E-mu Proteus

Two Proteus modules, the Xtreme Lead-1 and the Mo-Phatt, sit atop an Akai multi-track recorder, together forming a system typical of Hip hop production

The E-mu Proteus was a range of digital sound modules and keyboards manufactured in the late twentieth century.

History

E-mu Systems came to prominence in the early 1980s with their relatively affordable Emulator sampler, and subsequently pioneered sample-based synthesis technology with the Proteus range. Unlike the true synthesiser, sample-based equipment does not derive its raw sounds from electronic oscillators 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 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.

Models

The Proteus range was developed into several models, some differing from each other only by the sound banks they contained, which were optimised for different purposes. However, since most allowed four ROM chips to be mounted, and these chips were available separately, 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.

	Proteus 1 Pop/Rock (1989)
	Proteus FX (1994)
	Plannet Phatt [Hip-Hop] (1997) Orbit [Techno/Electronica] (1996)
	Xtreme Lead-1 [Techno/Electronica] (2000) Mo'Phatt [Hip-Hop] (2000)   Turbo Phatt [Hip-Hop] (2002)

Internals of an ORBIT V2 with its beat mode:

Though the Proteus was mainly known as a keyboardless MIDI sound module, E-mu also marketed the Proteus MPS (Master Performance System), a 61-key keyboard version of the Proteus module.

Proteus 2000

E-mu Proteus 2000 (1998)

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,^[1] among just over a thousand waves utilising 32 megabytes of ROM. It featured up to 128 voice polyphony and 32-part multi-timbrality.^[2] It could be expanded with slots for three additional sound ROM cards. A cheaper Proteus 1000 model was also introduced with the same soundset and ROM but only 64 voice polyphony and fewer individual sound outputs.

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.

Launch-Pad controller for Orbit in 1996 may be a forerunner of Command Station

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

E-mu PK-6 (Pop/Rock) - 2001

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, E-mu PK-6 and Ensoniq Halo featured the same 61-key keyboard and controls layout, but slightly different soundset.

Software Editor

prodatum^[3] is a cross-platform software editor for the Proteus 1000/2000, Command Stations and keyboard versions. prodatum is free software.

Proteum^[4] 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,^[5] many of these files have been made available elsewhere, such as Synth Gear Docs Archive and the E-Mu Legacy Archive.

References

• "Product History". E-MU Systems.