E-mu Proteus 2000

Price Paid: US $799

Ease of Use: 9
THIS IS THE MOST SIMPLE SOUND MODULE OUT THERE! IF YOU ARE THE TYPE WHO DOES NOT WANT TO SACRIFICE CREATIVE TIME TO FIGURE OUT YOUR KEYBOARD THEN THIS IS THE ONE 4 YOU.
I still have the original software version installed. The reason I purchased this unit is because I needed something that was easy to use while programming (as not to waste creative time).
I hate keyboards that have a complicated interface. It also saves all your settings for recall later or on another P2k BEAT THAT!

Features: 9
THE MAIN REASON YOU WANT THIS KEYBOARD MODULE IS BECAUSE IT IS EXPANDABLE!
It has 4 slots for sound ROMs and I predict that in addition to the retail ROMs that are on the market there will some rouge sound programmers that will create and sell ROMs on the internet (Yes, You can create sound ROMs for this unit)
There is no sequencer but you must keep in mind it is a sound module (works great with the AKAI MPC series)
The OS is upgradable too!... new features can be downloaded from the internet.
Built in effects are okay but not impressive and hard to manage (if you have outboard gear then don't worry)

Expressiveness/Sounds: N/A
Out the box Piano sounds have about three winners. The rest are thin and uninteresting. The electric pianos are okay. Organs are a waste of time but the expansion ROMS promise better detail and "natural feel" ...luckily I didn't buy it for pianos!!!
The BASS SOUNDS are good and plenty, Drum kits have hard stiff kicks and 32 midi channels more than compensates for the ability to create custom kits. PRC banks are good (oh yeah everything is categorized)
THE GOOD PART IS THAT SOUNDS CAN BE TWEAKED TO GET WHAT YO WANT! -my proteus didn't come with a decent rhodes...but with a little playing around you can make something that will make you feel very good. A good synthesis can make this a powerful tool.

Reliability: 9
It always turns on...
although... this original OS has midi locks sometimes when using the repeat key function on my MPC 2k. Other that that just power cycle the unit (your settings will save in a multi program)

Customer Support: N/A
never had to call 'em

Overall Rating: 9
Definitely the budgey alternative to a lot of the leading sound modules out there. With two $300-400 expansions and a creative mind for effects and filters you can work smarter and not harder.

Submitted by Anonymous at 12/20/2000 14:57

Price Paid: US $640.00

Ease of Use: 9
Man, I love this thing! Some say the presets are little dull. Well, I'll tell you a little secret. Those buttons and knobs will make just about any preset come to life. Editing was easy after I spent a few hours (3 or 4) acclimating myself to the architecture (my first E-mu purchase). It was worth it! Look, a few fellow musicians that I know had heard the Proteus in the music store. They hated it. After hearing the sounds coming out of mine they asked if they could use it to record with. These guys have everything from Tritons to Jupiters. And much more experience with synths than I have. A testament to its ease of use.

Features: 10
128 voices! Decent 24-bit effects! Expandable! 32 midi channels! For the price it's almost unbelievable.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 9
I find the drum kits, basses, synths and electric pianos to be the most musical of the instruments. However, with tweaking just about any of the presets can become useful. Initially I thought the unit sounded thin and sterile, but the editing capabilities fattened up the sounds I needed.

Reliability: 10
The Proteus is very, very reliable. I've done sessions where I needed to run the thing literally for days (27 hours continuous). Not even so much as a phantom midi gremlin.

Customer Support: N/A
I have not had to deal with customer support.

Overall Rating: 9
I'd definitely replace my Proteus. I've been playing (bass, keys) for 16 years. I have a Roland VS1680, Ensoniq ASR10, Dell 4100 (733) running LOgic Gold, Ibanez SR890 bass and RT350 guitar (a cheapie that sounds amazing) and lots of other stuff.

Submitted by Randy Savage at 12/19/2000 21:47

Price Paid: US $699

Ease of Use: 5
Using v1.10 of the OS. The P2000 is relatively easy to use, but the FX patch cord setup is a nightmare when using it in multi mode. I have yet to be able to get the FX processors to respond to any controller messages... this after considerable help from Emu support.

