From EMulator X3 to Halion 6 ?

Virtual instruments HALion
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1

Hi all,

Well, I am considering halion 6 as my next sampler but I have a problem : I am still using EMulator X3 and this one is discontinued since a while, so I have to think about something to be able to use in the future several years of work with it. I have downloaded the Halion 6 Operation Manual and saw this (p.63/64) :

The following formats can be imported:
…
● EMU* 3, 3X, ESI, 4, 4K, E64, E6400, ESynth, Ultra
…

EMulator X3 saves by default programs/samples banks in .exb files and I guess that this format isn’t supported by Halion 6 but a confirmation would be welcomed. Beside this, EX3 can also export programs/samples banks as .e4b files and, at the opposite, I think that this format matches at least one of the formats listed above, but would like to be sure before any purchase.

So, could someone confirm that Halion 6 can import .e4b files without issue or, it would even be better, has an experience transfering EMulator X3 banks to H6, using this format (or the .exb one directly, who knows…) ?

I admit that I could test this by myself but honestly, I’d prefer to avoid downloading 30 Gb just to test this… :neutral_face:. Thanks for any enlightment…

2

I think you can import fxp files/presets, but not soundbanks. You can then save it in the current Halion format and create or recreate the Emu soundbanks that way. I started converting my H3 libraries this way when H4 came out but never got the job finished as it is very time consuming.

Disclaimer: I might be completely wrong, but since no one else replied…:slightly_smiling_face:

3

Hi, dancetiger, and thanks for your answer.

Not reassuring, to be honest. But I’m still wondering about the .e4b format, though. Who knows ? Maybe someone in Steinberg crew, concerned by an eventual purchase, could shed a light on this.

After all, my inquiry is only 5 months old… :mrgreen:

Thanks again ! :slight_smile:

4

I know this is old, but the X3 conversion issue comes up from time to time. I had Halion 7 look at Emulator X3 bank files, but H7 do not recognize them. There are several Emulator III (EIII) and ESI CD_ROMs with many of the same patches and samples. They import fine.

However, things are not 1:1 vs the X3 banks, the CD.ROMs are not 100% the same, but there is a lot in there. You can also do a wav export from Emulator X3 (batch export of a whole bank) and then import the samples into H7 and rebuild the patch. Might work if it is just a few.

5

Yep. I think I’ll have to use the batch export and try to rebuild one patch after the other. The problem I also have is this one : I need a sampler that is able to “crossfade” two samples when the velocity of a note is included in a certain range : I have made a massive use of this in Emulator X3, when working on my patches. Is halion 7 capable of this ?

Thanks for chiming in, it’s appreciated… :slightly_smiling_face:

6

Page 94 in H7 manual. I haven’t used it yet, but it is described.
I did notice looping is a problem sometimes. After import the loop is not in tune. E-mu often looped a single cycle. Not sure if they tuned it in X3, but retuning in H7 or making new loop points makes batch import very time consuming. I redid the looping in H7 in my experiments and the loops sounded better with my work, just, it takes time. I think I’ll see what Kontakt can do, I think it has to be v5 IIRC as they abandoned sample conversion…
I have not tried Extreme Sample Converter, saw people reporting issues with ESC and .exb.

If you did not know: You can audition the samples in H7 while browsing EII/Roland/Akai banks BEFORE importing. This is HUGHE. Good job Steinberg.

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From my understanding, Creative Labs has finally shut down the activation servers so it is now impossible to install Emulator X3 on a new system without notable hacking.

I think the only options (other than rebuilding the banks from WAV files [1]) at this point are to either downgrade to Emulator X2 which uses a hardware interface for copy protection or try to locate the supposedly free Proteus VX. I’ve heard it is capable of loading EXB files so you can still use them even though you will be loosing some of the advanced filters in Emulator X3 [2]. I’ve actually had Emulator X3 running via Wine in GNU\Linux but there were some latency issues [3].

[1] - Rebuilding the banks from WAV files would make for a great project but you wouldn’t be able to legally post your results without a waiver from Creative Labs/EMU and the product you create would likely have to be solely for your own personal use even though I think Emulator X actually encouraged users to rip the WAV files from other synths… (how ironic). So please, everyone, don’t post EXB files or variants thereof on the internet. That might result in men in black suits with dark sunglasses showing up at certain apartments.

[2] - Loosing the filters in Emulator X3 is not a big deal because many modern DAWs like Cubase have VST or other plugins that can morph the sounds. Wave table sample based synth is so “old-school” LOL. Real men use FM Synthesis. It’s the wave of the future (jokingly). You know I’m joking here because FM Synth came out before EMU’s patented wave table synth came out. When wave table synth first came out, it was AWESOME because we had realistic sounds, but we lost the expression we had with the older analog synths so we now have companies like Behringer (and others) using modern electrical engineering and manufacturing techniques to build replicas of old retro synths.

