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blackholesun wrote:There's also been features added that makes it better than the original 'tribes in my opinion.

Yes, it sounds really good and fresh, new features have been added, but even these were pretty poorly implemented. All in all, a successful release should never leave a bad taste in so many mouths. They should have really worked on it for another 6 months and released a proper product, IMO.

"To be fair to Korg, it's actually just called electribe and electribe sampler, they don't call it 2."

To be fair to korg *they* rocked up to the Sonicstate Review with older versions of electribes. *They* pushed it as part of a continuum. Even Nick seemed taken aback at first.

That was a beartrap they created and set for themselves.

If they hadn't done that then the new generation of users wouldn't even be aware of what older features aren't in the new.

And they are called *stations* - music production station - that's branded on the things.

wow.

blackholesun wrote:There's also been features added that makes it better than the original 'tribes in my opinion.

I'd bloody well hope so, they've had 12 years to come up with it!

When the EMX/ESX were released facebook didn't exist yet, we were using Nokia brick phones, and 48MB of sampling ram was fairly decent.
Now we have IPhone 6's and I can buy a 16GB SD card for 7 euro.

Yes, the sound quality of the new electribes had improved, but for the rest they really haven't kept up with technology.
They should have increased the sampling time, we shouldn't suffer from voice stealing, and there really was no need to *remove* stuff like copying/moving/transposing data or assignable midi-channels.

There's also been features added that makes it better than the original 'tribes in my opinion.

- Paraphony (its about time)
- Proper Reverb fx (well just master fx doh)
- Filter types on E2 and fresh samples on E2 (and still using E2 LPF mostly)
- Overall sound quality arguably (No tubes derp)
- Battery powered (for 2/3 hours jam session outside okkkaay)

Sums it up more or less.

sauce wrote:

blackholesun wrote:There's also been features added that makes it better than the original 'tribes in my opinion.

Yes, it sounds really good and fresh, new features have been added, but even these were pretty poorly implemented. All in all, a successful release should never leave a bad taste in so many mouths. They should have really worked on it for another 6 months and released a proper product, IMO.

I think the bad tastes in so many mouths has a lot to do with people's expectations. Everyone wants all-the-features-all-the-time, all in an affordable package. This is what $400 (or less) gets you more or less. Some of what people are asking just either isn't available at this price point, is a personal preference.

At the end of the day, taking the E2 and ES2 for what they are, they are incredibly feature packed for $400 and they are what they are at this. Wow, that last sentence was a mouthful, sorry.

I don't know, if people want a deeper synth, they should buy a synth, if people want a better sequencer, buy a dedicated sequencer.

The Electribe does things my $2,000 Tempest can't do (record chords into the sequencer, start on beat when slaved to MIDI, record automation via the knobs, receive control change / CCs, etc.)

I think people just like to complain no matter what they get. Except of course modular people, whenever they don't like something they just save up $75 for another module.

Look at other forums with other gear and see the same thing being replicated - older folk whinging and whining and going on and on how the new isnt like the old. And the old is always better.
*always*

Since the weekend's firmware updates I been spending more time and surprised myself by getting more out of them both.

At one stage I looked at my watch and discovered 2 and half hours had flown by and I hadnt even noticed. I actually went somewhere i was neither expecting nor thought possible on the devices and myself.

my mind's changed - if you are experienced you knew what it was before you bought it.

If you hate it sell it..

If you cant do that then you are a stuck record going round and round - and yr music is probably the same.

If you dont own one then who cares what you have to say?

I had a Step Jump epiphany last night. Previously i've just used it for recording motion sequence values onto steps, but somewhere along the line the quantisation of it has been tightened up so even numpties like me can get back "on the one" in time. So i experimented with different parts muted within a pattern and spent 1 1/2 hours beat juggling. Sooooo much fun, can't wait to try it out with timesliced loops on the sampler. Hell, i even messed with the touchpad fx too...

blackholesun wrote:

sauce wrote:

blackholesun wrote:There's also been features added that makes it better than the original 'tribes in my opinion.

Yes, it sounds really good and fresh, new features have been added, but even these were pretty poorly implemented. All in all, a successful release should never leave a bad taste in so many mouths. They should have really worked on it for another 6 months and released a proper product, IMO.

I think the bad tastes in so many mouths has a lot to do with people's expectations. Everyone wants all-the-features-all-the-time, all in an affordable package. This is what $400 (or less) gets you more or less. Some of what people are asking just either isn't available at this price point, is a personal preference.

At the end of the day, taking the E2 and ES2 for what they are, they are incredibly feature packed for $400 and they are what they are at this. Wow, that last sentence was a mouthful, sorry.

I don't know, if people want a deeper synth, they should buy a synth, if people want a better sequencer, buy a dedicated sequencer.

