The E-MU Proteus 2000: A Workhorse of 90s/00s Media Composition
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 тра 2021
- Alongside my JV1080 is another synth from the late 1990s, the E-MU Proteus 2000. In this video I explore some of its origins, how it has been used by media composers, and explore the powerful synth that was influenced by modular.
Some links:
- E-MU Proteus Specs: www.emumania.net/emu-proteus-...
- Mike O'Donnell (composer of Thomas & Friends): www.modmusic.co.uk/
- William Coakley Perfect Piano: www.williamcoakley.com/index.html
- Tweakheadz Patches (via Wayback Machine): web.archive.org/web/200306010...
- Prodatum: prodatum.sourceforge.net/
Gradually been expanding my EMU rack collection, leagues ahead of so many modern machines. They also just look gorgeous on a rack.
Oooh I would love to see a photo of that rack!
These E-mu modules kicks ass and are much more better sounding than even most workhorses made today. It's the samples that matters and the quality.
i agree!
15 years ago EMU released a free vst version of the proteus 2000. Pretty awesome thing to do.
Where can I acquire it?
@@purplesamurai5205 You can't anymore, since the E-MU site is gone. Your best bet now is to purchase the packs from Digital Sound Factory, which are run by some of the original designers of the Proteus.
Recently dusted off my 1080 and 2000 after 15+ years that now plug into a brand new system and room. It's refreshing and nostalgic.
So I landed here searching for advanced uses to possibly use the Proteus effects as an outboard FX unit and/or patching in the TRS inserts to put a compressor in the signal. It was cool seeing it sent into modular.
Thanks for this.
It’s a cool feature of the unit that you can do a return effect. Have fun with your new setup!
As an owner of multiple EMU modules including this one.... The best part THEN and now was that ALL of the knobs transmitted midi data into your sequencer and the multitimbral capability. When I got the audity 2000 when it was released, my partner at the time made a full track using nothing but that module. These units always yielded amazing pads and effects. 🙌🙌😎😎
The midi implementation is really good!
Funny how dated these kind of sounds seemed only a couple of years ago whereas anything seems to go now.
The filters are really nice
You have me really inspired to pull my P. 2000 out of the closet and work with it again. Great video. Definitely subbed! 😊
Thanks for subscribing! Have fun with the P2000!
Nice overview! I do also like the generous helping of individual outputs on the P2K and its intuitive interface.
I just discovered your channel. Thank you for posting. I have a Proteus 2000 and have rarely explored it. I am inspired to work with it more now.
Yeah it’s got a lot of power if you start exploring, especially the mod matrix.
This is a great video. Really interesting. I have a Proteus 2000 I bought second hand years ago and I never really got into it. Thanks for explaining the filters. I will go and have another look at it. Thank you.
Have fun!
Excellent review. I've been using mine as a sound module to quickly get an idea going and never really dug into the synthesis capabilities of the machine. The thing has some serious power!
Certainly is impressive, especially the mod matrix / patch chords
thank you for this!!!
I still think romplers are an essential audio tool. During my first faltering steps into the world of electronic music I ended up with a Proteus 1 and while the limitations frustrated me I could definitely see the point and it made a whole load of stock natural sounds instantly available. One of the reasons I bought an MC-101 was for the Roland synth engine. 4 layers of separately controlled PCM samples makes for a very powerful synth and gives you all those essential stock orchestral sounds that are still needed.
I’m kinda in love with retro 1U rack synths. It’s beautiful to see how these machines were made to actually use MIDI as a virtual modular interface. Every E-mu module (and many Rolands) is 16 or 32-channel multitimbral. They all give you complete MIDI control over every normal VA parameter but also control over sample layering, filters, FX, and random interesting modulators. The Rolands have crazy mod matrix options and tons of FX. The E-mus have multiple 6-stage envelopes. They have time-variant / Z-plane filters. And they let you define CCs to use as modulators which you then can use differently in different patches.
