Convert your grey Korg Electribe E2 to E2S OS Swap tutorial!

[rowf]

Do this at your own risk, Im not responsible of any damage caused by trying to attempt this OS swap

I was at least the third to attempt it, I first tried to do it when I bought the machine, but didnt succeed because I used textedit instead of an Hex editor. I tried it another time because I read that some did it and I was inspired by:

Daniel Shah the first crazy person that did it, or at least the first that talked to me and seemed that was not talking bullshit, and after succeding, he finished bricking one Electribe, and Dj Archlight the second crazy guy that made me think that I should try it again. It was my second attempt, my first was with text edit, but it didnt worked.

Thanks for the support of the guys on the FB group who tried it or at least tried to help:
Leandro Ahek, Robert Geyer, Lance Dillon, Matei matt, Sebz Grc, Sumako Artist,Cami Koschka, Milan battelino, Anis Lavoie, Gabriel Scott, Gil Sla, Eduardo Mino Vinilo, Loren Steele, Alejandro Quero Perez, HappyTed and James Pullen.

And thank to Korg for this awesome machine! We love it!


Im Robin Domingo, aka Disclaimer, aka The Beat Bender, Im not encouraging anyone to do this, Im only showing how I did it because some said that it was impossible. And impossible is nothing.

Im not In a wheelchair because I worked hard, but Im still disabled and I they said it was impossible. Thats it.

This will give you the chance to do it by yourself.

You need: A computer, an SD Card and a grey Electribe 2. Keep your machine plugged in and its not a bad idea to have batteries inserted for better safety. I did the process with only batteries too, but I would not recomend it because it could screw it.

Instructions:

1.Backup all your data doing a "Export all pattern".You are going to lose everything if you dont backup.Copy that info in your computer because we are going to format your card for safety reasons.
2. Download the software for the E2 and the E2S at www.Korg.com
3. Load them in two https://hexed.it/ online hex editor tabs and compare them. You have to change 4 numbers to make the E2S OS header look like the E2 OS header.
3.Save the system file in a folder called "Turn the e2 to e2s" so you dont choose the wrong OS later.
4.Load two fresh copys of the OS on the https://hexed.it/ editor. Now replicate the E2S OS header in the E2 OS header so you can revert it back to normal synth operation if wanted.
5.Save the new file in a folder called: "Turn hacked E2S into E2 again" so you dont chose the wrong file later.
6.Power your Electribe on.
7.Insert the card in the Electribe after copying all your patterns into your computer.
8.Format your SD card using the Electribe Menu.
9.Put the SD back on the computer and load the new OS in the system folder in the card (/korg/electribe/system)
10.Put the SD card back to Electribe
11.Browse the Electribe menu, look for Data Utility/System Update
12.Press OK. If the file is OK and on the right place in your folder, the OS upgrade will begin. If its not located or bad edited, it will say file error.
13.Wait, dont unplug the Electribe, and dont remove the SD card.
14.The screen will say OK Reboot. Power the machine off.
15.Power it ON and enjoy your new Electribe Sampler!
This is the first part.
16.Now, remove the card and connect it to the computer and load the blank sampleset in the newly made folder called electribe sampler. (/korg/electribesampler/samples) You have to load the blank sample set because the user samples are stored on the ROM inside the machine, and we have no acces to them. You need to tell the machine which samples to load so you dont have useless factory samples using our little RAM.
17.Now, pick the E2 edited version (in the folder "turn hacked E2S into E2"), and copy it to the system folder in the electribesampler folder. (/korg/electribesampler/system) you may have to create the system folder.
18.Power off your grey E2Sampler and put the SD CARd on it. Power it on and enjoy.
19.For me a sampler is a tool and I want it empty to begin with, and Im not allowed to share the original samples from the Sampler version, so you have to mangle with that. But for your own drum hits its easy to load them with the Electribe Sampler Manager http://www.appification.de/ElectribeSampleManager/
20.You have to avoid using the first factory slots to not mess them. Just stick to 523-999 in the User slots and thats good.
21.Now, if you want to go back to the original E2 firware, just browse the menu to Data Utility and check Software update.After rebooting you have your nice E2 back again.
22.I have done this six or seven times flawlessly without touching the card. Once every file is in its place it is so fast to go back and forth.
23.Enjoy your new grey Electribe sampler!

