Trend price : 50-100€
First module rompler produced by famous American sampler company EMU. An affordable collection of bread and butters pop sounds from Emulator III archive.
Overview
MODULE (weight: 2 Kg) 1 rack unit, plastic made out of plastic. Main panel features a 16 x 2 LCD display, 1 volume knob, 1 data encoder and 4 push buttons.
Rear panel terminal connectors:
-
main signal out
-
4 individual outputs (subs with possible external insert)
- Midi interface
- VDC
power
Voice
Up to 32 channels polyphony - a voice is composed by 2 elements samples called "primary" and "secondary" with some edit parameters:
-
pitch tuning (fine and coarse)
- keyzone assignment
- start delay
- stereo panning
-
mix level
- reverse playback
- chorus mode (thicks voice)
Wavetable
internal 4Mb ROM (8 X rom ICs) 125 PCM waves at 39 kHz / 16 bits resolution. PCM wavetable contains all kind of sounds samples including: piano, string, sax, trumpet, brass, guitar, bass, organs, drums, percussions and basic waveforms (digital, square, harmonics, short-cycled).
Some different wavetable upgrades were available:
- XR: extra RAM adds 192 new slots
- Plus Orchetral extra rom adds 4 MB of orchestral sounds
- Protologic third part board with 4MB extra ROM.
Performance
up to 16 parts some special functions:
- solo monophonic mode (for OSC1/OSC2/BOTH)
- crossfade balance between primary and secondary
- pitchbend range (+/- 1 OCT)
-
3 footswitch assignable controls (eg: sustain, portamento, hold...)
- key velocity control
- scale tuning 5 presets (equal, vallotti, just C, 19 tone, gamelan) + 1 user free.
LFO
delayed modulators (shapes: sin, triangle, saw, square and random) for pitch with variable amount and random fluctuation.
Envelope
3 EGS - structure : 4 segments + 2 times:
1- primary sample amplitude
2- secondary sample amplitude
3- AUX (assignable) EG can be assigned a matrix modulation control.
Midi
full sysex commands and some basic CC controls including: panning, modulation and 4 assignable controllers ABCD (see "matrix" below).
Memory
-
128 ROM patches
-
64 RAM slots
Sounds can be saved only using Midi sysex, no external medias
Audio demo:
Video Clip:
Review
OK: cheap
NOT : outdated pcm / no filter / edit interface
"Proteus is getting very old: no filter, no effect, limited synthesis enclosed in a cheap plastic. The Proteus 1 still have some decent 80 pop sounds- if you care"
Text , review, special demos copyright polynominal.com / Eric Pochesci