Released in 1996 and evolving out of the ongoing Proteus series of modules, the Orbit 9090 (The Dance Planet) was E-Mu's first ROM module aimed squarely at dance & club music production.
There were 3 versions of the Orbit, with the gold coloured 9090-2 arriving the following year in 1997 & the Orbit 3 (9099) in 2001.
The Orbit has the usual 'dance' sounds of the time with plenty of drums including the obligatory TR-909 as well as Roland Juno & TB-303 synths and more. An EPROM upgrade was released in 1997 allowing the Orbit to be upgraded to V2 spec.
Sounds are 16-Bit with a 39kHz top end & each sound is created from a Primary & Secondary layered sample source, all delivered from an 8MB ROM.
The Orbit V1 gives a total 512 presets (256 RAM & 256 ROM) yielding a total of 384 instrument sounds at 32 note poly, while the V2 unit upped this count to 640 presets (256 RAM & 384 ROM).
Both units could operate in 16 part multi-timbrel mode & featured E-Mu Z-Plane filters and 6 analog outputs, arranged as Main L/R Outs 1 & 2 plus sub-outs 3/4 & 5/6. Both units also had traditional MIDI In, Out & Thru connectors, but no effects were included in either unit.
The Orbit is not too hard to find in the free ads & at a typical secondhand price of around £200 - £300 it's an interesting Rompler that could add some wide variety of sounds to your hardware setup.
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