Second Hour with new electribe

[Ted3000]

Here's a few more observations, things I was curious about.

Knobs- the bigger lighted knobs are rock solid. The smaller unlit ones have a little flex - but nothing as bad as a Volca. I still say it's built like a tank.

Filter Cutoff: Cutoff tracks the knob smoothly when turned at a normal tweaking speed, the MIDI must be slewed internally. Extremely slow motion will reveal that the slew is a preset amount of glide, each step will become audible with higher resonance. (There's no audible stepping when in motion, but the frequency will "land" on one of the 128 steps.)

Edit Knob parameters. Here, the 0-127 values are stair stepped. So if you want to sweep a hard sync sound with the knob, you're in Microkorg low-res land. It's a 128-step stairway to hell. This is a cheap shortcut on Korg's part. However, that's only an issue on those things which are better smooth. For those weird chip tune waves, there's no issue.

The oscillator edit knob really helps shape and customize your tones. On some waves it's a brightness control, some waves it contols a filter, or an overtone, or a bit reduction, distortion, or a noise type. It greatly expands your tonal options.

The analog modeling engine has plenty of bite and variety - the LFO is wide range. But the top end is definitely filtered to remove aliasing artifacts - so a self-oscillating filter whistle whistle you send up high with the cutoff will politely fade out before your hearing range does. This is an area where analog synths still outperform DSP VAs.

PCM: Well, the instrument samples are a letdown. The M1 piano and organ are good, and the bass guitar samples can probably serve their purpose, but the string and choir sounds fall flat. 2 sax sounds but only one string sound? No Microkorg XL PCMs, like mellotron and combo organ? There's just not enough variety and it feels like a misuse of internal memory to multisample 2 saxophones. Better to have had a few more synth and drums.

However, the synth hits and effects PCM waves are unbelievably great! Dirty house stabs, really tasty well crafted blips and all manner of sounds will inspire, and you can shape them further with the filters, tuning, etc. It's the kind of stuff you might load on the sampling version.

The vocal hits are profoundly goofy, (except the 'hey' which is sampled from something I use all the time in my tracks) and were probably included for the sole purpose of making the factory demos have more of a produced feel. Let's ignore them. (But what's a groove box without a little cheese?)

Drums are goddamn fantastic, of course, covering lots of familiar sounds and beyond.

Arpeggiator shows you the pattern it is triggering visually, and this is brilliant.

Cleaning House: After playing with the preset patterns, pull up the first INIT pattern. Press the write button. It will prompt for location. Use the data knob to select the last preset. Hit write. Now you're in that pattern. So hit write again, and use the know to go one more pattern down. Repeat for the next 10 minutes until you've cleared the deck. Then fill it up with your hot jams.

[hoolak]

Is there a way to copy from one bar to another (of the same part, of course)? Seems a bit of an oversight if there isn't.

[natrixgli]

Is there a way to copy from one bar to another (of the same part, of course)? Seems a bit of an oversight if there isn't.

No, but if you start with one bar and extend to 4 it copies the 1st bar pattern to the other 3.

[hoolak]

Hmm, so if my pattern is 4 bars long and I make a arp part which is a one bar loop which I want to play over the 4 bars, I could copy the part to a new pattern which is one bar long, extend it to 4 bars and then copy it back.

Cribbins, it might just work!

[Tarekith]

I think he was saying if you create a 1 bar pattern and then decide you want to make it 4 bars long, the 1st bar will automatically be copied to the last 3.

This is the way the Elektron stuff works as well, definitely a time saver.

[hoolak]

He was, but his advice has give me an idea (posted above) of how to combat my problem, Korg's oversight. A retrospective solution.

[Hugo]

Thanks for a very nice review, Ted3000. The inclusion of vocal samples in synths is something that has always baffled me. And two saxes?!? But other than that, I like what I'm hearing

[Tom 62]

Hmm, so if my pattern is 4 bars long and I make a arp part which is a one bar loop which I want to play over the 4 bars, I could copy the part to a new pattern which is one bar long, extend it to 4 bars and then copy it back.

Cribbins, it might just work!

I would try this way: Shorten your existing 4 bar pattern to 1 bar. I think, the Electribe "remembers" all the stuff in the last 3 bars. Record the arpeggio. Then extend the pattern again to 4 bars. Not sure that this way will work as intended, but it is worth a try

[RedHouse]

I think he was saying if you create a 1 bar pattern and then decide you want to make it 4 bars long, the 1st bar will automatically be copied to the last 3.

This is the way the Elektron stuff works as well, definitely a time saver.

I think Gadget is like that too?

[hoolak]

Gadget let's you copy from one bar to another too.

[RedHouse]

yes, its very versatile, I kind of expected a "hardware gadget" with the EMX2. I will be trying the Sync Control app to link Gadget to EMX2. They both can output to Ableton, so I need to learn that I guess!

[eraser]

Edit Knob parameters. Here, the 0-127 values are stair stepped. So if you want to sweep a hard sync sound with the knob, you're in Microkorg low-res land. It's a 128-step stairway to hell. This is a cheap shortcut on Korg's part. However, that's only an issue on those things which are better smooth. For those weird chip tune waves, there's no issue.

I've noticed that some are more obviously steppy than others? For example, the PWM seems to be nice and smooth whereas the osc sync definitely steps as mentioned. Being a chiptune fanatic, I am LOVING the amount of chip noise attention Korg have given this unit. The S&H noise wave is AWESOME!!!