Too true if I want crazy synthesis I use my blofeld or iPad
If I want a bad ass sequencer I use ableton live and push
If I want an awesome drum machine I use drum racks
If I want to screw around for a few hours I use the E2 and sequence my iPad apps with it and come up with cool ideas all while having a blast!
Then if I want to work more on those ideas the laptop is always near by!

Actually seeing this written out kinda cured my GAS for an mpc1000
I will just stick with the E2 warts and all cuz you know what? At the end of the day if you want to make songs use a DAW like everyone else!
If you want to play on the E2 then awesome!

1_inch_punch wrote:Look at other forums with other gear and see the same thing being replicated - older folk whinging and whining and going on and on how the new isnt like the old. And the old is always better.
*always*

Not Always (unless your over at Gearslutz...) the E2 is definitely better overall than the original electribe series (EA/ER/ES/EM 1), no question about that. And It does some things better than the X series.

1_inch_punch wrote:Since the weekend's firmware updates I been spending more time and surprised myself by getting more out of them both.

At one stage I looked at my watch and discovered 2 and half hours had flown by and I hadnt even noticed. I actually went somewhere i was neither expecting nor thought possible on the devices and myself.

Glad your enjoying it, It's a capable machine. I had a chance to play with Sauce's E2 with the sampler hack on it this weekend. It has a good clean sound (no tube trash), and having 16 parts, that are freely assignable as keyboard, one shot, or slice is a vast improvement. The filters however were kind of Meh, the BPF particularly seemed useless. This could be made up for by IFX filters, but they only have one parameter to edit so no control of resonance. My experience did not change my mind about the unit, for me in this stage of my studio. If I had no gear like when I had bought the EA-1 and ES-1 15 years ago (crap does that make me a whiny old fogey?) Then I would be far more interested in this unit

1_inch_punch wrote:my mind's changed - if you are experienced you knew what it was before you bought it.

Or didn't buy it...because you knew what it was.

1_inch_punch wrote:If you hate it sell it..

Good Advice.

1_inch_punch wrote:If you cant do that then you are a stuck record going round and round - and yr music is probably the same.

Not sure I follow? If you cant do what? Sell it if you hate it? yeah that would be odd to keep gear you hate. not sure that has any correlation to ones musical output.......

1_inch_punch wrote:If you dont own one then who cares what you have to say?

People researching whether or not to buy one. I'll agree though that if you don't own one, never tried one, and have done no research and just bash the unit, your not contributing anything useful to the conversation.

I don't own one because I don't feel it will add anything useful to my setup and the $400 could be better spent on something else. If I can save someone in a similar situation from making a poor choice (for them), then I think it's worthwhile. I would still recommend they go to a store and have a play about with it, do your research and make your own decision, but Is it not valuable to know why someone might have passed on purchasing one, provided they give a rational synopsis? No piece of gear is right for everyone, shouldn't you like to know the Pro's and Con's?

Otherwise I could just say if you do own one, who cares what you have to say

I dont need be lectured on any of the shortcomings of the machine(s) - Dr Hoo and disconnector gave pretty thorough breakdowns right from the beginning.

They should be stickies on this forum.

I owned an sp404 OG for years longer than i care to name. It had shortcomings that drove me bananas. The day came it got damaged and beyond repair.

without a second's further consideration I bought another. There was absolutely nothing like it around at that time - and this was with the old CF card. It was like that.

I been immensely critical of the new e(s) but it hit me on the weekend that if either got damaged - again, i would replace them without a second's further thought.

I am certainly no fanboy. The circumstances are what they are.

1_inch_punch wrote:I dont need be lectured on any of the shortcomings of the machine(s) - Dr Hoo and disconnector gave pretty thorough breakdowns right from the beginning.

They should be stickies on this forum.

.....I am certainly no fanboy. The circumstances are what they are.

Didn't Intend to come off as lecturing you, you just said some things I wanted to respond too, that's what forums are all about isn't it? anyway, your no fanboy and I'm no hater.

A sticky thread would be good. It should also be noted that in the nearly a year since those threads, some things have changed (pattern gap is smaller, fx tails carry over if you don't change fx) and many things havent.

No worries -

you are clearly years more experienced than me in synths.

out of interest - if you lost the E2 - would you replace it with another ... or what would you purchase in its place....?

If yall don't mind me jumpin in here, I'd replace it in a heartbeat. I've been gigging with it all year and it hasn't failed me once. There's definitely a learning curve with it, and obviously some glaring omissions, but it's an extremely capable instrument. I think it's also worth noting that some of the early adopters who abandoned it did so very quickly. After working with it for many months certain things have 'clicked' and now I can work very quickly on it. Altho, it is a shame that korg didn't release it with the Current version of firmware. I'm sure those who abandoned it might have otherwise given it some more usage.