Price Paid: N/A
Ease of Use: 2
The Proteus Orchestral I have uses no software.
The presets are pretty good except for the trumpet.
The editing is thorough as it is difficult. It is because of the small viewing window and push button and turn knob programing.
Either I lost the manual or it didn't come with one.
Features: 8
The polyphony worked very well up until a few weeks ago. The machine as suddenly lost it's ability to create the sounds and seems to be breaking down expotentially.
No built in effects.
No expansions.
It is not a keyboard.
No on board sequencer.
Expressiveness/Sounds: 7
I was told that these are sampled sounds from the actual instrument. The synthesiser was bought in 1996. To me it was beyond anything for duplicating actual instruments. I was totally happy with the woodwinds, percussion and strings. It was the brass that lacked splendor. The french horn was only sampled in two modes. Mezzo forte and Fortissimo. Any composer knows that the french horn has overtones unique to it's volume. At the time, however, I was utterly thankful that the horn had at least this much. The trumpets sounds bad, and short of manipulating the pitch and envelope, nothing sounds good with them. The trumpets are sampled in only two volumes, mezzo forte and fortisimo. The trombones are the only sound that is acceptable. The tuba doesn't sound deep or wide, it is tinny as if it was a trumpet at a much lower pitch. The rest of the orchestra is wonderful. I very much enjoyed their sounds and I was able to blend and compose for many happy hours.
I use it for orchestrations and symphonic type music. It needs reverberation but other than that it's been good.
Sometimes static is heard, especially when the polyphony is overloaded. The unit has no keyboard. The velocity action doesn't effect the timbre of the notes as it would in a genuine instrument.
Reliability: 9
Yes, up until a few weeks ago the synthesizer was completely reliable.
Yes.
Customer Support: N/A
I will have to reserve judgement on this until I deal with the company.
Overall Rating: 9
I am always looking for an exact duplicate of the actual instrument. That doesn't mean an exact duplicate of the instument which is played terribly. For me, I need to blend and fold sounds (together the way an orchestrator will do).
I've been a musician and composer for over 20 years. I also use some Roland equipment and the Proteus FX.
I love the Rolands percussion and synthetic strings, because they sound as you expect them to. I hate having to hear something that is miss-named. To me a violin should sound like a violin, not a sine wave run through an equalizer.
At the time I compared the Proteus Orchestral with Korg and some of the others. Nothing matched. I was disappointed with the FX because the salesman assured me that all the orchestral sounds were on the FX. They weren't. The french horn (on the FX)sounded like the hoot of a tug boat. On the other hand, the rest of the sounds were a joy to behold. The pianos where just like sitting in front of the real thing!
Do not change anything but the french horn, the trumpet, and the tuba. Sample the french horn in the soft, medium, and loud range. Do the same with all the brass. Fix the tuba so it really sounds like one. The company may need to increase the sampling rate of the equipment.
My experience with all synthesizers is that they are only a little less trouble than the actual musician. On the other hand they don't charge by the hour. For my money I prefer a the synthesizer except for the performance, then I think to use musicians.
Submitted by Jerry Costello at 08/13/2002 13:14
Price Paid: N/A
Ease of Use: 6
I have owned the proteus 2 for about 2 years. I am a serious composer, and feel I have spent serious amouts of time with this machine and as such am qualified to make a review. It was my first piece of midi equipment and I was dissapointed for months after I got it. Now I find it an indispensable tool for creating demos of my serious scores, and for composing quick soundtrack projects. The more I try other pieces of equipmant the more I realize that this is the only comprehensive collection of orchestral sounds available. Right off I will warn anyone to spend some trial time with this machine at all costs. You may not need it unless you want a convenient box to handle your orchestral needs. Lets face it, squinting at a two line lcd is not fun. The editing possibilities are great, but make sure its set at eye level to save your back. The factory presets are not entirely satisfactory. You NEED to do a decent amount of tweaking with this machine. The Proteus-2 will not dazzle you immediately. The demo sounds killer, but getting sequences even close to that level of quality is a learning process. This machine is truly an orchestra-in-a-box and as such, virtually requires a solid score to show its true colors. Really a product for serious composers to create a midi performance of they're works. I would stay away if I just wanted to get symphonic sounds by goofing around. I input excerpts of beethovens 7th, 1st movement and was quite impressed.
Features: 6
E-mu made a mistake when they made an orchestral module with only 32 voice polyphony. This limits the size of your score if your a Mahler-type glutton for huge orchestras (like me). Ive made some really killer sequences with this sucker, and 32 is enough for the most part. The reason its tough is because orchestral music is not static. The instruments change sound often. Swithcing patches from arco violins to pizzicato violins is a hassle. I'm not sure how old this thing is, but it would be nice to have built-in reverb (this is an orchestra! I want my massive hall effect!) nice assortment of alternate samples hidden in the sample menus that arent even used in the presets. The manual sucks. Bad. Its a "one size fits all" lazy-cost-cutting affair that trys to handle the proteus 1 2 and 3. for instance, examples use sounds from proteus 1 that this machine does not have. Lame and cheesy. It will confuse some people a lot. Organization is crappy too.
Expressiveness/Sounds: 8
The Proteus-2 is kind of a schitzophrenic machine when it comes to sounds. The strings are pretty sad (save the layered patches that eat up polyphony way to fast for orchestral music) and there should definately be alternate tympani sounds (it sounds good in a mezzo-forte, but has no 'pop' when loud and sounds to 'sharp' soft). On the other hand, this machine can suspend often suspend disbelief. The wind presets are fairly useless as all the base presets are geared towards a loud ff effect. Edit them and soften the attack and you have a realistic wind ensemble. Pizzicatos are great, as you can actually tell the difference beetween the different strings. Tuba is good, trumpets kinda bite in anything other than a fanfare (great harmon mute sound, though). Trombones are great, horns too quiet (needs more horn samples, too.) The 2 percussion patches are great (tubualr bells, assorted snare sounds, gong etc.). This modules presets are kinda iffy.
Reliability: 8
I hate plastic cases but otherwise have had no problems with the machine. I have had it running about 3 hours a day for about two years.
Customer Support: N/A
never dealt with them.
Overall Rating: 7
looking at my rating, realize that people WAAAAYYY over rate things on this review place. "Average" seems to equate with 8! So by my more down-to-earth scale 7 is great. Its hard to rate this machine, as it is very specialized. Most people will probably hate it. But composers seem to like it. It sounds great with a good hall reverb and speakers turned UP! I love to rock the house with the bass drum sound. The strings really are pretty useless, and I use another module for those sounds, reserving the polyphony on the pro-2 for the pizzicato alternate, and mix it all down for a nicely convincing "electronic orchestra".
Submitted by Josh at 11/13/1997 21:20
