They said it wasn’t possible! Considering the ridiculously high price of the E4XT Ultras these days (they go as high as $1.5k, depending on the condition and installed options) and how little I’ve paid for my E5000 (I think it was 250 notes), I’ve decided to upgrade it to E4XT Ultra, despite the “online community” saying it is not possible. It will be a fun project learning new things out. Browsing thru the web it was common knowledge that the E-6400 Ultra could be upgraded, but for some reason, the E5000 was listed as non-upgradeable. This didn’t make sense to me, as the E6400 and E5000 are technically the same unit, with the only difference being that the E5000 has four outputs instead of eight. So I started digging a little deeper…

Looking at the E5000’s motherboard, I noticed that it wasn’t fully populated, but the traces and pads were all there, meaning the additional outputs and polyphony could theoretically be added. Both the E6400 and E5000 Ultra are 64-voice units. E-MU offered an upgrade option for E6400 Ultra owners to double the polyphony to 128 voices and essentially convert it to an E4XT specs, but they never offered this for the E5000. Perhaps this is where the misconception about the E5000’s upgradeability comes from.

After examining the motherboard and seeing that it was identical, I had no doubt that the E5000 could be upgraded in both polyphony and outputs.

Chapter 1 Polyphony Expansion
Let’s first look into polyphony expansion. As long as you have one “G” chip (IC402) and two “H” chips (IC413), you should be able to upgrade the unit to 128 voices. Unfortunately, these chips are no longer in production. Many years ago, I bought the “H” chips from EPR Electronics, but this company no longer exists, so I can’t provide information on where to obtain these ICs now.

The purpose of this article is to document the process rather than serve as a technical guideline, as this is a delicate job that requires professional skills and specialized tools for SMD soldering. I won’t be able to answer any technical questions, as those who perform this type of work are typically already knowledgeable and don’t require additional guidance.

Here are the three ICs needed for the polyphony upgrade. The smaller one contains the voices and was desoldered from a broken Proteus 1000 unit with a damaged front panel and PCB. However, the voice IC itself was in good condition, though there was a lot of solder residue. The bigger two are the filters. They are ok to work with.

After about three hours, I finally managed to solder all three ICs with majority of the time spent on the voices IC (smaller one). The task was extremely challenging and needed to work exclusively under a magnifying glass. To give you an idea of how small the pins are, in this photo I placed a small CR2032 battery next to the ICs for size comparison. The work was incredibly delicate, especially because the “G” chip had excess solder and slightly bent pins. It took a lot of flux, patience, and effort, but I eventually succeeded.

Truth be said, I was extremely nervous during this entire process. These SMD pads are less than 1 mm in size, and any solder blob in the wrong location can cause serious trouble. I used a lot of flux, but accidents happen. The biggest mistake was using solder that was too thick. I used 0.7 mm solder when I should have used 0.25 mm, which I didn’t have at the time. I decided to take a gamble—a big mistake! This led to numerous issues, including solder bridges and a lot of stress. I had to clean them all with soldering wick far too many times. But I was impatient. I didn’t want to wait a week for the Mouser order with the ultra-thin solder. I guess this is what they call passion!

Moment of Truth
Then came the moment of truth: powering up the unit. And it worked! I couldn’t believe it. This was my first serious SMD project, involving pins smaller than the soldering tip itself, and it worked perfectly on the first try. No jumper adjustments or software modifications were needed—the unit simply booted up, displaying “128 Channel Card Installed.”

I was too anxious to test the playback immediately, but when I did the next day, everything worked flawlessly. We now have an Emulator E5000 Ultra with 128 voices!

Chapter 2 – Outputs Expansion
The E5000 has only 4 outputs, while the E4XT has 8, so our next task was to add 4 additional outputs. In terms of electronics, this actually means adding 8 analogue audio channels since the Emulator uses balanced outputs. This is why it might seem that some components around the outputs are “doubled” in quantity, but in reality, they aren’t. It’s simply the + and – of the same balanced signal going to each individual output.

Here is how the E5000 output section looks. As we can see, all of the SMD pads are present. They’re empty, but they’re there—and that’s what matters. Please ignore the grey wires; they’re from some phase tests I did earlier (more on that in another article detailing a design bug in the E5000 Ultra series, which also affects some E4XT Ultras).

