All user reviews for the E-MU Proteus VX

This is definitely a piece of software that you have to read the manual to. It's a little clunky and most certainly isn't intuitive, demanding that you do your homework. Once you do though, there's little difficulty.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The software works fine and is stable, but the interface is showing its age. It doesn't use many resources, despite having built in effects.

OVERALL OPINION

I worked in a pro audio shop in the early 2000's. This thing then came in the form of a large, expensive rackmount device and they FLEW off the shelves. SO MUCH music was produced using these things, it's unreal. Reading the reviews here, it just goes to show how people are unaware what this thing is - basically pop-music in a box. It's the king of sound modules - everything is laid on, even the effects, panning, you name it.

The software implementation does lack of course the hardware advantages of the rackmount, like multiple outputs, but for free? This is a steal. Give it a try, you really cannot go wrong with this thing for making any remotely MOR music.

RAS.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Bundled with a USB 0404.

Something very interesting: I installed the Proteus VX on my second PC (a laptop without E-MU at all) and it works very well.
Something that is completely impossible with such a Proteus X2

OVERALL OPINION

Finally terrible! I expected this since I bought my first Proteus X.
The ability to use all banks Emulator X and Proteus X without having to use a sound card or an E-MU hardware!

The VX Proteux installs without problem, it's just a little long.
Once installed, it can be used standalone or VST.
It seems that the plant badly VX (blue screen) on some systems with Vista and XP Pro, but strangely not all.
Standard on XP when I installed it, no worries.
Setup is simple, even optional VST (for example you can choose which MIDI CC No. 16 will be assigned to the interface controls offered on the VX, or the number of audio outputs, the VX is multitimbral ...).
The manual is really good, fairly large, but well done, clear, and makes you want to feel the VX.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

My PC is running XP, 2 GB, Pentium IV 3Ghz, sound card M-Audio Audiophile 24/96.
A little old, but the VX turns nickel on it. No crash.
Like the VX is multitimbral (up to 16 instruments for a single instance of the plugin, + 2 effects per instrument, + 2 effects shared by all instruments), the CPU can become substantial. I find it generally well optimized in this regard. The bank's internal 32 MB, so the memory consumption is also correct.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 2 weeks.
What I like:
- The variety of sounds,
- The overall quality of sounds, most of the presets "sound" and can be used (of course there are the zero here and there).
- Having constantly before the 16 parameters controlled by MIDI CC, suddenly it makes you want to use our controllers MIDI keyboard.
- The overall sense of professionalism of the product (the manual describes the internal architecture of the audio engine, and it is very powerful, E-mu an undeniable expertise in the field of synthesis samples).

What I like least:
- Problems with Vista: it attaches quickly to the Proteus VX, and it is sad to know that you lose when you change the computer ...
- Options for sound editing in this version are limited VX (compared to the X2). You can change the sounds via MIDI CC 16 and the modulation matrix effects, but much of the power of synthesis remains inaccessible.
On the other hand, it can be simple, and finally efficient.
- It is limited to the internal sample bank, we can not import your own samples (yes, it is a Proteus, not an Emulator). on the other hand, you can buy external sound bank.

Overall, this is an excellent product in its field. I had hardware like the Roland MV30 or JW-50, I also soft Luxonix Ravity S's excellent, and I must admit that the Proteus VX is up.
One can draw a lot of things.

In short, this is one of the best freeware that I know.

When I see here in the forum Audiofanzine people who complain about the product and who spit on E-MU, I can not believe it. They do not realize how much work and expertise that calls for the creation of such software, besides its quality is undeniable. After this type of synthetic sounds and does not please everyone, but it does not detract from the intrinsic value of Proteus VX. E-MU thank you!

Installation is quick and without fear.
It's always nice when it starts well.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

My machine is quite old:
Athlon64 3800 + with 2GB of RAM, multiple drives in ATA + SATA (~ 1TB), the sound card is integrated with my ASRock ALiveNF6G CM (ALC888 HD)
A driver required if you play in real time: Asio4All
ProteuxVX works very well in this configuration either 1 or 16 votes

OVERALL OPINION

It'll be close to three years that I use, but not every day, it's not my main activity.
I've always parallel the Yamaha XG synthesizer, it depends on usage, but we do not use it the same way, even if it can be used in poly mode, what you do not notice at first .

The +: From the point of view of sound quality, the range of sounds available (with variations very fun to mod wheel) is a must, without lying.

