Comments on: Cakewalk Brings Back the E-MU Proteus, in Plug-in Form (Mac/Windows)

By: MagMatician

MagMatician — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:19:32 +0000

Sorry to be late to the party, but I have a few questions: What specifically about the Dimension version of these soundsets is different from the soundfont versions that have been around for years? I bought the Module Mania bundle from Creative in 2001; are these the same samples and mappings from those packages? How does the Cakewalk kits compare to the same soundfont kits on Digital Sound Factory now? Is there an inherent difference in usability between the same samples presented in Dimension and soundfont formats (besides price)?

By: Daniel E. Friedman

Daniel E. Friedman — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:58:39 +0000

Proteus is a name that really brings back a flood of memories. I never bought the product but certainly knoew a lot of colleagues that did. It would be very interesting to hear these sounds again and examine if they still sound as good to me as they did way back then.

By: ChuckEye

ChuckEye — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 06:59:41 +0000

Any Procussion love? And didn’t E-Mu have a B3 unit in the same line?

By: Tim Swartz - Digital Sound Factory

Tim Swartz - Digital Sound Factory — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:34:59 +0000

Just wanted to make sure there are no misunderstandings. As Carl has said above, Digital Sound Factory has an exclusive license agreement with E-MU/Creative to re distribute the original E-MU library in alternate formats. All samples used in the Proteus Pack are the original samples used in the hardware sound ROM’s. We started with these waveforms and built the programs in Dimension to match the original hardware parameters as closely as possible. I produced the original sound sets for E-MU and found we could match most of the parameters in Dimension. We have all the hardware and A/B’ed for over six months! I think we came pretty close. Hope you like it.

Regards,

Tim

By: zinoff

zinoff — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:29:13 +0000

I am sure EMU has already released most of these soundset as SF2 (Soundfont) a few years ago?

I own at least 2 of them, mo’phat and virtuoso in SF form and while the samples are decent, as the mapping is and so on…

I own a hardware Proteus 2000 as well what they’re missing are at least the emu filter models and the extensive controller patching that came with the “proteus 2000 like” OS.

I wonder what could be new with this release.

By: Carl Jacobson - Cakewalk

Carl Jacobson - Cakewalk — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:20:49 +0000

Good question. We’re totally above the board.

When Tim Swartz parted ways with E-Mu part of his severance package was the right to redistribute all of the audio content he generated for them, with the right to acknowledge the E-Mu hardware that it was used on. So he took that sample content and then created programs for Dimension Pro with careful A/Bing to the original hardware to make sure it was an accurate represntation of both the sound and the playability.

By: Adrian Anders

Adrian Anders — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:06:53 +0000

True, my only concern with this collection is with how the samples were generated (that is did they actually come from either the hardware or the original sample material produced for EMU) and how complete the collection is (do they have ALL of the sounds/presets from the original modules).

I would really like to know how this project came about and how Cakewalk is able to get away with releasing this without E-MU’s legal attack dogs breathing down their necks. Notice that nowhere on the Cakewalk site is the official E-MU logo… which leads me to think that perhaps E-MU isn’t exactly giving this project their full blessing/support.

I mean try doing a commercial sample collection like this for the KORG M1 or Roland D-50… you’ll get shut-down REAL quick.

ATA

By: Valis

Valis — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:37:01 +0000

In my experience the biggest difference between Emu samplecd’s used outside of their hardware, and with the hardware, is the sound of the converters. Assuming all features in a given sample program are supported of course, but the Proteus stuff didn’t really use massive multisamples.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:30:40 +0000

Adrian: good idea!

Hmmm… who has the hardware these days? Holler at me, if so. :)

An A/B with E-MU’s stuff would be interesting, though it’s great to have a) Timothy’s involvement b) Dimension as the engine.

By: Adrian Anders

Adrian Anders — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:09:51 +0000

Hard to believe that Creative/Emu would be kosher with this considering they have their own sampler/rompler products in the form of Emulator X and Proteus X.

I would like an A/B of the new soundset with the original hardware to see if there are any major differences, especially when it comes to the more complex orchestral sounds.