korg electribes...has anyone used any of em?

[findthesolution]

Im considering picking up a set for when I dont have the patience or motivation to do anything with DAW's. Are they worth the price? are they limited in functionality?

I thought i'd pick up the ES1 and ER1, and later the EA1. hopefully i can get some feedback from users so i can make an educated decision.

[Evil G]

i used to have an em1. it was easy and fun to program, but didn't sound that great so i gave it away once i had some better gear. i'd think the second generation electribes would be better than the first.

[stjohn]

ive been looking at this chap



any users?

[Decimal]

the korg ES1 is my life. i love that thing, my only complaint is there is only a low pass filter and no hp or bp. :(

the ESX, however, has about twice the functionality (including hp/bp filters!), so for $200 or so more, you get a big upgrade.


they are great machines. well worth the money.

[Komplex]

the korg ES1 is my life. i love that thing, my only complaint is there is only a low pass filter and no hp or bp. :(

the ESX, however, has about twice the functionality (including hp/bp filters!), so for $200 or so more, you get a big upgrade.


they are great machines. well worth the money.

I concur. Altho it really depends what you want to use them for...?

In my oppinion they (the ES-1 and ESX versions) make shit hot drum machines for live jamming. The rest I don't really like because they are more grooveboxy. With the sampling (ES) versions you at least get the option to dump in some killer sounds and **** them up on the fly or just emulate the classic drum boxes. Its quite flexible.

They are dirt cheap right now, take a beating (dropped it on concrete) and small/light enough to throw in a backpack.

One major drawback is no decay knob which really sucks when you wanna gate some hi-hats from long to short etc...

Another thing to look out for is no velocity. They have a "motion sequencer" which you can use to get different volumed hits. You get a pettern running select the drum part, hit record and tweak away on the volume knob, it then stores this and loops it. Same result as velocity and you can sequence all the knobs on the panel this way or using the step mode.

The ES-1 also has 32khz sampling rate so u get slightly crunchier drums (I like). The ESX has 44khz so its cleaner if thats important...


Thats all probably a bunch of info that you didn't need to know so I'll leave it at that. PM me if you need to know anything specific...

[RedRob]

ive used the electribes quite a bit. well handy to use and loadsa fun. the esx1 is pretty nice. ive a couple of mates doin a live hardware set, usin an esx1 each as the master sequencers and for beats and various other pieces of kit. never let them down at all during shows. get em for real cheap inthe states too. ye can do loads with em on the fly and chan the effects. id be goin for the second generation definately.

[dirty_bass]

The live PA I have been playing at gigs for the last year is based around the ESX-1`s
I just take my loops produced em real phat in the studio and then drop em into the ESX`s.
The valves make em sound so hot, the sudden jump in sound quality really notices when you play after a DJ. It`s super warm, super crisp.
I love em. I truly have loved playing a PA on them, if there are any questions you have about the ESX1`s then let me know.

An added bonus is that they look a hundred times better than a laptop and there is plenty of nobs and stuff to play with.

They have certain limitation, but for solid, thick techno, they are great.

[paulcortex]

just bought an electribe er-1 rhythm synth and an ea-1 synth module for 100 quid the pair....bargain!

[acidsaturation]

Jealousy Jealousy Jealousy...

That's a ****ing good deal - hope you have fun with 'em...

I got the original version of the ea-1 and the es-1...

Reckon I'm gonna get the er-1 too 'cos they are sooo cheap and sooo fun and sooo good...

There's a few niggles I have, like it'd be nice to send parts individually to the delay, and it'd be nice to be able to have parts mute saved into the pattern so you can bring 'em in later, but that's being churlish really. Korg were on a clever one with these little guys...

[paulcortex]

yeah extra outs and an assignable delay would be nice....but fer the price...im well chuffed!
...got them both synced up to my korg sx...nice to go hardware again...got lost in my pc too much...and sick of crashes etc...

[acidsaturation]

Yeh... even at full price I reckon they're good value and at that price amazing!

The ea-1 has seperate outs and to be fair on the es-1 it doesn't bug me too much 'cos I mainly use mine for making breakbeaty loops and wierd noises... have all my main drums on seperate outs form my (old but beloved) Akai S950 so the korg plays loops and the main drums I can **** with the midrange on the mixer to get some cool effects, particularly good on rides sweeping the hi mids while a pattern plays...

but I digress...

[holotropik]

I have been playing Live from the earlier model electribes (own the ER, EA & ES) for the past 4 years.

I concur with what Komplex said.

I will add that the ER-1 is pretty weak by itself and requires a good comp/lim to get some guts out of it. Probably better not getting it at all and go for the EMX. If you get the EMX you wouldnt need the ER or the EA.

I just bought the ESX-1 and am gobsmacked by its playability and improvements over the older models. Absolute solid sound quality and flexibility.

I plan to get the EMX soon and then I will just do my live set from the ESX & EMX only. Thats plenty of room for a solid Live Techno set from just two machines and a mixer.

[AcidTrash]

I really enjoyed playing with one in soundcontrol but I couldn't justify the silly money on something that contributes so little to my music.