What challenges are you facing with the new electribe?

roblabs · Post by **roblabs** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:42 pm

As the title says, what challenges are you currently facing with the new electribe? What are you struggling with and having trouble achieving?

I figured it would be a good idea to start a thread about this so we can help each other out with tips and suggestions. Please note, this is not a thread to complain about things like - "I need 8 bars, the music I compose cannot be done on 4" or " I need Reverb on my inserts". We already KNOW the limitations of the electribe and what it can and cannot do, so let's instead focus on how we can achieve what we desire.

I'll start off - I'm currently finding it challenging sometimes to achieve a good mix. Granted I am not always using Panning as much as I should. But I find that its best to start off each part BELOW 100 and then adjust as needed. IFX can help with this as well - if you have a bass line that needs to be more present, you can add overdrive, for instance. As tarekith and others have already mentioned, leave space for headroom. I find the electribe's outputs to be pretty loud, so set the pattern level to a lower value first.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:17 pm

My only real issue so far is working on more ways to transition smoothly between patterns all in the Electribe. The MFX can help some, but I still would like to discover new other ways of achieving this.

c_curry · Post by **c_curry** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:03 pm

My main issue is that it doesn't have enough voices. I'm running out of them quick and having to simplify ideas too often. I feel like I'm being boxed in. I plan on selling mine very soon.

Funkyfredfrog123 · Post by **Funkyfredfrog123** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:03 pm

So i want to create a 4 bar loop and 1-2 want tone almost the same as 3-4 but with slight variation. Theres no copy and paste functions for inside a pattern of any kind that I can see? Can anyone advise?[/code]

NickZoll · Post by **NickZoll** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:08 pm

Funkyfredfrog123 wrote:So i want to create a 4 bar loop and 1-2 want tone almost the same as 3-4 but with slight variation. Theres no copy and paste functions for inside a pattern of any kind that I can see? Can anyone advise?[/code]

There is such function, unfortunately it works only within one pattern. the biggest challenge for me is that I can't copy a sound to another pattern.

Funkyfredfrog123 · Post by **Funkyfredfrog123** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm

Can u tell me how as the manual is awful. Is there a better manual anywhere?

thebiglebowski · Post by **thebiglebowski** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:38 pm

My biggest challenge is the step sequencer.
For programming drums it works OK, as expected.
But is wasn't really designed for programming synth parts. You can finetune a note or two, but using this 3 page menu for every note is crazy.
It coud be easily fixed if you could enter the notes with the pads in keyboard or chord mode.

But I does not bother me anymore - I have two other hardware sequencers, the MC-303 and the Beatstep and I'm just pluging them into the midi IN port.

So far - tweaking is done in the Electribe, sequencing - outside the Electribe.

takadoum · Post by **takadoum** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:53 pm

NickZoll wrote:
Funkyfredfrog123 wrote:So i want to create a 4 bar loop and 1-2 want tone almost the same as 3-4 but with slight variation. Theres no copy and paste functions for inside a pattern of any kind that I can see? Can anyone advise?
There is such function, unfortunately it works only within one pattern. the biggest challenge for me is that I can't copy a sound to another pattern.

No, you're talking about copying a whole part to another within a pattern, which is OK.

But it's impossible to copy part of a part into the same part, or repeat like EMX. Shame !!!

Funkyfredfrog123 · Post by **Funkyfredfrog123** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 7:40 am

People keep telling me yes itspossiblebut not how???? Anyone?

apapdop · Post by **apapdop** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 7:47 am

Tarekith wrote:My only real issue so far is working on more ways to transition smoothly between patterns all in the Electribe. The MFX can help some, but I still would like to discover new other ways of achieving this.

The pattern change thing is the biggie for me. When i have some down time i'm going to find a pair of factory presets that change smoothly (because some of them do) and see how the parts/IFX/mutes are set up, particularly the envelopes and the mono/poly states.

Octahedron · Post by **Octahedron** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:08 am

Funkyfredfrog123 wrote:People keep telling me yes itspossiblebut not how???? Anyone?

The only way to do this is to start out with one bar, create a sequence and then make the pattern four bars. Everything will then be copied over the four bars. But once you're in four bars there is no way to copy bars within the same part. I'm pretty sure korg will fix this in future updates, how hard can it be?

phillwilson · Post by **phillwilson** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:17 am

I would love to see a different bar length PER PART so I can have my drums loop after 1 bar but my melody every 2 bars and chords every 4 bars for instance.

I would also love to see a per part ability to set the part to "play only" so I can live trigger things like risers or crash cymbals alongside other recorded elements like say hi-hats, but have these "play only" parts NOT be recorded by the sequencer...could be great for spot effects.

Malfunkt · Post by **Malfunkt** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 3:24 pm

phillwilson wrote:I would love to see a different bar length PER PART so I can have my drums loop after 1 bar but my melody every 2 bars and chords every 4 bars for instance.

I would also love to see a per part ability to set the part to "play only" so I can live trigger things like risers or crash cymbals alongside other recorded elements like say hi-hats, but have these "play only" parts NOT be recorded by the sequencer...could be great for spot effects.

You can do what you're looking to do. Start a new pattern. Each part has the option for step trigger (defaults to 16 it may be called something different), you can set this to different lengths to get repeats and polyrhythms.

For the second part, you could set the Electribe to trigger or keyboard mode, play live or use the gate arp with the keyboard or note trigger on the touchpad. Alternatively, you could write your pattern to two slots, this way you can use the sequencer to enter notes/motion and then switch to the alt pattern. Nothing is recorded if you don't hit write.

256K · Post by **256K** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:16 pm

phillwilson wrote:I would love to see a different bar length PER PART

this!

Also i find that one of the smoothest transitions between too patterns is when both have high pass delay as MFX and just hit that effect right before you're switching.. it creates a nice tail that merges 2 patterns really nicely....

Shame that there's no easier way to switch MFX on the fly... im used to a kaoss pad quad and every effect it has was a button away, menu diving for performing is really not a great thing....

now i dedicate the mfx purely for smooth transitions into patterns.

(obviously have mfx on for all parts or at least all synth parts)

256K · Post by **256K** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:26 pm

as for my challenge personally... i'm having a hard time figuring out how to integrate the electribe into my DAW setup......

I have a both midi in/out and 2 channel in and out audio interface.... so connectivity is not an issue. it's really the integration.

i also have an APC80 (APC40+APC20)

Launchpad (Original) running LPC live 2 (nativekontrol's push emulation for launchpad)

LPK25 (mostly for it's built in arpeggio (that doesn't f*ck*ng sync to master clock grrhhh)

And a kaoss pad running on the audio output of the electribe for now but i guess i can put it anywhere in the line.

Any suggestions would be nice. trying to wrap my brain around how to use it integrated with my ableton.