Gradually been expanding my EMU rack collection, leagues ahead of so many modern machines. They also just look gorgeous on a rack.

These E-mu modules kicks ass and are much more better sounding than even most workhorses made today. It's the samples that matters and the quality.

As an owner of multiple EMU modules including this one.... The best part THEN and now was that ALL of the knobs transmitted midi data into your sequencer and the multitimbral capability. When I got the audity 2000 when it was released, my partner at the time made a full track using nothing but that module. These units always yielded amazing pads and effects. 🙌🙌😎😎

Recently dusted off my 1080 and 2000 after 15+ years that now plug into a brand new system and room. It's refreshing and nostalgic. So I landed here searching for advanced uses to possibly use the Proteus effects as an outboard FX unit and/or patching in the TRS inserts to put a compressor in the signal. It was cool seeing it sent into modular. Thanks for this.

15 years ago EMU released a free vst version of the proteus 2000. Pretty awesome thing to do.

Funny how dated these kind of sounds seemed only a couple of years ago whereas anything seems to go now. The filters are really nice

You have me really inspired to pull my P. 2000 out of the closet and work with it again. Great video. Definitely subbed! 😊

I still think romplers are an essential audio tool. During my first faltering steps into the world of electronic music I ended up with a Proteus 1 and while the limitations frustrated me I could definitely see the point and it made a whole load of stock natural sounds instantly available. One of the reasons I bought an MC-101 was for the Roland synth engine. 4 layers of separately controlled PCM samples makes for a very powerful synth and gives you all those essential stock orchestral sounds that are still needed.

Advice to those interested, without boasting… If you find ANY E-MU module out in the world at a good price… BUY IT. No regrets at all. 👍🏾✌🏾✊🏾

Nice overview! I do also like the generous helping of individual outputs on the P2K and its intuitive interface.

I’m kinda in love with retro 1U rack synths. It’s beautiful to see how these machines were made to actually use MIDI as a virtual modular interface. Every E-mu module (and many Rolands) is 16 or 32-channel multitimbral. They all give you complete MIDI control over every normal VA parameter but also control over sample layering, filters, FX, and random interesting modulators. The Rolands have crazy mod matrix options and tons of FX. The E-mus have multiple 6-stage envelopes. They have time-variant / Z-plane filters. And they let you define CCs to use as modulators which you then can use differently in different patches. It’s so funny seeing modern synth nerds complaining because their $400 Roland Boutique only has 4-voice polyphony. Or you can get a $200 Aira Compact which only recognizes Note On messages. Meanwhile there’s people selling vastly more capable rack synths for $200 and the only one anybody is even slightly interested in is the TX81Z! And I don’t see anybody talking about the 16 simultaneous arpeggiators they put on the Audity 2000 and everything newer. The more obscure non-workhorse E-mus like the Proteus/3 and Planet Phatt seemed way too limited back in the day, but now they stand out as the interesting ones to me. The Proteus/3 has awesome percussion, and the Planet Phatt has great bass sounds. And all of them have some gritty pulsating patches like EtherVox or the Spirit Catcher on the Proteus/3. The Roland XV-5080 is a better all-around machine for orchestral and VA-like stuff IMO. Two of my favorite synths are the Roland XV-5050 and E-mu XL-1 Turbo because they’re super compact like the OG Proteus line but they have S/PDIF out.

Excellent review. I've been using mine as a sound module to quickly get an idea going and never really dug into the synthesis capabilities of the machine. The thing has some serious power!

I just discovered your channel. Thank you for posting. I have a Proteus 2000 and have rarely explored it. I am inspired to work with it more now.

This is a great video. Really interesting. I have a Proteus 2000 I bought second hand years ago and I never really got into it. Thanks for explaining the filters. I will go and have another look at it. Thank you.

Love it, very informative! Would love to see some overview of shortdoc on all EMU modules and expansions, there are so many.

Thanks for this review! I am a very big fan of E-mu and it's nice to see people who still appreciate them.

This is why I love KZfaq and the internet!!!!! awesome video... I was looking on ebay for the proteus and a triton and you just convinced me to go for it.

Phenomenal video, those midi tips were gold. Loved the Emu history and how thorough you were with all of its features

Love the Proteus 2000! Very cool that you’re rocking the emagic amt8 as well. I love mine. Still probably one of the best MIDI interfaces ever made.

wow , such great routing options and filters. Always thought of the Proteus as a bland rompler

Still got mine from 2001 I believe and use it often

Great vid and knowledgeable tidbits 👍 thank you

I didn't know the Proteus 2000 series could be expanded with plugin boards. Some of the basic orchestral sounds are even the same samples as the original Proteus modules although many of them are higher resolution. Many producers still use midi sound modules even today.

Excellent vídeo !

thank you for this!!!

This is nice! I loved that you used one of my thumbnails from my second channel on YT haha 3:14

I just stumbled upon one today at a local thrift shop. Bought it for only €50,- Kinda felt like I stole it, walking out :') Anyway, thank you very much sharing knowledge and your personal experience with the Emu. Very valuable for a beginner like me. Looking forward to exploring those internal routing options you mentioned. That pink noise into pitch sounded amazing!

Very interesting video. In the 90's I went the soundblaster route with sbk's and sf's. I did buy an Access Virus b in early 2000 which i still have. The last time i used it was in the Music by 300 strangers video and you do get a glimps of it now and then :)

Nice run-through! Interesting to see how much more this later Proteus has compared with my Proteus/2 Orchestral.

