Digital Sound Factory E-mu Proteus Rack

[Gaetan Boren]

The E-MU Proteus sound modules revolutionized the world of digital music performance and composition. In 1990, E-MU released the original Proteus, which was a rack-mount sound module that featured pre-loaded samples stored in ROM. In the late '90s and early '00s, the Proteus 2000 style product line was the second generation of the Proteus family with 128 voice polyphony, arpeggiator, solo mode, effects, and four sound ROM slots for a total 128MB sounds.

E-MU Proteus Rack was designed and produced by the original E-MU sound and graphic designers. Starting with the original hardware sound samples, Kontakt instruments were mapped and programmed to match the hardware sound modules. The powerful script programming integrates the hardware functionality to the software for the same great look and feel as the original sound modules.

Each module of E-MU Proteus Rack includes main control, amplifier envelope, keyboard control, effects control, arpeggiator, and solo mode. The effects and arpeggiator are tempo synced to any incoming bpm from your DAW, and these can be adjusted via the rate knob. The Audition function is available for the NKS compatible controller that allows for audition when browsing through presets. This function allows users to hear the sounds before they load the presets.

E-MU Proteus Rack is designed to work with all Native Instruments NKS hardware enabled products. NKS seamlessly integrates the hardware and software allowing control in both directions. Software parameters are displayed on the hardware and mapped to the controllers. Sounds are tagged with category names to quickly locate the desired sound.

E-mu Systems came to prominence in the early 1980s with its relatively affordable Emulator sampler, and subsequently pioneered sample-based synthesis technology with the Proteus range. Unlike earlier types of synthesisers, sample-based equipment does not derive its raw sounds from electronic oscillators or algorithmically generated waveforms, but from recorded sounds held in read-only memory (ROM) chips. These sounds may then be layered, filtered, modulated by low frequency oscillation and shaped by ADSR envelopes. However, unlike a true sampler, such devices do not allow the user to record sounds but instead offer a range of factory sounds suitable for any given use. This type of sound production dominated electronic music production for several years in the late 20th century. The exclusive license for re-formatting and managing historical E-MU Proteus sound content has been acquired by Digital Sound Factory.

The original Proteus series are basic ROMplers which contains 3 base models with 192 patches each, of which 64 are editable by the user. The patches have an assigned sample and allow basic ADSR editing, and it's possible to link more than one patch together for a richer sound. The units have 32 voice polyphony.

The Proteus 1 contains general sounds from the Emulator library useful for music production, the Proteus 2 specializes in orchestral sounds, and the third model in sounds for world music. Additional versions include the following:

The Proteus 2000 released in 1999 was a 1U rack sound module based on Audity 2000 released in 1998. It contained many "bread and butter" sounds,[3] among just over a thousand waves utilising 32 megabytes of ROM. It featured up to 128 voice polyphony and 32-part multi-timbrality.[4] It could be expanded with slots for three additional sound ROM cards. A cheaper Proteus 1000 model was also introduced with the same soundest and ROM but only 64 voice polyphony and fewer individual sound outputs. The Proteus 2000 also has Protozoa ROM expansions that contain patches from the original Proteus trilogy, where the first 128 patches towards each of the three modules respectively were faithfully re-mastered digitally from scratch that could be purchased to add onto the module, consisting a total of 384 patches of up to 16 MB of memory.

The Proteus 2000 range also consisted of several specialized models, some differing from each other only by the sound banks they contained. However, most allowed four ROM chips to be mounted, and these chips were available separately, so real differences might be simply cosmetic. The available ROM chips included the Composer, a work-horse set of sounds useful for popular music production, three orchestral ROMs, the Vintage Keys collection of electric organs, pianos and classic synthesisers, a chip dedicated to the Hammond organ and a drum ROM as well as the Orbit and Mo-Phatt collections, aimed at dance and urban genres and the Xtreme Lead, optimised for monophonic synthesiser soloing. Most of these were also sold as specialized modules, even though the hardware inside most of there is virtually identical to the Proteus 2000.

This 4U rack model was designed to function as a rack-mounted, front-panel-programmable sound source. It was equipped with sixteen multi-function pads and the same number of programmable knobs and had an onboard sequencer.

In 2001 the Proteus line of modules was repackaged in the form of a line of tabletop units, the XL7 and MP7 Command Stations, broadly similar to the rack-mounted 2500 in features but featuring touch-sensitive pads suitable for recording drum patterns.

Since Creative withdrew their provision of historical OS updates and manuals for most of the older E-Mu gear sometime around August 2011,[7] many of these files have been made available elsewhere, such asSynth Gear Docs Archive and the E-Mu Legacy Archive.

Eric Serra used the Infinite One instrument patch to get the sharp, metallic percussive sound that is featured in his soundtracks, such as in The Fifth Element, Leon the Professional, and GoldenEye.[10] Subsequently, the video game composer Graeme Norgate[11] would use the same patch in games such as GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. The sound originally is from a tambourine, pitched down, and treated with delay and reverb effects.

If you think all this seems rather familiar, you're right. The Proteus 2500 is closer in spec to the recent Emu MP7 and XL7 Command Stations than previous Proteus models, though it shares many characteristics with the Proteus 2000 as well. So, rather than re-examine every knob and button, I suggest a quick study of the Command Station (SOS November 2001) and Proteus (SOS March 1999) reviews in combination with this one.

Having two separate MIDI Outs is not without its uses. For example you can set up the onboard programmable knobs so that they transmit data to either MIDI port, perhaps to control remote devices whilst leaving normal operation unaffected. There is a versatile internal routing system for MIDI with 32 addressable channels 01A-16A and 01B-16B. You can route the MIDI output of individual sequencer tracks to any of the 32 internal channels or to either of the external MIDI ports, or even to internal and external simultaneously! Thus, only in conjunction with the onboard sequencer can you consider the Proteus 2500 to be truly 32-part multitimbral.

Two separate MIDI Outs is great, but with up to 32 internal MIDI channels, only one MIDI In seems like a missed opportunity.Staying with the rear panel, a digital output (selectable between S/PDIF and AES pro) is present, plus a USB port for direct connection to a computer. To supplement the two main audio outputs, two pairs of outputs (Sub1 and Sub2) follow the usual approach for Emu modules, whereby each is a stereo jack suitable for using as send and returns for external effect processing, or to add extra signals at a pinch. They can, of course, function as normal auxiliary outputs with mono jacks connected, resulting in a total of six outputs.

The Proteus 2500 has a rear-mounted power switch and one on the front panel too; no prizes for guessing which one you'll be using the most once the unit is racked! Finally, two momentary footswitch inputs are present, their functions programmable for such useful tasks as pattern switching during playback, sequencer control, tap tempo, and so on.

Pattern mode offers the simplest way to start creating your own tracks. Patterns can be up to 32 bars in length and both real- and step-time recording are incorporated for quickly getting ideas down. There's even a Grid mode ideally suited to creating drum patterns (but not restricted to it) and, using one of many convenient shortcuts, you enter the note to be active on the grid via MIDI input. To select the mode you want, repeatedly push the Record button. At this point, the Play button's LED will flash. Hitting Play to start Real or Grid recording causes the Pattern to start looping, awaiting either real-time performance or note entry via the 16 808-style Trigger buttons (see the 'Knobs & Buttons' box elsewhere in this article). Hitting Play in step-time record simply advances to the next step, although you can set this to happen automatically when you play and then release notes on the keyboard. Step-time record is quantised based on the current time location and if you shift position to slightly past the beat, you can then enter complex off-beats incredibly easily. During playback, you can select the Pattern you want to hear next, hit enter and it will take over smoothly at the end of the current one. This Groovebox-style flexibility is very welcome: at any time you can simply hit Record and overdub onto an existing track or create a new one. Similarly, you don't have to stop the music to select (or edit) sounds, mute existing tracks or program a mix using the controller knobs. Other nice touches include hitting the dedicated Mix button to get a tiny overview of each track's volume level or (if you switch views with the data-entry dial, an overview of all pan settings).

A Knob Hold function disables the knobs so you can move them without making drastic, audible changes. This is especially useful if setting up a series of mix levels before fading in some tracks, but a new mode where no change happens until you pass through the stored value would have been far better. Knob functions are allocated into four groups: QuickEdit, Program, Volume and Pan. QuickEdit offers controls for cutoff, resonance, envelope, LFO and other functions for editing Presets. The Program mode is fun because it can either be used to send MIDI controllers (selectable from continuous controller numbers 1 to 95) to the internal synth engine, or it can transmit them to other modules via either MIDI Output port.

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