Looking at Proteus /1 and /2

[Music Bird]

I love the sound based on demos. I’m planning to get these from EBay bundled together. I create mostly late 80’s early 90’s styles tracks when I’m doing originals. They even have the factory presets!

[Virgule]

I honestly love the old Proteus series. I used most of them with the exception of the Pro-Cussion and MPS Keyboards. They are simple and fast to use. Even had a Proteus/1 with the Protologic expansion at some point.

I personally could do with just having a Proteus 2 module at my disposal.

[Music Bird]

I’m also looking at a JV-880.

[madtheory]

You have Garageband so that can load EXS24 samples right? You can buy all of the Proteus range in one pack from the official licensed source:
https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/pro ... teus-pack/

Much easier to work with. The original machine was great back in the day but it's very clunky now with the tiny display for editing, and the limited outputs and polyphony.

[Music Bird]

You have Garageband so that can load EXS24 samples right? You can buy all of the Proteus range in one pack from the official licensed source:
https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/pro ... teus-pack/

Much easier to work with. The original machine was great back in the day but it's very clunky now with the tiny display for editing, and the limited outputs and polyphony.

I don’t know if that will work, I have iOS GarageBand. Also, it’s more fun for me to get the real thing. It means I don’t have to buy software, because I like freeware better.

[madtheory]

It's just amazing what the folks at Emu did to cram so much good stuff into these modules. I've been going through a friend's archive of tracks, entirely done with the Proteus 1. I have those sounds from back when I had an Emu ESI4000, there was a disc of "Emu Protozoa". Basically all of Proteus 1, 2 and 3 plus expansions. Takes up less than 40MB of disc space, and runs in Kontakt. I've been able to get all of our tracks back up in Pro Tools. Had to look up program numbers in the manual, but OMG. This is one punchy library. Then when you bring in more modern stuff like Pianoteq, those sounds are huge by comparison. Makes it quite easy to mix a track!

I think I'll be on a Proteus buzz for a while!!

For my work, I prefer having the sounds in Kontakt. It's much easier to do layering, tuning and panning than it was on the original machine. Plus, you get filters

Defo worth finding the original machine though. It has a lovely sound when things are transposed way down. Kontakt doesn't quite nail that.

[Music Bird]

The JV-880 & Proteus-1/2 are gone, but I see a Proteus 2000.