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Creating backing tracks for playing along

 
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jazzfusion



Joined: 15 Jul 2018
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:11 pm    Post subject: Creating backing tracks for playing along Reply with quote

Hello,
I'm bass guitarist and just starting with Electribe. I've got Volca Sample for quite some time and had done a lot of experimenting with it. I use it mainly as drum machine and for that purpose it is great.

Volca is fine for sequencing drums, but I'm hoping that Electribe with its features will help me also sequence some rythm guitar or at least some piano or synth sound with basic chord progression. I hope that it is possible to make few bars in for example E and then switch to A.

My Electribe is currently on the way from the retailer. I'd like to hear any ideas or links to howtos about making backing tracks for playing along with bass or guitar.

Does anybody use it this way?

For example author of this video claims to use it for backing tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE3W58Q9dlM

Thanks in advance!
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Steeplemouth
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Joined: 29 Sep 2015
Posts: 152

PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 2:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey man, yes the electribe can be used to create and play backing tracks. If you want to sequence some rhythm guitar you will need the sampler version of the electribe. You can then add your guitar loops to the SD card as wav file and import the wavs into the electribe as samples. Lots of fun once its all set up. If you have the synth version of the electribe, you will be able to create your own beats/synth lines (the sampler can do this too), but you won't be able to import any guitar samples.

Be aware that you are limited to four bars in any one pattern, so if your chords progress over more than four bars you will have to work in 4 bar chunks and then chain the patterns together.

A great feature of these machines is the ability to run external sound sources through them and apply all the effects and modulation options from the electribe. I play a little bass myself and I like to run my bass guitar through the electribe and use the high pass delay effect on it. This will add a delay to the upper frequencies of you bass guitar only, which gives you a nice delay effect without muddying up the bottom end, if you're into such things.
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jazzfusion



Joined: 15 Jul 2018
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot for your advise and tips.. That is very good point. So do you think that in the video I've posted above, the guitar is sampled? (I believe it is older version of Electribe (MX5) as video is from 2007).
Once I've got guitar sample is there any way to change a pitch (preferably in tones/semitones) so I can practice in different keys?

Maybe it is easier to use synth lines for this as I've seen videos about using Electribe to create drones.

(This one looks completely synthesized: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vxk_JfSaFQ)
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jazzfusion



Joined: 15 Jul 2018
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've checked various videos with Electribe reviews and I'm still little bit confused which one would be better for my purpose.

I don't necessarily need to have samples of guitar, I can live with piano/synth keys easily for backing tracks.

I'm more interested in easy workflow when working with pitch selection, different keys and transposing. I mean Volca Sample has this Pitch knob too, but it is very very cumbersome to use it sensibly..

I'd like to be able to create say basic blues structure - eg A, D, E - and not to be worried if basic sound sample was sampled in E or G.. that just complicates it little bit ..

So maybe the "key" and "scale" feature on E2 is more suitable for this purpose.. what do you think?

Btw when I see OSC Pitch +1 on display are these units semitones?

Thanks a lot for your help!
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Steeplemouth
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Joined: 29 Sep 2015
Posts: 152

PostPosted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 2:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool videos. Sounds like the guitar in the first vid is sampled. You could import a loop like that into the E2 sampler for sure but changing the pitch is tricky on these machines because they don't have time stretching, meaning that increasing the pitch will increase the tempo of the sample, and decreasing the pitch will slow the sample tempo, so they will not be synced to your beat.

If you want to play along with your bass, you'd be better off making a synth line using the waveforms built into the electribe and jamming along with that. You can select a key for your track and you can select which scale you want to use for your synth line too, and then transposing is just a matter of changing the key of your pattern. So if you create a synth line that progresses A-D-E, changing the key to G would transpose that down to G-C-D, and you don't have to worry about time stretching and all of that.

That leaves you to choose which machine would be better suited to your purpose. The synth version has more waveforms and filters, which means more versatility in sculpting the sound, and it comes with some drum samples included. The sampler has fewer waveforms and filters but you can load your own waveforms as samples and you can load in your own drum samples, you're not stuck with the ones that came with the machine, which are all electronic. I have never used the synth version, I have the sampler and I have loaded some acoustic drum samples which sound great. Ultimately, it all comes down to personal preference. I think the sampler is the more versatile of the two, but there are people in here who would disagree with that.

One thing to bear in mind is that, if you're running one of the lower firmware versions on the synth, it can be hacked to turn it into the sampler, so you can effectively switch between the synth and the sampler at will. This only works with the synth machine and only with lower firmware versions - Korg put a stop to it in later updates. There is a lot of information in this forum if you want to look into that.
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Steeplemouth
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Joined: 29 Sep 2015
Posts: 152

PostPosted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 2:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Regarding the OSC pitch knob, the increments are not in semitones unfortunately. One of the guys in this forum worked out how many increments correspond to a semitone. Check out the description in his video for a complete list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkoHdW70JzQ

As an aside, if you're really interested in using a synth/sampler with your bass guitar and you have the spare cash, I would look into the Octatrack. It's two or three times more expensive than the Korg machines but you get a lot more bang for your buck and it is mind-blowingly deep and infinitely versatile. It can hold up to 60gb of samples so you can import full backing tracks without having to chop them up, it can time stretch so you can transpose samples up and down and remain in time, you can play your bass through it and apply all sorts of effects and madness to it, it acts as a very powerful realtime loop machine with overdubbing and all of that good stuff. I finally bought one after becoming too frustrated with the limitations of the Korg and haven't looked back since.[/url]
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jazzfusion



Joined: 15 Jul 2018
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot for very thorough reply! It is all valuable information. It sounds like what I'm trying to achieve is still little bit cumbersome using E2.

Octatrack is way more powerful as you describe it, I'm only put off by its price.

I'm currently studying manual for Novation Circuit that I'd combine with Arturia Keystep for my purpose. I like Cirucit because of more pads and it would increase my pattern to 8 bars instead of 4 bars with E2.

I can get Circuit + Keystep both for roughly same price as E2.
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Steeplemouth
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Joined: 29 Sep 2015
Posts: 152

PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No problem dude. Never used a Circuit but I know that many people like them. There was a big Electribe vs Circuit debate on here when it was first released. Maybe look for that thread if you're weighing both machines against each other as both have pros and cons.
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jazzfusion



Joined: 15 Jul 2018
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 10:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot man!

I've found two topics so far:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=104747
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=100230
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