Description | The Vintage Keys is a digital rackmount synthesizer that emulates the sounds of classic vintage synths. For an early 1990’s ROMpler, this sound module was compact and actually sounded really good, loaded with good samples of vintage synth sounds. Just like the classics it has Portamento, a VCF (filter) and a Chorus effect. It has a lot of modulation capabilities which are all real-time and MIDI controllable. It does, however, have the typical brittle digital sound quality usually associated with digital sound modules, but it still makes nice pads, punchy bass and cool filter swept leads and works great for background synth sounds.
The Vintage Keys Plus was released in 1994. This model doubled the internal ROM size to 16 MB of sampled sounds. Memory patches were also increased to 512 slots. Original Vintage Keys models could be upgraded to match the Plus version using E-mu’s 8 MB Expander Kit.
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Brand | E-mu |
Model | Vintage Keys (Plus) |
Device | Synth |
Type | Rack |
Engine Type | Digital |
Engine | Sample |
Voices (max) | 32 |
Multitimbral | 8 |
Oscillators | 1 |
LFO | 2 Sample & Hold, Saw Up, Saw Down, Sine, Square, Triangle, Delay |
Engine Detailed | 8 MB of ROM samples. Plus model has 16 MB of ROM samples. |
Filter (VCF) | 2 12dB Slope (2-pole), 24dB Slope (4-pole), Low Pass, Resonance |
Envelope (VCA) | Initional Level, Delay, Attack, Decay, Sustain, Sustain Level, Release |
FX | Chorus |
Memory | 256 patches. Plus model has 512 patches. User can use 128 of them for own sounds. |
Keys | 0 |
Key type | N/A |
Velocity | N/A |
Aftertouch | N/A |
Audio | 3 stereo out |
Midi | I-O-T |
Extra info | Original Vintage Keys models could be upgraded to match the Plus version using E-mu’s 8 MB Expander Kit. |
Produced: | 1993 - 1994 |
Legend: |
Obvious |
Y: Yes, N: No, N/A: Not Applicable |
VCO |
Voltage Controlled Oscillator |
DCO |
Digital Controlled Oscillator |
LFO |
Low Frequency Oscillator |
Sub |
Sub Oscillator |
VCF |
Voltage Controlled Filter |
VCA |
Voltage Controlled Amplifier |
Velocity |
As with a piano, the harder you hit a key, the louder the sound, unlike most organs which always produce the same loudness no matter how hard you hit a key. |
Aftertouch |
Pressing a key after you activated it. Channel Aftertouch, no matter which key, it will send a Channel message. Poly Aftertouch, sends the pressure per key instead of the whole channel. |
Values for OSC, LFO, Filter, Envelope are per voice unless stated otherwise. |