Proteus 2000 Patch Editor
By Paul WhiteWe meet the reviewer's dream — a powerful synth that's versatile, easy to use, easy to edit and even demonstrates its own patches for you!Emu's original Proteus series of synthesizer modules was enormously well respected, and even today there are musicians who wouldn't want to be without them. But in recent years, the company seems to have turned its attention away from traditional synths to concentrate on samplers and dedicated dance instruments. Now the Proteus is back with a vengeance, in the guise of the Proteus 2000. And although still sample‑based, it is a vastly more powerful instrument than the original.It's quite obvious that Emu looked at Roland's successful JV1080 and JV2080 synths, then decided to go down a similar route — while at the same time trying to offer more of just about everything!
Like the Roland models, the Proteus 2000's patches can comprise up to four layers. It also has resonant filters and is expandable via internal ROM cards. However, it's a very different sounding instrument to the Roland JV2080 and would actually complement it very well if you were in a position to afford both.Presented in a rackmount case that's styled along the same lines as the Audity 2000, the Proteus 2000 features 128‑voice polyphony with 32‑part multitimbrality via two separate MIDI In ports. The front‑panel controls comprise just six knobs and nine buttons, not including the mains switch, but behind this simple facade is a powerful editing system.The Proteus 2000 departs from tradition in that there are no hard‑wired factory sounds. The 'Composer' sound set provided with all basic machines is on a SIMM card and plugs into one of the four 32Mb expansion slots. This leaves three slots free for expander cards of your choice. These cards will be either 16 or 32Mb each, and though none are currently available, it is expected that the range will include many of the sounds from the earlier Proteus, Planet Phatt and Orbit models, as well as new orchestral, contemporary and dance‑orientated sets.
In theory, you could get the entire Proteus‑series back catalogue onto a single expansion card — something that would certainly interest me.As well as the proposed expansion ROM cards, Emu have developed a compatible Flash RAM expander card that can be programmed within their new E‑series Ultra instruments (namely the E6400 Ultra, Esynth Ultra, and E4XT Ultra). Not only does this allow users to create their own waveform samples, it also opens up the market for third‑party companies to supply additional sound banks.Patches are arranged in banks of 128 and, as supplied, the instrument has four banks of user memories, plus eight banks of 'factory' presets on the Composer card along with all the currently available waveforms.
The user banks are filled with copies of factory patches. When expansion cards are added, more factory presets are also added, though the number of user memories remains fixed at 512. To help you to find your way around all these patches, there's a feature called Sound Navigator that allows sounds to be defined and searched for by type. An automatic audition function, that plays short sequenced phrases appropriate to the current patch, is included so that sounds can be checked out quickly, even when no keyboard is connected.
This runs continuously when the Audition button is on, and when you change to a new patch, the audition phrase changes accordingly — a great way to get a feel for the sounds in a music store. There seems to be a large number of these audition phrases, and they can be sent out over MIDI if you're interested in seeing how they're put together.Patches comprise up to four layers, with independent amplitude envelopes and filters for each of the layers, as well as comprehensive modulation facilities. Layers may be switched or crossfaded by velocity, keyboard position, real‑time MIDI control or from an internal modulation source. There are two 24‑bit multi‑effects units, though in multitimbral mode these have to be applied globally. However, the amount of effect applied to each part may be varied. Nevertheless, most of the sounds seem to stand up well with little more than a light dusting of reverb.
I'm also pleased to see that reverb is used sparingly in the factory patches, rather than being laid on with a trowel as so often seems to be the case.The modulation facilities of the Proteus 2000 rival those of a modular synth and include three envelope generators and two LFOs for each layer of a patch. There is MIDI control over most parameters and internal modulation sources are routed via a virtual patchcord system to any of 64 destinations via up to 24 'patch cords' per layer. A number of modulation sources can also be sync'ed to MIDI clock, as can certain rhythmic patches.For programming in greater depth, the patching system also includes 'arithmetic modifiers', though there's no need to be intimidated by the prospect of editing.
Four of the five knobs at the left of the front panel (the other is Master Volume), combined with one bank button, allow near‑instant access to 12 key parameters per patch without even going into edit mode. In effect, these knobs can serve three different functions: they can provide real time control, they can be used to Quick Edit patches by changing the initial controller settings, or they can be used in conjunction with the on‑screen parameters when in Deep Editing mode. Not only do these knobs allow patches to be fine‑tuned very quickly, they can also send real‑time MIDI data out of the MIDI Out socket so that dynamic sound changes can be recorded to a sequencer and automated.Deep Editing is accessed via the Edit button, and in usual Proteus style, all the editable parameters are available within one long list, so there's no head scratching while you try to figure out how to get back to that page you just lost track of. When you're editing, parameters may be changed either by using the left/right cursor buttons and the data wheel, or it is possible to switch the four front‑panel knobs into Deep Edit mode so that they directly access four parameters per page. This makes complex editing reasonably easy, but you have to remember to switch back to the original Quick Editing mode if you want to use these knobs for general patch‑tweaking later on. And if you have no interest in programming, or just feel lucky, there's even a randomise facility that combines elements from the various factory presets to form new patches.
Surprisingly, about one in 10 of these is actually pretty good! If you don't like the result, you just press the button again and have another go.Emu have put an enormous amount of effort into filter design over the past few years, the pinnacle of their achievement in that area being their Morpheus synth. For use with a sequencer, the Proteus 2000 must be switched to a Multisetup, a kind of global snapshot of all the patch parameters, pan positions, effects settings and so on relating to the whole machine.
Unused channels can be turned off, and if 16 or fewer parts are needed you only need to use one of the MIDI Ins.Most synths have a similar multi mode, though the terminology differs from model to model. Up to 128 Multisetups can be created and stored, but if you're setting up patches, levels, pans on so on from within a sequencer, the main thing that changes between Multisetups is the effects.
On the other hand, if you prefer to create sets of patches in the synth and leave program changes disabled on the sequencer (and there are many who do), having this many Multisetups is ideal. Emu seem to be trying to hold out against General MIDI for as long as is humanly possible, and although extremely good examples of the more sensible GM sounds are to be found scattered amongst the factory patches, the designers obviously couldn't bring themselves to sacrifice any of their precious waveform ROM to accommodate helicopters, telephones, applause or bird tweets! It's been strongly hinted that a very serious 32Mb GM sound set will appear as a plug‑in ROM board, but as far as the basic Composer sound set is concerned, GM doesn't get a look in. This may not affect the majority of users, though Emu's insistence on non‑standard drum mapping can be irritating.Whereas many synths dedicate MIDI channel 10 to drum parts, the 32 parts of the Proteus 2000 are all identical, with the various drum kits tucked away among the other presets.
This doesn't in itself present any problem — indeed, it allows you to use two different drum kits on two different MIDI channels at the same time, and you generally get better MIDI timing by using lower numbered MIDI channels and lower numbered sequencer tracks for drums.However, the way individual drum sounds are mapped to MIDI notes is less friendly and follows in the footsteps of earlier Emu modules rather than conforming to the widely supported GM map. What's worse is that the kits aren't entirely consistent in their layouts either. If you need to play back old recordings that are mapped according to GM, you really need to create a new drum map for each kit rather than one global drum map. A few users have already commented on this, and if enough people make a fuss, perhaps Emu will tidy things up in a future software revision.
Proteus 2000 Patch Editor Software
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