Emagic ES1

Emagic's inexpensive analogue synth emulation for Logic Audio and Micrologic AV comes under scrutiny from Paul White.

Now that home computers are approaching supercomputer speeds, virtual synthesizers are no longer just interesting academic curiosities but instead present a viable alternative to traditional hardware instruments. Steinberg pioneered the VST plug‑in instrument concept and also promoted Rewire as a means to make these instruments work across different sequencer platforms, but Emagic's approach to plug‑ins rather goes against the spirit of inter‑company cooperation. Instead of releasing VST plug‑ins, Emagic tend to use their own plug‑in format where the plug‑ins are embedded in the main program file rather than sitting in a VST folder, a strategy which limits their use to Emagic users. They have done the same thing with the ES1, which places it firmly off‑limits to Cubase users.

When you install ES1 from the CD‑ROM (Windows and Mac), the program updates your existing version of Logic Audio or Micrologic AV to include the synth — if your software version is earlier than 4.1, then it will also be updated to v4.1. The copy protection is of the type where you're asked to insert the master CD‑ROM every few months.

To accommodate virtual instruments, Emagic have added a new Instrument object to their audio environment. This looks much like any other audio mixer channel, but the top insert points are used to access virtual instruments rather than plug‑in effects. Lower slots may be used to add plug‑in effects to the virtual instrument, and the instrument itself appears in the arrange page just like any other MIDI instrument. Parameters on the instrument may be automated in a similar way to those of the console and plug‑ins with the limitation that only 16 parameters may be automated per plug‑in slot (as of version 4.1 at any rate). Controllers 64 to 79 are allocated to the first slot, the second is accessed by 80 to 95 and so on; however, if you need to work with more than 16 parameters at a time, you can do so by leaving the second slot empty, which lets you use its quota of automation parameters.

Installation

The ES1 is incorporated into the Logic environment using a new audio object optimised for the virtual synth.

Installation was quite painless and, even on my old G3, the latency was low enough that it was only just noticeable when playing quickly. Even so, on really slow machines it may be as well to play the part using a conventional synth or soundcard voice, then switch the data over to the ES1 after recording. This will prevent latency affecting your performance.

The synth itself is a fairly conventional analogue‑style instrument featuring one multi‑waveform oscillator and one multi‑waveform sub‑oscillator that can also produce noise. There's a choice of 12dB/octave, 18dB/octave or two different 24dB/octave filters, which can be controlled either by a main ADSR or by a simpler Mod Envelope generator (with a single control which can vary either attack or release time), and there's a variable distortion algorithm before the filter that is good for fattening up the basic oscillator sound. The main envelope may be set to full ADSR operation or to two simpler gate modes, where either just the attack and release controls are active or where only the release control is active. Unlike the early analogue synths, this one is velocity‑sensitive and polyphonic, offering up to 16 voices. It responds to pitch‑bend and modulation messages, has variable‑rate portamento, and has an LFO with a multi‑waveform output including sample and hold‑style random effects. It's also possible to access other audio tracks, using the plug‑in's side‑chain facility, allowing them to be processed via the ES1's filter and envelope sections.

As with most Logic plug‑ins, there are two views — a flashy 3D control panel (left) and a simpler slider‑controlled editor. The editor window has a few more parameters; there are some settings, such as the maximum number of voices and the 'Analogue' waveform triggering, which can be made only from this view. This latter parameter determines whether the waveforms always trigger at the start of a cycle or trigger more randomly as they would in a real analogue synth.

Most of the routine sound creation, however, can be done from the lurid green control‑panel view which is, in some ways, a triumph of design over clarity. I think I'd have preferred knobs to faders, but as this is such a simple synth it doesn't take much getting used to. Some of the faders have two sliders, the idea being that you can set the upper and lower ranges of the parameter being controlled. For example, when setting vibrato, the lower slider position sets how much vibrato there is with no mod wheel applied, while the higher slider setting determines how much pitch modulation occurs when the wheel is at its maximum travel.

The LFO and Mod Envelope can each be routed to a number of destinations, though only one destination at a time is possible. For example, the LFO can control pitch or pulse‑width modulation, but not both at once. It may also be routed to control the mix of oscillator and sub‑oscillator, the filter cutoff or the volume. The Mod Envelope is adjusted via a single knob that lengthens release time when turned anticlockwise from the centre point, and lengthens attack time when turned clockwise. It can be routed to the same selection of destinations as the LFO, and additionally to the LFO amp and to Filter FM. Routing to the LFO amp makes it possible to set up delay vibrato while Filter FM uses the triangle wave oscillator output to modulate the filter cutoff in order to create harmonically complex sounds.

<h3>The Sound</h3>

The brochure claims the choice of filter types enable the ES1 to emulate Moog, Roland or Oberheim filters and there's certainly a noticeable difference between them, but overall I felt the characteristic sound to be somewhere between the Roland SH101 and the ARP Axxe. A set of 128 presets has already been created to let you try out some of the synth sounds, the most effective of which are techno‑style basses and fairly straight‑ahead lead sounds. These types of sounds are handled extremely well by the ES1, though it fares rather less well at the type of complex, evolving sounds you can get from something like an Oberheim Matrix 1000, largely due to the single‑destination routing options. Overall, the filter has a nice element of 'squizzz' about it, though at high resonance settings there are some digital artifacts that give away the fact that this isn't a true analogue synth. Similarly, the FM settings can sound a trifle 'alias‑ish'. In fairness, this probably wouldn't be a problem in the context of a dance track — it may even be an advantage — but for more subtle applications it could give the game away.

While using ES1 I experienced only one major hiccup, and that was when I tried to use Logic's loop function to repeat a four‑bar phrase. Try as I might, the synth refused to play past the original section, even though the MIDI activity meter still insisted something was going on during the repeated loops.

Summary

At under £60, Emagic's ES1 is a bit of a bargain, especially if you need analogue‑type bass sounds, and because the interface is fairly straightforward even the newcomer to analogue synthesis should able to get good results without getting lost. Of course there is room for improvement, and in addition to curing the looping problem, I feel that Emagic would do well to provide some means of accessing instrument presets from the Arrange page — you can do this for hardware MIDI instruments. And while we're at it, a simple and direct way of controlling the synth sounds via an arpeggiator object would be appreciated.

On the plus side, new sounds are easy to set up, there are some good examples to get you started, and once you've created or tweaked a sound it's easy to store it for later use. What's more, the synth doesn't seem to consume too much processor power unless you get really silly with the number of voices playing at any one time. If you need solid, no‑frills analogue synth sounds, and you already use Logic Audio, then ES1 is a 'must‑have' at the asking price.