Looking at a ROMpler for orchestral sounds. This one looks interesting but I can't seem to find much info on it. Anybody use one of these?

A bit old fashioned these days, but actually not bad, if you are ready to invest some time.

You should give a look to Roland stuff that accepts SRX expansions and go with them.

My vote goes for a Kurzweil PC2R with the Orchestral ROM. I used to own the original EMU Proteus 2, which was not too bad, but the Kurzweil classic instrument samples sound more natural to me.

I believe that there are ROMs for the K2000/K2500 with the Kurzweil orchestral sample library. A used K2x00 may be a more affordable and more flexible solution. One of these days I need to get some Kurzweil back into my studio.

Fully agree
Different league.

those emu modules aren't fun to program. never heard the orchestra, but i believe theres two rom boards, both of which should be included in the virtuoso. I'd rather get a sophisticated sample based program than the emu personally.

Groovy. Thanks.

Another +1 for the Kurzweil if you want to go the hardware route for orchestral stuff.

I own one. It's a great little module. I put a world instrument ("planet earth") ram card in the open slot in the module. It's great for me. I think after some tweaking and effecting i can produce some really inspiring sounds. Although i haven't used the kurz. i can say this module is fun.
a little reverb heavy on the preset, easy workaround.
I guess i depend on what your going for.
Complete real sounding orchestral? look elsewhere.

I used to own a Proteus 2 Orchestral module. The Virtuoso 2000 is the updated version. Anyway, the P2 had some great sounds in it, not necessarily realistic, but they were nice. I only did minor tweaks to the presets becuase it's not friendly to edit, but that's no different from most rompler modules. If you want to do some real editing or make sounds from scratch, use a software editor.

Anyway, the Proteus 2000 engine is extremely powerful... especially in the Virtuoso 2000 which can handle up to 128 voices. Just take a look at the manual and you'll see it's practically a semi-modular synth with tons of modulation routings, and excellent filter types. The effects kind of suck, though. You can also add more waveforms and presets by means of expansion EPROMS.

Yeah, I'd been hanging on to a Proteus 1000 for about a year hoping that when I needed decent orchestral stuff, it would be able to do what I needed. Earlier this week I finally needed those kind of sounds, so sat down with it, and it just wasn't what I expected at all. Dropped it on eBay, and went ahead and ordered a Proteus FX. I've got it at home and for my current needs (buried in a mix behind some blackened death metal), it'll do the trick, but I kind of want to get something just a smidge more convincing for future use (symphonic electronica?) and software's not an option. In the past, I used an ESI-2000 loaded with some unnamed sample bank (basic viola, violin, piano, cello, contrabass, timpanis, tubular bells and that's it), but like an idiot I sold it because I figured that with some searching I could find something that had a larger variety of instruments. Found a homebrew demo somebody did on their MySpace of the Virtuoso 2000 and thought it sounded pretty decent (Cyprin 69 on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos). Anyway, I ended up finding one for $200 BIN yesterday, so I pulled the trigger on it just because I know that my curiosity about it will eat at me until I've tried it out for myself. If it doesn't do much better than the FX, I'll unload it and try a Kurzweil. Thanks for the help!

NECRO BUMP!!!

So as you can see from my sig, I bought the Virtuoso, but here it is seven years later and I'm selling it. I'm thinking about pulling the sale, though. It sounds good, and the only reasons I wanted to sell it in the first place were 1.) I need the money and 2.) I just don't use orchestral sounds that often. I like them, but they're only used for one project that I resurrect like once every four or five years.

So I guess what I'm asking is whether or not in the last seven years somebody has found something better that's hardware based. If there's something else out there worth getting, I can justify the sale because I can get a replacement later. If not, then I may as well find another source of money because these things are getting harder to come by and more expensive recently. In my experience, the Virtuoso takes a lot of work to get a full sound that fits, but when you do, it's magical.

Synths I have tried in the past: Proteus FX (actually kinda miss the simplicity of this machine) Fantom X loaded with Orchestral SRX (didn't sound very realistic to me) Fantom G (sounds even worse). Never got around to trying the Kurz because in the last few years, the price went up.

So, anybody got any opinions seven years later?

• strings were great, those pizzicato's? so much fun to play
• brass/horn i found boring/uninspiring... was hoping for more in the lower frequencies (orchestral filter sweeps)
• woodwinds were good... only used 'em as layers tho
• percussion never used, but there were some cool layer sets with 'em

i don't use it atm either but i'm keeping mine for now; got nothing else like it (mostly analog gear), and find it a quick setup for the few sounds i need from it (i don't go deep into parameter editing, usually just on main panel).

I recall reading an interview with Dave Fridmann stating a lot of the orchestral stuff on Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin was provided from the EMU modules at the time.

That lovely synthetic strings type sound. Not realistic as such, but full of character and does a fantastic job of providing a distinctive orchestral backing.

I always like the Kurz orchestral. They are not the biggest, or even best samples, but they are very playable and very responsive, and they fit together well. Some orchestral samples are great as individual sounds, but if you try to program a 13 piece chamber orchestra, they don't necessarily fit together. The Kurz sounds do this well. If you find a K2000 rack with the orchestral ROM, its very worth it (right now probably sell for about what you'll get for the virtuoso 2000.) Its probably the some of the same samples, but I also found my E-mu E-Synths have some great orchestral in it. The nice thing is the E-Synth is also a EIV sampler. I got each of mine for ~$200 back in the mid 00's when hardware samplers hit their low point in resale value. Today they're closer to $400-$500.

Samplers are always a great suggestion. The project that this is for started with orchestral samples from an E-Mu ESI-4000 Turbo Zip. The sounds were terrible on their own, but they could easily be jammed together into something semi-usable.

Alright, so I've been giving this a lot of thought and here's what I've decided to do: It's being sold. It's on eBay right now. I just need the money too badly right now and though I love this module, I just don't use these types of sounds often enough to justify keeping it around for that once every three or four years symphonic excursion.

So the plan? I've got a Fantom G. The presets are awful, but I can still use them for simple ochestral stuff. I can probably even get away with passing them off as authentic so long as there's a lot of guitar behind them. If not, then I can at least compose with it and then replace the sounds later.

Of course if at the end of the auction, the buyer doesn't pay, then I'll just write that off as me being fated to keep it.

still 4 sale?

Nope. Dropped it off on eBay over a month ago.

...I could totally see myself buying one again, though. That module is just too good.

Both of the Rom's are available at the Swoppy...

Not the same thing and maybe not what you're looking for, but I might have an Emu Vintage Pro for sale with 4 expansion ROM's, one of which is the Siedlaczek Orchestra, which is a very nice orchestral ROM.

Just curious, what are the other ROM's? ...and what small fortune do you want for it?

- Vintage Collection (ie. the default ROM of Vintage Pro)
- Siedlaczek Orchestra
- Pure Phatt
- Composer (ie. Proteus 2000's default ROM)

Dunno about a fortune... The unit with the default ROM and the Siedlaczek Orchestra are kinda pricey on Ebay though.


Make me an offer via PM, not sure if the GS rules allow dealing outside the marketplace subforum.

Oh, I'm broke as heeeeeeeeell right now, so I'm gonna have to pass. Though I ain't gonna lie, Vintage Collection and Siedlaczek are two ROM's I've always wanted to try. Even so, the market value for those two right now is tremendous, so there's just no way I could swing it.

So is the Siedlaczek Orchestra ROM any good?

I have a Proteus 2500 with

• Virtuoso2000 Orchestral Session (2)
• Mo’Phatt
• default ROM

... have thought about replacing the default ROM with Siedlaczek if it had better brass/horn sounds than the Virtuoso.

I'd say the Vintage Pro ROM is definitely worth checking out if you get the chance... I'd put it up there with/as one of my favourite ROM's.

Can't comment on the Siedlaczek or Orchestral ones as I've never tried them.

please PM

Didn't think this quite deserved its own thread, but wondering if anyone knows anything about the p2k-family "Orchestra" module and if it differs from the Virtuoso?

Superficially they look the same, and am hoping the "Orchestra" version might just be a marketing thing for the Japanese market (where I just picked one up) where "Virtuoso" might have been thought to be less meaningful...? It even shares the same font as the virtuoso, while despite identical hardware, the other p2k modules are differentiated a bit more. Of course it might be a different thing entirely but can't find anything online in regard to the "Orchestra" version.

I notice the Virtuoso is designated "9096" model, while the Orchestral is Model 9098. Was quite pleased at the price, but suddenly apprehensive that its going to turn up being a single-rom version or something...

virtuoso and orchestral are different (quotes from VSE)


btw, there's another orchestral rom out there if you're collecting: (9061) Siedlaczek Orchestra 32 MB ROM

Thanks, but if you see the image in my post, I'm not talking about the early series - this is something different to both the "Proteus 1 Plus Orchestral" and the "Proteus 2 Orchestral"

This is a Proteus 2000 family module - did cross my mind that it might be the Siedlaczek, but that was only an add on ROM as far as I can find and was never released in its own box (well it did come in a cardboard box ) - I'm sure there'd be some reference out there if it had.

I'll obviously be see in a few days what ROM(s) it does contain, but seems a bit of an undocumented EMU curiosity so far...