It’s so funny seeing modern synth nerds complaining because their $400 Roland Boutique only has 4-voice polyphony. Or you can get a $200 Aira Compact which only recognizes Note On messages. Meanwhile there’s people selling vastly more capable rack synths for $200 and the only one anybody is even slightly interested in is the TX81Z!
And I don’t see anybody talking about the 16 simultaneous arpeggiators they put on the Audity 2000 and everything newer.
The more obscure non-workhorse E-mus like the Proteus/3 and Planet Phatt seemed way too limited back in the day, but now they stand out as the interesting ones to me. The Proteus/3 has awesome percussion, and the Planet Phatt has great bass sounds. And all of them have some gritty pulsating patches like EtherVox or the Spirit Catcher on the Proteus/3. The Roland XV-5080 is a better all-around machine for orchestral and VA-like stuff IMO. Two of my favorite synths are the Roland XV-5050 and E-mu XL-1 Turbo because they’re super compact like the OG Proteus line but they have S/PDIF out.
I share that love for these machines. They may not be hip but you can still have a lot of fun with them
I've the 5080 and XL1, can't agree more, 5080 is perfect for more classical scoring, but I imagine it'll open itself up once i read the deep ass manual more. EMU systems are a crime to not exist anymore, amazing units, easy to understand, super clean sounds and features. I hate that the 1U Rackmount standard has died, and like you said all these new "Botiques" cant even throw a stone at half these racks, cost 3x as much, and take up way more space haha.
@@NachozMan LOL good luck with the manual. I don't think I ever bought a synth that even had a manual until I started getting 25-year-old rack modules. Those all come with 100-page manuals, unless it's a late '90s Roland - those are closer to 200 pages with all the FX options.
This is why I love UA-cam and the internet!!!!! awesome video... I was looking on ebay for the proteus and a triton and you just convinced me to go for it.
Hopefully I inspired you to play with the mod matrix inside the Proteus - you can have a lot of fun there!
Thanks for this review! I am a very big fan of E-mu and it's nice to see people who still appreciate them.
Often underrated in what they can do! Thanks for watching
Phenomenal video, those midi tips were gold. Loved the Emu history and how thorough you were with all of its features
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
@@StephenTallamyMusicjust scored a Proteus 2500 for a great price, and when I opened it up it had ALL four ROM slots filled- definitely wasn’t priced accordingly 😅
Super excited to start diving in! This video is super helpful. Cheers.
@@JurassicTrance wow that’s a deal! What cards were in it?
@@StephenTallamyMusic World, XROM-1, Techno Synth, and the P2500 version of the Composer ROM with different presets. Managed everything under $500, feels like hitting the jackpot!
Advice to those interested, without boasting… If you find ANY E-MU module out in the world at a good price… BUY IT. No regrets at all. 👍🏾✌🏾✊🏾
Just got my Proteus 2000 with the composer and X Lead cards for £295. A bargain I couldn’t let go
Love it, very informative! Would love to see some overview of shortdoc on all EMU modules and expansions, there are so many.
Nice run-through! Interesting to see how much more this later Proteus has compared with my Proteus/2 Orchestral.
I bet you can create some good Thomas & Friends stuff on it though! Believe that’s what they used in the stuff before the 2000 came out
Ayy it's you
Excellent vídeo !
Thanks for watching!
Great vid and knowledgeable tidbits 👍 thank you
Thanks for watching
Love the Proteus 2000! Very cool that you’re rocking the emagic amt8 as well. I love mine. Still probably one of the best MIDI interfaces ever made.
It’s a great interface for sure. I love that it has different modes for when connected to the computer and when standalone
This is nice! I loved that you used one of my thumbnails from my second channel on YT haha 3:14
It’s a classic picture!
Very interesting video. In the 90's I went the soundblaster route with sbk's and sf's. I did buy an Access Virus b in early 2000 which i still have. The last time i used it was in the Music by 300 strangers video and you do get a glimps of it now and then :)
sbk and sf's,they were the future back then
Still got mine from 2001 I believe and use it often
Excellent. Thank you. I have owned one of these for years but never used it. Have to give it a whirl. I bought the Prodatum Software too.
