Ultra Proteus: Rock/Pop & Orchestra

Overview
The Ultra Proteus is a wizard combination of all the various older Proteus modules, with the then new Z-plane filters from the Morpheus - and with falling memory prices - 16 MB of ROM. This is the Ultimate second generation Proteus, with samples made in the Emulator III.

There are 5 banks of 128 presets, each arranged as:

       Bank 0 - RAM Presets
       Bank 1 - ROM Presets
       Bank 2 - RAM Hyperpresets
       Bank 3 - Card Presets
       Bank 4 - Card Hyperpresets

The UltraProteus is mult-timbral and can respond to 16 different MIDI channels at once. The FX settings are stored in up to 16 different MIDIMaps, along with other parameters. The UltraProteus is compatible with Proteus 1/2/3 presets over SysEx, missing parameters are filled in by the Ultra.

Filters The Ultra uses the same 32 Z-plane 14-pole digital filters as the Morpheus, but there is an incredible 288 different filters stored in ROM - that's nearly 100 more than in the Morpheus. The usual low pass 24dB analog like filter is also present. You can morph between different filters over time.

Configuration The Ultra Proteus implements a traditional analog synthesiser - digitally. There are two "oscillators" called Primary and Secondary Instruments. They can each replay any of the 16-bit sampled waveforms, and up to four of these Instrument pairs can be layered under one key. The waveforms are replayed first via a simple digital tone control, then the powerful Z-plane filter and finally a digitally controlled amplifier (DCA) and pan.

The amplifier is modified by a dedicated AHDSR envelope generator. There are also two independent LFO's (triangle, sawtooth, square, sine and random waveforms), and an auxiliary envelope generator (DADHSR) and two function generators, which can be patched into the Instruments, Low Pass Filter or DCA. There is also portamento, and cross fade between the two Instruments. Up to 8 sounds can be layered on each key, by linking four Presets.

LCD The Ultra uses the standard green 16x2 LCD display, augmented by a MIDI activity LED, and LED's for Master, Preset, Midimap, Hyperpreset, Copy and Home.

Front Panel Controls The Ultra has slightly more controls than a standard Proteus module, however it remains easy to use. The controls are:Power Switch, Master Menu Select Button, Edit Menu Select Button, Home/Enter Button, Cursor Controls, Data Entry Control and Volume Control.

RAM Cards The RAM card is a 256kbyte SRAM PCMCIA Type I card designed with a dual battery system. The primary battery is a replaceable but non rechargeable 3V lithium battery which lasts for 10 years. There is a second onboard rechargeable but non replaceable battery for data retention during primary battery change. This design allows replacement of the primary battery without data loss for approximately 20 minutes. There is a write protect switch on the SRAM card.

MIDI The Ultra Proteus provides powerful tools for controlling the Z-Plane filters, via an enhanced version of the MIDI Patch Modulation System for unmatched real-time control and expressivity. The new Hyperpreset mode lets you split, layer and cross-switch between 16 presets at once- for creating sounds so thick you can swim in them

Waveforms The 470 sampled waveforms are at the heart of this module. They are E-mu Systems ROM sets 9 and 10, and include all the samples from the Proteus 1, 2, 3 and the Stereo Grand Piano from the Performance module. Samples include:Pianos, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Orchestral Instruments, Standard Synthesizer Waveforms, Harmonic Waveforms, Vintage samples incl. Moog & B3Percussion - acoustic and electronic drums.

Name Part Number Downloads Sound Diver  SysEx Preset List Proteus 1,2,3 9211 Expressive Orchestra 9212 Real World 9213 Dance/Techno 9214 General MIDI 9215 Trance Track 9216 Factory Presets

Inside A very high quality internally design, with extensive use of surface mount chips, and a small power supply.The Ultra packs five new ASIC chips to deliver the Z-plane filters, as well as a fast Motorola 68020 processor and the standard six 18-bit Analog Devices DAC's (1860's). A fast Analog Devices DSP (ADSP2115) is mounted on a small daughter board at the front of the main board. It delivers 25 MIPS and it used is used for the for the effects processing. There is a 72 pin SIMM socket at the right of the mainboard, filled with the 8 MB of expanded sample ROM, with the other 8 MB of ROM mounted on the main board.
 

Demo Sequence Press and hold the Hyperpreset and Midimap buttons together to play the two song demo.

Song 1   Song 2

* 32 Voice Sample Replay
* 16-bit 39kHz
* 1U Rack
* 470 samples
* G- and H-chip based
* 288 preset Z-plane Filters
* 16 MB sample RAM
* Internal FX - 31 presets* * 128 RAM Presets
* 128 ROM Presets
 

* Model Number 9060
* Launched 1994
* Launch price was $1500
* Secondhand now $350
 

The Ultra cannot be expanded with more samples. It does take ROM/RAM cards through a front panel slot. Each ROM/RAM card will store an extra 128 presets, 128 Hyperpresets and 16 more MIDIMaps. They do NOT store or contain new samples.
 

E-mu sold a RAM card (part # 9220), which is obsolete.

Pretec still manufacture new RAM cards. You need a 256kbyte 5V SRAM PC card - without Attribute Memory. The Part Number is SN5256-P.
 USA from Pretec  more »
 UK from Jacktron  more »
  

E-mu Systems released four ROM cards with new presets - no new samples.

 9211 Proteus 1, 2, 3
 9212 Expressive Orchestra
 9213 Real World
 9214 Dance/Techno
 9215 General MIDI
 9216 Trance Track
 

There is an excellent dedicated web site for the Ultra Proteus maintained by Brad Franzella.    more » 
 

The Ultra Proteus has a full range of internal diagnostics, but beware they can cause speaker damage and the initialisation routine is one way. To enter diagnostics mode, power on with both cursor keys held down. There are 16 modes, which test out all the various components inside the module.

You may need to reinitialise the Ultra if it locks up or crashes. To re-initialilise and ERASE all user preset data, select Diagnostic 16 and press enter. Kapow ! You will now need to reload RAM with your presets and the E-mu factory presets.