Korg Forums

[DiscoDevil]

Greetings! I am a long time hardware gearhead but have never owned an Electribe. I recently picked up the new Electribe Sampler in hopes of miniaturizing my "live" rig.

So far, I don't hate it but I am finding some things very frustrating.

It took me about 2hrs last night to erase all of the default patterns. The first time I went through them ALL, I was surprised to find that since I had not hit "write" on each pattern after initializing it, all of the patterns I had just initialized were still there! Fun! Wow. 7 button presses to initialize a pattern? I pressed "enter" and "write" 1500+ times last night. After I was done, I realized I probably could have just loaded up an initialized pattern and then save that pattern over all of the other ones but I'm not sure it would have saved me much time. No option to just nuke the internal memory and start from scratch? I do have a copy of the "blank" all pattern file if anyone is interested.

No file management functions? Copy, paste, move, delete, creating folders, etc. These are all pretty basic and necessary functions for a machine that is so dependent on external files. Having to manually delete each sample from the edit screen or take the card out and put it in a computer to manage the files is a workflow killer.

No "undo"? Perhaps I missed it? Sequencing in real time requires multiple takes for me. Having to let the pattern play out while you hold down "erase part" each time is another workflow killer, IMO.

A visual sample editor would go a LONG way. Nice screen and plenty of horse power but we're limited to start, end and loop point for sample editing? No truncate, timestretch, copy, paste, etc? These functions have been around on far less capable hardware for decades.

Time Slicing - This is just me not understanding how this works, I'm sure. I was hoping that this function would give me an "elastic audio" type function similar to my VP9000 or the Octatrack but I can't seem to make sense of it. It seems to work fine for simple drum loops but I was unable to get complex loops to slice and playback properly. There are either gaps between the steps, it sounds horrible or the loop does not stay in time with the tempo of the song. I was hoping to be able to drop a loop in, slice it, and be able to change the tempo of the loop without effecting the pitch. I tried slicing a loop using several threshold settings and none were satisfactory. I'm hoping I am just not doing it right.

[Ted3000]

I don't have anything to add on your specific complaints. They sound reasonable, and I don't think you'll get much argument from the crowd here.

Some people have hit showstoppers/dealbreakers and bailed. I'd suggest continuing to stick with it, despite the obvious issues. I've found that there's a few common stages with the new series:

Excitement when you order it
Satisfaction when you feel the weight and hear the clean hi-def sound
Frustration when you hit those weird limits and workflow issues
Anger and regret, checking the prices on completed eBay auctions
Resignation and expectation resetting
Fun, excitement and satisfaction when you make something good

And there's always hope that Korg might make some changes in firmware. Well, there's hope for a while, but I still think they're actively developing.
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[apapdop]

The timeslice is not like timestretch. It just scans and slices your audio at the transients and sequences the results. You can then use individual slices as oscillators, eg using judt the kick from a drumloop and resequencing it.

As for an undo function, if you make a mistake, just switch to a different pattern then back again BEFORE hitting write. You'll get into the habit of hitting write after you'e done something that you want to keep!!

Yep, they've missed out pretty much everything that can be done much easier using a computer. But you'll find ways to work which won't have you swapping the card between the unit and a computer soon enough.

These are machines that need a little time before you either fall in love with them, warts and all, or send them back/put them on eBay.
_________________
If I'm not listening to music, or if I'm not making music, then I'm probably thinking about music.

Volca Sample, FM, Beats, Kick. OP-1, Monologue, Pocket Operators. And an ipad.

[DiscoDevil]

[gizmoismogwai]

Just give it more time. Watch videos on youtube because there are some really inspiring ones for both the sampler and synth versions of the electribe. You will see pretty quick that people can force really good musical ideas of out it. And you'll probably surprise yourself with the kinds of musical ideas you output because it's a new workflow for you.

Some advice if you do decide to stick with it. These are things that provided "ah ha!" moments for me personally:

-Make yourself a boilerplate pattern preloaded with sounds and effects that you like. Write this pattern to as many pattern slots as you have the patience for. Now you'll never start from scratch and can begin making music with familiar sounds right away. Of course, if you prefer to work from scratch I wouldn't recommend this but at least in the beginning I find it helped me get comfortable with the device faster.

