cough 'new analog grooveboxs' cough

[Bertotti]

I'm with bald eagle on this one. I would rather put that money towards software or controller or even in a lot for a larger synth ie. sub phatty or maschine or one of the brutes etc.

[Sharp]

I'm with bald eagle on this one. I would rather put that money towards software or controller or even in a lot for a larger synth ie. sub phatty or maschine or one of the brutes etc.

I don't know... seems to me like KORG are right on the money with this in my opinion.

Just think of all the bedroom studio's and inspiring DJ's out there. These devices are right up their street. These people don't want to simply have an App that does it all, or a controller connected to a laptop.

They all seem to be more interested in gadgets, doing things differently, making sounds / beats, and look darn cool while doing it. Tweaking knobs and touching these, and making cool music is what it's about.

So me things KORG are laughing their ass off here on this one. They will sell truck loads of theses.

In all honestly, I'd love the complete set myself.

Regards
Sharp

[xmlguy]

The EMX1 and IMS20 are both individually better than all three of these combined. The most important features to me of the EMX1 and IMS20 that don't seem to exist on these are: the arpeggiator with key/scale and touch/kaoss pad, the tube of the EMX, the memory of the EMX, the integration of them both, the modulation/patch matrix of IMS20, the memory patterns of the IMS20, the FX chain of the EMX, the full midi in/out of the EMX, the linked pattern chain/song mode of them both, the audio inputs of the EMX.

This is the 10 year anniversary of the EMX1. In these 10 years, Korg has only changed the SmartMedia card to SD on it.

So am I supposed to be impressed with these things?

Is it really too much to expect Korg to take the existing, successful EMX1, leave what's good about it and improve it? Apparently so. I really don't want to feel compelled to bitch about Korg's new products. But what can I do but bitch when they ignore their own great Electribe products for 10 years, then release these things with most of the best features cut out and add little or nothing that I find useful? OK, they're analog. Big woopdedoo. The EMX1 VA synthesis sounds great - and they could make it even better.

Then there's the whole Electribe history to consider. They already had separate products for synth, sampling, and rhythm. Then they combined the features into the EMX and ESX products. That was an improvement. I and many other Electribe users have been asking for years for a new Electribe that combines the sampling and synthesis together into a single product. These are more than 3 steps backwards and no steps forward, in my opinion.

The way I see it, the progress from the EMX+ESX -> Monotrons+MonoTribes -> Vulca is like the photos of the faces of those meth addicts over time.

To give Korg a little credit, the new KROSS seems to be a very good and reasonable replacement for the X50. Apparently that was produced by a different part of Korg R&D, since it makes good sense to me.

[Bertotti]

Well I think Sharp is right they are going to sell truck loads of these things. I have never used one and when I try one I am liable to change my position but at the moment I don't feel they are for me, that doesn't mean they are quite good and capable and a lot of fun.

[xmlguy]

Maybe Korg will sell a lot of them. I will be buying $0 of them. I would buy a $600 Electribe that combined the EMX+ESX and updated for USB-midi and editor, if it were available. I might have even bought two of them, particularly if they released one version 5 years ago and an improved one today. So for me alone, they've lost $1,200 in potential sales in trade for $0 in sales. I can't see how many existing EMX/ESX owners would want to buy them. Maybe I'm wrong.

IMS20 is on sale for $14.99 right now. A new iPad2 WiFi 16GB is $399. Compared to $450 for the 3 Vulca, I think IMS20 is much more capable and extendable.

Here are some iMS-20 examples to compare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvVlXbqc6W8
shows Kaoss arp sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJSyPW4BFgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPKiH6tf8ZQ

song mode/linked patterns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoce4FsEHxk

iMS20 midi controllers, MicroKey + Nanos simultaneous, MS20 controller:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Djp-dOFrg

iMS20 sync'd with 2nd iPad wireless via Bluetooth WIST, with USB midi keyboard controller:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFaGSkP2PxY

Plus you'd get an iPad2 with lot of other music capability, for less money than the 3 Vulca. But yeah, Korg might still sell a lot of Vulca, certainly to many people who don't know any better.

For a bonus, here's a good example of iPolysix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKgyKI-qfMQ
But that's a whole extra $14.99 to spend while Korg is running the iOS sale.

Let's see the Vulca do that.

[Kevin Nolan]

What I love about these is their simplicity. think of all the great electronic music constructed around 16 beat patterns (sequence or drums). And they sound great.


If you want complex, there are loads of solutions. these just inspire you to create.

And I utterly agree with Sharp - think of the myriads of teenagers (or budding musicians of all ages!!) who can acquire one or more of these - build up the collection over time and be immediately creative.


To this day, I can do more on a Juno106 than any other instrument - because it was my first synth and because it was straight forward, easy to use, and sounds great. These boxes are like that.


I wish they had, however, a midi out to send pattern data to a DAW, or a capacity to save your patterns (but that might kill their charm too).

[Hugo]

Personally, I think this is a great move by Korg. Not sure I'll get them all, but I'll definately pick up the Volca Bass (old acid fan here )
Having said that, I do think Korg should release new Electribe's - having just bought the EMX myself, I've realised how inspiring these babies can be.

Before that happens, though, there are great alternatives.

[Hugo]

@Kevin: you can actually save 8 patterns on the Volca boxes (agree about he midi out, though)

[TinPigeon]

Here’s an interesting observation, the Keys has got three tempo buttons marked “1/1”, “1/2” and “1/4”. From the way the Monotribe’s half speed option works I’d guess that when you sync the Keys with one of the other units you can run it at full, half or quarter speed, giving you 1, 2 or 4 bar patterns.

A four bar four step sequencer would be quite limited, but there’s also a “Flux” button. On the Monotribe the flux mode switches between step and continuous recording of the synth part. On the Keys that would effectively disable the step sequencer and replace it with a straight 1, 2 or 4 bar recording loop of whatever you play (and there’s a handy midi port for a real keyboard).

Although the Keys has got the same step sequencer at the other two if you look at the layout it is downplayed in favour of a more useable keyboard, it’s be optimised for Flux mode.

[Kevin Nolan]

@Kevin: you can actually save 8 patterns on the Volca boxes (agree about he midi out, though)

Yes, but I don't think there is any way to get them off, so when they fill up, what do you do for the 9th one??