Features: 5
Great polyphony. Having 32 MIDI channels is a plus, and having SP/DIF output is a definite plus. Again, the FX are very difficult to configure in multi mode and rather inflexible. The doc on this subject is very cryptic and sometimes just flat out in error. There are extensive editing capabilities, but I really can't comment on that too much not having had a chance to get into it yet. I'm really hoping for SoundDiver support soon so I can do it all from the PC.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 5
The piano sounds are pretty lame. The orchestral sounds are a bit cheesy too, but there are a dozen or so that really shine in that area. The percussion is fairly weak overall. The bass sounds and the synth sounds are the strength of this module. I wouldn't want to be stuck with this as my only synth, but as a supplemental unit, it is really great.

Reliability: 3
My first unit died after 3 days. I took it back and immediately got a replacement that has been functioning perfectly for more than a year. But it has never been moved or even touched physically very much at all... it just sits in the rack.

Customer Support: 7
Emu has decent customer support. You can eventually even talk to a human being. It's not the best support department I've dealt with, but it's a long way from the worst.

Overall Rating: 2
I wouldn't buy this unit, or any other synthesizer ever again. Now that I have my DAW machine running GigaStudio, paying any money at all for any kind of dedicated hardware synth or digital recorder is a pure waste of money. If I had the $700 I spent on this thing, I'd buy the Quantum Leap Brass Giga Library.

Submitted by Timothy Martin at 04/17/2000 15:07

Price Paid: US $1000

Ease of Use: 10
OS 1.10.

Presets are ok, sound is quite warm and full. lot's of patches I don't need and some that I need are not there.

Editing is fine, that is if you have worked with other proteuses or proteuses like boxes. A patch editor makes always a difference, as there are gazillions of parameters, but you can always tweak the sound with the dedicated front knobs (and save the changes) or really quickly go in edit mode and modify stuff.

Manual is great as usual, a la EMU.

Features: 9
poliphony is big, 32 midi channels are nice to have (personally I don't use them all). SPDIF is another nice to have. Multisetups in a rack are not common, but they are there. Ability to sync everything to MIDI clock (including envelopes) is a great plus. And additional cards can be added (haven't done it yet).... some other stuff I might have forgot.
You cannot create your own drumkits

Expressiveness/Sounds: 8
All the stuff is fine. some stuff shines.

Personally I think there's lot of junk in the basic ROM that comes with the unit, I don't need sounds of somebody going yeah yeah, aha aha, guitars going plink twank. Anyway some people do, when this is the only machine. The ROM that ships with the machine is mainly geared toward contemporary dance stuff (I think they took waves from vintage keys, Orbit, Planet Phatt mainly).

There's lot of single cycle waveforms from all around the synth world which is very nice.

Onboard effects are ok, personally I use outboard gear most of the time anyway.

Finally after a year some new ROMs are coming out to fill up the weak spots of the P2000, orchestral sounds and piano sounds.

Reliability: 10
it's well built,
My proteus 1XR needed one small repair this year after, 10 years of great work.....

I use it live with no back up. I don't really get this question... if the machine explodes I will use anything available to make noise until the end of the gig, shit happens.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
I own and I have owned lots of stuff...
if I need "that" sound I turn to the P2k (usually basses, pads, and some of the percussive stuff).
I don't expect any synth to sound like the real thing. ever. (I used to in the time of pure analog)-I just want my ears to be pleased.

Submitted by Riccardo at 03/21/2000 04:21

Price Paid: US $700.

Ease of Use: 8
v1.05
some excellent presets; some pretty bad. the piano's a disappointment; thin, edgy; great basses, great drums. mostly intuitive, fx setup took me a bit (using it solely multitimbral)

Features: 8
i already know i need the piano module; has anyone heard it? mostly, though, great features, easy to setup multi's...

Expressiveness/Sounds: 8
the piano sucks; overall the sounds are good, sometimes a bit thin...
i bought this for a project where i needed "meat & potatoes" sounds, so i'm somewhat disappointed BUT: i mostly do hip-hop and can't wait to run with the drumkits, basses, fx..

