While costly, its price was considerably lower than those of its early competitors, and its smaller size increased its portability and, resultantly, practicality for live performance.

In 1979, founders Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum saw the Fairlight CMI and the Linn LM-1 at a convention, inspiring them to design and produce a less expensive digital sampling keyboard.

[citation needed] Stevie Wonder, who gave the sampler a glowing review at the 1981 NAMM International Music & Sound Expo, received the first unit (serial number 0001).

The first unit had originally been promised to Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille, as he was a longtime E-mu modular-system owner, but Wonder's greater fame moved him to the top of the list.

[citation needed] Other users of the original E-mu Emulator were New Order, Tangerine Dream and Tony Banks of Genesis, and it was among the instruments used in the production of Michael Jackson's Thriller album.

Like the original Emulator, it was an eight-bit sampler, but it delivered superior fidelity by employing companding digital-to-analog converters and a 27.7 kHz sample rate.

It also allowed more flexibility in editing and shaping sounds, as resonant analog filters (provided by longtime E-Mu collaborators SSM) were added.

[9] Samples include the Shakuhachi flute used by Peter Gabriel on "Sledgehammer"[10] and by Enigma on their album MCMXC a.D., and the Marcato Strings heard on the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls".

[12] The Emulator II is featured in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off when the titular character plays samples of coughing and sneezing in order to feign illness over a phone.

[citation needed] David Foster mentioned his Emulator II in the 1985 documentary about the creation of Tears Are Not Enough, a song in which a note of a French horn was included in the single.

[citation needed] It featured four or eight megabytes of memory, depending on the model, and it could store samples in 16-bit, 44 kHz stereo, which was equivalent to that of the most advanced, professional equipment available.

[citation needed] The Emulator III's sound quality was also improved greatly over that of its predecessors, with quieter outputs and more reliable filter chips produced by CEM.

[citation needed] Although the Emulator III did not prove a great success, it may be heard in the music of Tony Banks of Genesis, Lynda Thomas, 808 State and Depeche Mode, who used it on their 1990 album Violator.