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Emu Proteus 2000 Sound Module (Model 9094)
128-voice, expands to 128 Meg ROM. Amazing filters and knobs on a general purpose high-value module.
"My Swiss army synth"
I have owned my P2K for about a year and a half. I use it every weekend in clubs all over Ontario, and on sessions. It resides in a 2u rack next to me and I simply pull the necessary cables out the empty space, plug in and play. I have the B3, ZR-76, and Orch 1 (group strings) Roms installed. I was a bit disappointed with the ZR piano, as my 1996 Roland A90 still sounds richer. The B3 and Orch 1 roms are great.
The features and construction quality are excellent overall. The only problem I experience is that sometimes the knobs will jump to their present location, causing an unpleasant change in the sound. Now I let the unit warm up and do the recalibrating function in the master menu. This usually works.
The sound quality is a bit bland compared to the hyped sound of other modules, but I think this is because of the more conservative use of effects, and that the quality of the waveforms in the P2K rom as well as the Ensoniq rom are not as high as on the other expansions.
Still, I appreciate the programming power, polyphony, filters, knobs, and the price. It can sound really good if you get into the programming side of it. When I was looking for an auxilliary synth I also checked out the Roland xp-30, and the Triton rack. The triton sounded great but even the rack was more than I wanted to spend at the time. When I disabled the FX on the Roland, it was clear the the Proteus was a much fatter and up-front sounding synth.
After having bought the other roms, I've gone back and listened to the triton, and still think it sounds great, but for having spent the same amount of money, I have a better piano sound, far superior organs, and the strings are outstanding.
I feel I should also mention that in live settings, the zr piano dosen't do it for me, but in the studio, when I can run in stereo, it's a totally different instrument. The A 90 can appear over hyped, while the zr seems to be able to just fit into the mix well. Also it has a more detailed upper register. I guess things that work live and in the studio are two different things.
Overall I am happy with my purchase, and would recommend it to others. The dual MIDI ins (which are lacking on the new 2500) allow me to do some pretty slick stuff live. It's easy to use, the manual is well written, and has served me well as my workhorse synth in a variety of situations.
The features and construction quality are excellent overall. The only problem I experience is that sometimes the knobs will jump to their present location, causing an unpleasant change in the sound. Now I let the unit warm up and do the recalibrating function in the master menu. This usually works.
The sound quality is a bit bland compared to the hyped sound of other modules, but I think this is because of the more conservative use of effects, and that the quality of the waveforms in the P2K rom as well as the Ensoniq rom are not as high as on the other expansions.
Still, I appreciate the programming power, polyphony, filters, knobs, and the price. It can sound really good if you get into the programming side of it. When I was looking for an auxilliary synth I also checked out the Roland xp-30, and the Triton rack. The triton sounded great but even the rack was more than I wanted to spend at the time. When I disabled the FX on the Roland, it was clear the the Proteus was a much fatter and up-front sounding synth.
After having bought the other roms, I've gone back and listened to the triton, and still think it sounds great, but for having spent the same amount of money, I have a better piano sound, far superior organs, and the strings are outstanding.
I feel I should also mention that in live settings, the zr piano dosen't do it for me, but in the studio, when I can run in stereo, it's a totally different instrument. The A 90 can appear over hyped, while the zr seems to be able to just fit into the mix well. Also it has a more detailed upper register. I guess things that work live and in the studio are two different things.
Overall I am happy with my purchase, and would recommend it to others. The dual MIDI ins (which are lacking on the new 2500) allow me to do some pretty slick stuff live. It's easy to use, the manual is well written, and has served me well as my workhorse synth in a variety of situations.
"Meat and Potatos better than Grandma's"
This is a great ROMpler. No one admits they like 'em, but everybody needs one.
It comes factory loaded with enough sounds to keep you busy for weeks. The 4 front-panel edit knobs let you quickly edit 12 different parameters per patch, allowing many additional weeks of sonic delight. If that's not enough, the depth of programmability (including all the MIDI syncable time functions, including LFOs, Delay FX, and Envelopes), will keep you busy for months.
Wanna stay busy for years? OK. The Protues 2000 has 3 blank sound ROM slots, meaning you can add thousands of new sounds to the Proteus 2000 and start the cycle all over again.
Many companies make ROMplers, but no one does it like Emu. To my ears, their sounds are much more "mixable" than Roland or Korg, whose sounds all seem to be designed to sell the instrument in a store rather than sit well in a mix.
Unfortunately, I've just had to send my 1-year old Proteus 2000 back to Emu for a repair. I've owned numerous Emu products over the years and this is the first time I've ever had one go south on me. I'm not too concerned, since Emu is a very reputable and reliable company. I like to think I just used it too much! If you get one, you probably will, too.
It comes factory loaded with enough sounds to keep you busy for weeks. The 4 front-panel edit knobs let you quickly edit 12 different parameters per patch, allowing many additional weeks of sonic delight. If that's not enough, the depth of programmability (including all the MIDI syncable time functions, including LFOs, Delay FX, and Envelopes), will keep you busy for months.
Wanna stay busy for years? OK. The Protues 2000 has 3 blank sound ROM slots, meaning you can add thousands of new sounds to the Proteus 2000 and start the cycle all over again.
Many companies make ROMplers, but no one does it like Emu. To my ears, their sounds are much more "mixable" than Roland or Korg, whose sounds all seem to be designed to sell the instrument in a store rather than sit well in a mix.
Unfortunately, I've just had to send my 1-year old Proteus 2000 back to Emu for a repair. I've owned numerous Emu products over the years and this is the first time I've ever had one go south on me. I'm not too concerned, since Emu is a very reputable and reliable company. I like to think I just used it too much! If you get one, you probably will, too.
"I'm a home studio anolog dinosaur and this thing's amazing!"
OK, I'm a bit troubled with all the technology that faces me these days, especially in the home studio. I have to admit though, this thing is fairly easy to use (even if the manual's hard (for me at least) to understand)dispite the fact that it assumes that you have a good background in programming and filter arrangement etc. You can achieve great sounds out of this thing right off the bat. The fully adjustable realtime controls on the front mean that you don't have to go into the program perameters if you don't feel like it and you can still save your newly created sounds to one of the many user presets avalible to you. I mean this unit has it from full movie soundscapes to great violin to the weirdest and coolest special effects you could wish for. Covers sounds like bass, vocal, guitar, drum, special effs, scratches, keys, ...almost any you can think of, and does it well. I'm running it using my old ESQ1 as the midi trigger. I'm using a Boss VF-1 effects unit (deserving of it's own review) to process ALL instruments including voice and the Proteus, and recording into a Yamaha MD-8 digital recorder. I'm getting incredible sounds! Obviously a set up for a technologically scared lad, but the Proteus really helps me sound like my rig is much more huge and expensive than it really is. Well worth the money. You won't be disappointed.
"Can a 'meat and potatoes' rompler sound THIS GOOD?"
My biggest complaint about romplers is that they tend to sound dead, no personality. I bought my P2k before the added Zplane filters, and i thought this was just another typical rompler... then i got the update, the filters, and started digging into what this thing can do... and WOW. Out of any rompler that I have played with, this one seems the most expressive and gives you the ability to really make it sound unique. Props to E-mu for making this thing behave more like a REAL synth than most others in it's catagory. My favorite features that make this stand out in a very crowded room are: #1. the Patch Chords.... wow. If you haven't messed with these, you are missing out, it works a lot like the modular synths of the 70's (i have played with some of those when i was in college), and this is REALLY cool, because it makes the proteus capable of doing things that the presets don't even give you a HINT of. This is serious sound editing abilities, #2. The filters. Oh.. the wonder z plane filters. add these expressive algorithms to the patch chords and you have a synth that can do most anything, the only complaint is that, over-all, it doesn't sound as fat or warm as some other more specialized synths (and more costly ones).. but anyway... I have been able to get my P2k to do a very believable 303 and what ever else you could want... #3, the numbers. yes you will never run out of polyphony (especially if you use some other synths as well), there is more patch storage space here than you could know what to do with.. the only thing that i don't like is the strings, brass, and voice samples.. not very strong and very thin. Of course, i guess that is why they have the expansion cards..
"I'm one of the top hip-hop/r&b/pop producers in my state......"
This module is off the hook!!!!
I had bought the Roland Jv-2080 and had it triggered by my Akai Mpc-2000xl. I was happy with the presets that Roland provided, but needed something a little more modern. A friend recommended the Proteus so I went to a local music store, played with it and the rest is history....If your a professional and you don't have it....YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST THE EDGE>>>ONE.
I had bought the Roland Jv-2080 and had it triggered by my Akai Mpc-2000xl. I was happy with the presets that Roland provided, but needed something a little more modern. A friend recommended the Proteus so I went to a local music store, played with it and the rest is history....If your a professional and you don't have it....YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST THE EDGE>>>ONE.
Emu Proteus 2000 Sound Module (Model 9094)Customer Review
the bass sounds are very good but the guitars could be better. i have a roland 1080 matched with it and it cant touch the bass sounds.one note to emu teach your engineers the "KISS" principal "keep it simple simon" with the manuals. Otherwise great piece of gear.
"Great sound module"
This sound module will give your music a very professional feel if you use it correctly. I like the the following pre-sets: Guitar,bass,leads, and drum kits.
the synth sound are kind of cheesy.
But over all the sound module is really nice.
the synth sound are kind of cheesy.
But over all the sound module is really nice.
"Essential to the full MIDI module arsenal"
zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.
Great Z-plane filters and modulation paths. Emu chose to give real credence to their promises of expansion modules as well. Sometimes the interface can be daunting, so use it with a good computer-based editor when tweaking patches.
"OS upgrades will never keep me out of the loop!"
"This is a great over-all product"
I'm a composer/arranger and don't use my time trying to generate "new" sounds. And although this unit is very programmable, and many other users I know value it very highly for that versatile pupose, I love it for what it offers straight out. I find that the quality and quantitiy of the voices are really fine for all-around use. Great bang for the buck, IMHO. I'll be expanding soon with other ROM sets, including Planet Earth - world sounds - also by EMU. FYI I also use Kurzweil 2600, Korg O1/W and a vintage Yamaha DX-7 (in reverse-era order).
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