Planet Earth

World Sound Module

Overview The Planet Earth was launched in the Fall of 2000 as the Ethnic Module in the new Proteus "1000" range - taking over the throne from the Proteus 3. With a highly credible 64 voices and 32MB of samples, the Planet Earth contains a wide range of world samples - from Africa to Brazil.

Expansion The base model Planet Earth has 1 ROM slot free for expansion. This slot can take a 32 MB ROM, either a factory sound set or a Flash ROM with sounds created in an Emulator Ultra.

E-mu Systems launched a range of sound ROM's (at $249 - $295 each): The TURBO upgrade takes the module to full Proteus "2000" specification (6 analog outs, Coax SP/DIF or AES/EBU digital out, 32 MIDI channels, and 4 ROM slots).

Filters The Planet Earth has 50 Z-plane 14-pole digital filters some of which are extracted from the 197 filter types that were created for the Morpheus. Some are rather newer (e.g. TB303!). There are a wide range of filters from traditional analog, to formants and flange/phaser. If you use some of the more complex filters your voice polphony will reduce by a half.

Configuration There are four "oscillators" called Instruments, Layers 1 - 4. They each can replay any of the 16-bit sampled waveforms, which are connected to the Z-plane filter, and then a digitally controlled amplifier(DCA) and stereo pan.

There are 2 envelope generators (one for the filter, and one for the DCA), plus a third assignable envelope generator. There are also two independent LFO's per layer, each with 17 different waveforms and they can sync to MIDI clock. Then there is a full modular patch cord facility to enable control of any of the 64 destinations, with any of the 64 sources.

Effects There are the usual Proteus dual 24-bit effects set up, with 76 types of basic effects. Very useful, but not a substitute for a dedicated unit.

Technical The Planet Earth is a standard Proteus 1000 module, with a very fast (17 MIPS) 32-bit Motorola ColdFire micro-processor running at 33MHz, a few special E-mu Systems chips for the 64 voices, and the infamous Dave Rossum digital filter "G" chip. This form factor also has 2 slots of 72-pin SIMM, one factory fitted with the 32MB World Expedition ROM, the other is blank for a user upgrade. The DAC's are upgraded from the 18-bits used in the Audity 2000, to 20-bits. This provides more headroom when using lots of voices together. The audio performance remains the same, as the sample are in 16-bits.

Diagnostics To enter diagnostics mode, power on with both cursor keys held down. There are 19 modes, which test out all the various components inside the module. To re-initialize and ERASE all user data, select Diagnostic 18 and press enter. Kapow!