someone please consult me the Korg ESX-1 SD functionality

dennou · Post by **dennou** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:41 am

I've been a long loyal fan and owner of Roland gear for years, but I've been wanting an ESX-1 for a long time. I've owned a Roland MC-909 since 2003 and I'll admit that even though it has bug issues that were never fixed along with poor manufacturing of pads it still sounds remarkably good. It's basically a Fantom without keys.

Anyhow. I think I'm about to make an executive decision in buying a Korg ESX-1 SD because I plan to mod the tubes and because of the 32GB storage!

The max possible with the MC-909 is a whoppin 256MB mod. I have to swap SmartMedia cards for different projects all the time. So with 32GB I would be able to consolidate about 10GB of vintage analog sounds from all my cards. I take it that the ESX-1 is 16 part multitimbral? I plan to make this machine my beat machine and nothing more. I own two DSI tetra's for bass and leads etc..

Any advice I would greatly appreciated because I don't want to part with my MC-909, but at the same time I don't want to keep a machine that was never truly loved and supported by it's manufacturer!!

oh and also, how's the quantize flexibility and resolution? The MC-909 has 0-100% timing snap within quantization which gives me serious swing and humanization, or realtime mode. thnx

djfrogstar · Post by **djfrogstar** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:27 pm

Secretly I hope you get this so you can upload the new patterns... but I will be honest with you..atleast with my opinion.

This is my understanding.. and please anyone correct me if im wrong.

Regardles of SD storage capacity... The unit when it has the card inside.. Will only be able to see that one file.ESX

Of course you could store by backing up multiple and keep them on the card.. but will not be able to do this without a computer and card reader.

My less than perfect world would have been... go to card utility on the electribe and been able to load different .ESX files at the very least.
The perfect world would have been to have a folder filled with loops, one shots and so forth with 8.3 naming convention or whatever.

but as it is now... and please someone correct me if Im wrong because I really want to be wrong with this...

but even if you were to sample stereo and have the longest sample loop available and have every last sample slot taken up by one of these.. you wouldnt come close to 1gb even.

Aside from all that... its great fun..... I got the SD version of the EMX thinking or rather assuming I could do things with the storage but.. atleast with this model its limited... The new patterns are not even that better than the original. The brostep patterns are by far the worst

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:04 pm

Regarding some of your other questions, The ESX is entirely step based, so there is no quantisation - it has 16th note resolution. It can be swung though.

I don't know how many parts there are but also they are all monophonic. Meaning they can only play one note/sample at a time, each.

dennou · Post by **dennou** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:50 pm

So let me try and get this...

These (audio) file formats are .ESX? How do I convert WAV to that format? Or do I have to literally sample something? I honestly don't care much for the A/D, only the D/A. I want to use my great sounding library without it being converted through the audio inputs of the machine.

With the MC-909 I can im port WAV data and it converts it to the MC-909 format. The plus about the MC-909 is that it has USB, so there's no need for a card reader.

My main concern is if I would able to toggle through my collection library within the ESX-1 SD display. I'm aware that I wouldn't be able to use 32GB in an instance, but I thought the whole purpose of 32GB is more library space.

I want to be able to toggle through different kits while it's playing in realtime and load a snare or different kick in. Is this possible? Can I assign different audio files to different parts of 1-16? Or do I have to load an entire patch for 1-16? I'm so used to the MC-909. It is a flexible machine besides the poor pad build quality and low file size.

-dennou

Pastor-of-Muppets · Post by **Pastor-of-Muppets** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:16 pm

on the ESX you can load individual samples (as WAV or AIFF files) but not in realtime

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:32 pm

But the samples are loaded to internal memory, not the patch.

So you can select from all of the samples loaded to the machine's memory, for each part. So there is a little bit of possibility for selecting samples from realtime - but from those loaded to the machine's limited internal memory, not directly from the card itself.

djfrogstar · Post by **djfrogstar** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 1:28 am

X-Trade wrote:But the samples are loaded to internal memory, not the patch.

So you can select from all of the samples loaded to the machine's memory, for each part. So there is a little bit of possibility for selecting samples from realtime - but from those loaded to the machine's limited internal memory, not directly from the card itself.

so does this mean i can have 32gb worth of samples on the SD card and get them at any time or is there a naming convention that must be followed which lets me have them unlimited...
on the kaos pad afaik you can have 100.. but not more.. or am i mistaken?

sunkingzx · Post by **sunkingzx** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 1:47 am

ya would like to know also how this new korg sx works with the sd card. cause it doesnt have ram to load it to, can u load right from the card? or can u preview all the samples on the sd card from one sound part??

