Proteus 1000

30th Anniversary

Overview E-mu Systems celebrated their low-end market strategy by introducing the cheapest ever Proteus module in the spring of 2002. The real celebration was 30 years of E-mu Systems as a business, but we can't help but think that Scott and Dave would not be impressed by this weakling of a module.

Its another repackaging of the Proteus 2000 module, this time slimmed down to just 32 MB of sound ROM - using the Composer sound set from the Proteus 2000 which you can't buy separately.

Features The Proteus 1000 is has 64 voices, the 32 MB Sound Composer ROM, and space for another 32 MB of additional sound ROM. The Operating System and Voice Archiercture are exactly the same as the other 64 voice modules.

Filters The usual 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. a TB303 emulation !) There are a wide range of filters from traditional analog, to formants and flange/phaser.

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 The same dual 24-bit effects set up is included, with 76 types of basic effects.

Verdict The Proteus 1000 is really bargain basement with a projected street price new below $600. But it is just less of the same, the sound architecture is indeed powerful but the FX chip is now 10 years old and its hardly easy to program. The DAC's are the old 20-bit designs and not the latest 24-bit items from the Proteus 2500.

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 Proteus 1000. To re-initialilize and ERASE all user data, select Diagnostic 18 and press enter. Kapow !