Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

Here is my Emu Proteus 2500 review, coming from a professional 
musician that makes a living writing game soundtracks and 
commercials.  You can hear some of my work at 
http://www.mp3.com/azurecrystal .  I've had my Proteus for about 
three months now and I am VERY happy with the sound quality, the 
organization, and the awesome engineering behind it all(and all other 
P2k modules). So much so, I take it upstairs to my bedromm with a 
midi keyboard to compose late at night and I don't have to leave the 
P2500 module environment until I'm ready for final mix in Pro 
Tools !!  I have at least ten other "major" synths and modules and 
for many reasons, the P2500 is my favorite: 
Patches Review:
- KEY:Killer organs, sounds great all the way down to leslie leakage 
grit.
- BTS: The BTS presets (which have come alive with OS 1.31) are very 
inspirational and have given me great starting points for new tunes.
- BAS: Lot's of basses, IMHO are on the weak/thin side, could be a 
little fatter (like Oberheim, Moog), but still very useable. (I use 
my RED DarkStar to beef up things), just haven't found one I love yet.
- KIT: The Kits are wonderful, in fact having a hard time using all 
my other toys like the Zoom RT-323 and Yamaha DTX Drum pads...
- BPM: BPMs are fun, they work in any tempo and can be used 
creatively for other sfx...
- BRS: some nice brasses, most acoustic sounding, not a lot of beefy, 
Oberheim type synth brasses, but very authentic in sounds...
- STR: nice strings, good wide selection of acoustic and analog 
sounds there... Anywhere from solo, acoustic violins, to analog, 
synthy Tron type strings...
- GTR: good sweet sounding guitars, best ones are the acoustic and 
nylon sounds, the electrics a little thin, I prefer screaming patches 
like the Korg X5D's "GTFeedback"(#84) which I use on almost 
everything.
- HIT: hits are mostly hip hop oriented, and a GM hit type is 
missing....
- KEY: lot's of  useable pianos (acoustic), some nice electric, 
nothing incredible, but I managed to get a decent acoustic one I like.
- LED: Some interesting lead sounds, nothing I would love yet, I like 
the Syn category sounds better...
- PAD: nice, unusually rich Pads, my fav is "EvenMoEPIC!" , lot's of 
fun factor with these patches...
- SFX: great sfxs, from silly to neat spacey ones...
- SYN: Syn category is my fav, with many very useable poly synth 
patches, nice and fat ones too like "Sync" and "Profit 500" 
- VOX: not to many useable VOX category presets, nothing to call home 
for...
- WND: nice selection in winds, from purely acoustic to synthy, all 
good here....
Comments: I was able to put together a GM midi sound set by 
reassigning the program numbers, biggest omission I think was the 
French and English horns, but I see an "Instrument" waveform that 
maybe I can play with. 
Reasons why I purchased a P2500:
- To give me a module that had a good onboard sequencer, P2500 had a 
great one. 
- To get a synth module I could tweak without a librarian software; 
The P2500 is very logical in layout and use, the only module type 
synth I never gave up on, great to tweak so many parameters real-time 
easily. I can also use it exclusively with a midi key and everything 
I need.
- a complement of good quality "tweakable" sounds that can give me 
fresh ideas, it gave me that too; Love the BTS, and now with the 
enhanced stuff OS 1.31 added I'm having a great time triggering all 
kinds of variations and it works great with Pro Tools and sonar once 
you figure out how to control the bts groups which is mainly with the 
lower midi keys....
- but mainly it solves some big problems I had:  I needed to get a 
generic sound set which I can use to compose when I am in my bedroom, 
also being able to use a 88 key controller like the Fatar SL-880. 
Something which would provide me with a full function sequencer that 
can download/upload to my computer, finally a module where I can 
tweak my sounds (filter sweeping, etc...). In other words, a complete 
composer's workstation I can take with me anywhere so I can write 
music without the use of a software sequencer and a separate synth. 
In that respect the P2500 has solved my problem and more, it has 
given me a wider pallete to use for my stuff !!  Oh, BTW, every EMU 
module has a unique ID stamp that will not match EVEn if you use the 
Composer rom with P2500 presets. I tried using some P2k presets 
thinking I could just change every layer to the corresponding ID... 
Trust me, it's a lot of work and after long hours of trying, I just 
got garbage....  -Steve :-)

Thanks for the info Steve-

I really wasn't going to pass by the base P2K ROMS just on a sentence.
Now I'm hoping that EMU will send the 2500 ROM instead of he 
Composer, I'll just have to wait and see what the coupon got me...
(I've actually been looking forward to getting the ROM for the other 
horn samples that are not found on the Orchestral sessions (saxes, 
etc..)

P.S. I can]'t agree with you more about EMU products being so 
intuitive, the xx-7 command stations make writing and editing sooo 
quick !!

