E-MU 9000 Series Expansion ROMs

Well, it's a ROM...the E-mu synth engine is easy to tweak and the manual is thorough and clear.

It's a ROM, see above. Actually I am reviewing the four ROMs I own. Polyphony is 128 voices with my command station. Features? If you program, a huge # of features are available, and if you own a command station then everything is very pleasurable as well with all those knobs, the pads, the ribbon controller...

Pure Phatt--a classic, widely well-regarded in it's field. Killer bass and drums. Many of the sounds appear useless if you don't learn to program. Once you can take the presets apart and shape them, the situation changes. Then, you have a vast array of hip hop oriented material to work with.
Sounds of the ZR--I did a separate review of this one. Here I will just say that the piano is E-mu's best, it has E-mu's only GM bank, and it has many great synth sounds from the classic Ensoniq ZR-76. Good organs, too. Weak acoustic instruments except for the pipe organs which are excellent.
Proteus Pop Collection--Killer bass, drums and synth sounds right out of the box. The acoustic sounds range from good to bad, but again tweaking, shaping and programming is key. If you don't like getting involved with this, better to stick to Yamaha and Roland sounds for acoustic patches. But if you want to take advantage of E-mu's z-plane filters, 50 great filters in general, 32 arpeggiators going at once, and one of the few synths capable of easily programmed microtonal scales, then learn to use your E-mu synth properly instead of complaining about presets.
Protozoa--Bank One is a secret weapon--the Hybrid bank. Not available elsewhere, these are the sounds of Proteus 1, 2 and 3 redone with the modern E-mu engine and effects. Extremely underrated and unknown and a great source of inspiration.
Bank Two is the old Proteus One, Pop. Many of these sounds have dated, some are still classics, a real mixed bag.
Bank Three is the old Proteus Two, Classical. Same as above but in general less dated and more usable, especially with a little tweaking. Oboe is indeed better than Proteus Pop's.
Bank Four is the old Proteus Three, World. This has dated the least of all and has good sounds from all over the world. Percussion is especially fine, such as the tablas. The bagpipe drone is good but the chanter portion of the split is not, I use the E-mu drone with the Roland XV chanter; both can be tuned to a real bagpipe scale, although E-mu's system is more flexible and will allow you to construct a real 22-tones to the octave Indian raga scale, which the Roland XV system cannot handle (it can only do microtonal scales in 12 tones or less to the octave, which is sufficient for bagpipe chanter and gamelan).

If you just go by presets than you should still rate these ROMs with a "9" since there are plenty of great sounds to offset the bad ones, and the bad ones become good ones easily with tweaking. I can't give them a 10 because it would be better if E-mu had few sounds per ROM with more memory devoted to each patch. Perhaps in the future they will accomplish this with, for example, only 256 sounds on a 64MB ROM.
The Coakley piano sample on the ZR ROM is 14MB, by the way, and is the great exception to this.

They are ROMs...

E-mu has the best customer support. : )

The price I paid was for an MP-7 command station that included the Pure Phatt ROM, plus the other three at $279, $279 and $100. Considering that you can now get a command station for $500 new and the above ROMs for $130, $100 and $80 new, I think E-mu's synths and ROMs are a great bargain and of very high quality. For a first keyboard, I would recommend an E-mu keyboard (some as low as $400 now, such as the PK-6 and the Ensoniq Halo, which is manufactured by E-mu) and loading it with these fine ROMs or others, such as the also excellent Vintage Keys and Xtreme Lead.

The point is, my MP-7 is a GREAT music-making tool. And with these ROMs I have practically every sound under the rainbow, and can produce zillions of new ones. As a composer I love using the sequencer without always having to use my computer. And if you are interested in escaping from equal temperament, E-mu is practically the only (hardware) game in town at the moment. God bless E-mu!

This is an addition to my review of 08/12/2003. I have added the Techno Synth Construction Yard ROM and the Ensoniq Project ROM to my PK-6 recently. Software version is 1.02 (on the board, not the ROM!)

Manuals, as with the other ROMs, comprise of a small bit of paper with some rough pictures of how to install the ROM (not exactly difficult, although I failed to seat the Project ROM perfectly first time, so had to open it up and have another go), and a little booklet with patch listings in.

They're ROMs... they just add extra sounds to the synth.