Back to the topic. I placed a large order of parts from Mouser. To help myself, I drew the entire output section in vector software to precisely map out which component goes where. The Ultra service manual, which contains schematics, was incredibly helpful. With that information, all that was left was to go to Mouser and gather all of the necessary SMD parts. The only components not available at Mouser were the DACs, which I had to source elsewhere (eBay, etc.). Photo below shows the two DAC chips which I bought on eBay.

A few days later, my Mouser order arrived, including the output jacks.

It was go time. I’ve prepared the paper containing the graphics which I drew in vector software (Inkscape), showing the rough location and component values so I knew exactly what to solder and where. As soon as a component was soldered, I used a pen to cross out the corresponding square. Without this graphics this would have been a total nightmare with an error or accident awaiting to happen any moment.

A few hours later, all of the squares were crossed out. Meaning the output expansion work is finally completed!

I actually used a regular soldering tip for all of the passive SMD parts, it somehow worked better. I would apply a little bit of solder, bring the component and let it go. Then I would solder the other side and move to the next component. It wasn’t really hard as I have this kind of experience. And here it is the before:

And after:

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that I used through-hole tantalum capacitors. This was because I accidentally ordered the wrong SMD version from Mouser—I chose too small of a physical size. I’m not sure how I made that mistake, but fortunately, I had the through-hole versions at home, and they weren’t too large either.

So, I tested the new balanced outputs, and the Sub2 output (left) didn’t work at first. Cue the moment of cold sweat. But after a few seconds, I realized that I had inserted the audio jack too gently, and it didn’t click all the way in. I re-plugged it, and it worked! All 4 new outputs now work flawlessly! I guess we can say—another myth busted. The E5000 can be upgraded to a full E4XT. But wait, we’re not done yet. Something very important is still missing. A few things actually, but we will take care for that in the chapters that follow.

Hard to believe all of these bags were full of parts. And these parts are now installed in my E5000. Total cost was around $100 which includes to DAC integrated circuits.

Regarding the Mouser order I’ve ordered components for one other project as well so it’s not useful at all, it was a huge order and figuring out what is for what would take too much time. If you decide to upgrade the outputs, I have prepared the above graphics in PDF file that list every component value and location and is available here. There is one error in the graphics: the resistor networks are not 4.7 but 4.7k. When I was creating these graphics, I was referring to the service manual, which lists them as 4.7. However, after reviewing the schematics and applying some common sense, it’s clear that the resistor networks are definitely 4.7k. On the motherboard, they are located near the DAC area. Resistor Network 10 (RN10) needs to be removed as shown in my PDF file, in order for the new outputs to be seen by the sampler (special thanks to Ricardo Dias). Regarding the service manual, I don’t have the bandwidth to share the entire document with all the schematics, but it is available for anyone to download in the “EMU Samplers & Software” Facebook group. In general, the graphics I created are all that’s needed to make the parts order and install the components in their correct locations, in order to expand the E5000 to 8 outputs.

Chapter 3 Designing And Building A New Display Bezel
What’s the point of upgrading our E5000 to an E4XT Ultra if the front panel still says E5000? Fortunately, I took the time to create new graphics using vector software and found a way to manufacture a new bezel. It’s a bit pricey, but what other options do I have?

In order to initiate the manufacture, I had to order a batch of several bezels (it’s a big studio and they don’t have time for little projects). By the time I am writing this, unfortunately all of the bezels have been sold out. But if anyone is interested, leave a comment below. The price is $60 plus shipping – sorry it ain’t cheap – but that’s a brand new bezel for your screen, no scratches no damage. It would be cheap if I made 1000 of them, but I didn’t. If you have a scratched or damaged bezel this might come handy. To install the new bezel I first removed the original one. A hairdryer came very useful to help loosen the adhesive. Then I attached the new one using double-sided sticky tape. Prior to that the entire area should be thoroughly cleaned with alcohol, benzine, or a similarly strong solvent. I highly recommend applying hot glue just to be on the safe side, at least that’s what I did. Here are a few shots of before and after.

Old display bezel:

New display bezel:

This E5000 now proudly says E4XT Ultra. We are heading into good direction however there are couple of more things to add to make it a true E4XT Ultra. More on that in the chapters that follow.

