REVIEW: E-MU "PROFORMANCE / 1" PIANO MODULE BY TOR-EGIL BRASETH *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************  For years, different companies have tried to develop a good, digital piano sound. Compared to E-Mu's piano module "Proformance" they never succeeded. For putting it straight; the Proformance is quite brilliant. Never have the world seen a piano module that is so little of size that it can be carried under your arm, and still sound like a 1 ton Steinway, well close by, anyway. With it's 15 sounds, the "Proformance" is probably THE bargain for the piano player with a MIDI keyboard. THE OUTSIDE It's got 1 knob for adjusting the volume, 1 knob for fine tune, 1 knob for transposing up to +- 2 octaves, 1 Knob for the MIDI-channels and for activating the demo tune, 1 knob for choosing sounds and a LED for showing incoming MIDI data and power on. It's 1U in height (one standard rack size) and only 1/2 rack size in width (a rackmount-kit can be purchased from an E-Mu dealer). THE MOST IMPORTANT THING - THE SOUNDS One of the things E-Mu have put weight on in the "Proformance" is true stereo sampling. This means that the piano sound isn't just a mono sample tuned a little different in each channel. The sounds on "Proformance" are sampled with two microphones (called crossfading), each pointed at it's part of the piano (one low, one high). This does a great deal to make the sound "fatter" and more powerful, like a grand piano. I really don't consider myself a piano player although I play some keyboards. And by not doing so, I cannot judge the piano sound as a real piano player can. But I do know this: The "Proformance" has got a really good touch to it, at least compared to it's ancestors. This little box can, up to a certain point, compete with the big digital pianos. And taking the price of a digital piano in consideration, that is some effort. A problem some players may come across is the polyfony of this box; it is "only" 16 voices. Although the thing has 32 discrete audio channels (as mentioned in the commercial), it falls down to half of that because of the true stereo sampling. 16 voices should usually be enough, but if you're a player of big classical pieces and a hold pedal-fanatic you can always buy yourself another "Proformance". It is possible to hook up two "Proformance" modules because of the MIDI overflow function. It basically works like this: Module 1 has exceeded its amount of voices and instead of cutting the first note played, it sends the other notes over to module 2. Neat huh? There's 4 basic sounds in the box. The other 11 is slightly modified versions of those 4 basic sounds. Some of the variations have longer decay or more touch sensitivity. I was quite amazed over the resolution of the touch-sensitivity in some of the sounds. I couldn't find out exactly how many levels there are in the "Proformance", but there's quite many. The loops in the sounds are really good. They're almost impossible (unless you're REALLY critical and have a well-trained ear) to discover. One thing I DIDN'T like about the "Proformance" was the lower octaves. I think they sounded plastic and synthetic, and there was some clicks in a couple of the sounds in the very high octaves. And while I'm at it; sound 4 (rock piano) sounded a bit too sythetic (at least without reverb). And I wouldn't recommend using the "Proformance" without a reverb unit connected. It sounds too dry and flat without some kind of reverb. It is also possible to hook up some pedals to your keyboard (if you have a keyboard with more than just the hold-socket in the back panel). The "Proformance" can take soft, sostenuto and sustain pedal-commands. It responds normally to pitch bend-commands and produces chorus (in most of the sounds) when given modulation-commands. E-Mu has also released a "+"-version of the "Proformance" which contains 32 sounds. Including piano it's got el-bass, acoustic bass, organ sounds, el-pianos, vibes and some more. "Proformance +" has also got a split function so you can have a piano sound on the upper keyboard and bass on the lower, and so on. One thing about the "+"-version is utterly stupid, and that's the way you access the 16 new sounds; you've got to do it with the program change-command. This means you've got to use your computer or hardware sequencer when you want to change sounds. CONCLUSIONS The "Proformance" has showed itself worthy of it's reputation and price. For the piano player who really plays and needs a MIDI-piano, this is the solution. If you already have a piano sound that you really like, then stick to it. If you're looking for good piano sound but not THAT good, and get LOTS of other GREAT sounds too, you should settle for something like a Roland "U-110" (which I myself am the lucky owner of). The "Proformance" is a bit too expensive to be bought just for playing around. This is an instrument for people who really need good piano sound and piano feel. That's my opinion anyway... Special thanks to TONY SOLUM for lending me his "Proformance"! *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************