Thank you for this. I remember wanting to buy one of these things. They just looked really impressive. I really like the more exaggerated stepping in the filters you demonstrated. It may not have been ideal at the time, but there's no sense buying a piece of hardware unless it does something different than a vst or sampler library on a laptop
wow , such great routing options and filters. Always thought of the Proteus as a bland rompler
Certainly when I originally bought it that was my impression also!
I felt this pain with banks in the nineties ..then sound diver came around and changed it but now you have to pay at least 150 for a sound diver sort of program , iam just about to get my mo phat back and xl lead from emu and it brings back memories only wished I kept my pk6 which I upgraded to great sound cards that the keyboard has slots for ..this is a great tutorial top man !
12:34 sounds like an orchestra of bees.
Great video, thanks.
I have 2 of these units (p2000), one minty and one not so much. I have understood huge connectivity potential with the features of the unit, but I've struggled with implementation.
Thanks for the tip on the sysex file.
Lol I always wanted to conduct a bunch of bees! I certainly enjoy taking these instruments and bringing them into a modern workflow
Love it at 11.40!
I have the Proteus fx. Love it.
I didn't know the Proteus 2000 series could be expanded with plugin boards.
Some of the basic orchestral sounds are even the same samples as the original
Proteus modules although many of them are higher resolution. Many producers
still use midi sound modules even today.
I just stumbled upon one today at a local thrift shop. Bought it for only €50,-
Kinda felt like I stole it, walking out :')
Anyway, thank you very much sharing knowledge and your personal experience with the Emu. Very valuable for a beginner like me. Looking forward to exploring those internal routing options you mentioned. That pink noise into pitch sounded amazing!
Wow! That’s a real bargain. Have fun with it!
I have a Morpheus that I absolutely love, but I might need to add ones of these. I used to have an XL-1 years ago, but I don't think that had the patching system on it, but I could be wrong.
Loved mine when I had it. Much better than the TR Rack I sold to get it. Still regret selling.
I’m a new beginner using a fully expanded Roland JV-1080 with the Orchestral,Keyboard of the 60s & 70s the Dance & the Session expansion boards along with my Akai MPC One plus sampler & my question is there a way that I can download all of the Proteus 2000, MoPhatt & the Vintage Pro sounds in wav files on a SD card through my MacBook Pro 💻 so I then load all of the wav file sounds into my Akai MPC One plus Sampler?
I recently bought a Proteus 2 and a Roland U-220. Just when I thought I had switched
to mainly using sample libraries for orchestral instruments, saxophones and basses
since 2019. But I decided it's time to go back to using sound modules for these sort
of sounds. Who said orchestral sounds have to sound realistic all of the time?
Exactly! Have you tried blending the sample stuff with the Proteus 2? I like making combinations of things that have a leg on the past and a leg in the present
@@StephenTallamyMusic Until now I used to use Mixcraft's stock instruments and
DSK instruments in place of a Proteus 2. I also used to use sound fonts if I wanted
a bright trumpet. I tend to use VST instruments and libraries if I want more realistic
sounding drums. I have in the past done lots of stuff with a mixture of sound modules
and VST instruments.
I use the Proteus 1 XR from 89.
I had a proteus 2000 with a mophat card installed... i remember it had an issue where it wouldn't play one of the instruments.... I should have took it back to be fair as it was new but I didn't want to be without it lol
I am just restoring my studio from long term storage. I have both a Proteus/1 and Proteus/2. Now wondering if I can find the same or similar samples on the P2K? If so, plan to replace them with a P2K for about an even trade. Love the brief demo video.
You can get the Protozoa ROM for the P2K which contains the samples of the P1 and P2 but usually out seems to be over £250/$250 wherever it turns up on eBay. Might be better to just hold onto your originals!
Hi! I have the emu MP-7 command station, and I was screwing around with the controller knobs, i.e. (changing the controller settings and gotten things all messed up). What I would like to know is there a way that I can save the songs that I have already done on this machine by sending a midi system exclusive message to my daw's sequencer before I restore the factory settings to what they once were?
Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanx.....
I had a 2000. I bought it for stupid cheap back around 2003. Absolutely hated it. Sold it ASAP. Editing was a PITA, and it didn't really sound any better than my other gear at the time.
I certainly preferred my JV1080 over the 2000 when I got it back in the day. I’m more intrigued with it the 2000 now because I better understand modular and mod matrix
These old synths are magical. I recently bought an Ensoniq ESQ-M. Does it makes sense? Probably not. I think about it as an external VST and it won't take 10% CPU time to run sounds through it. And it sounds absolutely beautiful, if you find or make the right presets.
I've been tempted by the ESQ-M - don't tempt me more!
@@StephenTallamyMusic haha :) this is how it sounds like :) ua-cam.com/users/shorts8Ef9xewLB9o
Really cool! Not much of a rompler fan but the modular aspect of this unit makes it seem like a fertile source for sampling. Does the e6400 series from that era share those patching possibilities?
I believe it does have a mod matrix too - not that I have one to confirm that.
I know Mark Snow used a Proteus module to compose music for the X-Files, notably using a whistle sound on the theme song.
Yup that was “Whistling Joe” patch from the Proteus 1!
@@StephenTallamyMusic correction, it was proteus 2 actually!
the synth has great modulation and sound design capabilities, but somehow i don't see many custom made electronic patches out there. shame that myself also never bothered to make my enough of my own presets.
also this synth supports custom scales! this can be important for some of us
Yeah it’s strange this synth doesn’t get the love that M1 and JV ones do yet it’s very powerful
Excellent video! I found one for sale but the seller says it makes drum and guitar sounds when you turn a knob (not sure which one), even without midi connected. Is this a feature or a fault? Thank you. If you would turn one of the parameter knobs, does this trigger the sound with new set parameter? I don't understand why it would do this unless it's faulty.
I wouldn't expect any of the knobs to trigger sounds. If you have "audition mode" enabled then it will play back a demo sequence to hear the sounds (like I did at 5:43) but otherwise you would need to be triggering sounds externally whilst changing the knobs.
@@StephenTallamyMusic Yeah that's what I was thinking. The seller does not want to say which knob he turned or pushed, so it's a no go for me. Thank you for the reply!
The Emu, Alesis and Ensoniq synths had a very `American' sound which can only be described as being less 'silky' than their Japanese Korg, Roland and Yamaha counterparts. Combine the two together and you get the most phenomenal layered sounds! My Alesis S4 Plus Quadrasynth module and Ensoniq TS12 sounded awesome when used in conjunction with my Korg and Roland synths. I never owned any Emu synths but I always loved trying them out in the music stores at the time. What an absolute shame that both Ensoniq and Emu no longer exist.
I’ll definitely have a try at blending the Proteus with my JV1080 based on this tip!
@@StephenTallamyMusic honestly you'll be blown away by the results. For instance, layering similar patches such as EPs or pads. A keyboard playing friend of mine showed me this with his Korg O1W, Ensoniq SQ80, Roland JV880 and Emu Proteus XR.
You have to work a little more with the E-mu , but if you spend the time, it can sound as good as anything out there
@@joeyrossiter3763 I always liked the sounds of Emu modules, despite never owning any gear from that manufacturer. The earlier Proteus modules sounded great even without effects.
What's the best VSTi of the E-mu stuff...i remember there was a bunch of emu racks very colorful ones used in the 90s... any idea? I'm just happy Roland made the old racks as a plugin available...
I had a bit of a look at the time of making this video but I don’t think I found anything that worked on modern MacOS
I have two of these, with nine different ROMs. They're quite useful little boxes.
Edit: to clarify, I ended up with more ROMs than I can put in the modules. Somebody had an offer on a P2k with the World Expedition ROM that I couldn't refuse.