- take the time to learn the shortcut commands (EDIT: one of the shortcuts lets you clear the notes from a sequence, which is essentially UNDO). The less time you spend thinking about the menus the more pleasant your experience will be overall. Shortcuts go a long way towards this. Holding shift and pressing pads and most of the function buttons (like "Master FX") will take you directly to the menu for that thing. You can't customize it but once you've learned it this won't matter.

- Get one or both of the available sample editors that were released in the last couple of weeks. These make the experience of using the sampler immeasurably better. You can find links in this forum easily. Right now the free one has a loop feature that is excellent for single cycle waveforms so I use both apps in compliment to one another.

- If you dig into the pages of the forum a bit you'll also find that some very generous posters have uploaded empty pattern files. You can load this file into the device to instantly wipe all patterns. Just make sure to back up any patterns you had on the device prior!

- Make lots of use of the modulation effects. Use them on pretty much everything if you can. You'll get interesting results from boring sounds even with subtle modulation. Your patterns end up sound way more alive and produced. And a 1 bar looping pattern can end up sounding alive and different every time it loops with good modulation.

- One way to work is to write to a new pattern every time you add a new part. This keeps you in the mindset of moving forward and filling the device up with ideas. Then you can wheel through your patterns and hear a song start to develop. And if you use ableton, doing a pattern set export to an ableton live set works like a dream. The skeleton of your track will basically be arranged into scenes already.

- Another way to approach the device is to make a lot of decisions before you even play a musical note. Set the tempo, set the key and scale for your parts. You can even arbitrarily set different parts to be different time signatures with the "pattern length" setting.

[mikejarod]

Maybe you are expecting too much from this relatively cheap device

In the beginning I also was annoyed by the lack of .. well .. a lot of things. But I adjusted my expectations and now I'm having great fun with it. You know the less is more thing. I only use it as a oneshot sample player, not much more. First thing I did was erase the entire device and load up my own sample collection using the editors. Empty soundbanks and patterns can be found on the forum, no need to erase or import one by one. I use other gear for stuff I miss in the Electribe.

I would pay gold for something the size of the Electribe but with much more cpu power, batteries, better display, better pads a la push, better fx, decent adsr, better sequencer, more polyphony. Octatrack didnt do it for me + no batteries. Maybe one day...

[DiscoDevil]

Perhaps I am expecting too much from it. I don't intend to use it as a "workstation" really but that may change as I do think it's pretty fun to work with once you're in the space. I have oodles of hardware synths, drum machines, etc to sample and several hardware sequencers so really just want a performance based sample playback system that is portable which makes this device REALLY attractive. The Octatrack had so many great features but the completely obtuse OS and workflow took all the "fun" out of working with it for me. I was hoping for a "mini" Octa with a more friendly interface. I do use Ableton as a multi track recorder and arranger so that was another attractive feature.

I don't hate the machine or feel like I am ready to toss in the towel, I just feel let down that it is so reliant on a computer for some pretty basic functionality and that there are some really obvious features missing. I'm hoping some of this is addressed in firmware updates.

[DiscoDevil]

And speaking of YT videos, etc. This might be the least documented piece of kit I've ever owned. Most of the YT vids are people who are documenting themselves trying to figure out how to do something. Some more proper tutorials that go over undocumented features, tips, workarounds, etc would be great. I've seen a few good ones but most are "meh".

[thesigma]

[robotunes]

it does things the esx could never dream of. it also sucks at things the esx does easily. namely the e2s can't step-edit (p-lock) every knob and button. if it could do that (and let me reassign CC#'s), it would be the octatrack jr. that i was looking for.

still, it's so cool sampling my gear with a desktop 16-track x0x sequencer that can do scales, 4-note paraphonic chords, step jump, and other performance tricks. and then it spits out stems to be gobbled up by my octatrack? yeah, i'm ok with that

at the very least it is the perfect complement to the microsampler. EDIT: it's nearly perfect. just remembered that it doesnt transmit CC's 13 and 14, which control the microsampler's effects.

i know how OP feels, but i'm keeping it for what it can do instead of cursing it for what it can't.

ymmv.

[Tarekith]

[sauce]

[1_inch_punch]

** word **

[DiscoDevil]

[DiscoDevil]