E-MU Proformance/1

This review is for the Pro-Formance 1 The presets are very good, stars for me are 1-3-8-12
You can't edit patches, apart from adding a bit of chorus with your mod-wheel, fine tuning, pitch bend, and key transpose.
Couldn't be easier, 5 knobs, volume, fine tune, transpose, midi, and pre-set, you won't need the manual.

I havn't run out of polyphony, built n effects are limited to mod wheel chorus. You can chain more than one unit together and use "overflow mode" to gain more polyphony, apart from that the midi spec is pretty basic and simple to understand.
Touch sensitivity is OK, more than good enough for most styles I should imagine.

Piano sounds are very subjective, I have played a few modules, Yamaha, Kurzveil, and Roland. The Kurzveil I like for its big full sound, the EMU is a touch more delicate, and not as full bodied as my Micro-Piano, but the Micro-Piano has an anoying "chiff" to the start of notes on some patches, an a brightness, which you have to remedy with EQ, I find this is not so troubling on the EMU, although it is there to some exstent. No sample piano is going to be perfect, but for most uses this will fit the bill nicely.

I would use this without a back-up.
Seems reliable enough, but dont loose your wall-wart !

Havn't had to contact them, yet !

I like it, my favourite sounds are : (1) A good basic Grand, with medium sensitivity (3) A very nice soft and moody piano for ambient music, or for when your wandering up those sensitive leafy byways :) cue Erik Satie. (8) Is an excellent Grand with lot's of sensitivity, very playable indeed. (12)Is a variaion on preset 1 with a bit more sustain, but not as touch sensitive, but usefull all the same.
The sound of this module is difficult to sum up, I would describe it as having a beautiful "lonely" sound, it can sound slightly cold, but not in a bad way, its not a bullish power-piano like the Kurzweil can be, and its not overly smooth like the Roland sounds. Think cold lonely fields, big skies, and sparse minimal soundtracks, its good at that.
I play free jazz, experimental/ambient music, the pro-Formance 1 suites me fine, just add a bit of compression, a touch of top cut on your mixer, a Lexicon Hall and your in piano heaven. What more do you want ? Its cheaper than a an acoustic grand, and just a bit smaller ! I love it.

Easiest ever !!
I don't care to edit the sounds of this device, I have three other synths for that stuff
I am yet to find a manual but this thing is a cynch!

Plenty of polyphony
No built in effects other than the 16 preset sounds
Fully set of MIDI ports but does not seem to respond to after-touch (yet)
No sequencer but I don't care - I have three sequencers already.

Excellent expressiveness but not quite a Kurzweil
Works for Piano-based stuff which could be anything from rock to classical
Good velocity sensitivity but no aftertouch (yet)

Only had it one day but I hope it stacks up
Absolutely going to use it in a gig.

Yet to see

Great
I would buy it again due to its great value
I've played for 30 yrs
Wish it responded to midi key transpose
It helps me make music

Presets Sound Good.
Manual is Simple.

Polyphony is good for 1991. For aditional Polyphony buy 2 Proformance and link MIDI (just double you're polyphony. No effects, no expansion, no SQ. Midi is Ok but limited.

Piano are good but exist a problem with stereo out. One "Mother" Left or Right have a problem into the connector. You must fix this becouse different you hear less quality. The velocity depend to Master Keyb.

no/ no need back-up - just fix the contact problem.

N/A

This is not very controlable or "patchable", that is, there is no editing of patches. It doesn't even respond to MIDI volume change or expression Control Changes! But given the sound it comes out of this "toy" (read later on), that doesn't matter at all! You only have 16 piano sounds, some of them are even just internally modified versions of the same basic timbre, but the sounds are just SUPERB!!! I own Kurzweil gear, and I know they claim to sound (and actually do sound) so gorgeous and that, but this cheap E-mu piano module is a very hard competitor! The piano sound comes super-clean and the sound is overall tight, warm and very very playable. You can spend hours with this thing!! If you are in the low budget side (most of us are anyway hehe), forget about spending tons on Kurzweils and even piano sampled libraries for Giga, etc... you'll get basically the same sound. Definite proof of the marvellous piano sounds inside this little cute box is: it doesn't have any effects. Yeah, it sucks, but consider this: it makes you notice really the good work put in the samples and the sound modelling, without any artificial embellishements! Regarding easy of use... couldn't be simpler!!! Plug it in (doesn't have ON/OFF switch...oh well), adjust patch number, fine tuning, MIDI channel and transpose value, all done by cool, old-fashioned, highly reliable rotary switches. Think about it, who needs more?

