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:

 

Demo Sequence 1

Demo Sequence 2

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