Chapter 4 DWAM Board
The E4XT Ultra comes stock with the DWAM 6862 board. It provides the ASCII port for connecting an ASCII keyboard to the sampler, a second set of MIDI ports (MIDI channels 17-32), coaxial Wordclock in and out ports, as well as AES/EBU ins and outs. This board requires the AES chip, which must be fitted into the socket on the Ultra series’ mainboard.

Fortunately, I know someone who owns an E4XT but never uses this board, so I bought it from him. For some reason the board was extremely dirty, so I desoldered some of its components and literally washed everything with dish soap—that’s how filthy it was. The ribbon cable was so gross that I decided to build a new one. A few hours later, an almost new-looking DWAM board was installed in my E5000.

With this board, we can use an ASCII keyboard to name samples, projects, and utilize shortcuts. More importantly, it makes it much easier to integrate the Emulator digitally into my DAW setup. Now, I can sample anything I find interesting playing from my speakers—whether it’s coming from the digital TV/radio, or online—all in the digital domain using the AES input on the DWAM card.

For analog sampling I connected a coaxial cable from my RME UCXII Fireface to the DWAM’s Wordclock input to take advantage of RME’s famous Femtosecond technology. This provides an incredibly precise clock, far more accurate than the Emulator’s internal clock, ensuring the highest possible quality when sampling analog signals into the Emulator. DWAM board was installed in here to actually be used, rather than just thrown in for historical purposes.

Here is how the back side looked like originally:

Here is how it looks now:

With 8 outputs available and DWAM board installed our E5000 is now officially E4XT! Well…almost. There are still a few things left to do.

Chapter 5 Hard Disk & SCSI Adapter
The Emulator E4XT Ultra came with a hard disk, so in our unit we have to install a hard disk. There is internal IDE port into which I have installed a relatively “modern” 80GB laptop hard disk which is silent enough that no noise is emitted from my unit. I will format it in FAT, as the FAT file system is far superior when it comes to banks, hard drive space, and overall hard disk management compared to the old (and outdated) E-MU format.

Regarding the SCSI port, I need it for a SCSI-to-IDE CF adapter, which will go to the front of the unit in the floppy bay. This way, I can easily remove the CF card and insert it into my computer, which natively reads CF cards formatted in FAT. This method is much faster to work with than ZuluSCSI.

To be fair, I do have a ZuluSCSI that I can connect to the back of the unit, giving me access to all three storage systems simultaneously: the internal IDE disk, the internal CF card, and the external ZuluSCSI. The advantage of using the CF card is that since Mac or PC computers natively read the FAT file system, this method significantly speeds up sample transfers, banks, programs, etc. The Emulator can also read and save .wav files, making the workflow even faster. This is why I chose not to install the ZuluSCSI in the floppy bay.

I have ZuluSCSI Rp204 and have to work with .ISO images, and you can’t access the card natively. While this is fine on other samplers, on the Emulator, it adds an unnecessary step of taking out the card, mounting the image, and then accessing it. Although macOS can do this, Windows 10 can’t even mount FAT16 .ISO images. This makes the solution I chose, using the SCSI-to-IDE bridge, far superior. For traditional .ISO images of my E-MU sample CD-ROMs, I will use ZuluSCSI connected to the back of the unit via a standard SCSI cable.

There is a better alternative which I would recommend since now it is available as of recently. ZuluSCSI V 6.4. Not only it can work natively with the card but you can access it via USB directly. For Emulator users this literally means one can install ZuluSCSI 6.4 drive in the unit and add a simple USB port adapter on the back of the unit as a sleek solution to access the card, transfer files without any cable clutter or removing the SD card.

Chapter 6 Hardware Restoration
Given the fact that this device is now 25 years old, it would be a good idea to restore its usual weak points: the power supply, the encoder, and the tact switches. Another order to Mouser, and here we are.

The first task was to have the power supply recapped. I also installed a noiseless fan in the PSU case, ensuring that no noise is ever released by this emulator.

I replaced the old tact switches with new ones, making the unit more comfortable to operate as each switch responds to the lightest touch.