Polyphony: only 16 notes, but playing jazz and even some classical, it didn't run out of polyphony yet.. hey, you've got 10 fingers, and even using all at once, you will find it difficult to get out of polyphony without playing some chords without raising the damper pedal. No built in effects as I said, and this sucks only if you don't have special dedicated units... even with that, the piano sounds great, among the best I've heard in my life, a sound easily recognizable in some mid-nineties professional records. MIDI lacks CC 7 and 10 receiving. No sequencer onboard, but it has the full set of MIDI jacks for connecting to your external/computer sequencer (add an old-stylish, portable, reliable hardware sequencer and you transform yourself into a portable piano player.. the unit weights soooo light, I can't believe it!

There are only pianos here (this is not the expanded Proformance/1+ version that came out later to the market). 16 presets, there are only 3 or 4 different timbres available. I loooooove the warm, dark piano sounds, still with a powerful feel and very playable velocity response, that comes out this nice gear. It's comparable to the famous Kurzweil sound, but with very less gear and circuits... still can't figure out how the E-mu guys got this thing... The piano sound will inspire you for hours and hours of playing... I am still attached to preset number 1, could play it for ages, it has the response and sound I love in synth pianos. You can get most of superb piano sounds there in modules by Korg, etc, but they just tend to suck in the middle ranges. This module doesn't, although then it lacks a bit of resonance and clarity in the most upper registers (notes). But for jazz, blues, piano improvisation, even classical, it has an incomparable sound, and it's worth the few bucks it costs right now in the used market. Dynamic response is also very very good, I don't know if they used multiple velocity samples, but hey, who minds, the sound that comes out it's great anyway as I said, and again, best of all, VERY VERY VERY PLAYABLE and not any boring to play. The remanining piano timbres are a bit less usable, I didn't like much the brighter piano patches, the honky-tonk is ok for some fun, but I don't think honky-tonks should appear in any professional mix, so... but that's a personal opinion.

Huh! Could throw it from a 12th floor, it would resist. Highly reliable unit, and very very light (careful don't drop it, the throwing advice was only a joke after all! hehe). It depends on this external power supply, some people out there don't like it, but no problem for me. The knobs are very reliable, old-style, it seem they could function without any trouble for years and years... Even if I got my unit from the used market, it's been behaving 100% right, and it seems it will go on like that for ages.

Didn't have to deal with E-mu for now.

I would get another one if I got mine stolen or broken, some people used to get a couple, for the sake of polyphony. It's very very worth the 90 bucks I paid for it, considering the sound. Some people don't like old gear, but I've found this unit along with the Roland Sound Canvas module (who is sometimes regarded as rubbish out there) get my best inspiration out of my heart and brain (and fingers!). For some reason their piano tones may be less aclaimed than Kurzweils, etc, but are somehow warmer and the piano tones they both offer is very full and great for using within a mix, and also for solo playing for hours.

I don't see how it could be easier

It has like four good sounds worth using. Granted those are four of the best piano sounds I've ever heard in my life....

Like I said, these are the best piano sounds I've heard in my life! Very realistic. It doesn't have any effects though, which is really ok if you think about it.

It does what its supposed to do and doesn't back down. Ever

The module doesn't claim to have an onboard sequencer or 16 typesof arpeggios. It just claims to be an excellent piano module. My advice, get it if you have a synth in need of a pritstene piano sound. Don't use it just with a MIDI controller cuz it'll get boring. If you can play a good synth with the Proformance, your going to be in great shape!

just MIDI her up and make sure it's in the right chanel and go! Couldn't be easier!

