From: nod@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (71070000)
Subject: Re: Proteus MPS Keyboard
Date: 1 Oct 91 20:12:13 GMT

The Proteus Master Performance System (MPS was an early release name, and is
actually copyrighted by Roland) will come out in fifteen days, come hell or
high water. (There are many signs posted here around E-mu detailing the days
until release.)

If you're familiar with the Proteus, you've got the general idea of the MPS (I,
for one, am more interested in brevity than copyrights) with a keyboard 
attached. There are some extra wrinkles:

 Effects: Real-time digital effects, assignable to all currently selected 
 presets or individually to a preset. Many different selections including
 (but not limited to) room, warm room, plate 1 & 2, chamber 1 & 2, hall 1 & 2,
 delay, cross delay, stereo flange, stereo chorus, phaser, ring mod, and more.

 Performance Maps: These allow you to create a set of parameters which can be
 used to configure the Proteus MPS and your other MIDI gear which you may wan
 to associate with a song or song set. There are 10 Quickkey Assignments per
 Map (to be explained below). Each Map stores MIDI receive info for each 
 channel (volume, pan, preset, & program change on/off), Multimode Effects 
 assignments, and up to five MIDI commands (program change, song select, song
 start, song stop, volume, pan, and one user-definable 300ish (can't remember
 the exact value of bytes) byte string) that you can use for sysex, patch info,
 or whatever, which allows you to configure another unit (i.e., a Proteus rack
 mount).

 Quickeys: When the Quickeys feature is active, the 10 numerical entry keys
 will select up to 4 presets which play from the Proteus MPS keyboard and
 4 keyboard zones transmitted over MIDI, with the press of a single button.
 A very useful feature for live performance situations.

Of course, as always, the E-mu sound is clean and pristine, probably the best
on the market. I don't think there is anything that sounds as good, myself.
(And I'm a consultant, not an employee, and am not planning to stay here
much beyond the release of this unit.)

Expect to see these units in your local music store in time for Christmas, and
probably by the middle of November (all estimates on my part are conservative
and subject to being completely inaccurate.)

I hope that all of you who purchase a Proteus Master Performance System 
Keyboard enjoy using it as much as I've enjoyed testing it. I think it's a real
good product.

Hope this is useful stuff...
______________________________________________________________________________
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|  They wouldn't give me a 40% raise, either.   + - - - - > nod@cats.UCSC.EDU
| BOB is an acronym:  |  "Government should serve the people that formed it, 
| Beware of Bob.      |   not form the people to serve it." - Me, 1986