Reliability: N/A
too soon to tell

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
overall, a winner; i'm tempted to do an all-proteus record using the digital out...
use it with a roland xp60, which, expanded, has a great piano, strings.
the proteus is thinner, but cleaner (by a mile), and great definition.
i bought it instead of a jv2080; i'm happy with that decision.

Submitted by Anonymous at 02/26/2000 16:54

Price Paid: US $750

Ease of Use: 8
I'm using version 1.05.
The presets are excellent in some regards questionable in others. the acoustic pianos are too thin, the electric are great. Organs are passable but there too many bass patches.

Features: 10
128 voice polyphony is terrific. Efeects are good but don't through out you outboard gear. Needs rotary speaker algor. Expansion is easy with four intrnal slots. No sequencer.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
As said before, the sounds are for the most part excellent.
It works well for all genres. Emu didn't spend a lot of money on effects but made up forit in other ways.
I use a master controller with 16 velocity curves so velocity is no problem.

Reliability: 10
It's very dependable, I am on the road with it and it is as reliable as any of my other synths.
I don't depend on any one box to do it all. I have a Voce V3, Kurzweil piano module, fully loaded JV 1080, and the Proteus.

Customer Support: 8
The company was somewhat helpful but doesn't have an 800 number.

Overall Rating: 10
I would definitely replace it.
I have been playing professionaly for over 30 years.
I love everything about it except it defaults to midi channel 1 on startup.
It really adds to my rig, theres nothing I can't duplicate in regards to sounds.

Submitted by Steve Campito at 01/25/2000 17:08

Price Paid: US $700+

Ease of Use: 8
Quite easy to use, considering the small display. I use K2500 (stuffed) and Trinity at my day job, so I consider that I can even stand the user interface on the p2k tribute to it's intelligent design and sensible ergonomics.

Features: 10
To quote Will Smith - "Damn!" Expansion, midi capabilities are fabulous. I haven't yet figured how to dial in per-midi-channel fx settings, but not a major problem for live performance.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 10
I found at least as many useable sounds "out of the box" as I did with both the Kurzweil K2500 and the Korg Trinity. Extremely playable, very decent fx. Missed a leslie fx first, than realized that the cross-fading thing worked just fine for gigs, saved me from locking up one of the two fx processors on leslie algorithm. Very impressed with brass, rhodes, woodwinds, strings (with a few noticeable loop points - gotta sell those expander sound sets!) fabulous bari saxes, rippin' b-3's! First gig was with trio - bass, drums, and me with QS-6 & Casio strap-on driving P2K. Playing everything from "Cream" by Prince to "Soul Man", and modern R&B/Funk/Rap. Unit made me look (and sound) damn good!

Reliability: 10
Could use this thing to pound nails, and it would still work. Backup? We don't need no steenking backup! (said with appropriate accent)

Customer Support: N/A
n/a

Overall Rating: 10
I'd re-purchase in a heartbeat. Been playing professionally for 28 years. Personally own Alesis QS-6, Casio Strap-on. At my day job, I use K2500 (completely stuffed) and Trinity. The P2K was a fabulous value, stands up (and would complement) my two flagship axes, and I think that the 4 knobs (3pages deep) that give you control to 12 parameters is very cool, would work very elegantly with K2500's sliders.

Submitted by Daryl at 01/01/2000 14:51

Price Paid: US $800 out the door

Ease of Use: 9
I didn't think that it would be this easy to use this module. I'm currently using version 1.003. But pretty much as soon as I got it out of the box I was producing. I just had to make a few adjustments in the Master/Main menu and I was on my way, wich by the way was explained very easily in the manual. The Multi-Mode is very easy to use. A friend of mine was already producing a track within' 15 mins. The only draw back that I can see with the use is that you can't cursor up and down. Only left to right.

