The emphasis this time is a little different from before, with a wide range of classic analogue and digital synths represented, while brass, string and orchestral sounds are characterised by smaller selections but greater fidelity, rather than the sheer breadth of sounds covered in Volume 1.

The standout patches (to our ears at least) come in the form of synths, keys and solo instruments, while there are some neat left-field choices as well (like Mellotron strings). The synths delve deep into analogue classics, but also take in the then-modern crop of mid-80s digital machines, so you get both DX-style glitter and D50-style movement along with more typical subtractive fare. This expanse of rich synth tones makes layering the patches very rewarding: blending together an orchestral patch with a synth patch nearly always leads to something special happening. A quick tweak of the envelope attack to join the two together and the results are magical – tons of 8-bit grit from the EII, tons of warmth and depth from the sources themselves. This is something we’ve taken advantage of to great effect in the Multis, which cherry-pick some cool starting tones and then go to town on them with everything the interface has to offer. We hope you’ll have a go, too!

Ethnic instruments also get a good showing, with a wide variety of folk patches (including some great harmonicas) as well as indigenous instruments from
around the globe – perfect for those Peter Gabriel moments! And to underpin your tracks there are some truly weighty basses, both electric and synthesised, ready to make your speakers shudder. There’s something incredibly punchy and rock-solid about the EII’s bass response which makes these kinds of patches a joy to play.

As always, we’ve gone the extra mile with the sampling itself, and as well as sampling each patch chromatically and in obsessive detail, we’ve also taken care to multi-sample anything that draws on the EII’s filters, so you can be sure of getting the same velocity response on our patches as you would on the original hardware. Hit harder, and on the patches that support it, the filter opens up just like the real thing!

Here are the actual statistics of the library, just for kicks:
37,238 individual samples
25Gb original 24-bit
16Gb uncompressed 16-bit
8.83Gb compressed .ncw format
534 individual instruments, consisting of…
…21 Bass / 4 Bells & Chimes / 39 Brass / 48 Drums / 46 Ethnic & Folk / 3 FX / 22 Guitar / 47 Piano & Keys / 45 Orchestral / 73 Percussion / 25 Strings / 139 Synth / 22 Vocal

Home page: rhythmicrobot.com/product/emulator-ii-omi-universe-of-sounds-vol-2

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