I've had a couple of solid hours with this electribe2 & it's too early for anything conclusive because like all new interfaces it's an alien, never before seen on my desktop. I'm looking at it & still learning the location of all the different buttons. I'll start with some fundamentals, physical stuff then...
Build quality then, very good i'd say, full metal jacket
but plastic trousers ! The pots feel nice & smooth, just that nice bit of resistance to stop them running away, like the emx & esx were.There are some incremental pots...1. The main pattern select & master knob, 2. the oscillator select knob, 3. the modulation select knob, 4. the insert fx knob. These act like endless rotaries or loop-round type.
Some pots with centre indents at 12 o'clock... 1, pitch/glide knob, 2. envelope generator intensity knob, 3. pan pot. Just as you would expect really.
All the other knobs are the usual 0 - 127 type.
The sequencer pads have very little travel & a nice silky rubber feel (Perverse but good !) All the other buttons are decent quality rubber just like we're used to.
Switching it on gives the usual boot up time, short lived & then it's straight into whatever you want to do with it. I'm not into stock patterns but they're worth a browse because they highlight the sound quality & perhaps help set a bench mark. That sound quality , i can't argue with it, they have done a nice job in that department but like all these units if you want to make your own original stuff from scratch, like i do, then it's all gonna take some downtime getting to know the territory. Having said that i have written a basic 4 bar pattern on day one just by tinkering around & it did the usual electribe special trick of just sucking me in & holding me there...A familiar behavior from my esx games.
A couple of things seem like a double edged blade, both of the fx ! The inserts offer a respectable variety but there's only one edit knob so you can't say, select a delay & then adjust the time & the intensity, the delays there are preset timewise & you get one parameter which varies depending on the effect. It's too early to slag it off though because lessons are still to be learned...maybe not all bad.
The master fx then, personally i don't like x/y pads & would rather have a selection of rotary pots any day but anyway, it is what it is & i knew that when i spent the cash so i'll swallow that one & get used to it. Another way to look at it is that i can ignore them all together & just use outboard fx processors (Probably will anyway) but the master fx is still another option, better to have it than not. The ones i've tried do sound good & there are some mega long fx tails that ring for ages.
Something else nagging at me. If you look at the sequencer pads you can see they're split into 2x6, left & right. The configuration preset idea is drums along the bottom & waves along the top but you can put anything wherever you like. Maybe they did it to help us see what the hell is going on because they're not numbered like the old ones.
Check this...
When a sound plays it then gets cut off by its neighbour when that triggers. If you want your first/previous sound to continue sounding right to its tail then you have to give that part priority via the part menu but you can also give them all priority. It's like the old hi-hat cut feature from classic drum boxes but we can switch it on or off.
Not sure about groove templates just yet. They're likely best suited to intricate drum patterns, probably offer a varied velocty & timing etc.. I'll check 'em out if & when i play with the congas or bongos.
That's about it for now & i'm not going to record anything until i have a satisfactory project down. If i manage anything i actually like then i'll post it.
Keeping an open mind !