Techno Synth Construction Yard: great sounds for all kinds of dance music, programmed by Dutch master Rob Papen. Downloading the additional presets and arpeggiators from robpapen.com is an absolute MUST as they are a great set of sounds. I don't do dance music at all, so there are a lot of sounds there that I don't use... but the arpeggiated sounds are very good, there are some nice basses, and the pads are among the sweetest I have ever heard. Very impressive. Also the usual selection of iffy drum sounds, but all E-MU ROMs (well, most of 'em) are the same there! 8/10 (for me - would be higher if more geared to the kind of music I write)

Ensoniq Project: the PERFECT compliment to the ZR ROM. Ensoniq knew what they were doing when they wrote patches. This ROM has a collection of world sounds that are great, particularly the tabla, shakuachi, sitar, koto and banjo. Very convincing concertina too (not that I'll ever use it!). Then there's a large collection of basses (great upright bass sound), leads, pads, effects, etc. I reckon I've found 100 or more immediately usable patches. Too many drum sounds (am I repeating myself?) although there are useful collections of cymbals, and the hand percussion etc is very good. I'd give it a 10 for the world sounds alone, and the other stuff is just as good :) 10/10

Get it seated right, and it should be fine. If the synth takes a hard knock, it'd be worth opening up the panel to check they're seated properly before turning it on again, but no reason to doubt reliability here.

E-MU seem to be gradually going down the pan... Creative seem to be applying the squeeze. The advantage of this is that prices are dropping all the time, but the disadvantage is that customer support basically doesn't happen. The last email I sent didn't even get acknowledged.

The TSCY ROM has a more limited market, it's ideal for all kinds of dance music, but not as useful for a prog rock musician like myself. Still very useful, but not exactly world-shaking. The Ensoniq Project ROM is absolutely SPOT ON.

A PK-6 with the Pop Collection (default), Vintage Collection, Sounds Of The ZR, and Ensoniq Project ROMs, would be about the perfect combination of sounds for any budding prog rock keyboardist who doesn't want 17 keyboards with him! I do still intend getting more ROMs, as I'm still missing some orchestral sounds I'd like, but E-MU continue to provide just the sounds I want. Most impressive, and thoroughly to be recommended.

its a rom

its a rom

proteus pop composer rom:

sad to say i was hoping for a good addition to my xk-6, but this rom just doesnt cut it.

strings - terrible, there is an annoying timbre about them, especially when the attack is fast. they are passable if doing a pad sound with less attack.

winds - ok but the protozoa rom wind instruments are better

basses/drums - nothing the xk-6 doesnt have already for the most part

keys/organs - rhoades is pretty good. whurlizter is ok, b3 is pretty good. i dont like the pianos. they all sound very tinny around the mid-high which is where i play the most. they might pass in a mix, but if they are prominent in the song they wont cut it.

if you already own the xtreme rom dont buy the composer rom. its a waste for a couple of good keys and organs. buy the ZR rom instead.

Software version depends on the thing you plug the card into. As for ease of use, that's pretty much the same. Installation is simple, just like plugging 72 pin SIMMs (remember those?) into your computer motherboard.
I have the Sounds Of The ZR rom installed in my E-MU VK6 Vintage Keys, and the Definitive B-3 rom installed in my E-MU PK6 Proteus Keys... installation was a snap, they worked first time, and just appeared, as expected, as extra banks on the keyboard.

Some people don't like the interface on the E-MU stuff, but I don't find it a problem. I wouldn't want to edit patches onstage, but the same would be true of any keyboard! For sitting down and concentrating, the interface is just fine, displays all I need to see. Which isn't directly related to the ROMs anyway, but still...

There's a small paper manual that comes with the ROM... it's OK, although not brilliant. To be fair, it's quite intuitive to install the cards, and the keyboard manuals covered what I needed to know anyway.

Doesn't effect the polyphony of the synth, so it's either 64 or 128 (64 in my case)... there isn't a great deal to say about either card in terms of features, there's just stacks of extra sounds!

The B-3 rom first, it's one of the best, if not the best, hammond organ simulators around. The samples are remarkable, both in their variety and their quality. I have found no reason to fault anything on this ROM, except that there are 7 blank spaces in the 3 banks, and there are some random sounds for which I have no use... I would have liked to have seen 10 extra patches, even if they still used the same waveforms, filling the spaces. This isn't to fault the sounds though, they're superb.

The ZR ROM is similarly very good. Some people aren't thrilled by the Perfect Piano, but I really like it. Sure, it's not an acoustic grand, but I'm playing a 61 note synth-action keyboard stood up, so I don't expect it to be. It sits beautifully in a mix and sounds great. There are some other wonderful sounds too... I particularly love the harp, the cathedral organs, the harpsichord and the woodwind samples, which I find are superb and certainly exactly what I required. There are too many drums and percussion sounds, but isn't that true of most sound collections?

