Imagine being able to shrink yourself to near-microscopic size in order to enter a vintage analog synth, take pictures of actual electrons flowing through its circuits, and then use that information to build the most accurate digital recreation of that synth that's ever been developed. You'd call that "fantastic," right? Unfortunately, what I've just described is, in fact, literally a fantasy, but E-MU Systems was able to do the next best thing to create their "Sounds And Effects: Synths of the 1970s" collection. They took AUDIO SAMPLES of vintage synths!

"Sounds And Effects: Synths of the 1970s" collects five of the most famed synths from the height of the prog-rock era -- Mini Moog, ARP 2600, Moog Opus 3, ARP Odyssey, and Oberheim SEM -- and configured them for drop-in use with their Emulator X and Proteus X software sound modules. The E-MU sound modules orchestrate these raw samples into virtual instruments, using the familiar sounds of the analog instruments to create a new, expressive, completely playable emulation. It's sort of like when I dressed up for Halloween as Raquel Welch by photocopying a life-sized version of the One Million Years B.C. poster and gluing the corresponding photocopied parts of her body to mine, like a big, creepy marionette (full disclosure: I do this on non-Halloween-days as well).

Developed by E-MU sound developer Terry Grame, and sampled in 24-bit high resolution, "Sounds And Effects: Synths of the 1970s" is a much more successful emulation than mine of Raquel Welch, in that you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference if you weren't aware of the mechanism behind the facade. Partially, this can be attributed to the Emulator/Proteus X’s advanced synthesis engine which echos the morphing filters, LFO’s, integrated effects, mono mode, portamento and other functions of the original instruments.

E-MU "Sounds And Effects: Synths of the 1970s" is available now as either a digital download or a DVD Pack. The MSRP is $39.95.