Features: 9
Features are great! You have 4 real time controlers that you can use to tweak the sounds. So tweak away. You have 3 extra slots (4 all together) to expand more sounds. I can't wait to get more sounds. It's a bummer that there aren't a lot just yet. 128 voice polyphony? Well hey. . . i don't think you'll have to worry about voice drops. and you have 32 channels to produce with.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 7
The sounds I have to say are hmm. .. .very good. Depending on what you are looking for. For R&B/Hip-Hop or maybe even pop, the sounds are great. These are the sounds you are looking for. I know I was. I'd have to give this a 9. But as for strings, brass(most of them, but there are some really nice ones), basically live acoustic/orchestra type sounds, it isn't as good as I'd like it to be. So in this arena i'm left wanting more. But with the new expansion slots my opinion may change.

Reliability: N/A
I haven't had the machine more than a week. So i can't honestly tell you how reliable it is. I'll let ya know later on

Customer Support: 7
Never had to use it yet. Actually I called to ask a quick question once, and they picked up within 3 rings. That was cool. .No long wait. And when the guy picked up, he was cool.

Overall Rating: 9
If this was lost or stolen I would purchase another one. This is the best buy for it's price that I've seen. It's very easy to use, and the sounds are really good. Again for the live acoustic sounds, it could be better, but nothing sucked on the machine. I've compared this machine to the Roland JV 1080 & 2080 and I bought this because it was cheaper and the sounds are much newer. The Roland modules have been out for years, and there sounds are getting dated. Unless you program your own. But the strings especially are better on the Roland boards IMO. But the PROTEUS 2000 is definately a great buy. Go out and check it out for yourself. I think you'll like it.

Submitted by Ro at 12/30/1999 08:48

Price Paid: US $780

Ease of Use: 8
Once you get thew hang of it, the E-mu interface is intuitive and convenient. I use cubase, but prefer doing as much editing as possible from the box itself. A simple "edit" button allows you to tinker with the presets and the "Master" button allows make changes for the entire machine. Simple things like changing the velocity curves or setting the knobs to transmit are really easy to do and helpful when getting started ( I had to change the velocity curves right away so that I could get the keyboards to sound right. Also, the laytou of the presets is really helpful. This thing has a ton of sounds, so its really helpuf that its setup in a way that you can find what your looking for. I read the manual from cover to cover beofre using the synth (a had a long flight). It helps a ton, and has some good textbook style info on LFOs, etc. I ran into some trouble with the effects section. It didn;t make much sense to me at first. There is one master effects setting that land in a preset. If you want different wet/dry ratio then you have to direct them out of the other outputs ("subs") in the back (I hope you have some mixer channels free!). Though this works, it seems a little weak for such a powerful machine. My less powerful Korg X5D allows you to change ratio of effects on each channel and still go out the master output.

Features: 10
This is and extremely powerful machine for the money. You can do a ton with it. It funtions both as a sample base synth and a virtual analog synth. The effects sound ok but not awesome (also, see above). Four expansion slots should come in handy as starts making E-mu making more boards. 32 channels of MIDI is a really nice thing to have.

Expressiveness/Sounds: 9
The sound is quite good. All sounds are serviceable, but some are better than others. I was surprised to find that I like the the synth sounds better than the orchestral ones (compares to the original proteus). However, the Prtozoa expansion board takes care of that. The pads are really nice and the electric keyboards are really good. The pianos are surpsingly good. There are plenty of drums to choose from, though some of the samples dropped off a bit quick. The real time contorller knobs are great for techno/dance stuff (or even adding some science to guitar driven stuff). In all, there are enougn winning sounds to make this thing work quite well. Also, if you get in and start creating presets, the possibilities are endless.

Reliability: N/A
I have had no problems.

Customer Support: 9
I called them once for some help with the effects. For the most part they seemed pretty nice and had answers to my qestions (still, I have yet to find customer service as good as Mackie!)

Overall Rating: 9
I was choosing betweent he JV 1080 and the TR Rack. For less money I got a great souding powerful machine that can be used on many levels. I expect this machine to keep me busy for quite some time. I can't wait for more expansion boards.

