Woo hoo. Just won one on fleaBay and looking forward to getting my mits on it - especially it's z-plane filters. Can't wait to dig into it and see if it's a cool as I remember the technology being ...



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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Hi Dave!

I await your thoughts and findings with interest - the very first time I visited Paul White at his studio I was keen to hear the Morpheus in action because it was so intriguing.

However, I came away disappointed with it but determined to buy a Korg Wavestation instead


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

I know what you mean - I seem to remember being very underwhelmed with it when it first came out. I think that it was largely still being targeted at the dance crowd (I have odd memories of a 909/303 type demo!), but a dig around youtube shows some good evolving pads. Hopefully I'll know more by the weekend..

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

I still use my Ultraproteus all the time for it's brilliant samples, but gave up trying to get the Z plane filters to do anything "cool" - great for for vocal formant and flange type effects, but far too polite for much else...

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Adam Inglis
A Disco Ate My BABY!

I bought an Audity 2000 new for not much. The filters arent as great as you would hope with all the noise EMU made about them. Lots of button pushing for editing, you step along the line of options, then back and then along again. Not a bad sound but it always sounds like an S&S unit. Sorry to p1ss on your fire a little. I use/used my Microwave II A LOT more.

hi,

i own a lot of emu gear (even had an EII in the day) and am a fan. that said, i was not blown away by the morpheus. i spent about two hours playing one a few years back, specifically trying to hear the 'wow' of morphing, and came away disappointed. that said, if it had been $100 instead of $150, i'd have popped for it. as i said, i own a lot of emu gear - an orbit, an audity, a planet earth, an XK6 - and it's all very worth having. one caveat: emu products have truly deep power but you have to invest a lot of time to understand the interfaces and menus to get at it. and if you don't use it for a while, you forget most of it.

the main thing that killed emu was poor product mgmt - they would end-of-life a product 8 months after shipping it, while the retail channel was still full of product. result: pissed off retailers, lots of fire-sales of EOL products undercutting pricing of newly announced gear. it was too bad, they were a really interesting synth maker...

cheers,

d

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"Patsy had the drug tolerance of Keith Richards and the moral rectitude of Brian Jones." - Dr. Walter Bishop, "Fringe"

dubbie ... speak to Zukan about the 'strange' management choices made by Emu (and Ensoniq who they bought). On second thoughts, don't. You'll only upset him again and I hear that his latest batch of medication is doing the trick



Yeha - I totally agree with the investment of time angle. I've had a few bits over the years and used a few more, so I'm resigning myself to spend some quality time "wallpapering the hall through the letterbox" (or programming via the nasty display and buttons). Still, could be worse. Could be a wavestation .. lol

Strange that people aren't mad on the filters. I thought that they were one of the good things about the E4 series and they were very well thought of.

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Dave, are there any editors available?

http://www.emulatorarchive.com/ModuleOverview/ModMorpheus/modmorpheus.html

This shows three, but not sure what era they are from or whether they will work on a modern PC.

There is MIDI Quest as well, but that isn't cheap. I've used it a couple of times, but I couldn't get anywhere with it. I think it requires some time to learn and I didn't get much of a chance to do so.

I was playing around with my E-Synth the other day which has some quite big presets and I think it has useful and unique filters. The front panel is knackered on mine though, so it is a nightmare to programme.

Nowt wrong with the Wavestation programming! It is actually quite like the E-Mu E4 range (or the other way around). The screen is terribly reflective and dark on my Wavestation though.

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

Quote Dave B:

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"wallpapering the hall through the letterbox"

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Snigger! That phrase (as applied to synth programming systems) was used by myself to Paul White over a coffee at an APRS show long, long ago. He swore to use it in his next review, did so and it became legend. I'm kinda proud of that one!

If anyone wants to know the original joke from which the phrase was clipped I'm available on PM!!

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Interesting. Due to mad work at the moment, I've not had time to dig as deep as I'd like, but it is a different beast to my usual boxes - which is nice. It took me a couple of mins to realise that the morphing was controlled by the mod wheel and once I got used to that, all was good.

I can see why people may brand it as 'just another rompler with better filters'. The presets are very much of their time and some aren't much to write home about.

I can also see why people might associate it with the Wavestation, but prefer a Wavey. The WS lets you place your hands on keys and hear things evolve - with the Morpheus, I can hear the potential for that, but the slightly pedestrian presets don't go there. A shame really.

It's one of those boxes where you can hear the potential for something interesting, but it kind of doesn't deliver out of the box. But I'm not regretting buying it. So it's a case of RTFM and then diving in a bit.

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Hi Dave!

Don’t forget to post up some MP3 samples when you’ve pushed it beyond the brink and produced something really memorable


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Fine. Just don't hold your breath ...

If he wasn't so busy with cool drum sample stuff, I'd throw it at Zuke whilst I'm busy for a bit!

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

Hi Guys,

Hows it going?

Im a long time owner & lover of an Ultraproteus, which is basically a Morpheus with a lot more patches.
The presets or patchs themselves whilst excellent quality early samples ( E3) are not that interesting but still useful fodder, BUT when you start messing with the huge mod matrix & the function generators especially & all the real time controls in the mod matrix, you are presented with one of the most powerful & deep synthesizers ever built IMO.
I am still amazed with some of the crazy moving 'ambient ' type sounds that I get with this synth, & it sounds like nothing else I have ever heard when it gets into its wilder & unpredictable territory.
There are 2 very sought after synths that this often sounds like to my ears, the way I tend to program it these days..
Besides the filters are wonderful & warm. The morphing filters can give it a very 'human voice' or organic sheen , but I dont find the morphing filters to be anywhere near its best feature , in fact I find it quite tedious auditioning so many so I tend to just pick my favorites or random ones .
What Ive written applies totally to the Morpheus. They are identical engines, just different patch content. The Ultra Proteus has double the Morpheus's patch content & also an extra few score filters too.

Edited by Captain Waves (31/03/12 05:28 AM)

Here ( there) is a YouTube example of an Ultraproteus being used by someone who knows how to get the best out of it.

Its by a guy / programmer/ musician called 'kenspocket'


If you'll bear with my lack of knowledge on how to embed YouTube content.

Just copy /paste this title below in the YouTube search engine.




'Discover Ultra Proteus sysex : Prometheus Alien reloaded'

Dave, you can always throw it my way and I will create some manic presets for you pal. I don't need one but would be a pleasure to create a bank or two for you.....let us not forget your boundless kindness to me m8.

The Morpheus is a great beast. Sure, it has 'those filters' but TBH its morphing capabilities are where the box comes alive.
Don't play the stock sounds as they will disappoint you. It's a morph machine and damn fun to use.

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Re: the 'kenspocket' example in my last post;
that was not the one I meant.
Apologies.
( I didnt listen to it until after I posted that)

There was a far better Morpheus/ Ultraproteus example of his on youtube about a year ago,(by 'kenspocket'), if I can find it I will report/ link

Here is a link (youtube) to one of the better examples of Morpheus programming than the last one I posted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEW-3slypHg