Vintage Synth Explorer

PAiA • Proteus 1

This ultra-rare analog monosynth is called the Proteus 1, but should not be confused with E-mu's Proteus/1. This is a monophonic analog synth with 16 memory locations! It's based on CEM chips (as used in the Sequential Circuits Pro-One and many other classic vintage synths). Its got two oscillators with oscillator sync, an envelope generator, LFO, lowpass resonant filter, glide and noise-gen. This synth is unique for a vintage monosynth in that it has patch memory which can be programmed by the user and also has a series of lights to show when knob settings match internal patch settings.

There's also a patchbay on the back of the synth with control voltage inputs for MANY of the synth's parameters using external voltages, just like you can do on modular synths like the ARP 2600. This really increases your options. There are jacks for: VCO1 pitch, transpose, out. VCO 2: FM, transp, out, pulse width control, hard sync and soft sync ins. VCF: cutoff freq, resonance, out, fx send and receive. Preset: advance. Keyboard CV and gate. MOD: LFO and ADSR. Hi and low outs. You can use another modular synth, CV / analog sequencer or a MIDI to CV convertor to control any of the CV inputs. Ultra rare! Only 70-80 of these synths were produced. Like most PAiA gear, it was a D.I.Y kit that originally retailed between $400 to $500 in the late seventies.

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JOSH

Posted 363 days ago

Luckily for me, i had a neighbor in the seventies who built some Paia kits. So, when i stumbled upon a Paia 4700 series wing-cab and keyboard, I was happy to pay the $100 asking price; that was about 1981, and I still use that 4700 modular synth in recordings. I evidently am able to get fat, rich, thick textures no one else can, at least according to one of my recording buddies. We've also added additional modules to increase the capacity of this amazing synth, and wsould be happy to provide pics.

Kelvin

Posted 372 days ago

I admit it, I was a PAIA baby. I built and played pretty much everything the company built. This was the closest thing to a Mini Moog I could afford and like all PAIA products it had incredible expansion capability. The case was very robust and I was able to finally take a synth out gigging without breaking my back lugging a 4700 series patch cord monster around.
Good leads and incredible basses. Even when Romplers became kings I hooked up my Proteus with a set of Moog pedals from a Taurus II for some cool pedal bass sounds.
The board is in retirement now, but I'm looking forward to pulling it out again when I get more studio space.

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