Rackmount synthesizer able to "morph" sounds creating motion textures and evolving pads, simply using the control wheel controller.

The following year Emu released the Ultraproteus an updated version with different wavetable set.

RACKMOUNT 1 standard unit. The main panel features a 16 x 2 lines display, 8 buttons and 1 data encoder.

Back panel terminal connectors:
- Midi interface
- main output
- 2 assignable AUX

Front panel terminal connectors:
- headphones out
- data card slot.

VOICE a 16 bits core Motorola MC68020 manages 32 voices polyphony - relative DACS are 6 x AD186N by Analog Devices.
A basic sound patch is a combination of 2 samples called "primary" and "secondary" - each with individual parameters:
- stereo panning
- keyrange
- pitch tune
- monophonic with portamento
- reverse sample play
- loop mode
- oscillators crossfade osc1-> osc2 / osc2 -> osc2.

WAVETABLE is a 8 MB ROM contains 242 PCM waves at 39 kHz / 16 bits.
The Morpheus wavetable contains various kind of PCM including:

drums	choir	strings	organs	moog bass
guitar	harmonics	piano	basic (e.g square)	ethno percussion

MULTIMBRAL the hypermode manages 16 parts with individual settings:
- volume / panning
- transpose
- keyboard zone
- velocity offset.

 

FILTER there are 197 pre-calculated filters (Z-PLANE) combinations of 20 comb EQ with variable bandwidth parameters. Special Morphing Function interpolates 3 parameters of 2 selected filter models simply using the modulation wheel. Z-planes FULL LIST

 

ENVELOPE 3 EGs:
- Primary amp : 4 segments +2 level times
- Secondary amp: 4 segments +2 level times
- AUX assignable: 4 segments +2 level times
Special function generator segments a curve in 8 parts and creates a special motion mode using 64 preset shapes (linear, exponential or random).

 

LFO 2 digital modulators and 4 destinations:
- LFO to filter cutoff
- LFO to stereo panning image
- LFO to volume
- LFO to sample pitch.
Modulators offer various parameters such as depth, delay, variance mode (natural strings instruments emulation) and 5 different shapes (triangle, sinusoidal, square, saw and random).

 

EFFECT there are 28 effects including: ring modulation, reverb, shimmer, phaser, delay, echo and fuzz.

MATRIX matrix mod codes every parameters from one the another with many different path routing assignable to Midi CC#, Emu knows the job ! these are really similar on the one found on the EMU samplers like ULTRA series.

SOURCES:	DESTINATIONS:
pitch wheel	pitch OSC 1-2
Midi control assignable ABCD	volume OSC 1-2
mono pressure	ADSR osc1-2
polyphonic pressure	crossfade
LFO1	LFO1-2 amount/rate
LFO2	AUX EG amount
AUX EG	AUX EG ADSR
function generator 1	portamento OSC1-2
function generator 2	filter morph 1-2
free run function generator	pan 1-2
	function gen1 -2 amount

MEMORY:
- 128 ROM presets
- 128 RAM sounds
RAM card doubles using PCMCIA SRAM cards.
Battery replacement: model BR-2330, but I managed to use more common BR-2325 model.

EDIT softwares for the module:
- Midiquest ($$$, PC/Mac) PIC
- Galaxy editor (old mac) PIC
- Zeus (freeware, Atari ST) PIC
- Morphedit (freeware,old PC)

 

QUESTION IS...

Morpheus or Ultraproteus? Some people prefer Morpheus for the more ambient-oriented waveforms, but Ultraproteus is more powerful including more z-filters and a bigger wavetable.

 

 

VST PLUGIN / SAMPLED VERSION there are some free and commercial samples set:

	name	price	link	demo
	Rhythm lab	free sample set 65Mb		n/a
	Creative/EMU Emulator X3	Commercial VST a sampler with Zfilters. Closest plugin available

AUDIO DEMO

factory demo1 factory demo 2 factory demo 3 factory demo 4 100% zplanes demo noisy sequence zplane filtering

Aieyeeee welcome to morpheus deep pad space pad another deep pad filtrering percussions xp sample offset for glitch

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION Z-Plane Synthesizer Demo

 

EMU MORPHEUS MANUAL

EMU MORPHEUS USER MANUAL

DOWNLOAD ORIGINAL PATCH SET

original brochure

- best Z-planes of all EMU
- sound motion
- now cheap

REVIEW: "A lot of interesting functions, even if those machines today sound a bit outdated... excellent digital textures, but patience is required. Too bad EMU simplified the Z plane concept."