All the sounds are very responsive on both ROMs (the same is true of the default roms in my PK6 and VK6). I particularly love the way that the sustain pedal brings in the leslie on the B-3 rom. Superb!

I have no reason to doubt the reliability of these cards, any more than I would doubt the reliability of the synths they are in. I would love to be able to afford backups for all my gear, but that's not going to happen in the near future!

They're slow but generally reliable. Phoning is meant to be best if you're in the US (their new website took forever to appear, I understand that they've just changed their IT staff). The various Yahoo groups are far better for support from real users.

As ways of adding large numbers of great additional sounds to the synths I have, these ROM cards were a great investment. I will be investing further as money allows and as my musical horizons expand. Playing mostly progressive rock music demands a large variety of different sounds and textures, and I am confident from the four sound sets I have heard that EMU will be consistently able to provide sounds of the quality I need! If I were to lose the cards (which would be tricky!) I would buy them again as soon as the insurance came through.

Sounds of the ZR - works just like anything else in this family. The interface is not particularly friendly - lot of stuff for a small screen. Installation was a snap - basically the same as installing SIMM chips in a computer.

Again, features are the same as other items in this family. I was disapppointed to discover that certain sound combinations had to share the same envelope. That's fine for stacking organs, but not good for strings+piano!

Here's where the rubber meets the road. The Perfect Piano ain't. There are several versions, but only one I cared for at all. It's usable in a live rock setting, but the sound is a bit "icy" and the feel just isn't right - maybe a little tweaking of velocity curve would help. I vastly prefer my Alesis NanoPiano sound. Some good organs, some good bass sounds, some usable odds and ends - marimba, vibraphone, a couple of GM patches. Electric piano and strings are disappointing - very artificial. A lot of acoustic instruments sound "charicatured", not natural. A couple of sax sounds might be usable. Some synth sounds, basses and pads are nice, but not what a classic rock (piano/organ, occasional strings) keyboardist uses much. A couple of GM sounds work, but most just seem to be there to fill up their particular slot. Drums are pretty obnoxious - cymbals are lame and the closed high hat cut-off isn't "there". I only liked one of MANY kits (I like a natural sound). Some kits might be useful with other cymbals, but probably not on their own. Congas are passable in live rock setting -they have some varied strikes on the same pitch that might be quite usable elsewhere. For what I need, this card barely receives a passing grade.

It works fine. The B3 unit sometimes gets a "stuck note", which stinks in a live situation, but a quick on/off fixes that.

This purchase is all about sounds, which disappointed me. I was expecting more from a "perfect piano" and the strings leave me cold. I get plenty of use out of it, but would not buy this again.

I bought an Emu XL-1 with the sounds of the ZR Rom already installed so I can't comment on the ease of installation.

Here's my 2 cents on the sounds of the ZR Rom. Aside from the Perfect piano (which is nice but not perfect) and a few of the drums this rom sucks. The strings are pitiful, brass is OK to weak, guitar is bad, synths are OK. I am comparing these to the Roland sound. Get an old JV 1080 and your better off in almost all departments. What has happened to Emu? There sounds tend to be cold and anemic compared to Korg, Roland, Yamaha. The Virtuoso 2000 was a disaster. I took back my proteus 2000 and got a Roland instead. I really expected the Sounds of the ZR to be great but am very dissapointed.

Don't know yet

Very nice

I would not buy this Rom again. Ever. Emu catch up with the competition. You are selling music equipment here. You need to address the sounds. It doesn't matter how many filters or knobs the thing has. If the internal sounds suck people will look elsewhere.

Installing these puppies is a little more tricky than a Roland expansion board! Seat them correctly and you won't have any problems though.

Polyphony of course, dependant on whether you put them into a P-1000 or a P-2000. I have installed them into a P-2000 and a V-2000. The factory presets are really a mixed bag. The synth pads are fabulous, the effects patches are interesting (maybe not too useful though!) and the orchestral patches suck badly though, for the most part. (read my reviews of the V-2000 to know what I think in detail about EMU's orchestral prgramming! There are a generous amount of patches on every expansion ROM though.