The oscillator edit knob really helps shape and customize your tones. On some waves it's a brightness control, some waves it contols a filter, or an overtone, or a bit reduction, distortion, or a noise type. It greatly expands your tonal options.

I only discovered this last night and was a pleasant surprise! It is essentially another insert effect and saves using up one of your inserts for EQ. Would be great if Korg would make it user assignable in a future update (basically 2 insert fx per part for sample waves)!!!

Drums are goddamn fantastic, of course, covering lots of familiar sounds and beyond.

Agreed! I'm a stickler for making my own drum sounds, but the ones supplied are VERY useable indeed.

I've noticed that to get the most out of the drums sounds, you need to set to MONO 1 or 2 and activate the amp envelope. This adds a nice 'snap' to the beginning of each sound which is either none existent or irregular in poly modes. Same goes for bass and plucked synth sounds.

[apapdop]

I've had 3 good sessions with the new Electribe... and it's a mixed bag of pros and cons for me. It sounds great and it's quick quick QUICK to get stuff down. I found the whole menu thing a little confusing at first but i got the hang of it soon enough and there aren't that many menu's to trawl through anyway. My eyebrows raised a little when i saw how few sequence editing features are on offer, but i guess that is a nod to the real-time immediacy of it, it wants to be played rather than programmed. It could do with a few easy to implement updates, many of which have been mentioned in this forum. One alarming thing i'd like to see addressed is that if you are powering it by batteries, once they run dangerously low, the machine just switches itself off, with no warning!! Some kind of flashing, high visibility low battery warning message would be appreciated!!

But the biggest downer for me, as i thought it would be, is the pattern switching. I upgraded to ver1.03 straight away and switching between factory patterns sounded very smooth and pleasing, even between patterns that were hugely different from one another. So... i create a four bar pattern, using all 16 parts, in pattern slot 01. I copy this into patterns 02 and 03. I go to pattern 02 and mute all parts except a kick and a hihat. I go to pattern 03 and again, mute all parts except the kick, the hihat and a bass part...

I return to pattern 02 and press play. My kick and hihat start playing. Around bar 2, i turn the pattern select knob to 03. It starts flashing, its going to play next... KERCHUNK.. "What, you want me to play the bass as well? Hang on hang on, OK, here it is then..."

I'm being over the top of course, but it just shouldn't do that. If anybody has found a cure for this, then please, share the love. And yes, i've spent a good while jamming within that one pattern, once i sharpen my skills i'm sure i can churn out an acceptable track using only that pattern and some live mutes/tweaks. And it'll be fun. And doing that kind of thing is the main reason i bought it in the first place. And yes, it sounds fantastic. But that little blip just makes it seem a little half-arsed/rushed/unfinished. Get that sorted and i'll let all the other quibbles slide in an instant.

Happy holidays Electribers...

[SMK]

But the biggest downer for me, as i thought it would be, is the pattern switching. I upgraded to ver1.03 straight away and switching between factory patterns sounded very smooth and pleasing, even between patterns that were hugely different from one another. So... i create a four bar pattern, using all 16 parts, in pattern slot 01. I copy this into patterns 02 and 03. I go to pattern 02 and mute all parts except a kick and a hihat. I go to pattern 03 and again, mute all parts except the kick, the hihat and a bass part...

I return to pattern 02 and press play. My kick and hihat start playing. Around bar 2, i turn the pattern select knob to 03. It starts flashing, its going to play next... KERCHUNK.. "What, you want me to play the bass as well? Hang on hang on, OK, here it is then..."

So it seems from this description that the pre-loaded patterns don't have the pattern change glitch issue?

What was the KERCHUNK, actually?

Did playing a bass line over the beats help lessen the glitch sound?

It has been said that if you are going from one pattern to another, it is ideal to have both patterns using a lot of parts; way more than just 2 or 3 parts active.

[apapdop]

But the biggest downer for me, as i thought it would be, is the pattern switching. I upgraded to ver1.03 straight away and switching between factory patterns sounded very smooth and pleasing, even between patterns that were hugely different from one another. So... i create a four bar pattern, using all 16 parts, in pattern slot 01. I copy this into patterns 02 and 03. I go to pattern 02 and mute all parts except a kick and a hihat. I go to pattern 03 and again, mute all parts except the kick, the hihat and a bass part...

I return to pattern 02 and press play. My kick and hihat start playing. Around bar 2, i turn the pattern select knob to 03. It starts flashing, its going to play next... KERCHUNK.. "What, you want me to play the bass as well? Hang on hang on, OK, here it is then..."

So it seems from this description that the pre-loaded patterns don't have the pattern change glitch issue?

What was the KERCHUNK, actually?

Did playing a bass line over the beats help lessen the glitch sound?

It has been said that if you are going from one pattern to another, it is ideal to have both patterns using a lot of parts; way more than just 2 or 3 parts active.

Correct, the pre-loaded patterns change nicely. The KERCHUNK seems to be a momentary silence at the start of the incoming pattern. When audio resumes, the attack of any parts that are playing on the first beat is missing.

I'm sure with a bit of planning this can be avoided because, as you say, patterns with several parts unmuted change acceptably, if not 100% perfectly every time. But it just doesn't feel quite right that a product from a major manufacturer such as Korg, released in 2014, should behave like this. I wasn't exactly stressing the thing with this simple test and DrHoo reported the same issue under similar conditions. I'm not one to bitch about things and there is PLENTY to like about it, but it's a real shame.