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:44 am

sunkingzx wrote:ya would like to know also how this new korg sx works with the sd card. cause it doesnt have ram to load it to, can u load right from the card? or can u preview all the samples on the sd card from one sound part??

I just explained that the sounds you load from the card go into internal memory - it is probably RAM but it gets stored within the unit and is available every time you turn on - you don't need the card plugged in for example.

you could put 32GB of samples on the card, but you can only load X amount (in the region of MB, but typically expressed as seconds. I don't have one so don't know the exact amount for the ESX but on my ES-1 it takes up to 96 seconds of samples) actually into the sampler from the card - and those are what you have available when programming and playing.

Pastor-of-Muppets · Post by **Pastor-of-Muppets** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 3:36 pm

as for naming, I think it will load any filename but only displays the first 6 characters of the name ... if I remember correctly

dbomob · Post by **dbomob** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:12 pm

everyones got it wrong. i have the new ESX-SD. this is the deal.

the ESX can only have one "set" of samples loaded into internal memory at a time (an .ESX file). this is still only 256mb or whatever. there is a free program available online called open electribe editor, which is extremely helpful in putting together sets of wave/aiff files to be put into an .ESX file. in this sense, think of an ESX file as a zip file, and the electribe can only have one of these open at a time. so essentially, you could fill up a 32gb SD card with tons and tons of ESX files, but each one can only be 256 mb and the electribe can only have one open at a time.

you -can- have wave files on the card that are not part of an ESX file, and you can load them in one at a time, but this is extremely tedious and really only helpful as an afterthought type of thing.

the ESX is monophonic and has 9 'drum' parts, two 'keyboard' parts, two 'stretch' parts, a 'slice' part and an accent and audio in part. all of these can be used for a variety of things though and you can often get interesting results using them in unconventional ways.

the ESX-SD is my first groovebox ever, and i know the tech is kind of old but this machine is a powerhouse. its tons of fun and it took me a few days to really learn it, but reading the manual helps a lot and its really clear and informative. anyway- im having tons of fun with this beast, the things that are dated/limiting kinda fuel creativity. this thing rocks and i don't regret the purchase whatsoever. GET ONE!

djfrogstar · Post by **djfrogstar** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 10:55 pm

How big is the factory .ESX with the patterns?
Would like to check the patterns and see if they are better than the EMX-sd ones...

Pastor-of-Muppets · Post by **Pastor-of-Muppets** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 12:12 am

dbomob wrote:everyones got it wrong.

really?

dbomob wrote:i have the new ESX-SD. this is the deal.

the ESX can only have one "set" of samples loaded into internal memory at a time (an .ESX file). this is still only 256mb or whatever.

try 20-something megabytes.

the .ESX file is the external storage format, the "on disk" format, but I don't think of the contents of the flash memory as a .ESX file.

I could sample from the audio input, write to internal memory, load WAV files and never once save or load a .ESX file.

Funny definition of monophonic too.

dbomob · Post by **dbomob** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 12:35 am

haha sorry i didnt mean to offend- i honestly didn't read everyones posts before i responded. i was just trying to give a condensed quick response. everyone seemed to be giving a lot of misguided info about the pro's of the SD format (or rather relative lack thereof) - and you're right, i was incorrect about the max mb- i was mixing it up with the number of samples. guilty as charged.

dennou · Post by **dennou** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 2:07 am

ah. i hope you guys can answer this one.

my MAIN concern is the record format. again, my MC-909 has ridiculous groove resolutions or the simple option to record with no quantization. i rarely quantize anything. that's the whole point of a groovebox, that you can literally groove any beat to your taste in record mode, regardless of simple quantize functions. i'm all about swing grooves. who isn't?

therefore, how flexible is the quantize or non quantize resolution in the ESX? The MC-909 can mimic an external midi groove perfectly. for s instance I can import or record a groove from Pro Tools or Logic into the MC-909 and it plays it back exactly the way it was created. i don't want the ESX-1 to "help" any sort of quantize. does the ESX-1 have the option to take quantize off?