Nice! What are your favourite ROMs?
@@StephenTallamyMusic I still have to explore them, but Beat Garden, TSCY, X-Lead, Vintage Collection, Definitive B3 and especially World Expedition were high on my wish list. Pure Phatt perhaps less, and Composer and ZR came with the second unit I purchased (which had the coveted World Expedition).
@@SeverityOne - Fancy getting rid of some of those pesky surplus ROMs just laying around…? 😁
@@eiriklangeland3307 Unfortunately, no. I have one duplicate, which is intended for a friend, and these things are becoming so rare that I will only regret it.
Pet peeve: "lying around", not "laying".
@@SeverityOne Ah, I understand. Had to try, though. 😊
Thank you for the feedback and the language correction - much appreciated!
(I actually learnt two things: the correct verb to use and the phrase ‘pet peeve’.)
So the knobs of the filters are used only on the mixing of you the song or you can save the presets for future use next time in different project??
The E-mu samples are a bit more realistic than those of the JV-1080, but the 1080 sounds a thousand times more huge. It's like comparing a mono MP3-file to a live performance.
I think that the programming and effects on the JV1080 really do bring the sounds alive!
I still have a Yamaha TG500 in my setup. Not exactly a synth, but from the 90s ... maybe it still counts ...
What amazes me is how many sounds they can fit in so little memory. Think the TG500 has only 8MB!
@@StephenTallamyMusic That's less than the average sample nowadays. 😳
If you’re a composer and like EMU sounds, I recommend Digital Sound Factory Kontakt banks… they’re very well made sound libraries to recreate the sounds of the old Proteus series (first ones and then the whole 2000, Mo’Phatt, Xtreme Lead, Virtuoso, etc…).
I agree about the Digital Sound Factory banks. You can have hours of fun just auditioning the sounds.
@@stevehofer3482If I but then as sound fonts and insert them into my app that can play them is there a lot of tweaking of sounds involved ?
The reason this sounds how it sounds is because rompler sound engine it runs. Samples will sound lifeless compare to real deal, but can help getting into that ballpark.
@Dado Simic hi , do u mean the samples from actual 90's romplers sound better than the newer Kontakt stuff ?
@@richf6111 Samples are half story in why they sound as they sound. Sound engine in hardware machines that manipulate samples/romplers plays a significant part.
When you take a sample and make Kontakt library from it, its just snapshot of the sound , so that is what you get.
Also Pied Piper just literally ripped one of the demo riffs straight from it for "Do you really like it"
9:02 digital filter steps, ohhh shit! 🫤
Yeah I think it steps from the front panel as the controller is actually creating a midi CC and so you only get 0-127 steps. If you use an envelope to control the cutoff I believe it will be much smoother.
But proteus 1 didn't have any filters or LFO. But it was still great
I’ve never had my hands on one… maybe one day!
@@StephenTallamyMusic you could change the sample start to fake a duller sound. But that means no sweeps.
Is the Proteus Custom any different from a Proteus 2000 ?
It’s the same hardware but you could choose your own combination of sound ROMs. The 2000 always came with the Composer ROM. There were other Proteus modules that had a different faceplate and came bundled with a different default ROM (like the Mo’Phatt). Basically you can get a custom or one of those other faceplate ones and add the Composer ROM to make it a 2000.
Where is the site?
4:33
I used it for composing scores and foley for Adult movies back in the days.
My mind boggles at what sort of foley you would create using this module for that purpose!
Do they have all the sounds from the Proteus 1 and 2?
You can get an expansion card with the Proteus 1 & 2 sounds but it seems to usually be very expensive on eBay - almost cheaper to buy the modules themselves!
@@StephenTallamyMusic I see. I’ll look I into that soon.
please a little help with P2K logic environment
What help do you need Daniel? If you want to chat you can catch me on Twitter @StephenTallamy
GREAT DNB AND UKG MODULA SYNTH
👍👍👍