Korg Forums

I have a feeling Korg will come out with a bigger/better/more expensive unit in the not too distant future. These very well may be feelers.

.....

Ted3000 wrote: In the meantime, did you know that you can use the X-Y pad with a little bit of glide and triangle LFO to pitch to make a decent theremin sound? Try a narrow pulse osc.

No! I Didn't know that!
I'll be giving that a try when I get home, Thanks Ted3k for your constructive input!!

I'm surprised nobody seems to complain about the lack of instant key transpose function that was available on holding the solo button on the old series. Okay you can access it via the menu and shift by semitones but its nowhere near as spontaneous and musical as transposing the whole arrangement by a 3rd or a 5th or even a whole octave for dramatic effect. And here you have to use the encoder for that...
With various scales and the option for enablig key change for individual parts it would be so nice if it worked at least with an external keyboard, if not with its own pads.
And while I do love Kaossilator style scalled gates, I painfully miss the arp from the EMX! Why can't we just have the most basic of all arpeggiator features that has been a standard for synths for 3 decades... a simple play order arp? With the step lenght and variation on the x and y pad axis it could work just as on the EMX, if not even greater.
These are the 2 main reasons (among some others that have been listed in the comments here already), why I'm not selling my EMX. Had these been added on an OS update, I'd might consider that again.

psymon wrote:I'm surprised nobody seems to complain about the lack of instant key transpose function that was available on holding the solo button on the old series.....And while I do love Kaossilator style scalled gates, I painfully miss the arp from the EMX! Why can't we just have the most basic of all arpeggiator features that has been a standard for synths for 3 decades

It has been mentioned, by me also. Seems a real step back, specially for an instrument with "focus on performance".

DEEPMOSES wrote:

psymon wrote:I'm surprised nobody seems to complain about the lack of instant key transpose function that was available on holding the solo button on the old series.....And while I do love Kaossilator style scalled gates, I painfully miss the arp from the EMX! Why can't we just have the most basic of all arpeggiator features that has been a standard for synths for 3 decades

It has been mentioned, by me also. Seems a real step back, specially for an instrument with "focus on performance".

Yeh this was also mentioned by a lot of us early adopters in our initial reviews/thoughts....myself, tarekith, ted3k etc...thing is it just doesn't make sense to keep griping about it, at least for me anyway.

I hope they won't do electribe 2 plus
with 8 bars and other stuff that wasn't in e2...

psymon wrote:I'm surprised nobody seems to complain about the lack of instant key transpose function that was available on holding the solo button on the old series. Okay you can access it via the menu and shift by semitones but its nowhere near as spontaneous and musical as transposing the whole arrangement by a 3rd or a 5th or even a whole octave for dramatic effect. And here you have to use the encoder for that...
With various scales and the option for enablig key change for individual parts it would be so nice if it worked at least with an external keyboard, if not with its own pads.
And while I do love Kaossilator style scalled gates, I painfully miss the arp from the EMX! Why can't we just have the most basic of all arpeggiator features that has been a standard for synths for 3 decades... a simple play order arp? With the step lenght and variation on the x and y pad axis it could work just as on the EMX, if not even greater.
These are the 2 main reasons (among some others that have been listed in the comments here already), why I'm not selling my EMX. Had these been added on an OS update, I'd might consider that again.

THIS

I've only whatched a couple of video reviews and read some more general reviews like SOS... but I was foolish enough to think they might forgot to cut all corners. But seems I should have started at the forums. Lesson learned.

Not that I regret buying my E2 but I yet have to find the rigth company and the most fitting live use for it. It should play nice with my VolcaBass and MonoTribes but it's such a shame that those boxes are often so much more musical and intuitive at a third of E2's price. I wish I could love this lil' grey brick more but perhaps it's just my fault. My expectations led me to think this piece of gear would be the perfect combination of Volca style sequencer fun,Kaossilator scalled arps, KP effects and KingKorg sound all topped with the familiar Electribe workflow... but the sum of those parts somehow doesn't feel something substantially more.

