E-mu Proteus 2000
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The E-mu Proteus was a range of digital
sound module A sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a piano-style musical keyboard. Sound modules have to be operated using an externally connected device, which is often a MIDI controller, of which th ...
s and keyboards manufactured by
E-mu Systems E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling musi ...
from 1989 to 2002.


History

E-mu Systems came to prominence in the early 1980s with its relatively affordable
Emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...
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
oscillator Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum ...
s or algorithmically generated waveforms, but from recorded sounds held in
read-only memory Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing sof ...
(ROM) chips. These sounds may then be layered,
filtered Filtration is a physical separation process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture using a ''filter medium'' that has a complex structure through which only the fluid can pass. Solid particles that cannot pass through the filter ...
, modulated by
low frequency oscillation Low-frequency oscillation (LFO) is an electronic frequency that is usually below 20  Hz and creates a rhythmic pulse or sweep. This is used to modulate musical equipment such as synthesizers to create audio effects such as vibrato, tremolo ...
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 Digital Sound Factory is a sound design company that creates sound libraries, known as SoundFont libraries, for playback on synthesizers and computers compatible with Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar, Reasonstudios, Steinberg Halion, Native Instru ...
.


First generation

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 "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...
. Additional versions include the following: * XR versions have 256 slots editable by the user but are otherwise identical to the base models. * The Proteus 1 Plus Orchestral model is a Proteus 1 XR with the sounds of the Proteus 1 and 2. It contains the ROM presets for the Proteus 1 and some from the Proteus 2. * Proteus MPS (Master Performance System), a 61-key keyboard version of the first Proteus module. A Proteus MPS plus Orchestral was also available with sounds of the first two modules. * The Pro/cussion is a module dedicated to percussion sounds.


Second generation

The second generation of E-MU ROMplers added a filter. * The first module based on the new chip was the Vintage Keys, which had a
low-pass filter A low-pass filter is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filt ...
. * The Morpheus added a complex filter engine with 197 filter presets, but was no commercial success. * The Proteus FX is essentially a cost-reduced extended Proteus 1 plus Orchestral with the addition of some built-in effects. It has 512 presets, of which 256 can be edited by the user. The power supply is an external brick, and the additional sound outputs/inputs of the earlier models, which could be used for external effects, are not present. * The UltraProteus is an extended Morpheus with the sounds of the three Proteus modules and more filter presets. * The Planet Phatt module has sounds for Hip-Hop, the Orbit 9090 for Techno/Electronica, and the Carnaval for
Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...
.


Third generation

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, among just over a thousand waves utilising 32 megabytes of ROM. It featured up to 128 voice polyphony and 32-part multi-timbrality. 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.


Proteus 2500

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.


Command Station

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.


MK-6/PK-6/Halo

In 2001–2002, E-mu/Ensoniq released a trio of entry-level keyboards, essentially the keyboard versions of the Proteus 2500 module. The E-mu MK-6, XK-6, PK-6 and Ensoniq Halo featured the same 61-key keyboard and controls layout, but slightly different soundset.


Software editor

Prodatum is a cross-platform software editor for the Proteus 1000/2000, Command Stations and keyboard versions. prodatum is free software. Proteum is a free Windows software editor for Proteus and Command Stations.


OS updates

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


Notable users

*
Mark Snow Mark Snow (born Martin Fulterman; August 26, 1946) is an American composer for film and television. Among his most famous compositions is the theme music for science fiction television series '' The X-Files''. ''The X Files'' instrumental wa ...
used the Whistl'n Joe instrument patch (Patch #125 on the Proteus 2) for ''
The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...
'' theme. * 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 ''The Fifth Element'' () is a 1997 English-language French science-fiction action film conceived and directed by Luc Besson, and co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, an ...
'', '' Leon the Professional'', and ''
GoldenEye ''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent James Bond (lit ...
''. Subsequently, the video game composer
Graeme Norgate Graeme Norgate is a British video game music composer who has composed music for a variety of video games developed by Rare. His first project at Rare was writing music for the Game Boy game, ''Donkey Kong Land''. He also contributed to the so ...
would use the same patch in games such as '' GoldenEye 007'' and ''
Perfect Dark ''Perfect Dark'' is a 2000 first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The first game of the '' Perfect Dark'' series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts ...
''. The sound originally is from a
tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...
, pitched down, and treated with delay and reverb effects. *Mike O'Donnell &
Junior Campbell Junior Campbell (born William Campbell Jr., 31 May 1947) is a Scottish composer, songwriter and musician. He was a founding member, lead guitarist, pianist, and singer with the Scottish band Marmalade (band), Marmalade and co-wrote and produced s ...
used the E-Mu Proteus 2 XR for seasons 3-7 of
Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' is a British children's television series which aired from 9 October 1984 to 20 January 2021. Based on ''The Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry, Christopher, the series was developed for ...
*
Andrew McCrorie-Shand Andrew William John McCrorie-Shand (born 14 May 1955) is a British composer. He is mostly known for having composed musical scores for children's television programmes, including the original theme tune for ''Teletubbies'', and also the chart ...
used the Proteus 2 XR and Proteus 3 XR World for the original series of
Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on t ...
(1997-2001). *Petr Skoumal also used an E-Mu Proteus for season 4 of
Pat & Mat ''Pat & Mat'' (Czech and Slovak: ''Pat a Mat'') is a Czechoslovak slapstick stop-motion silent animated series created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek. The characters first appeared in the theatrically released short ''Kuťáci'' (' ...
*
John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist, and is one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to sing ...
of American alternative rock band
They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants, often abbreviated as TMBG, is an American alternative rock and Children's music, children's band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as ...
used the Proteus FX and Proteus 2000 between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. *Joe Phillips and Bob Singleton used the Proteus 1 and Proteus 2 respectively for
Barney & Friends ''Barney & Friends'' is an American children's television series created by Sheryl Leach targeted at children ages two to five. The flagship production of the ''Barney'' franchise, it originally aired on PBS under the PBS Kids brand from Ap ...
. *Guy Moon used the Proteus 2 Orchestral to compose the music for the second Sony Wonder logo.


References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:E-Mu Proteus 2500 E-mu synthesizers