When SoundFont technology matured (thanks to Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster AWE and Live! cards), users did what they always do: they ripped the ROMs. The "Proteus Soundfont" is a labor of love (and legal gray area) performed by audio archivists. They painstakingly sampled every note of the original Proteus hardware, mapped the velocity layers, and compiled them into .sf2 files.
In the golden era of the 1990s, if you walked into a professional recording studio or a hobbyist’s bedroom MIDI rig, you would likely find two things: a copy of Cakewalk or Cubase , and a silver, 1U rack-mounted box known as the E-mu Proteus 1 . proteus soundfont
That isn't just a sample. That is history. And thanks to the humble SoundFont, it will never die. If you want to start today, download the free "Sforzando" player and search for "Proteus 1 .sf2 archive." Look for the patch "Stereo Piano"—it’s the secret sauce. They painstakingly sampled every note of the original