 1984, perfected it and became one of the defining instruments of the decade.
**A quantum leap.** In E-mu's own words the EII was "a quantum leap" over the EI: roughly 17.5 seconds of sampling in 500 KB of memory, 8-bit quality at a 27.5 kHz rate, and a price of "a mere $7,995." Crucially, rather than chase digital fidelity, E-mu wrapped its 8-bit samples — replayed through μ-255 companding D/A for an effective ~14-bit resolution — in analog processing. Each of the eight voices ran through its own SSM2045 four-pole (24 dB/octave) resonant low-pass filter, so every note could be independently shaped. The result sounded warm and analog, a quality the far more expensive Fairlight could not match.
**A complete instrument — and several firsts.** Where the EI had been spartan, the EII was a full workstation: a velocity- and pressure-sensitive 61-note keyboard, an 8-track MIDI sequencer, and built-in MIDI. It was the first E-mu product to feature SCSI, and Digidesign created a software editor, Sound Designer, to support it. (SMPTE sync, though advertised, was not operational at launch and was enabled in OS 2.1 in May 1985.) Variants followed: the EII+ doubled memory to 1 MB — as two switchable 512 KB banks a single sample cannot span — and the EII+HD added an internal 20 MB hard drive. The factory sound library ran to roughly ninety 6010-series diskettes — pianos, strings, brass, choirs and the famous shakuhachi — each disk bootable with the OS aboard.
**Cultural impact.** At $7,995 the Emulator II cost roughly a quarter of a Fairlight and became the sampler of mid-1980s pop. Depeche Mode built much of their sound on it; the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" and Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" (its shakuhachi flute) drew on it, as did records by Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock, New Order and Enya. About 3,000 Emulator IIs were built over its three-year run.
**Succession and the long view.** The EII was displaced not by E-mu but by cheaper 16-bit rivals — the Akai S900/S1000 and the $1,695 Ensoniq Mirage. E-mu answered with the 16-bit Emulator III (1987), then pivoted to the Proteus modules and the SP-12/SP-1200 drum machines that became hip-hop staples, before being acquired by Creative Technology in 1993. Today the Emulator II remains the most coveted of the line — a historical artifact whose 8-bit-through-analog voice has never gone out of style.