It does it exactly what it says it does, and that's give you great piano sounds. I play a triton, and that has some junky pianos, so I chain it up with my proformance and I'm unstoppable!

This is one of the best piano sounds I've ever heard. This is good for anything that you would play with a good piano sample. It also has some pretty decent electric pianos, but the acoustic ones are where you get your money's worth

I would definiately gig without a backup, that's about my only concern

never had no problem

definately buy it again, but it a hundred times! this thing is my bread and butter!

I use the orginal versions. The presets sound good, and they are especially suited to my classical playing wife and my jazz/rock playing.

You can chain two units together, but insted of alternating notes, it waits until you have used up all the polyphony on one unti before switching to the other. Pressure sensitivity is great, but the sample have a little noise. I suspet this was not designed for the digital meduim, thats okay, we have a mostly analog studio.

Works well for everything from clasical to jazz and rock. All it does is pianos. I own a Kurzweil 2500 and the E-Mu has better piano sounds than the 2500.

Yes. I would use it on a gig without a back up. I used one for years plaing smoky clubs and I carried it in a 4 space rack unit. i even plegugged it in to a bad socket and I sent it back to the company and they performed wonderful service on it.

E-Mu was very helpful art the time, but they are not supporting the early proteus units. I'm unhappy about that.

I'm sure there are better piaono module on the markeyt these days. After all this is a 12 or more year old unit. I bought my second unit off of e-bay for $49 dollars.
Once again, when you chain the units together, I wish they would alternate notes, like the Yammah TX81Z.

This is the Emu Proformance/1 16 bit true stereo piano module. It is a half rack space MIDI tone module with 16 note polyphony, 15 different piano presets, 5 knobs and LED for power on and MIDI activity, but NO power switch. This is a bare bones simple module with a dedicated knob for every function, no display, no editing, no programmability, real WYSIWYG. It has a very good manual. The sound is fairly good, but not very expressive. With velocity the note simply get softer and louder, the tonal and harmonic character doesn't change. This version is the earlier one with only acoustic piano sounds, I.E. no organs, vibes, or electronic pianos.

This unit has 16 notes of stereo polyphony with the MIDI out jack transmitting the overflow which exceeds 16 notes. Conceivably you could hook several of these units together to get more polyphony. The unit doesn't have any on-board effects but does have a patch that the left side is slightly detuned from the right giving a subtle chorus effect. The Emu Proformance/1 has 5 knobs on the front. From left to right: Volume, Fine tune "+ or - 1/2 step", Transpose "1/2 steps throughout an octave an plus or minus up to two octaves", MIDI channel, Preset. The unit will allow you to select presets via MIDI responding to program change 1 trough 15. It has fairly decent MIDI implementation. It responds to velocity, sustain, soft, sostunato, pitch bend, volume change, program change.

As with most sample players, the piano sound is too bright. The Emu Proformance/1 is no execption. It's as if you get the harmonic content and tonality of FFFF full forte at even the lowest dynamic level. Sure when you play soft it's not very loud, but it's every bit as bright. In it's defense, I'll say it has a better piano sound than my Kurzweil K-250, ensoniq VFX and SQR plus, MKS-20, TX-802. But not as good as the Yamaha TX-1P, P-200, Roland RD-100, Korg Triton, Korg SG rack. If you need to bury a fast, barely noticeable piano flourish or arpeggio i the mix, this box will work just fine for you, but with that criteria, so will any other box.

It's a reliable unit. The headphone out jack doubles as the left stereo output which is on the back and not marked as a headphones jack at all. There's not power on/off switch so if you want to turn it off, pull the plug.

I've never talked to Emu.

For the $55 that I paid for it, it's great. I'm sure it sounded fantastic in 1990 when it was new. By today's standard the piano sound is severely lacking in dynamic quality.