Feel free to ask any questions, but first read this tutorial carefully and please, read the Sampler manual, its so short. Dont ask question regarding sampler operation, use the forum for that. Use this thread for "bug" fixing. Please RTFM before posting. We want to help people. But some things are so clear in the manual, Its a sampler. You have to export before you reboot or you will not be able to use the samples you prepared before.[/url]

Some are experiencing bugs with file exporting and that. Use the mentioned slots only and you should have no problems.
Remember that stereo samples cannot be sliced as stated in the manual.

[Hugo]

Great work, thanks!

[bingkingbo]

this is so cool! thx very much~

[rowf]

The startup screen..

[_INTER_]

You can turn the grey sampler back into the synth by modifying the E2 OS similarly. (Modify the header bytes until it looks like an E2S OS).
Put that file into "../electribe sampler/system" folder.
Now you can switch modes back and forth without having to change anything on the card.
You can also turn the sampler into a synth, however most of the synth's ROM samples and a few OSC don't work (Boost-Saw and the Syn-Sine's). Filters and everything else does. But its kinda useless.

[nlpascal]

I assume that the header is the first 5 row of hex numbers? (Row 00000000 to 00000040)

Which means there are 3 values that are different in my OS download from KORG (when thinking of a Hex value as 2 digits)

Also, where do I get a black sample set?

[evolakim]

Yes. My headers "000000" to 000000040" only have 3 different sets of numbers. ?
Should it be 4?

[Automageddon]

It worked but I seem to have a problem when saving samples.
When I record a sample it is automatically assigned to the first available sample slot, in my case 501, how do I save it to a differnt slot, from 523 to 999?

[Ted3000]

It worked but I seem to have a problem when saving samples.
When I record a sample it is automatically assigned to the first available sample slot, in my case 501, how do I save it to a differnt slot, from 523 to 999?

By importing wav files from your card instead of sampling.

But even better than an import is using a sample manager to populate the blank all samples file with your wavs. Simple and fast, complete with labels, loop points, etc.

I use:

http://flosaic.com/e2sEdit/

There is also:

http://www.appification.de/ElectribeSampleManager/

[Automageddon]

Reporting a failure here.
Followed the instructions and could easily swap between the 2 OS, but even after buying the "Electribe Sample Manager" to fill the slots 501 to 540 with samples, I get an error message every time I restart after saving samples.

Too bad as the ESX seemed tons of fun, I might sell the EMX to get one, or keep my fingers crossed for a fully working unofficial solution.

[Ted3000]

Reporting a failure here.
Followed the instructions and could easily swap between the 2 OS, but even after buying the "Electribe Sample Manager" to fill the slots 501 to 540 with samples, I get an error message every time I restart after saving samples.

Too bad as the ESX seemed tons of fun, I might sell the EMX to get one, or keep my fingers crossed for a fully working unofficial solution.

1. Don't put samples in slots 501-522. START AT 523. Lower than 523 can cause ghost files, duplicates, name problems, mirrored files, etc.

2. You have a bad wav file somewhere.

3. You could have used the free editor.

You need to audition your files, make sure they are clean wavs with no weird metadata tags, and note where the error occurs.

The allsample file loads in numeric order.

So if it loaded until 73% and gives you an error? Check your samples on the machine, note the highest slot that successfully loaded, and check the sample after that in your editor or audio editing program. You may need to export a clean wav from an audio editor.

[1_inch_punch]

This gets more ridiculous every day.

[Mulldoon219]

I'm having problems too. Strange, cos usually I'm good at this DIY computer stuff.

[Ted3000]

Smooth sailing for me!

I have a fully functional electribe sampler running on my gray e2, and the only compromise I have to make is to start loading my samples on slot 522. Not even a slight inconvenience.

I'll run out of the 24mb of sample memory before I run out of slots, so this "workaround" has no actual drawback for me whatsoever.

Any task with more than 1 step is going to be done wrong by someone, no matter how smart they are.

Most errors are caused by dumping a bunch of random web-downloaded wav folders into the tribe. Garbage in = error. Same thing would happen on the black sampler.

[1_inch_punch]

your allsample export working happily?

*edit*

and

performs trim slice - export - and re-import that sample and export all as allsample.. and re-imports the allsample ok?