KVR Audio

Saukar30 · Post by **Saukar30** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:36 am

Run the 32 bit version of Mulab until you can't anymore. Go full steam with that.

NOTHING sounds likes the original Emu sounds. They are special and one of kind. If you are looking for something similar you will be on a wild goose chase (from personal experience).

The Dimension/Rapture/Kontakt sounds are different. Sampletank/Wusik/UVI have their own flavor. Tal sampler may come close with some manipulatuon & simplification. To some they are just 1s & 0s. To puritists, there is no competition for an original sound from an original sampler.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:11 am

If you can get Emulator X3 from somewhere then it's a perfect replacement. It's native x64 and runs fine on all the latest versions of Windows. The activation can give you some trouble in some hosts but there are some fixes available for most things.

If you have all the EMU libraries for it then it's quite possibly the best ROMpler out there. But it's also a very powerful sampler/synth with amazing programming possibilities. I'm constantly amazed how good it is for such an old VST.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:16 am

kbaccki wrote:You can get the Proteus content from the rights hilder himself... https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/e-mu-proteus-pack

Runs in Cakewalk Dimension or Dimension LE (included). I have the pack for kontakt, and it's.. well.. Proteus sounds, minus hardware features, of course.

Unfortunately the DSF EMU packs sound quite static and dry on other samplers than Proteus VX / Emulator X3. There's quite a bit of difference on Emulator X3, for example, as the programming takes advantage of all the modulation features available. On Emulator X3 the patches are quite close to the real hardware modules.

db3 · Post by **db3** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 8:12 am

Perhaps Xpand!2 would be a good alternative. Have seen it on offer as low as $49.
Demo available from Air.

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 8:24 am

Thank you all so much for all these great suggestions - I'm really touched!

I also learned a lot here regarding the E-MU/DSF sounds versus the other romplers. As one of you wrote, I'm really into these sounds (as I grew up with them). I really like the Synthmaster sounds as well, but they don't "fill in in the void in the soundscape" as well as the Proteus sounds do. (In fact I still have my dear old Proteus1+2 plus my Juno 2 in the basement, but it's of course handier to work with software only.)

BTW, Also the X3 is kind of old these days. This is from the web site:

E-MU's Emulator® X3 is the world's most powerful and complete software sampling tool in the world, featuring E-MU's new Xstream™ streaming sound engine with a up to 192kHz sampling and playback, 32-bit and 64-bit native applications for both Windows XP and Windows Vista

I guess we have finally come to the point in history when VSTs themselves can be vintage.

Please do continue this thread, as there aren't that many informative rompler threads on KVR.

/SparkySpark

Karma_tba · Post by **Karma_tba** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 10:53 am

SparkySpark wrote:Thank you all so much for all these great suggestions - I'm really touched!

I also learned a lot here regarding the E-MU/DSF sounds versus the other romplers. As one of you wrote, I'm really into these sounds (as I grew up with them). I really like the Synthmaster sounds as well, but they don't "fill in in the void in the soundscape" as well as the Proteus sounds do. (In fact I still have my dear old Proteus1+2 plus my Juno 2 in the basement, but it's of course handier to work with software only.)

BTW, Also the X3 is kind of old these days. This is from the web site:

E-MU's Emulator® X3 is the world's most powerful and complete software sampling tool in the world, featuring E-MU's new Xstream™ streaming sound engine with a up to 192kHz sampling and playback, 32-bit and 64-bit native applications for both Windows XP and Windows Vista
I guess we have finally come to the point in history when VSTs themselves can be vintage.

Please do continue this thread, as there aren't that many informative rompler threads on KVR.

/SparkySpark

When I made my suggestion it was made out of ignorance. I didn't get it. Now I understand that it's the specific sounds you want. I remembered that I had Proteus VX installed, but for some reason I never used it. I went and checked it out and I too like that "sound". I run 32 bit mostly so that isn't a problem for me, but I found that FL Studio 64 bridges it without problems. Either way thanks for peaking my interest in this oldie but goodie!!

zvenx · Post by **zvenx** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:01 am

Hi, I found a place selling the X3 up to late last year I think, I can dig around and send you the link if you are interested. I think I paid like $60 for it.
I find it is buggy on Nuendo on the PC. Can't remember all the bugs as I stopped using it after a few days. But standalone it worked fine and it was a joy to hear some of those old sounds again.....although as happens so often, our memories are better than reality

Edit: Did dig around. The site is no more alas, it was:
http://www.digitalproaudiosamples.com/# ... tware/cjh3

rsp

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:51 am

zvenx wrote:Hi, I found a place selling the X3 up to late last year I think, I can dig around and send you the link if you are interested. I think I paid like $60 for it.
I find it is buggy on Nuendo on the PC. Can't remember all the bugs as I stopped using it after a few days. But standalone it worked fine and it was a joy to hear some of those old sounds again.....although as happens so often, our memories are better than reality

Edit: Did dig around. The site is no more alas, it was:
http://www.digitalproaudiosamples.com/# ... tware/cjh3

rsp

Thanks for checking. Yes, I believe the Emulator series plus Fairlight was the peak of electronic music sounds (according to my specific taste of course - there has been a lot of development since then). I still listen mostly to Kate Bush, early Depeche Mode, etc. I recall that Peter Gabriel bought a Synclavier with a whopping 3 GB of RAM for music production. It was big as five fridges or so and was the heart of his really good-looking music studio.

