Hallo @Somnambulist, you have to drag the individual banks into the Presence window, then it will convert the SF2, after which you can select and play them in the Presence Browser.

 

Thanks

 

@PulseWave My hardware Proteus when you chose a bank had lots of sounds in it. This seems to load only one? Is it actually loading the whole bank because there does not seem to be a selection other than the top which then loads presence sounds?

 

I'm surprised no one mentioned Impact Soundworks Super Audio Cart 2. They directly mention Proteus (and many others from the time period). It's not a direct emulation, but I would be hard pressed to believe it doesn't sound like the games that used Proteus in the soundtrack.

https://impactsoundworks.com/product/super-audio-cart-2/?v=dc634e207282

 

Super Audio Cart 2 is a lot of fun, but finding the Proteus sounds? Just load up the Digital Sound Factory samples for Kontakt. They're not as bad as some here make them out to be. I've had no desire to fire up my actual Proteus modules. Honestly, I get more of that era's vibe from the Roland D-50 Cloud VST, the JV-880 or Korg stuff. Those patches are still very useful. And yeah, I have a D-50 and D-550 and DX-7 and TX modules and a bunch of other vintage gear just sitting in a corner of my studio. None of it has been plugged in for years. Once I got over my "hardware is better" bias, I've never looked back.

 

C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Studio One\Presets\PreSonus\Presence

 

every patch in digital sound factory sounds wrong compared to proteus 2000 rack unit.. its not there....

anyway i have plans on getting more E-MU units! they are frigging amazing

 

Last edited: Apr 7, 2026 at 9:17 AM

VSTSynthFont

https://www.synthfont.com/VSTSF_news.html

 

To any folks with the original hardware - would be interested to see if the E-MU Sound Central ISO's (Emulator X) are any contender sound-wise with the real devices. There's not a complete set of them on sisite but there are a few of them there that seem much better than any of the Kontakt stuff.

E-MU Techno Synth Construction Yard X EMULATOR X PROTEUS X
E-MU Planet Earth X EMULATOR X PROTEUS X REPACK-DYNAMiCS
E-MU Beat Garden X EMULATOR X PROTEUS X-SoSISO
E-MU Protean Drums X EMULATOR X PROTEUS X-SoSISO
E-MU Street Kits EMULATOR X PROTEUS X-SoSISO
E-MU Virtuoso X EMULATOR X PROTEUS X-SoSISO
E-MU Xtreme Lead X EMULATOR X PROTEUS X-SoSISO

These are all ISO's of the original install disc's. They install a single bank with all the patches contained within it.

 

Last edited: Apr 7, 2026 at 8:57 PM

My neihbor had the hardware, I had the Emulator X2 version via Emu 1820M hardware. The clostest (indistinguishable for me) I ever got to those was the Emu Bundle for Cakewalk Demension Pro, which CAN work in the latest Rapture Pro with some fiddling of the file placement...I definitely made them work before. I stopped using it because its not updated for Apple Silicon, but now I'm thinking about reviving on PC with AudioGridder.

I really wish Arturia could have licesned it, they are the best at reviviing and adding extra features. But the parent company was a bit arrogant about their IP...then they were left in the dust.

 

I've been playing with the Digital Sound Factory Kontakt libraries this afternoon and comparing them to the SF2 soundsets via sforzando. They each have some limitations compared to the original hardware modules (which I still own and know very well, having used them on hundreds of projects in the 1990s), but they still fill a niche. The Kontakt versions are noisier, but they have all of the default processing applied. They also don't decay as naturally as the hardware versions. The SF2 versions are clean but lack any processing. The general impression is that the Kontakt versions sound truer to the originals vs the SF2 versions in sforzando. Neither provides is a true 1:1 representation of the hardware.

By the way, I read that Digital Sound Factory is owned and run by Timothy Schwartz, who was also the producer of the original samples for the Emulator 2, Emulator 3, Emulator 4, the various Proteus modules, and Ensoniq back when he worked for E-MU. He said E-MU spent millions to create the original samples. He was able to acquire the copyrights for all of those sounds and used the original ROMs to create the SF2 files he sells as well as the Kontakt libraries.

He also provided this note with regards to the Kontakt libraries:

"The Proteus Pack for Kontakt contains the original hardware ROM samples. We matched the Kontakt instruments as close as possible to the hardware using the Kontakt engine parameters. The only parameters missing are E-MU 14 pole filters and the arpeggiator. We set up the interface to allow users instant control over parameters and make changes on the fly! In other words, if you do not completely like the patch, turn the knobs and customize your own sounds."

 

Last edited: Apr 8, 2026 at 7:22 PM

Sometimes people blame anything not hardware when they can't get their groove on. The human mind will go to any length to protect it's ego and identity.

 

I didn’t know it could sample stuff from midi! I only got it to have access to the full Proteus library but at least now I know I can a capable auto sampler, I can test that feature on my MU1000 and hopefully it auto detects zero crossings, but I have a feeling I’d want to export the samples to something like Kontakt instead

 

I have but that’s not what I was exactly looking for, and it’s easy for me, I can easily set everything up in a few minutes.

 

I have this but I forget if I shrunk it, I will check if I have it in my folder full of shrunk libraries. I remember getting it all over again because it got an update and it taking ages to transfer for some reason

 

Anyone who wants to can directly support the E-MU Crew:


https://digitalsoundfactory.com/product/e-mu-proteus-pack/

 

I wish E-mu would release these in a software plugin version, like all the other big brands are doing these days.

 

Good luck with that, because they are $$$ expensive! You'll need William's monarchy money, for sure!

Agreed. But they are long long gone, much like their sister company Ensoniq. Both have legendary hardware units that would be super cool to have in software format.

Some of the stuff is available from Arturia (Emulator II, SQ-80) but as far as the ROMplers go, it is definitely a problem with copyrights - if they are DSF's property now, it will never happen.

Dave Rossum (the original founder) is still around, but he has other endeavours.

 

Beside Emu modules were an important part for music industry, I consider them more preset "organs" than real synth, I hated to work on that 6x1.5 cm display.
But the Z-plane filters were (maybe still are) unique, it would have been great having them as vst.

 

So the FIRST answer is the correct answer, and the rest of the thread consists of idiots telling everybody to use the Kontakt library version or the soundfont version, (which are OBVIOUSLY far inferior to the Emulator X3 version, which is exactly the SAME as the original Proteus module...)

Am I missing something here?