about to buy an EMX1

Califax · Post by **Califax** » Sat May 17, 2008 5:21 am

hey guys, i'm in an electronica band, and we lack a drummer...so what we did is what a lot of industrial/electornica bands do. we went out looking for a drum machine.

here's what we wanna do:

have TRANCE/Techno rhythm beats programmed in the background. we have a guitarrist and bassist, and all we need is someone to control and trigger the different sequences and drum beats we have made for our live performance.

i have a macbook right now, and am considering getting Logic 8 express (to help program some keyboard/synthesizer melodic leads that we can trigger with an external midi controller).

i'm new to this sort of thing so here is what i need to know:

1) do we need an audio interface (Seperate sound card) to have a laptop AND the emx1 or will the emx1 act as its own a/i? as in, can i just plug my laptop into the drum machine station (the emx1) and then the exm1 into the PA system at our shows and be all set?

2) is logic worth buying? or can i just program some stuff in garage band and use the emx1 to trigger those samples for when i play live?

3) what sort of wiring should i use? (firewire, usb, livewire?)

4) anything i missed? if someone can show me a map (tell me how to hook everything up for stage performance) that would help

(aka tell me how to hook everything up, and such).

i'm finding thta hardware is EASIER to program beats and stuff than programming in software (less work but same amount of imagination/creativity is required).

hopefully this works out easier than using software and buying a midi controller AND an A/I.

thanks for the help guys

MagpieIndustries · Post by **MagpieIndustries** » Sat May 17, 2008 7:18 am

If you want beats playing, you only need the electribe. What did you want to do with the laptop?

Califax · Post by **Califax** » Sat May 17, 2008 7:37 am

awesome! so it acts as its own A/I i guess? sorry been "softwared" out, i guess.

um well we do use some keyboard parts in our songs, so the laptop would be used to write our keyboard lead parts (synthesizer), and we'd trigger these via korg ex1.

make sense?

how do we power up the electribe to make the beats for us? just literally plug it into the pa system?

AmigaHeretic · Post by **AmigaHeretic** » Sat May 17, 2008 8:23 am

Califax wrote: how do we power up the electribe to make the beats for us? just literally plug it into the pa system?

I think you are going to need a hex schmitt trigger inverter

Here's a wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmitt_trigger

You see Schmitt triggers are typically built around comparators, connected to have positive feedback instead of the usual negative feedback. For this circuit the switching occurs near ground, with the amount of hysteresis controlled by the resistances of R1 and R2:

Umm... just kidding... I think you just take your EMX and plug the left audio output to the left speaker and the right audio output to the right speaker and BAM music!!

Welcome to the forum!

Califax · Post by **Califax** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:44 pm

sorry for being a noob

lol
i got scared at the beginning of your post.

anyway, i'm told NEVER to use the speaker input of my laptop for anything.

so which outputs are you telling me to use on my macbook? the firewire ones? or is there actually an L and R?

what kind of wires do i use? firewire? livewire? usb? (i think usb, cuz i'm gonna be using midi when i program my synth leads right?)

ahh so confused haha

thanks for all the responses though

this forum seems friendly!

AmigaHeretic · Post by **AmigaHeretic** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:01 am

how do we power up the electribe to make the beats for us? just literally plug it into the pa system?

Yeah, the EMX has left channel out and right channel out (also has headphone out) but yeah, just plug that to the PA and start playing.

Califax wrote:sorry for being a noob lol
i got scared at the beginning of your post.

anyway, i'm told NEVER to use the speaker input of my laptop for anything.

so which outputs are you telling me to use on my macbook? the firewire ones? or is there actually an L and R?

what kind of wires do i use? firewire? livewire? usb? (i think usb, cuz i'm gonna be using midi when i program my synth leads right?)

ahh so confused haha

thanks for all the responses though this forum seems friendly!

If you want to hook it to your laptop you could of course use midi to use it inconjunction with software if you wanted.

