| Proteus | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | E-mu |
| Technical specifications | |
| Polyphony | up to 128 voices |
| Timbrality | up to 128 notes |
| Oscillator | Digital |
| Synthesis type | Sample-based synthesis |
| Input/output | |
The E-mu Proteus was a range of digital sound modules and keyboards manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1989 to 2002.
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 synthesizers, 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:
 | Proteus 1 Pop/Rock (March 1989) |
 | Proteus 1 XR (Late 1989) |
 | Proteus 1 Plus Orchestral (1990) |
 | Proteus 2 Orchestral (January 1990) |
 | Proteus 2 XR (1990) |
 | Proteus 3 World (1991) |
 | Proteus 3 XR (1991) |
 | PRO/cussion (January 1991) |
The second generation of E-MU ROMplers added filtering capabilities as well as proper FX options.
 | Vintage Keys (1993) [1] |
 | Morpheus (1993) [2] |
 | Vintage Keys Plus (1993) |
 | Proteus FX (1994) [3] |
 | Classic Keys (1994) [4] |
 | UltraProteus (1994) [5] |
 | Orbit [Techno/Electronica] (1996) [6] |
 | Planet Phatt [Hip-Hop] (1997) [7] Orbit V2 [Techno/Electronica] (1997) [8] |
 | Carnaval [Latin] (1997) [9] |
The Proteus 2000 released in 1999 was a 1U rack sound module based on the electronic music oriented Audity 2000, released in 1998. It contained many multi-purpose acoustic as well as synthetic sounds, [10] among more than a thousand waves utilizing 32 megabytes of ROM. It featured up to 128 voices of polyphony and 32-part multi-timbrality. [11] and 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 card but with a 64 voice polyphony and fewer individual sound outputs. The Proteus 2000 is also compatible with the Protozoa ROM expansion card, which contain 3 banks with the first 128 patches from each synth in the original Proteus trilogy, as well as a new bank consisting of patches made with the combined waveforms of all three modules and optimized for the expanded synthesis options of the Proteus 2000, adding up a total of 384 new patches in 16 MB of flash 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 of them allowed for four ROM chips to be mounted at the same time and users could swap the cards inside them, so in cases the rack unit itself was not necessairly indicative of the sounds inside the synth. The available ROM cards included Composer, a work-horse set of sounds useful for popular music production, three orchestral ROMs, the Vintage Pro collection consisting of tonewheel and electric organs, electric pianos and classic synthesizers, a card dedicated solely to the Hammond organ and a percussion ROM through Protean Drums. As well as the Orbit and Mo-Phatt collections, aimed at dance and urban genres, the Xtreme Lead, optimized for monophonic synthesizer solo sounds, the Ensoniq collaborative cards such as Sounds of the ZR and the Ensoniq Project plus the custom architecture built Holy Grail Piano. Most of these were sold as specialized modules while others such as the Protozoa, Sounds of the ZR and Holy Grail Piano cards were only available as separate orders, although the hardware inside most of them is virtually identical to the Proteus 2000.
 | Audity 2000 [Electronic/Dance] (1998) |
 | Proteus 2000 [General] (1999) |
 | Virtuoso 2000 [Orchestral] (2000) |
 | Proteus Orchestra [Orchestral] (2000) |
 | Xtreme Lead-1 [Techno/Electronica] (2000) |
 | Mo'Phatt [Hip-Hop] (2000) |
 | B-3 [Hammond Organ w/ Leslie Emulation] (2000) |
 | Planet Earth [World music] (2000) |
 | Orbit 3 [Techno/Dance/Electronica] (2001) |
 | Proteus Custom [Shipped with specific ROM cards on order] (2002) |
 | XL-1 Turbo [Techno] (2002) |
 | Turbo Phatt [Hip-Hop] (2002) |
 | Proteus 1000 [General] (2002) |
 | Vintage Pro [Classic synthesizers] (2002) |
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.
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.
prodatum [12] is a cross-platform software editor for the Proteus 1000/2000, Command Stations and keyboard versions. prodatum is free software.
Proteum [13] is a free Windows software editor for Proteus and Command Stations.
Since Creative withdrew their provision of historical OS updates and manuals for most of the older E-Mu gear sometime around August 2011, [14] many of these files have been made available elsewhere, such as Synth Gear Docs Archive and the E-Mu Legacy Archive.