Proteus 3 : World

Overview The Proteus 3 was released in 1991, enabling musicians to access a tremendous range of Ethnic instruments without the need for an expensive Emulator. It contained 32 voices of multi-timbral samples, coupled to a basic synthesizer sound architecture. The sounds for the Proteus 3 came directly from the EIII library (with a bit of sample rate changing), and includes ney flutes, celtic harps, shofars, bagpipes , tablas, tamburas, banjos and didjeridoos. These are good ethnic sounds that still stand up today, and if you have an EII or even an EI, you may recognise the sounds ! Watch out for the bagpipes which are really badpipes.

XR The XR model has additional RAM for storing another 192 user presets. E-mu shipped these models with 128 new presets, and duplicated 64 ROM presets in RAM.

Filters & Effects There are none (!), even though the necessary digital filter chip had been designed and used in the Emax II - it was too expensive to use in the Proteus 3.

Configuration The Proteus 3 module implements a basic synthesizer - digitally. There are two "oscillators" called Primary and Secondary Instruments. They each can replay any of the 16-bit sampled waveforms. The waveforms are replayed first via a simple low pass tone control, then a digitally controlled amplifier (DCA) and stereo pan. The amplifier is modified by a dedicated envelope generator.

Verdict  The Proteus 3 was very good in 1991, and it remains a cheap source of Ethnic sounds - if you are on a tight budget. Don't pay more than $350/£200, otherwise you might as well get a Proteus 2000 and Protozoa ROM, or an ESI2000 and a nice Ethnic sample CDROM.

Advantages: Wide range of Ethnic sounds, cheap S/H

Disadvantages : Sounds are a bit limited now, thin sounding.

 Protozoa ROM  If you want the sounds of the Proteus 1, 2 and 3 then check out this ROM for the Proteus 2000. It has all the waveforms from these modules authentically reproduced.

* 32 Voice Sample Replay
* 16-bit 39kHz samples
* 1U Rack
* 211 samples
* G-chip based
* Tone Control no Filters
* 4 MB sample ROM
* 128 ROM Presets
* 64 RAM User Presets
* XR has 256 RAM Presets
 

* Base Model # 9040
* XR Model #9043

* Launched 1991
* Discontinued 1994?
* Launch price $995
* XR model was $1295

* Second Hand Price $200
 

* XR upgrade
 

E-mu Systems created preset libraries on PC floppy with a SysEx file and two DOS programs for sending and transmitting the files.

Volumes for the Proteus 3
* 3105 New World
* 3106 Beyond the World
 

* Sound Quest MidiQuest
   - Atari/Amiga/Mac/PC
* Emagic SoundDiver
   - Mac/PC
 

To reset the module hold down "master" and "edit" while you switch it on. This puts you in diagnostics mode, then scroll through the options and select the final option which is "initialize". It will wipe out your user definable patches and reset the module back to its factory state. Please use with care (backup your presets first), and DO NOT use the other diagnostic modes.

Early models of the Proteus do not have this re-initialize option and need to be send back to the factory for a ROM upgrade.