Finding a huge-sounding pad or rhythmic sound is not difficult, and the strings, brass and winds patches on offer are better used for enhancing the synthetic sounds rather than taking center stage. Given its limited amount of orchestral instruments and sheer abundance of weird synth patches, Proteus VX is more suited for hybrid type arrangements rather than pure virtual orchestration. Having said that, all the “real” instruments that are present sound big and full, though of course dated in terms of detail and expression.

If you happen to have a printed manual, it most probably is an earlier revision (mine is Revision C) and does not describe the new features in software version 2.26, like the new 12th order filters. The default unit was geared more towards other styles of music and the majority of presets consist of pop/rock/hip hop/EDM-oriented fare. Make sure you also get Revision E of the Proteus 2000 Operation Manual as a PDF file. Plus that several orchestral expansion boards were available for the Proteus 2000 as well. This isn’t overly surprising as E-MU released their dedicated orchestral unit Virtuoso 2000 shortly after the Proteus 2000 and I guess it made little sense having two of their products competing with each other. Browsing through the Composer bank some 14 years later, I think my assessment wasn’t too far off the mark.ĭespite having tons of some things, Proteus VX does however not have a full set of orchestral instruments. I had a Proteus 2000 for a couple of years in the early 2000’s but never took a liking to it as it felt like 80% of its presets were basses and organs. Having a lot to choose from is always very nice, but since many presets lack descriptive names and are only loosely ordered into categories, it’s difficult to find what you’re looking for without browsing through hundreds of them. The Composer bank has a whopping 1024 presets, which is both a blessing and a curse. Compared to the other two, Proteus VX sounds big, fat and expensive. The Composer bank is 32MB - 5.3x Cyclone’s RAM, and 8x the size of the S-YXG50 ROM - and the difference in audio fidelity is clear. the Proteus Family Instruments Proteus 2000, Audity 2000, Proteus 2500, XL-7, MP-7, PX-7, PK-6, MK-6, XK-6, Vintage Keys, Vintage Pro, Halo Focus The main focus is to provide an easy to use, easy to implement protocol for the specic function of editing Proteus family parameters from a remote system. Out of the three virtual instruments listed here, Proteus VX is the most modern (Cyclone is of course a much newer plugin, but emulates something far older) as its default Composer soundset is based on E-MU’s 1999 Proteus 2000 sound module.