Submitted by Anonymous at 12/29/1999 12:17

Price Paid: US $799

Ease of Use: 8
I "bought" one from GC recently, it came with OS 1.05, which is the latest. The OS can be updated via internet by the user, which is becoming more standard these days (Access! Waldorf!!) and is a welcome trend. The presets are not the strength of this machine, but thanks to the front panel knobs you can access 12 parameters nearly instantly. I found editing the patches to be quite straight-forwar, considering the two-line interface, and was able to get around the machine fairly quickly without having to crack the manual. The first thing I usually check outon a synth is the piano patches, and I was quite dismayed with preset #1, which is supposedly the showcase piano for this synth. The upper octave fades into nothingness, and the lower octave sounds extremely looped and fake. more aboout this stuff in "sounds."

Features: 8
Polyphony is an astounding 128 voices. 32 MIDI channels, very nice! The effects are quite good for a box this inexpensive, and were readily tweakable. There was some noise introduced with the effects, maybe a little more than necessary, but I was able to tweak them out. The board will accept four expansion cards as they become available from EMU, and because you can use an EMU IV sampler to burn your own ROM, it gives you the astounding advantage of putting your own custom sounds (up to 32 megs!) into the machine. I love that! One major bummer- the first Piano ROM expansion from EMU and Q-Arts, the "Holy Grail" piano, is only a 16meg ROM chip. If you have the capabilities to place a 32 Meg piano into a synth, why not do it???????

Expressiveness/Sounds: 4
Piano sounds- HORRIBLE. Flat, lifeless, non-existant upper octave, looped lower octave, and the overall volume of the piano sample seems to be kinda low. Lots of obvious loop points and sample mapping splits. VERY DISSAPPOINTING. Also sub-optimal: the strings are thin and strangely out of tune. The brass is fairly good (no french horn?) and the winds are very good. Hammonds and electric pianos are surprisingly good. Basses are varied and extremely good (too many popped and slapped, though), and the drums are EXCELLENT! (Better than the EMU Procussion by a long stretch) Only minor flaw- no GM drumkits for you GM people. As far as not being able to construct kits, the obvious workaround is to use several of those 32 midi channels and construct your kit o'dreams that way. So what if you use 8 channels for drums, you still have 24 to work with! Also extremely good- many synth sounds, with a wide range of classic synth emulations, done very well. You can do nice portamento leads. The arpeggiated "bpm" presets are extremely fun!

But the overall sound of the Proteus, to my ears, is kind of thin and edgy. Maybe that's great for cutting thru a mix, but I would rather have all those frequencies and take them out with EQ at the mixing board than to have this vaguely cold, unsatisfying sound straight from the synth. I also am extremely bummed about the pianos, a huge step backward for EMU (I have a Korg SG-Rack to compare it to, it doesn't come anywhere near it- the Korg is much more bold, vibrant, has a singing sustain, etc. and they do this with about 15megs of memory dedicated to three piano samples!) My big fear here is that EMU put in a whole bunch of sounds ranging from bad to some excellent, but to get the really satisfying sounds you will have to spring for the expansion boards. I haven;t heard the "Holy grail" piano yet, but I wouldn't buy the Proteus without it. You'll probably want the orchestral ROM too, my understanding is that it will be 64 megs across two boards.

Reliability: N/A
I have a EMU Procussion which has given me 8 years of uninterrupted service, I would imagine the Proteus would have similar quality, but it is only conjecture on my part.

Customer Support: N/A
Never contacted EMU. There is a Proteus mailing list, and EMU maintains a presence on it. I think it's great when a synth company gives you access to their personnel, or when one of their people makes the effort to participate in mailing-lists regarding their products.

Overall Rating: 5
The Proteus is a fantastic idea for an incredible price, but for me the most important consideration is the sound, especially pianos (I do a lot of solo piano playing, and have years of acoustic playing to compare it to) and the Proteus just wasn't to my taste. It is definitely a great product with lots of expansion possibilities, but I urge you to really spend some time with it (preferably in your home/studio/practice area) and really listen to it to see if it fits your needs. I am looking for a unit with excellent piano, drum and "bread-and-butter" sounds that could be used as a foundation for my VA synths, and was really hoping the Proteus would work for me, but unfortunately I ended up returning it. I will probably go with a sampler so that I can have the sounds I am specifically looking for.

Submitted by MLC at 12/24/1999 08:10