I'm not sure why someone told you never to use the inputs on your Macbook, but if you just wanted to straight up record the sound from the EMX (like to make a youtube video or WAV file) this is how I do it. Just plug the audio out of the EMX to the audio in of my laptop and start recording music. Save it as a WAV or MP3 or whatever and then let us hear what you made!

MagpieIndustries · Post by **MagpieIndustries** » Sun May 18, 2008 6:42 am

Califax wrote:awesome! so it acts as its own A/I i guess? sorry been "softwared" out, i guess.

um well we do use some keyboard parts in our songs, so the laptop would be used to write our keyboard lead parts (synthesizer), and we'd trigger these via korg ex1.

make sense?

how do we power up the electribe to make the beats for us? just literally plug it into the pa system?

yes, yes and yes... the emx makes the beats, and it can also make some basslines and melodies and so on, and you just plug it directly into the PA. You can do whole shows with it alone (it's more fun with more equipment though, always

you can program in whole songs, or parts of songs that you manipulate live. So you can have the drum machine go through changes all by itself or have someone change and jam on it, it doesn't matter which, and it rocks for this type of work!

It can also do synth parts and lead sounds, so you might not need any other equipment at all, it depends what you want to achieve I guess. The emx is monophonic, meaning that it does not handle chords (there are a few workarounds, but in general its difficult to work with chords). But it is totally able to handle tons of melodies and leads and sounds all by itself.

Califax · Post by **Califax** » Sun May 18, 2008 7:55 am

wow i didn't know that hardware itself was so much easier. i was about to log in to ask a couple questions but you guys answered them.

i don't think chords will be an issue - the keyboard/synthesizer lead parts that i want to program are not chords...simple leads that i just want to play during certain parts (choruses mostly) of a song.

(this is all for live right now remember

)

so i'm gonna be using the drum machine to fill in for a drummer, and have the laptop plug into the korg to trigger the keyboard leads i have.

what kind of wire should i be using? that's the only question i have found unanswered...i hear that certain wiring makes a huge difference.

the program i'm using right now to program keyboard/synthesizer leads is "Garage band". (sounds ghetto but it's really doing everything
i need it to as far as picking certain synthesizer sounds and such). so i'd really like to use the macbook in conjunction with the korg.

one important question:

is it easy to record the drum beats i create on the korg ON the korg itself?

and just trigger them at shows, instead of having someone mix them live in real time?

reason i say it is cuz i'm a bass player, and i sing. i won't be able to control the beats and play with the korg live...and i don't trust anyone else to either - we have a girl that is going to be triggering our sequences/korg drum machine beats by (hopefully) the touch of a button with very little hand work...

if that question makes sense?

is it easy to save beats i make on the korg TO the korg itself, and is it easy to like....say have a drum beat layed down and then melodic trance rhythms over the drum beats so our guitarrist/me can sing/play over it?

while our korg "player" is just triggering stuff by the touch of buttons? or is this all real time stuff?

thanks guys, looks like once you guys tell me what kind of wiring i need (firewire, usb, whatever) for the info i provided you with, i should have it all set and ready to buy...then have more intelligent questions for you in the near future

i figure i need 2-3 wires....2 to plug into the macbook...and one to plug from the korg into the PA system....so yea

hopefully i'll have some more awesome answers from all you smart people tomorrow! thanks!

BIGGEST QUESTION OF THEM ALL:

is it possible to store some of my songs on this? or do i have to buy those cards people are talking about? and if so, where do i get them?
(or can i save them to the macbook?)

is an esx sampler a better machine for me? or is the emx able to do what i described above just as well? what's the difference?

MagpieIndustries · Post by **MagpieIndustries** » Sun May 18, 2008 10:33 am

Either you are simply trolling now, or you have no idea what an emx is for, or does.

The answer to all your questions is yes. if you are gonna drop that amount of money on a musical instrument, you might wanna do a bit more research on what it can do.