And of course, the encoder in the later Ultras wasn’t of the best quality, so I installed a new one. No more skipping values or erratic behavior—it’s such a pleasure to work with now.

Chapter 7 Output Upgrade
I bought this output expander many years ago for the E5000 because as we all know E5000 has only 4 outputs, which is too few for some serious work. With the expander, my E5000 became 12 outputs, which was enough.

Since my Emulator now has 8 outputs, I was thinking about selling this expander, but after some thinking the conclusion was to keep it – especially given how expensive these expanders have become. Plus, it gives me access to the “sound” of the non-Ultra Emulator, the E4X (Classic) as it features the same converters as the Classics. Spoiler alert: the difference is minimal (I have documented it on this website). Back to the bench! At this stage, my Emulator was in individual parts, and it was time to reassemble it all together.

This was a good opportunity to clean the inside of the metal casing.

The freshly upgraded motherboard installed.

With the DWAM card, output expander, and disks installed, this Emulator is now pretty crowded inside. In the picture, you can see the noiseless fan I mentioned earlier.

The back of the unit now proudly sports a DWAM board and a total of 16 outputs. This looks like a serious instrument now.

Chapter 8 E-Synth And Max RAM Upgrade
E-Synth is probably one of the best ROM upgrades that E-MU ever designed. Think of JV-1080-style presets but with much higher fidelity and plenty of complex modulations. It’s a great upgrade that essentially upgrades the Emulator with ROM-pler like features (waveforms in the ROM, presets remain in the memory after power down).

When needed, this board can be disabled from the menu. The machine then reboots, and you’re back to a standard Emulator sampler. The key point is that E-Synth can be used alongside all of the sampler’s functions, but in that case, the memory is limited to 64 MB. If your Emulator only has 64 MB, this doesn’t matter, but if you have 128 MB, you would need to reboot the machine with E-Synth disabled to use all 128 MB.

There is one extremely important thing to understand about the E-Synth. Although it contains some presets on the board, these are not the actual E-Synth presets but rather a generic GM set. Many people were misled by this, thinking, “E-Synth sounds weak and boring,” not realizing that what they were hearing wasn’t even the real E-Synth.

To properly install the E-Synth into the Emulator, two additional things are needed: Flash RAM and the E-Synth programs floppy disk. You load the E-Synth programs from the floppy, write them into the Flash RAM, and only then do you have the actual E-Synth, which retains all of its presets even after the Emulator is powered off. It literally behaves as if it were a ROM-pler. The patches, as I mentioned, are excellent. Anyone who loves JV-1080 and JD-990 types of patches will love the E-Synth.

Here is the E-Synth ROM that I bought many years. Again back when Emulator 4 related stuff was still affordable. Most importantly, it came with the floppy. Without that floppy, don’t even bother with the patches on the card—they have nothing to do with the actual E-Synth.

But what’s the use of this ROM if all of the presets are lost once the unit is powered off? Fortunately, I received E-MU Flash RAM with the E-Synth, something I rarely see these days from people selling E-Synth expanders. With this Flash RAM, the presets remain in the unit even after powering down the Emulator.

I mention this because E-Synth is one of the most sought-after expansions for Emulator samplers, and I hope people won’t make the mistake of buying just the ROM without the Flash RAM and the floppy disk containing the E-Synth presets.

With the Flash RAM installed, we now have E-Synth presets permanently stored in the Resident memory. This is non-volatile memory that retains data even after power is turned off, unlike the Preset memory, which loses data after a power cycle. In the image, you can see that with E-Synth enabled, the sampling RAM is limited to 64 MB, even though the unit has 128 MB installed. When E-Synth is disabled, the RAM returns to the full 128 MB.

I found this 128 MB upgrade on eBay a few years ago. It was gathering dust in a drawer, but with this upgrade project, it was finally time to maximize the RAM.

Chapter 9 Display
The E5000 uses a green display. However, as we all know, the E4XT uses a white backlight high-quality display. Fortunately, there is a company in Germany that offers these displays: https://studio-services.de/. At the time of writing this, their display is still being developed, but it should be available within a few weeks. As soon as I receive it, I will update this chapter, and that will conclude our original mission of upgrading the E5000 into an actual E4XT Ultra. The final photo will be provided showing the final result.

To be continued…