The -: For cons, the instruments do not correspond to the GM (you can make presets that come close, see screen shot) and sometimes the synth does not always react as expected to the program change.

Morality, as it is free, it should let anyone down.
At worst, it will uninstall or without forgetting your wallet has not suffered

I love the sounds of many of the 1, 025 default samples that come with Proteus VX. I am particularly happy with the various Piano, Drum Kits, and Orchestral samples.

In my opinion, it's default sound samples (not comparing to the Editing Features of more advance Sound Modules) are generally better than HalionOne, and DirectWave's default sounds. And Proteus gives you more of them.

If you at least know what a MIDI Implementation Chart is or wear to find it for your MIDI Controller, setup is very intuitive unless. Even if MIDI is new to you, the Proteus manual is pretty good at walking you through initial installations.



SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Originally, I used an entry level Sequencer/DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) Recorder software that cost only $50. The DAW worked nicely for it's cost but- I had to download and use the free MIDI Yoke software cabling in order to use the Proteus VX as a VST pluggin or VSTi (Virtual Studio Technology instruments). The Beginner Level DAW would lock up after loading Proteus VX. (The DAW only- not the computer!)

I advanced to using Cubase LE5, which had no problems running Proteus but could only run 1 instance of Proteus at a time...A limitation of Cubase, no fault of Proteus. However, the Proteus manual (page 16) gives a 'work-around' that I have not been able to get to work in Cubase LE5. Thus, 1 Instance of Proteus on 1 Track at a time in Cubase LE.

I discovered the full versions of Cubase 5, 4, 6, etc. can run 1 instance of Proteus, over as many tracks as your computer can handle the resource loads. That's a good thing!

OVERALL OPINION

My overall opinion, is, I wish EMU/Creative Labs continued advancing and developing this product because it had great Sound Samples, had widespread Sample Support around the Web DAW World (alot of 3rd party freebie download Samples!), the program is very stable with good administration features, and as a freebie or bundle program, Proteus has a great price!

This software installed flawlessly and speedy, and has worked relatively well on both of my computers. I have used it on a low end computer (1.8GHZ pentium and 1gb ram) as well as my current (2.5GHZ Core2Quad & 4GB ram) and it performs ideally on both. The low end PC does however suffer from latency in the sound which is quite offputting for the software. This is because of the actual computer being rather slow though. But other than that it is pretty fine. The library of sounds was initially a pain to find, as I had to locate the library manually because it did not pick it up automatically. This could be challenging for a new user. It works nicely in both of the DAW's that I use, Ableton and FL Studio. It also works as a stand alone if you do not use a DAW.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

This software works well in FL Studio with no hiccups, however when it is ran as a standalone it becomes labourous and does not pick up my Asio drivers. This is a source of latency. If not ran in administrator mode, Ableton displays an error saying that it is not a supported VST. The sounds that come with this are awfully cheap sounding, which you can expect for free software. Every preset sounds low quality and amateur. The memory usage is low, as expected it does not demand much from my computers. This software has crashed a lot of times upon startup as a standalone, This is probably to do with clashing of audio drivers between my Asio4All I run on FL and the standard drivers that it automatically runs in.

OVERALL OPINION

I'm not at all really a fan of any of the sounds on offer in this VST, as I prefer the synth sounds in other vsts to this. The real instrument sounds are also pretty mediocre from this VST. The sounds on this are pretty dry and flat, there is nothing at all that stands out with any of the patches in this VST. These sounds are designed for amateurs and new users looking to play a few notes. This VST is great if you are new to FL and want to just play a few instruments but for anyone that's actually looking to create serious music you may aswell avoid it as stock sounds are better than this.

installation, here is the problem often this app: Windows 7 (Vista not tested), we must
- Right click
- Run as administrator (there a yellow shield that appears on the left)
- Accept the change when the window arrives
Note: If this does not work is that you run mode administeur from a shortened, it must be run from its location (right click-properties-file location)

Then, using a séqenceur without rewire, we must expect that there is only one instance of this vsti. We must therefore go through the protocol noon:
rewire 2, hubisloop, LoopBe1 or HWMDCABL.EXE, which is the only one authorized for use commerciale.Notez some MIDI drivers are problematic on Windows 7 and XP.


SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I tested it on two computer: windows xp and 7, the version of XP seem to accept the settings noon, I did not look more for Windows 7

OVERALL OPINION

well, it is super long run of more than one instrument at a time.