Korg Electribe?

bassteban · #1 10-10-2009, 10:27 AM

Searched & came up dry- anybody have any experience w/these things? There are several versions & levels; the ER-1 looks most promising for what I might want(some dance/electronic-type tones, cheesey drum machine sounds, etc). I'm also wondering if there's a model that might be useful for some twisted dub stuff.

gnasher1993 · #2 10-10-2009, 10:47 AM

I've got the EA-1. It's an awesome bit of kit. There's some great sounds in there. I mainly use it as a MIDI slave synth. My only complaint is that it's monophonic.

The filters are great, all the wave forms are really versatile and the built in effects sound pretty sweet. It's great for programming sequenced patterns.

I don't have any experience with the ER-1 but, if it's anything like the EA-1, it's probably worth a punt. They go for pretty meager prices now so snag one if you find one, they don't hang around for long.

**Bryan R. Tyler** · #3 10-10-2009, 11:04 AM

I looked really hard into getting either the blue one or the red one for a while. Hearing people on YouTube demo the ribbon itself almost made me get one

In the end I found they were dance oriented to the point where I thought they wouldn't be the best fit for me and got a Roland Handsonic instead (not a groovebox). They do look like really fun little boxes to have around. If I were to get more seriously into electronica stuff though, I'd probably look into a MIDI interface going into a laptop, as most hardware devices like this can sound dated after a short time.

Chris V. · #4 10-10-2009, 11:57 AM

Could you plug a bass or guitar in and use the Electribe's filters?

gnasher1993 · #5 10-10-2009, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris V.

Could you plug a bass or guitar in and use the Electribe's filters?

No...it only takes line level sources.

**Bryan R. Tyler** · #6 10-10-2009, 12:11 PM

You can boost your signal to line level if you want. What I was considering was running the outs of my Looperlative looper (line level outs) into it and manipulating the loops with it.

gastric · #7 10-10-2009, 01:09 PM

I played with a synth guy for a while. He used it as the master to control and trigger everything. The only thing I personally thought was annoying, based purely on what little info I gleaned from playing with him, was that it has no easy way to insert new sequences. You had to first had to tediously move all existing sequences up in the list to make an empty entry for the new sequence. For whatever reason he'd have 10 sequences listed in consecutive order, those 10 made up the parts for a whole song, and he would manually queue and trigger them with the Electribe. I don't know enough to know why he wouldn't have a single song in a single sequence in the Electribe, but probably for facilitating easier copying and repetition of parts? Beats me. But it was painful to watch him insert new sequences.

It's not a unique problem. If you wanted to insert a new patch in a BOSS VF-1 you'd either have to overwrite an existing patch, or manually copy the existing ones to a new location first to make room for the new one. Not exactly the same problem as there's no reason in particular to keep all your patches in a particular order on the VF-1.

behndy · #8 10-10-2009, 01:23 PM

i've had the ER-1, the EMX-1 and the EMX-1 mk II (GREAT naming style... bleh). you can use the filter's on it for external stuff, and you can do some neat sequenced efx stuff, but it can cut a lot out of your tone running it that way.

i've always felt that the Electribe series is designed more as an entry level "do it all" group of boxes geared to not intimidate people that are less experienced with synth stuff.

that said, i like them a lot. for what they are, you can get some neat stuff out of them. they ARE mainly dance-oriented, but you can get some more glitchy or Radiohead version of glitch idm stuff out of them with some work.

-0behn desu0-

Chris V. · #9 10-10-2009, 06:53 PM

Okay, so running the line out from my AG 500 would work? Then I could manipulate the sounds with my bass, right?

You could probably do some cool things with a tremolo and a delay...

irvinz · #10 10-10-2009, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassteban

Searched & came up dry- anybody have any experience w/these things? There are several versions & levels; the ER-1 looks most promising for what I might want(some dance/electronic-type tones, cheesey drum machine sounds, etc). I'm also wondering if there's a model that might be useful for some twisted dub stuff.

ER-1 is pretty much an anolog synth. the EMX-1 would be much better for your use i guess? the ESX is a pretty good tool to have around as well. ER-1 pops up now and then pretty cheap.

savinggrace · #11 10-10-2009, 07:28 PM

*subscribed*

Jerry J · #12 10-11-2009, 11:07 PM

I've eyed these as they show up at one of the local used gear shops. ER-1, ES-1 and an EA-1 showed up recently.

I thought that it would be fun to do a Squarepusher kinda thing. Mainly to open up new ideas in my head.

bassteban · #13 10-12-2009, 09:45 AM

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one eyeing these things. I'd want to dork around w/one at a store before committing though; I don't want a one or two trick pony, & also have been looking at a couple of analog-modeled synths(Xiosynth 49 & Roland SH-201).

Floridabwoy · #14 10-12-2009, 09:49 AM

I had a korg ES-1. It was cool, hard to program, and the storage was limited. For the $200 to buy one these days, just get abelton and a triggerfinger.