I really hope there may still be a software update that addresses these things because it shouldn't take more then some creative thinking and a few lines (or pages) of code. Why not releasing an SDK and making it an "open Electribe"? Everyone could add their most beloved features...

I've only whatched a couple of video reviews and read some more general reviews like SOS... but I was foolish enough to think they might forgot to cut all corners. But seems I should have started at the forums. Lesson learned.

Not that I regret buying my E2 but I yet have to find the rigth company and the most fitting live use for it. It should play nice with my VolcaBass and MonoTribes but it's such a shame that those boxes are often so much more musical and intuitive at a third of E2's price. I wish I could love this lil' grey brick more but perhaps it's just my fault. My expectations led me to think this piece of gear would be the perfect combination of Volca style sequencer fun,Kaossilator scalled arps, KP effects and KingKorg sound all topped with the familiar Electribe workflow... but the sum of those parts somehow doesn't feel something substantially more.

I really hope there may still be a software update that addresses these things because it shouldn't take more then some creative thinking and a few lines (or pages) of code. Why not releasing an SDK and making it an "open Electribe"? Everyone could add their most beloved features...

Hi all,

I've been reading the comments on this thread with interest since there seems to be quite a bit of debate regarding the merits (or not, as the case may be) of the new Electribes.

Before I give my thoughts, it's only fair to disclose my experience, background etc. so everyone can see where I'm coming from.

Firstly, I'm a new member of this forum so play nice Secondly, I would describe myself as a dabbling amateur musically (no formal musical education), however, I do have a reasonable amount of experience with groovebox style products, having owned the Elektron Monomachine, EMX1, OP1, Volcas, Monotribe, Kaossilator 2, Korg Gadget and numerous other synths and music apps on iPad.

As a beginner, I've been seeking (through my journey with the above equipment) for an all in one solution that would enable me to make pleasing sounds in various electronic music genres without having to read the manual again every time I pick the equipment up (which as an amateur can be relatively infrequently).

Therefore, I was very excited to hear about the new Electribe (the music production station), having found the EMX1 to be the most consistently productive piece of equipment that I have thus far found (for me - obviously this is subjective).

The things on my wish list for the ideal groovebox were;

Polyphony (or something close)
Ability to assign any voice to any part (not just drums to drum parts as per EMX)
Great sounding reverb (as an beginner, this is the immediate 'make things sound better effect')
Ability to play simple chords (in key) without needing to know musical theory
A kaoss pad style interface
Velocity sensitivity
Portability - I don't have a dedicated studio space

Relative the above wish list, I think the new Electribe delivers a lot. I'm already finding it more engaging than a lot of the other equipment I've used and I'm able to be productive.

I can see that some of the features of the EMX1 are missing - such as the 8 bar length per part, transpose and effects chaining. However for me, these aren't too much of a problem and they are outweighed by the new features - including the great sounding reverb (well it sounds good to me!).

In short, it seems to me that the concerns (genuine bugs aside) are really based around an issue of perspective. I can understand how some people may feel that this is not a 'real' Electribe but as many have said, I think we could expect to pay a lot more for a more fully featured box. Having used the Monomachine (which costs about twice as much second hand in the UK currently and about 3 times as much new) I'd say that the Electribe represents good value for money - for what it actually does rather than what we might like it to do.

I imagine that Korg thought pretty long and hard about how to position the new Electribe and came to the conclusion that maximum revenue could be generated from a lower priced box that could be within reach of customers who might have previously bought a Volca or similar. Unfortunately, in doing so, it appears that they have not delivered a product that some power users of the previous gen Electribes (EMX1 etc.) would like.

I for one would love to see what Korg could do if they went toe to toe with Elektron or Dave Smith in that category of boxes in the £1000 range (DSI, Analog 4 etc) or even something around the £600-£700 mark. I guess once you get to that kind of price though, Korg might be cannibalising their own lower end workstation products...

Fully agree with you. But brace yourself....

apapdop wrote:Fully agree with you. But brace yourself....

.....

With my E2 I had a serious spectation vs reality issue: