Electribe Sampler 2 - review (of sorts)

[disconnector]

A better question would be; how are the "once default spaces", now, labeled using your special file? Wouldn't they be Sample 001 through Sample 499?

When you clear everything out, the first available "space" for a sample is 500. You don't have to scroll through empty 1-499 - they simply don't show up.

I haven't tried this, but my guess is this: each pattern associates the "oscillator/sample" with the slot, not the actual sample name or anything like that. So, if you have a kick loaded into 500, and replace it with a car horn, my guess is that any pattern that referenced the kick at 500 will now play the car horn at 500.

It's weird at first, but it's very convenient if you want to keep some of the factory stuff, or reserve spaces for other sounds.

In my bank, it will scroll continuously through 500 to 539 for kicks, 550 to 589 for snares, etc, etc.

[SMK]

A better question would be; how are the "once default spaces", now, labeled using your special file? Wouldn't they be Sample 001 through Sample 499?

When you clear everything out, the first available "space" for a sample is 500. You don't have to scroll through empty 1-499 - they simply don't show up.

I haven't tried this, but my guess is this: each pattern associates the "oscillator/sample" with the slot, not the actual sample name or anything like that. So, if you have a kick loaded into 500, and replace it with a car horn, my guess is that any pattern that referenced the kick at 500 will now play the car horn at 500.

It's weird at first, but it's very convenient if you want to keep some of the factory stuff, or reserve spaces for other sounds.

In my bank, it will scroll continuously through 500 to 539 for kicks, 550 to 589 for snares, etc, etc.

I think I am a little confused on this.

So what you are really saying is that by using your "sampling blank sheet" file, you are only freeing up memory? Is that right?

I just now caught that there is only 82secs left on sample memory even though I have only sampled 2 seconds worth, thus far in my tests.

See what I was expecting (I think a few others were as well) is that the samples 499 samples that your file erases would actually give a user a full access to those 499 sample "slots". This is why I was asking why the ES2 starts at 500 even though you have deleted samples 001 through 499.

Basically when we use your template do we not only have complete access to the full 270 memory but also do we expand or sample slots from 500 through 999 to 001 through 999?

[disconnector]

Ok, I did a test:

First, I loaded up the ES2 with the blank presets - that means, no factory samples. I sequenced a pattern with one of the oscillators, and then went to resample it.

When selecting "mono" & "resampling" - it gave me an available sampling time of 273 seconds.

Then, I loaded up the ES2 with the factory content. I did the same thing- quick pattern with a basic oscillator, and went to resample it.

When selecting "mono" & "resampling" - it gave me an available sampling time of 99 seconds.

So, using my blank presets clears out the factory content, which takes up IN MEMORY, roughly 174 seconds.

The "slots" are like file pointers. There is either something in there, taking up memory, or not. If you delete them all, you can't put something in that slot, but you can use the memory they took up.

Slot does not equal memory. It's like a folder, a place where a sample goes.

[disconnector]

FWIW = before I deleted all the samples in the ES2, I backed up the factory presets (not knowing that they could magically come back if you didn't load your own bank).

Total size of the presets: 17.1MB

So, if 17.1MB = 99 seconds, the total memory in this thing is probably around 50MB.

And now you know why Korg isn't exactly touting that tech spec.

[SMK]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[thesigma]

Disconnector,

First thanks for all the good info!

Can you clear up a few things?

Each of the 16 parts can be slices? So if for some reason I wanted to, I could slice 16 drum loops and use in one pattern?

Is there anything like the stretch parts on the ESX?

Someone mentioned chords? Is that just one of the oscilators or can you use it with samples?

Is there really no way to select just one slice of a slice sample for a part? Like on the ESX you could select a slice sample on a normal part and then select the slice number for a snare hit.

Wish you could play a slice parts slices on a key map to remix loops ala recycle..

Thanks again!

[Modular Grey]

I'm interested in hearing about playing the slices as well, it looked like you could slice a sample and have it play linearly in time as well as mute slices all in one part. But can you re-sequence or play them with-in a single part? It seemed in the videos I have seen they were selecting slices of a sample for individual parts. Seems like you would run out of parts fast if this was the only way to do it.

[disconnector]

Each of the 16 parts can be slices? So if for some reason I wanted to, I could slice 16 drum loops and use in one pattern?

I tried importing a drum loop, in to slot 999. Then, I sliced it. When slicing, it asks how many beats are in it, essentially, as a divisor of 16. Thus, if your loop is 2 bars long, it'll show up as 32/16.

It will then cut your loop up into 16 parts. You can sort of preview this on all 16 pads, and set the threshold. There's not a ton of info on getting the best results from this, so I sort of guessed.

After slicing (you remembered to hit "write" yes?), the sample slot then appears as 999-01 through 999-16. Each slice is now it's own sample. If there's a way to auto-assign them to the pads, it's not obvious. However, you can put whatever slice on whatever pad, and then play it, a la ReCycle. This is quite a bit of fun, actually.

Is there anything like the stretch parts on the ESX?

Nope.

Someone mentioned chords? Is that just one of the oscilators or can you use it with samples?

So, the ES2, is for all intents and purposes, polyphonic. Most of us, when banging away in trigger mode, are just hitting C3 on whatever sample is assigned to that pad. But, in each part, regardless if you have a drum sample or a synth or whatever, you can play it in "keyboard" or "chord" mode.

So, if you wanted, you could take your kick, and record yourself playing it on C3 for most of the hits, and then hit C5 late in the measure, for a higher pitched sound. Likewise, you could go into chord mode with a crash cymbal, and make a hell of a lot of racket essentially triggering (for example) a C Major chord of cymbals.

This is all pretty interesting, and a huge departure from the ESX.

Now, I've been working entirely with audio imported from the SD card. The inputs (input?) on this is the same 1/8" jack that's on the E2, which is damn near useless in even a moderately professional setting. So, I have yet to try that out.

The fact that these two are identical in form sorta has me wonder what would happen if I loaded the OS from one to the other. I'd probably brick it, is what would happen. But then again...

[thesigma]

Thanks for the info!

[disconnector]

Also discovered (this is probably shown in the video) - in my above example, the original loop, after slicing, is still located at slot 999. Hitting the pad repeatedly will step through all of the slices.

So, you can assign that sliced sample to a single pad, use the sequencer function, and light up each step, and you (more or less) get the full drum loop playing back.

It's roughly on par with what you get in ReCycle. It's the same theory, anyway. Again, this is kinda fun, since turning off a step in the sequence essentially "mutes" that step. This is one area where I see an improvement over the ESX.

[bladuck]

Disconnector, thanks for the info!
I have two questions

1. When you use stereo sample is the IFX delay on that stereo track stereo too ?
2. How much longer it takes to boot with custom samples ? the E2 boots in 4 seconds.

[disconnector]

Disconnector, thanks for the info!
I have two questions

1. When you use stereo sample is the IFX delay on that stereo track stereo too ?
2. How much longer it takes to boot with custom samples ? the E2 boots in 4 seconds.

1. No idea. My assumption is that it would be monaural. Stereo samples take up two "pads", though envelopes and filtering affect both at once, as do IFX.

The post-IFX delay itself might be monaural, but the source is still going to be stereo. And you're going to hear the stereo-ness of the source. Think of it as an FX send on a mixer - the sends are (in most cases) mono, but you can have a stereo return if the effect itself is in stereo.

2. Didn't measure it. Feels a bit longer, and I only had about 1/3 of the memory used up. It's way faster than my Ensoniq EPS

[Hugo]

Thanks for the info, disconnector and others
I have a question: how long does it take to export stuff to Ableton?

[thesigma]

[quote="bladuck"]Disconnector, thanks for the info!
I have two questions

1. When you use stereo sample is the IFX delay on that stereo track stereo too ?

Stereo samples use two parts right? so wouldn't it just gang the IFX of the second part for stereo? same for filter and other params? Just a guess though.

[disconnector]

RE: Exporting for Live

The only way I tried it was to export the project to the card, then read the card on the computer. All in all, that part was astonishingly fast.

RE: Stereo samples, FX

When editing a part that has a stereo sample, yes, all the controls are ganged together. You don't edit one separate from the other.

I think the question surrounding the IFX send was, is the send/return path in stereo. That I can't really answer. If the effect itself is in stereo, then the return will be.

I converted all of my samples to mono when using it. Just seemed easier. Though, it did take some of the life out of them.