Here goes: Orch I&II ROMs: Very mixed quality of these samples. The strings are pretty good if you re-program your versions, that is the samples themselves have potential. I have found the strings to be good for layering with the strings from the Advanced Orch ROM. The woodwinds are really the best sounds in the set, despite the poor programming on the oboes. The oboes are better in the Protozoa ROM!
The bassoons are REALLY good though!!! The clarinets are pretty good, particularily the bass clarinet's low range. I would have liked to have tongued versions of the woodwinds too, for more attack on runs, etc., but you can overcome this somewhat with programming and attention to your sequenced parts. The brass are really the WEAKEST samples in this collection. You CAN use the french horn and the tuba is VERY good, but trombones & trumpets don't fair as well, though the trumpet attacks are nice. I wish the fr. horn had the lower half of it's range included!! You can reprogram the bones to sound alot better than the presets, and this holds for all the sounds in both ROMs!! The presets are AWFUL!! If you read my reviews of the V-2000 you can get the whole story. I don't think even solo brass can work with short loops placed close to the attacks the way EMU obviously did to conserve memory. They should have released the brass on their own ROM for more memory use.
The solo strings aren't too bad for a module, and are really good for layering with the ensembles. The filters are so good on the P-2000 and 1000 that you can program a beautiful soft sordino on the strings!
I'm surprised EMU missed that. The harp is great for glissing, better than the ones in many CD-ROM collections! The percussion is fabulous for a module ROM, better than some CD-ROMs too. Overall, the Orch I&II are very usefull for working up orchestral sketches and the like, and may surprise you if you program some better sounds yourself, but they CANNOT BEAT A SAMPLER & CD-ROM COLLECTION!! PERIOD!!!! So many musicians it seems don't understand the relationship between ROM memory space and sound quality. ANY module can never beat a sampler with a good stack of orchestral CD-ROMs. And something like a GIGA Studio running on a fast PC with humongous amounts of RAM can blow ANY module into the next galaxy! (metaphorically speaking of course!!).
Protozoa ROM: Well this is really a welcome ROM set, since it contains EVERYTHING released in the original Proteus modules in their ORIGINAL UN-ALTERED FORM! Anyone who remembers hearing the Ultraproteus module of several years back, will know that EMU really didn't include all the samples of the modules as advertised, and that they emasculated many of them, particularily the P-2 woodwinds! Well they are here in perfect form. This one ROM can help you get over the loss of selling your orignal Proteuses! You can have them all back again. Btw, this ROM is great for use in a V-2000!
Advanced Orchestra: This ROM set makes up somewhat for not having ensembles in the Orch I&II ROMs. The strings, though not included with separate sections, are still very useable, and can be layered with the other strings from different ROMs you may have installed or in a V-2000. The soft sustain and true sordino strings are VERY nice! The woodwind ensemble sustain and staccato are very, very nice, and the brass section sustains & staccatos are useable, but perhaps not as well done as the woods. The percussion sounds are REALLY GREAT!!!!! They are velocity switched, some with THREE layers!! from p to ff. You MUST add this puppy to your V-2000!!
Sounds of the ZR: This ROM is probably the one with the broadest range of great to worst samples of all the ROMs EMU has put out thus far. I understand they are going to lower the price on this one to $199.00 or something. It might be worth it for the very good piano. This piano isn't velocity switched for dynamics, but it has a gentle fo

VERY dependable once installed properly. Not like Ensoniq expansion boards!!

EMU really won't answer questions about expansion ROMs. As far as they're concerned, they either work or they don't!

Stolen? Well if your module is ripped off stuffed full of these ROM simms, then your out a sizable investment.
I have installed the above ROMs in my two modules, and I'm not sorry.
I have a very good orchestral module in the V-2000, though at loss of polyphony because of all the layering needed to improve many of the sounds, and to make up for not having ensembles of brass and woodwinds. I must admit I also have a loaded Roland JV I use for fr. horns and some other brass, etc.
As for other music genres I compose for, the P-2000 often is the anchor for the whole arrangement, with some parts being replaced by my E-4K sampler and my GIGA Studio. I also use the Roland JV to fill-out the sound here too.
I think EMU has taken the module concept pretty far, and really raised the bar for companies like Roland to catch up, which they have very nicely with their latest modules. I don't know if the future is to have a built-in hard drive in a box, streaming samples the way GIGA does, pre-loaded with sounds, with room to add your own. I understand EMU is working on just this kind of thing now, to eventually replace the Proteus series. That is definitely the way to go. If I were building a home studio from scratch now, I would probably center it around two Windows PCs running GIGA Studio and Cakewalk. This would probably make a Mac superfluous for my work, since nearly everything could be done with just the two PCs!! Your needs may vary, but I think if you need to get a hold of orchestral sounds and you own a P-2000, then the ROMs are the cheapsest way to go. If you have a stock Virtuoso 2000 and you want to improve your sound choices, then I would recommend the Protozoa ROM first and then add the Advanced Orchestra ROM. But you MUST program your own sounds!
All of my more positive comments on ALL of these ROMs are based on re-programming the samples.
I hope this info is useful as lot of people contact me about these ROMs, separate from the V-2000.