[3] - No, I have never gotten Cubase to run in GNU\Linux even though I heard is was once possible back in the ancient days:

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I gave up on Emulator at version X2 but was able to convert content firstly to Kontakt and then import directly in HALion using “Extreme Sample Converter”. Yes, tweaks were necessary but it was worthwhile doing the conversions in my case. It was also goodbye to Creative Labs forever for destroying a great product.

The website hasn’t been updated in years but the demo seems to be still available.

9

I use ProteusVX from time to time, and if someone needs a copy just let me know. It should be easy to find online, though. E-MU Systems - Proteus VX
It is a 32bit plugin but works with jbridge.
I have used translator to do conversions in the past as it is way more robust but with each bank type things may differ, but support is still active with that program and they do respond.
It’s kind of too bad they ended this line but going this far it would be do-able to do full on recreations of synth modules going way back.

EDIT: Just a note, this plugin doesn’t run as stable as it once does so I haven’t been able to get it to run super stable. There are some jbridge settings necessary but I still found it unreliable, BUT, it is enough to open a project, render, save and it.
Also, it runs perfectly in Stand-alone mode under Windows.

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Beer….are you running this on a Mac? I forgot about this O.G. Synth! I had a license somewhere long ago.

11

There is Translator 7 from Chicken Systems

https://www.chickensys.com/products2/translator/

I’ve got it and it does an ok job.

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I tried Extreme Sample Converter. You get the sample mapping taken care of. Pretty much everything else has to be re-constructed.
By the way E X3 now works in C13 as of 13.0.30.

A way to crossfade two sample layers based on velocity in H7?
It is described in this video. I could not find this in the manual!?

Halion 7 Tutorial #15 - The Mapping Editor (youtube.com)

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Hi!

A bit late to the party…Just my two cents to the original Emulator X3 to HALion thread. Experienced Emulator X2/3 user here.

1. Import to HALion?
Not directly. I have also used Extreme Sample Converter for this, translating to a HALion-compatible format like Kontakt. I am still not sure, which format I will finally use, I have been trying some. I would like to use SFZ, but this is still not supported in HALion 7.

2. A possible solution!
As has been written above citing the manual, HALion 7 can import from hardware E-mu samplers. This is good news, because Emulator X3 can export to EOS/E IV banks.

Just…

  1. go to FILE menu
  2. click on Export …
  3. select EOS bank files
  4. click on Save.
  5. DONE!

3. Does it make sense?
ANSWER A: If you only have used the included 12/24 dB LP, HP, BP filters, possibly YES. These filter might be sufficiently simulated by the corresponding HALion filters.

ANSWER B: If you made use of the included morphing filters or you have even created your own filters, then possibly NO. Here the thing…

The Morphing inside Emulator IV hardware and Emulator X is actually filter morphing, meaning, that the filter characteristics are transformed over time rather then sound files. So it´s not sound morphing nor wavetable synthesis. And for the moment there is no other software product with this capability. So, if you want the REAL Emulator X sound inside HALion 7, the best way would be to use Proteus VX with jBridge (or Emulator X3, as it is the only one with native 64 bit support form the Emulator X familiy) and sample it with the HALion - included autosampler.

OFF-TOPIC - 3. Activating/using Emulator X on Windows 10?
First of all, it´s a bit of a PITA, as there is no zoom available for this software, and inside Cubase it does run, but certain windows appear behind the actually visible window, so confusion here is assured. Other than that…

As mentioned before, as the Emulator X activation server is down for a while now, so there is no “legal” way to activate it. It may be considered abandonware though…

A future-proof would be to have a Windows XP PC with Emulator X2 running in stand-alone. Works fine with an E-mu 2x2 MIDI interface as dongle, and should also with certain Creative sound cards. Another copy protection used is Macrovision, which cannot be installed on 64bit systems, hence the recommendation to go for a Windows XP PC.

Well, sorry for the lengthy post.
I hope it is of help to someone.

All the best!

15

It is abandonware. There’s a web archive page that has the installer and the sound libraries. There’s a fix for the authorization issue there too. I can use Emulator X3 with Ableton Live 11 and Reason 12 as a plugin but it won’t work with VST Live

16

Also thanks for the tip about saving as EOS bank files. Most of the sounds I like from the EMU X3 library are mostly conventional sounds so that should do the trick.

17

Glad to help, Andrew.
Please let me know if the “Save as EOS bank” did the trick, or if you had any setbacks.

All the best!

18

Yes that did the trick thanks for that tip! It’s too bad Emu went out of business and stopped developing the Emulator X3

19

Despite what you read on the internet, ‘abandonware’ isn’t a real thing, and EMU isnt out of business. They just stopped selling samplers.

Creative and EMU are both very much still alive, and still own the respective IP to the EMU X/X2/X3 software.

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Creative is still in business yes and they did buy EMU and they own the rights to the name. However like Ensoniq EMU doesn’t exist and there hasn’t been a single product either hardware or software from them in at least 20 years.

21

Might want to check again.

https://emu.com/