Anyone know if the Ultr upgrade for the E4 is worth the $1195.00 price tag? What exactly do you get for that much money. I prefer updated as opposed to dumping a piece of gear and buying the latest greatest version everytime something new is released. Any info. would be appreciated.

It depends on what you want your sampler to do. There are a few new features in the Ultra line, but according to an Emu rep I met, there aren't a great deal of differences. But that might have been the Emu rep trying to make some people feel okay about their less than year old sampler. Beat Munging is one of the big differences, but if you don't care about it - so what. I don't think you can use the RFX-32 card, but I don't even know how useful it is.

But the real question is, why would you upgrade? If the hardware is doing the job - run with it, if not...then why not? And what alternatives are out there?

Hi,

Is the keyboard version upgradable to an Ultra? I thought it wasn't but maybe I'm mistaken. I'll second exactly what Digiboy has said.

There is another difference too. The Ultra's have slightly better midi timing as well so you if you use your E4K for lots of sequencing, you may find that the Ultra will make your sequences sound tighter. That's not to say the non-ultras are bad though.

If it is doing the job, why spend the extra money. IMHO though, spending an extra hundred or two over the $1195 will get you an E5000 Ultra to add to your E4K. That would give you double the available amount of RAM, extra polyphony, extra outs, Beat Munging, etc. and a full warranty. I think that that is a better deal than Ultracizing your E4K.

HTH,
Fernando