Thank you for this. I remember wanting to buy one of these things. They just looked really impressive. I really like the more exaggerated stepping in the filters you demonstrated. It may not have been ideal at the time, but there's no sense buying a piece of hardware unless it does something different than a vst or sampler library on a laptop

I felt this pain with banks in the nineties ..then sound diver came around and changed it but now you have to pay at least 150 for a sound diver sort of program , iam just about to get my mo phat back and xl lead from emu and it brings back memories only wished I kept my pk6 which I upgraded to great sound cards that the keyboard has slots for ..this is a great tutorial top man !

Excellent. Thank you. I have owned one of these for years but never used it. Have to give it a whirl. I bought the Prodatum Software too.

12:34 sounds like an orchestra of bees. Great video, thanks. I have 2 of these units (p2000), one minty and one not so much. I have understood huge connectivity potential with the features of the unit, but I've struggled with implementation. Thanks for the tip on the sysex file.

I have the Proteus fx. Love it.

Love it at 11.40!

Loved mine when I had it. Much better than the TR Rack I sold to get it. Still regret selling.

I have a Morpheus that I absolutely love, but I might need to add ones of these. I used to have an XL-1 years ago, but I don't think that had the patching system on it, but I could be wrong.

I know Mark Snow used a Proteus module to compose music for the X-Files, notably using a whistle sound on the theme song.

I have two of these, with nine different ROMs. They're quite useful little boxes. Edit: to clarify, I ended up with more ROMs than I can put in the modules. Somebody had an offer on a P2k with the World Expedition ROM that I couldn't refuse.

I am just restoring my studio from long term storage. I have both a Proteus/1 and Proteus/2. Now wondering if I can find the same or similar samples on the P2K? If so, plan to replace them with a P2K for about an even trade. Love the brief demo video.

The E-mu samples are a bit more realistic than those of the JV-1080, but the 1080 sounds a thousand times more huge. It's like comparing a mono MP3-file to a live performance.

I’m a new beginner using a fully expanded Roland JV-1080 with the Orchestral,Keyboard of the 60s & 70s the Dance & the Session expansion boards along with my Akai MPC One plus sampler & my question is there a way that I can download all of the Proteus 2000, MoPhatt & the Vintage Pro sounds in wav files on a SD card through my MacBook Pro 💻 so I then load all of the wav file sounds into my Akai MPC One plus Sampler?

I had a proteus 2000 with a mophat card installed... i remember it had an issue where it wouldn't play one of the instruments.... I should have took it back to be fair as it was new but I didn't want to be without it lol

Excellent video! I found one for sale but the seller says it makes drum and guitar sounds when you turn a knob (not sure which one), even without midi connected. Is this a feature or a fault? Thank you. If you would turn one of the parameter knobs, does this trigger the sound with new set parameter? I don't understand why it would do this unless it's faulty.

I use the Proteus 1 XR from 89.

Hi! I have the emu MP-7 command station, and I was screwing around with the controller knobs, i.e. (changing the controller settings and gotten things all messed up). What I would like to know is there a way that I can save the songs that I have already done on this machine by sending a midi system exclusive message to my daw's sequencer before I restore the factory settings to what they once were? Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanx.....

Really cool! Not much of a rompler fan but the modular aspect of this unit makes it seem like a fertile source for sampling. Does the e6400 series from that era share those patching possibilities?

I recently bought a Proteus 2 and a Roland U-220. Just when I thought I had switched to mainly using sample libraries for orchestral instruments, saxophones and basses since 2019. But I decided it's time to go back to using sound modules for these sort of sounds. Who said orchestral sounds have to sound realistic all of the time?

The Emu, Alesis and Ensoniq synths had a very `American' sound which can only be described as being less 'silky' than their Japanese Korg, Roland and Yamaha counterparts. Combine the two together and you get the most phenomenal layered sounds! My Alesis S4 Plus Quadrasynth module and Ensoniq TS12 sounded awesome when used in conjunction with my Korg and Roland synths. I never owned any Emu synths but I always loved trying them out in the music stores at the time. What an absolute shame that both Ensoniq and Emu no longer exist.

Also Pied Piper just literally ripped one of the demo riffs straight from it for "Do you really like it"

So the knobs of the filters are used only on the mixing of you the song or you can save the presets for future use next time in different project??

If you’re a composer and like EMU sounds, I recommend Digital Sound Factory Kontakt banks… they’re very well made sound libraries to recreate the sounds of the old Proteus series (first ones and then the whole 2000, Mo’Phatt, Xtreme Lead, Virtuoso, etc…).

These old synths are magical. I recently bought an Ensoniq ESQ-M. Does it makes sense? Probably not. I think about it as an external VST and it won't take 10% CPU time to run sounds through it. And it sounds absolutely beautiful, if you find or make the right presets.

What's the best VSTi of the E-mu stuff...i remember there was a bunch of emu racks very colorful ones used in the 90s... any idea? I'm just happy Roland made the old racks as a plugin available...

the synth has great modulation and sound design capabilities, but somehow i don't see many custom made electronic patches out there. shame that myself also never bothered to make my enough of my own presets. also this synth supports custom scales! this can be important for some of us

I had a 2000. I bought it for stupid cheap back around 2003. Absolutely hated it. Sold it ASAP. Editing was a PITA, and it didn't really sound any better than my other gear at the time.

I still have a Yamaha TG500 in my setup. Not exactly a synth, but from the 90s ... maybe it still counts ...

9:02 digital filter steps, ohhh shit! 🫤

Is the Proteus Custom any different from a Proteus 2000 ?

But proteus 1 didn't have any filters or LFO. But it was still great

Where is the site?

I used it for composing scores and foley for Adult movies back in the days.

4:33

please a little help with P2K logic environment

Do they have all the sounds from the Proteus 1 and 2?

GREAT DNB AND UKG MODULA SYNTH 👍👍👍