Korg Forums

[funkster]

Hi All,

I've just got my ESX to compliment my EMX I know the ESX has 384 sec's of sample capacity internally (256 mono / 128 stereo). My question is with all the default sounds loaded (as new) how many seconds does that take up? i.e how many seconds do I have left to play with without deleting the onboard sounds?

I dont want to delete them yet as I am scared I will delete a sound used on a
preset I like. But when I loaded one 10-15 second stereo sample, I couldnt load anymore afterwards.

Also, is there any way of telling which samples have not been used in a preset? Or are they all used...

Thanks

[funkster]

I just found a thread which mentooned this cool app. It helps, but a definate answer would still be good. I also found out 26MB is the total size of the original backup, so I hope you guys can confirm that 26MB equates to 285 sec's or near that...?

http://www.skratchdot.com/esxwaveorganizer/download.php

[funkster]

and it converted to mono for me!?

Is this app too good to be true??

[Ruso]

well here's the deal there are a few factors... first of all the original samples besides the waveforms kinda suck... in fact a lot of them are ripped from pcm on the emx so if you use them it's useless... the first thing I did was clear out all the samples except for the basic waveforms(which by the way I cleared out pretty quick too replacing them with these crazy potent analog versions I have laying arround)..... the program is not too good to be true, it is a very good utility and it works really well... it requires a smart media card (which are discontinued but you can get what's called an xd to smart media adapter on new egg for 4 bucks.... then all you gotta do is find an xd card that is LESS then 128 mb....)

anyways now that you have a card you can transfer the .esx files back and fourth...


megabytes do not equal seconds by any means... you gotta keep a lot of things in mind when organizing your collection.... first and foremost all ur samples must be .wav files or .asf files at 44.100 to be converted into esx format witht he wave organizer properly... it might handle other files but it has made a lot of mistakes in the past for me where files wouldn't load...

another thing is that it's a very good idea to keep most if not all your samples MONO... why? cause the esx memory is very limited and stereo take TWICE as much memory as mono.... third you want the MAJORITY of your samples to be short........ you don't want to be importing loops into it cause you'll have like 10 and NOTHING else.... the most useful thing to use the stretch and slice parts are for beats.... so I sudgest depending on the style of music you make to throw in a few mono breaks onto the machine... maybe a vocal phrase or two..

putting together a library for an esx is a tideous time consuming step... it is a big pain in the ass, you'll want a batch converter (if u got sound forge it has one built in)... you want to keep in mind how you're gonna use samples.... samplers aren't just for triggering different sounds, they are a way to make music.... keep in mind sound textures picture how you can stretch them or tweak em other ways...... if you put together one high quality sample bank for the machine then you won't have to do it again.... spend good time on it it's worth it.... don't forget to cover all areas of samples.... I usually have arround 120 drums organized by categories, about 10 high quality basic waveforms, (sin tri saw squ pulse and usually an "analogue" version of each).... then you want a few instrument one shots, vocal stabs stuff like that.... then you want a few one bar breaks to tinker with... and lastly fill the rest with short sonic samples for mangling to build the body of tracks....

have fun

[funkster]

Hi Russo,

Thanks for your reply. Just what I needed. Since posting I have begun to understand it all a bit better. I already have a SM card with 128k and have backed up my ESX sounds (and noticed from posts that you can get them from the Korg site: http://www.korg.com/service/downloadinfo.asp?DID=1313. I have also created a couple if rough ESX files and named them accordingly (Electro.esx, House.esx etc), when I load one up and change the sounds, I make sure to save all back to the card and then I can load up differenc .ESX file with other sounds. This seems to work for me at the moment. I do want to make one quality .ESX though as you suggested

I have been using wav organiser to convert the fiels to mono, it seems to work ok, but I have to click each one to convert it (i did over 100 a while ago!). I will start to use batch files too I think..

I didnt realise some sounds were form the EMX! cheeky! haha. I will keep the waveforms in my .ESX and get a few of my own too. Great tip thanks.

I think I will keep all long vocals and samples for ableton, its a shame the memory is so limited really. I suppose they had to save cost, and the paint job would have cost a fortune! haha

Thanks again for your help!

[inducejack]

Hey Ruso I noticed that some original samples can gate longer ie flute. It actually sounds like a flute being played on the arpeggio. But I loaded some rhodes samples that are like 32 steps long and it seems to be continuously triggering insteaded of gating. I have the gate knob turned up all the way does the sample need special file conversion or something?

[Ruso]

hrmrm weird, I never noticed the flute sound in the original bank... hrmm I don't think you can "gate" a sound u sure the sample start isn't modulated where ur listening to it? that's what it sounds like is happening.

[funkster]

You could have Motion Sequence on from a previous pattern?...

[Ruso]

oh I think I know what ur talking about, they're not gated, the way it works is if you press a key and don't release, but hit another one, specially with glide it will not retrigger the sample but it will keep playing the same sample.... ya just an evolving sample is the trick...

[inducejack]

I know that it retriggers on the 16 steps if I have it on keyboard mode but I'm mostly concerned about the "re triggering" of the arpeggio. I've noticed youtube videos where this doesnt seem to be a problem with the emx. Would really like to have one but the funs arent realistic for me to buy one right now. Thanks for your answers Ruso really appreciate it.

[inducejack]

even if I have that fader all the way up