Emu Planet Phatt
The Swing System (1997)

 

Rackmount module based on a samples wavetable: sounds are oriented to Hop, Rap, Acid Jazz and Trip-Hop.

RACKMOUNT 1 unit. Main panel features 5 buttons, a 2 X 16 lines backlit display, 1 single knob for volume and a data wheel encoder.

Back panel terminal connectors:
- Midi interface
- main outs
- 4 aux outs
- LED for Midi signal.

POWER SUPPLY internal switch 110V/220V (check it ANYWAY!)

 

 

VOICE a Motorola MC 68000 CPU (mc68hc00fn10) system handles up to 32 voices of polyphony, with 6 X 16 bits DACS AD1861 (analog devices).
A basic voice is composed by 1 or 2 samples "oscillators" Primary and Secondary Instruments. Each instruments have individual wave parameters:
- volume / paning
- delay start
- pitch tuning coarse and fine
- zone assign
- chorus mode (thicker sound)
- reverse playback flag
- monophonic mode with variable portamento rate
- crossade fade volume Primary--> Secondary or vice versa

 

WAVETABLE the non-expandable 8 MB ROM contains 480 samples coded at 16 bits at 39 kHz frequency rate. Some names stands out like Roland TB303, Moog Minimoog bass, Wurlitzer piano, Yamaha DX7 tines, Prophet 5 and boom-kit Roland TR808.

PERFORMANCE up to 16 parts each with individual parameters:
- footswitch assign (assignable to any Midi CC#)
- master tune with semitones transpose
- realtime modulation matrix (check out table below "matrix")
- scale: equal, C, Vallotti, Gamelan and user.

 

 

FILTER a single resonant digital filter for both primary and secondary.
There are 2 kinds of filters A-B out of 17 models:
- standard: 3 lowpasses, 2 highpasses and 2 bandpasses
- Z-planes: 10 models partially derived from Emu Morpheus including sweep, vocal formant and phaser.

 

 

ENVELOPE 3 EGs:
- primary EG: ADSR with 2 times
- secondary EG: same as primary
- AUX EG: same as primary
In addition the Planet Phatt features 8 preset velocity curves.

 

 

LFO there are 2 interchangeable delayed digital modulators (5 shapes: triangle, square, random, sine and saw) with variable amount and "variance" factor - a modulation desync.

 

 

MATRIX the LFO are assignable to the real-time modulation control matrix:

SOURCES:	DESTINATIONS:
pitch wheel	pitch (pri /sec / both)
MIDI CC# (4 X called A B C D)	filter cutoff (pri / sec / both)
Mono pressure	volume (pri / sec / both)
Poly pressure	ADSR (pri / sec / both)
LFO 1 / LFO 2	Crossfade
AUX EG	LFO1 amount / rate
	LFO2 amount / rate
	portament rate (pri / sec / both)
	EG AUX ADSR (pri / sec / both)
	Panning (pri / sec / both)

 

BEAT SEQUENCER is a groove arranger based on 100 beat presets with real-time transpose. The SONG composer makes beat sequences with the X-factor function which streches samples to a BPM. Both LFO and BEAT sequencer can be synched to master clock (range from 5 to 500 BPM) or sync to external Midi clock

 

 

MEMORY:
- 384ROM patches
- 256 RAM slots
Memory sytem works with a CR-2032 lithium battery in a holder, replacement is quite easy.

 

EDITORS there are some free and commercial computer-based softwares:
- PPC (free - LINK)
- Soundquest (commercial)

 

MODIFICATION just a devastating CIRCUIT BENDING processo for glitched stuff!
Check out some demos below.

RELATED FAMILY:

	EMU MOPHAT phatt updated to steroids but different and bigger wavetable. Final EMU edition
	ROM Phatt Sessions: same soundset could be installed in EMU samplers series like E-IV, Ultra, Esynth and more.
	EMU ORBIT same planet phatt hardware but PCM wavetable oriented to techo house. Later updated to V2 and then finally to ORBIT 3
	EMU CARNAVAL same hardware but oriented to latino instruments and percussions VIDEO

 

 

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION there are some free and commercial samples set:

	name	price	link	demo
	Digital sound factory sample pack	$$$$		n/a
	rhythm-lab	61 E-mu Plantet Phatt / Mo' Phatt / MP7 hit and stab sounds. wav+kontakt format, 24 bit, 44100 hz, stereo, 7 mb		n/a

 

 

AUDIO DEMO EXAMPLES

Factory demo 1 Factory demo 2 Factory demo 3 Factory demo 4 Some internal beats Rhodes Jazzy organ lead analog bass

Synth prodigy Synth organ Pad panning Pad zero Pad relax Pad filtered TEST: all filter FX Circuit bending

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION demo demo2 demo3