For instance, if I was going to play like you described (you didn't say much about the music though) I would do like this:

I'd sit around with my emx at home, and my bass guitar. I'd lean forward and press some buttons to get some beats. I'd jam on the bass. I'd keep doing this till it sounds cool. Then I'd program in some drum fills and changes, and then add some new sounds (lead melodies, background pads, digital noises, whatever).
I'd continue playing bass and making changes and starting and stopping and generally working with all these until Im happy with the different parts.

Lastly, I'd lay out the intro, verse, chorous, verse, bridge, verse, outro sections into the emx, and sit back and press Play.. then play the entire bassline live.

then move on to the next song.

no laptop. Don't expect it to sound like a real drummer, but you asked for trance/techno beats to start with.

plosive · Post by **plosive** » Sun May 18, 2008 11:43 am

AmigaHeretic wrote:
Califax wrote: how do we power up the electribe to make the beats for us? just literally plug it into the pa system?

I think you are going to need a hex schmitt trigger inverter

Here's a wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmitt_trigger

You see Schmitt triggers are typically built around comparators, connected to have positive feedback instead of the usual negative feedback. For this circuit the switching occurs near ground, with the amount of hysteresis controlled by the resistances of R1 and R2:

Umm... just kidding... I think you just take your EMX and plug the left audio output to the left speaker and the right audio output to the right speaker and BAM music!!
Welcome to the forum!

lol...

musikmachine · Post by **musikmachine** » Sun May 18, 2008 12:57 pm

plosive wrote:
AmigaHeretic wrote:
Califax wrote: how do we power up the electribe to make the beats for us? just literally plug it into the pa system?

I think you are going to need a hex schmitt trigger inverter

Here's a wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmitt_trigger

You see Schmitt triggers are typically built around comparators, connected to have positive feedback instead of the usual negative feedback. For this circuit the switching occurs near ground, with the amount of hysteresis controlled by the resistances of R1 and R2:

Umm... just kidding... I think you just take your EMX and plug the left audio output to the left speaker and the right audio output to the right speaker and BAM music!!
Welcome to the forum!

lol...

It's like...magic!

Califax · Post by **Califax** » Sun May 18, 2008 6:18 pm

thanks

i actually, had no idea what the emx did. i watched some videos on youtube comparing the sx to the mx and now i kinda understand what i can use the machine for and all that.

i don't need it to sound like a real acoustic drummer on stage - that's not even what i want. we're more electronica anyway so we want that electro feel to our music.

and i learned that you can actually use the emx as a "keyboard" in a way because it's a synthesizer, which is awesome. i'd STILL like to use my laptop in some ways, because i'm sure that i can do more with the emx in conjunction with programs like garageband and logic.

anyway, thanks for the feedback, i was so confused as to what these machines did, and the guy at sam ash really did NOT help me out in any way by describing what it was for or how i could use it on stage as a hardware drum machine

.

i think i'm gonna buy the emx, and use it as a midi controller (in the small even that i need it) and also my drum machine.

i am also reading about smartmedia cards. how much space does this thing hold? enough for like only a few patterns or a few songs?

is there any way to save patterns and such on an external hard drive other than smart media? (save onto my laptop for example?)

if not then i guess i should get on ordering a couple smart media cards

any sites you recommend (besides ebay)?

shabudua · Post by **shabudua** » Mon May 19, 2008 4:36 pm

You can back up EMX stuff to your computer via midi, assuming you have a midi interface, but it is very slow and annoying--at least it is for me. It's well worth buying the smart media card and adapter.

MagpieIndustries · Post by **MagpieIndustries** » Mon May 19, 2008 5:20 pm

there is enough room in the emx for hours and hours of music

Califax · Post by **Califax** » Mon May 19, 2008 6:42 pm

adapter? hmm does it not come with an adapter? so i'm guessing it's mostly battery powered?

shouldn't be an issue for right now i guess, i think they sell adapters at guitarcenter.

and thanks i'll def buy some smartmedia cards too.

as far as using hardware live - is it best to just record your beats/rhythms for a whole song and play along with it? or do you guys prefer to have someone hit triggers to play different loops and such?