Orbit
V2 9090 The Dance Planet
Digital synthesizer module
This module is typical of the mid-90's era. It is primarily a techno/dance module, similar to others that at the time other manufacturers were marketing (the Roland MDC-1 expander comes to mind).
The sounds on board are very solid, and obviously the targeted clientele for it was dance composers with already a sequencer and effects in their studio (neither are featured on this module).
The bass, drum and synth waveforms in particular are very powerful. The filter section is notoriously potent, and besides the standard pitch/filter/amp sections, there are so many modulation capabilities, that I see this as a good module for programmers. Pair it with some good reverb/delay, and thanks to the separate outputs, you can easily obtain great results.
E-mu Orbit V2 audio examples in mp3
The two on-board demo songs:
The factory presets:
Stream all audio examples below:
| FACTORY RAM PRESETS - BANK 0 | |
| 0. bas:Membrace | Very powerful Moogish bass. |
| 1. syn:Raunch | Old school Techno lead |
| 2. pad:AmbiWind | Sweet ambient pad with subtle vox fx |
| 3. org:OrgyOrg | Typical "woody" dance organ |
| 4. led:SqurAnim | Standard "Lucky Man" solo synth. |
| 5. hit:Da Hits | A cornucopia of classic hits, often taken from many successful dance songs |
| 6. vox:Jaxvox | A spacey choir-pad. This is a beautiful sound that will benefit from reverb. |
| 7. sfx:LFOrbit | Standard Sci-Fi fx |
| 8. scr:SkrachIt | Lots of scratching and vinyl effects. |
| 9. drm:YinYank | Classic 909 rhythms and more - very clean and punchy. |
| 13. bas:MuthaFun | Razor-sharp techno synth w/ mod effects. |
| 15. bas:Juno 1 | Super powerful synth bass, presumably sampled from a Roland Juno. |
| 19. bas:TeeBee 2 | Inspired by the classic TB-303 open-filter sounds. |
| 20. bas:Orbiting | Extremely interesting moving synth. |
| 21. bas:CZish | Awesome! Obviously sampled from the great Casio CZ-line's 08 SYNTH.BASS synth bass preset. |
| 31. bas:DB9 And | Killer 303/devilfish bass line, presumably sampled from the Control Synthesis Deep Bass Nine, or DB9 , one of the several TB-303 emulators that were produced during the golden years of Acid House. |
| 36. syn:303 Love | Another 303-influenced synth line. Hypnotic and different-sounding. |
| 37. syn:Modestal | Very full, analog synth pad. |
| 38. syn:Wheely 1 | The modulation wheel controls the filter, as in many presets on the machine. |
| 50. syn:Whiziwig | What you see is what you get... a cool reso-synth |
| 52. syn:1KeyStak | Beautiful Wavestation-like evolving, spacey synth. |
| 55. syn:Lo NaNa | Cool LFO sound |
| 56. syn:Hard | Aggressive techno lead, typical in Happy Hardcore and early Techno. |
| 78. syn:Excapes | More moving soundscapes. |
| 79. syn:Motion | A killer preset!!! Reminds me of the Kurzweil K2000. |
| 87. syn:Bigpoly | Huge poly synth! |
| 91. syn:SweptSaw | Standard "phat" saw synthesizer sound. |
| 96. syn:BatPhaze | Nice comp synth. |
| 115. pad:SawEkoes | Excellently programmed moving synth pad! |
| 122. pad:Fizzikal | Beautiful, mysterious pad. |
| 126. pad:Glimmers | Another superb glimmer pad with shades of industrial noise and steam. |
| FACTORY RAM PRESETS - BANK 1 | |
| 1. org:Cheezoid | Groovy old organ |
| 2. org:OtherOrg | Mic'd Hammond |
| 13. cmp:P Wave | Piano sound, cuts through a mix easily. |
| 15. cmp:Danscomp | Cool Euro-synth |
| 23. led:M12Lead | Presumably sampled from the Oberheim Matrix-12. |
| 26. led:5Brass | Presumably sampled from the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 |
| 31. led:Nervosa | Awesome techno lead, very late '90s |
| 43. hit:AmString | Very nice lo-fi effect |
| 48. hit:StringIt | Typical early '90s Techno hits |
| 51. hit:Carhorn | Very popular techno hit |
| 67. hit:Wazzer | Classic dance organ hit |
| 75. vox:StarFall | Awesome detuned pad with filtered lfos |
| 86. sfx:ScrapHit | Another cool special fx |
| 96. drm:Split 1 | The "Beats" on-board feature provides the loop, the bass is in real time. |
| 99. drm:Randhous | Loop is done utilizing the "Deep" beats preset mode. Very cool. |
| 109. drm:Electro | Groovy lo-fi electronic drum set. |
| FACTORY ROM PRESETS - BANK 2 | |
| 27. bas:DB Wow | Powerful resonating synth bass |
| 40. bas:FM Bass | Perfectly sampled Yamaha DX7 bass. |
| 59. syn:SnSplt 2 | Funky synth split. |
| 61. syn:SnSplt 4 | Very warm sounding synthesizer split combo. Very useful. |
| 79. syn:Raunch 7 | Gorgeous pad with mod wheel filtering. |
| 118. cmp:RubberJ | Electro sequence. Cool. |
| FACTORY ROM PRESETS - BANK 3 | |
| 0. pad:PulsTrip | Intriguing, mysterious moving synth. |
| 20. hit:Rip Hit | Classic early '90s synth hit |
| 36. sfx:Strobe | A great special effect. |
| 56. bts:Danzin | Monster loop, courtesy of the "Beats" feature. |
| 61. bts:Hardkore | More 'Beats' action. |
| FACTORY ROM PRESETS - BANK 4 | |
| 0. lfo:J Day | Outstandingly beautiful synthesizer pad. |
| 17. lfo:Praise | More LFO goodness. |
| 54. syn:Vapor | Great for movie soundtracks. |
| 77. hit:Revit- | Solid and interesting-sounding synth hit. |
Resources:
- Review in "Keyboard magazine" janfebmarch, 200_
Features
| ••• Preset Categories: |
| bas: .. Bass |
| syn: .. Synthesizer |
| pad: . Thick sustained sound |
| org: .. Organ |
| led: .. Lead instrument |
| hit: ... Orchestra hit |
| vox: .. Human voice |
| sfx: ... Sound effect |
| scr: ... Record scratch |
| drm:. Drum |
| bts: .. Used in beats preset |
| seq: .. Used in demo sequence |
| lnk: .. Preset link |
| Features at a glance | |
| Year of release: | 199_ |
| Polyphony: | 32 |
| Sound generation method: | PCM |
| Preset memories | 128 RAM Presets |
| 128 RAM Presets | |
| 128 ROM Presets | |
| 128 ROM Presets | |
| 128 ROM Presets | |
| MIDI: | in, out, thru |
| Sound expansion capabilities: | no |
| Sequencer | no |
| Arpeggiator | Beats mode |
| Effects | no |
| Touch sensitivity | yes |
| Aftertouch | yes |
| Multitimbrality | yes |
| Sound Layering | yes |
| Keyboard Split | yes |
| Number of Oscillators | |
| Portamento | |
| Unison | |
| Miscellaneous | |
E-mu Orbit V2 pictures
Orbit V2 manual in .pdf
from the E-mu website:
E-mu Orbit V2 user's manual.pdf
Links
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |
| E-Mu | home site | Emu/Creative/Ensoniq |