-payntar


--- In xl7@y..., "blueriv" <blueriv@y...> wrote:
> Here is my Emu Proteus 2500 review, coming from a professional 
> musician that makes a living writing game soundtracks and 
> commercials.  You can hear some of my work at 
> http://www.mp3.com/azurecrystal .  I've had my Proteus for about 
> three months now and I am VERY happy with the sound quality, the 
> organization, and the awesome engineering behind it all(and all 
other 
> P2k modules). So much so, I take it upstairs to my bedromm with a 
> midi keyboard to compose late at night and I don't have to leave 
the 
> P2500 module environment until I'm ready for final mix in Pro 
> Tools !!  I have at least ten other "major" synths and modules and 
> for many reasons, the P2500 is my favorite: 
> Patches Review:
> - KEY:Killer organs, sounds great all the way down to leslie 
leakage 
> grit.
> - BTS: The BTS presets (which have come alive with OS 1.31) are 
very 
> inspirational and have given me great starting points for new tunes.
> - BAS: Lot's of basses, IMHO are on the weak/thin side, could be a 
> little fatter (like Oberheim, Moog), but still very useable. (I use 
> my RED DarkStar to beef up things), just haven't found one I love 
yet.
> - KIT: The Kits are wonderful, in fact having a hard time using all 
> my other toys like the Zoom RT-323 and Yamaha DTX Drum pads...
> - BPM: BPMs are fun, they work in any tempo and can be used 
> creatively for other sfx...
> - BRS: some nice brasses, most acoustic sounding, not a lot of 
beefy, 
> Oberheim type synth brasses, but very authentic in sounds...
> - STR: nice strings, good wide selection of acoustic and analog 
> sounds there... Anywhere from solo, acoustic violins, to analog, 
> synthy Tron type strings...
> - GTR: good sweet sounding guitars, best ones are the acoustic and 
> nylon sounds, the electrics a little thin, I prefer screaming 
patches 
> like the Korg X5D's "GTFeedback"(#84) which I use on almost 
> everything.
> - HIT: hits are mostly hip hop oriented, and a GM hit type is 
> missing....
> - KEY: lot's of  useable pianos (acoustic), some nice electric, 
> nothing incredible, but I managed to get a decent acoustic one I 
like.
> - LED: Some interesting lead sounds, nothing I would love yet, I 
like 
> the Syn category sounds better...
> - PAD: nice, unusually rich Pads, my fav is "EvenMoEPIC!" , lot's 
of 
> fun factor with these patches...
> - SFX: great sfxs, from silly to neat spacey ones...
> - SYN: Syn category is my fav, with many very useable poly synth 
> patches, nice and fat ones too like "Sync" and "Profit 500" 
> - VOX: not to many useable VOX category presets, nothing to call 
home 
> for...
> - WND: nice selection in winds, from purely acoustic to synthy, all 
> good here....
> Comments: I was able to put together a GM midi sound set by 
> reassigning the program numbers, biggest omission I think was the 
> French and English horns, but I see an "Instrument" waveform that 
> maybe I can play with. 
> Reasons why I purchased a P2500:
> - To give me a module that had a good onboard sequencer, P2500 had 
a 
> great one. 
> - To get a synth module I could tweak without a librarian software; 
> The P2500 is very logical in layout and use, the only module type 
> synth I never gave up on, great to tweak so many parameters real-
time 
> easily. I can also use it exclusively with a midi key and 
everything 
> I need.
> - a complement of good quality "tweakable" sounds that can give me 
> fresh ideas, it gave me that too; Love the BTS, and now with the 
> enhanced stuff OS 1.31 added I'm having a great time triggering all 
> kinds of variations and it works great with Pro Tools and sonar 
once 
> you figure out how to control the bts groups which is mainly with 
the 
> lower midi keys....
> - but mainly it solves some big problems I had:  I needed to get a 
> generic sound set which I can use to compose when I am in my 
bedroom, 
> also being able to use a 88 key controller like the Fatar SL-880. 
> Something which would provide me with a full function sequencer 
that 
> can download/upload to my computer, finally a module where I can 
> tweak my sounds (filter sweeping, etc...). In other words, a 
complete 
> composer's workstation I can take with me anywhere so I can write 
> music without the use of a software sequencer and a separate synth. 
> In that respect the P2500 has solved my problem and more, it has 
> given me a wider pallete to use for my stuff !!  Oh, BTW, every EMU 
> module has a unique ID stamp that will not match EVEn if you use 
the 

> Composer rom with P2500 presets. I tried using some P2k presets 
> thinking I could just change every layer to the corresponding ID... 
> Trust me, it's a lot of work and after long hours of trying, I just 
> got garbage....  -Steve :-)

--- In xl7@y..., "payntaraspen" <payntar@h...> wrote:
> Thanks for the info Steve-
Your'e welcome :)
 
> (I've actually been looking forward to getting the ROM for the 
other 
> horn samples that are not found on the Orchestral sessions (saxes, 
> etc..)
Yes the horns sound very authentic and you could build a nice 
Orchestral suite with the P2500.

> P.S. I can]'t agree with you more about EMU products being so 
> intuitive, the xx-7 command stations make writing and editing sooo 
> quick !!
Been programming synths for many years, and just looking around at my 
studio right now, I think the only other piece of hardware I actually 
enjoyed learning in depth and tweaking, was the Zoom RT-323.  Emu 
beats Alesis, Korg, Yamaha at any chore related to on screen editing. 
Just the fact that you can scroll though just "bass" categories, or 
via banks, or prog numbers makes it very easy to find sounds you want 
quick. None of the synth modules or workstations I've had was as easy 
and fun to tweak.