Buggy seems troublesome though. I used to work in the music electronic industry and knew the folks at E-MU from the NAMM conventions back in around the year 2000. During that time they were acquired by Creative (makers of the infamous SoundBlaster series) and we were really worried that all things after that would be buggy and non-evolving. Sadly we were right.

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:59 am

Karma_tba wrote:When I made my suggestion it was made out of ignorance. I didn't get it. Now I understand that it's the specific sounds you want. I remembered that I had Proteus VX installed, but for some reason I never used it. I went and checked it out and I too like that "sound". I run 32 bit mostly so that isn't a problem for me, but I found that FL Studio 64 bridges it without problems. Either way thanks for peaking my interest in this oldie but goodie!!

Thanks yourself for being so nice! Well, it's rather that I can't only use modern synths in my music but need some "padding" to knit it all together. I did look at your link but noticed that it was mostly a Soundfont player, which means I would need to decide for myself about audio levels, compression, etc. As someone pointed out, one of the best things about the Proteuses ("Protei"?) was that the patches were well balanced. Being rather old myself nowadays I simply don't have the time (or skills for that matter) to mix the patches as well as the original patch makers.

But I also like the Roland sound, for example. In my group back in the days we used to pick on one of the members as he had a Yamaha synth.

Of course, the TX81Z was actually a cool thing, but we couldn't admit it...

kbaccki · Post by **kbaccki** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:36 pm

Agree with others that if you want exactly the Proteus sounds, you either use the hardware or VX/X3. Just having the source material requires you to do your own work to shape the sounds, and even then you're just not going to get the hardware features... so it's just the "raw sound"... and just a static sample of the raw sound. If one is really adventurous, he could get the DSF kontakt pack, which gives you the source ROM samples, then map those in whatever synth/sampler gives you close to the Proteus hardware features... I know, I know... the filters, the filters. Doesn't sound like OP would be interested in such a project anyway.

Personally, I stoppedusing the VX software because I just couldn't deal with the patch management... e.g. patches wouldnt save with SONAR project etc. Wasnt worth the effort to me relative to the sound... Proteus sound specifically was never a priority for me.... so bye bye VX. Even though I had all the banks from a EMU controller purchase.

As an alternative to exactly the Proteus sound, there are definitely some good options out there for bread n butter stuff... aforementioned SampleTank 3 is another good one.

For Korg rompler sound in pure VST format check out the Korg M1 plug as well.

SparkySpark · Post by **SparkySpark** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 8:48 pm

Hi,

I downloaded the 32 bit version of Mulab and opened the Mulab file I had created in the 64 bit version. The SynthMaster Player ddl wouldn't work in 32 bit so I okayed a few "can't open" boxes, added the Proteus stuff, and saved the project. Litlle did I know that all the data from the Synthmaster Player would be lost... I spent the next five or six hours trying to recreate the song.

Unfortunately (to make things even worse), the download key for the Synthmaster Player wouldn't work anymore so I needed to go back to 64 bit...

...and import the 32 bit piano and strings as audio files.

Anyway, I finally got it together somewhat and here is the result so far! http//:www.natell.se/diverse/SynthmasterProteusVX.mp3

I think it's interesting to hear how old meets new. Drums are a 909 kit that I have tweaked, from Mulab (MUX). Strings are from Proteus VX. Rest is Synthmaster.

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 9:01 pm

Oh! Sonar X3 comes with some kind of rompler too. Obviously the haven't used it in a while.

ChamomileShark · Post by **ChamomileShark** » Sat Aug 29, 2015 10:44 pm

CORRECTION: The site is now back up

I was going to suggest the Emulator X3 from Digital Pro Audio but it looks like the website has gone?

I had Proteus VX but decided to go for the Emulator X3 and it works within Cubase 7.5 64 bit windows. There are some odd things it does but I have work arounds.

And I was thinking of picking up some of the Proteus VX / E3 libraries

kbaccki · Post by **kbaccki** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 1:28 am

ChamomileShark wrote: And I was thinking of picking up some of the Proteus VX / E3 libraries

DSF has the proteus expansions in X/VX format. I assume those are the very same X/VX banks packaged by Creative... at least, that would be the only thing that makes sense.

https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/emulator_x_products

ChamomileShark · Post by **ChamomileShark** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 9:46 am

thanks but the Digital Pro Audio libraries were different, Orchestral sounds, vintage keyboards (3 vols) etc, but there may be some there to look at..

hopefully I won't have to go through the weird mounting of virtual CDs process you have to go through with the libraries I got from DPA

Rompler replacement for Proteus VX