Korg Forums

Hi there, hoping for some help from you Korg Electribe pros.
If I plugged a midi keyboard into my ES-1 mk1, would that allow me to play the samples on the ES-1 chromatically?

I can't test this myself, as currently I only have acces to a USB midi keyboard, not one with the 5 pin midi connectors. If this works I'll buy another cheap/old midi keyboard.

Also, if you can play a sample chromatically on this way, I'm guessing it would just be monophonic?

Hope you can help, cheers!

Not on the ES-1.

EA-1, EM-1, ESX, EMX and the new ones support chromatic parts (usually called Synth or Keyboard parts). ES-1 is mostly a sample-based drum machine, so all the parts share a channel and can be triggered via MIDI with specific keys which you can assign. The closest you'll get is either copying the same sound to different parts at different pitches, or motion sequencing pitch on a given part.

That's a shame, but thanks for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate it!

If you're interested, the new Elektron Digitakt does this.

thehighesttree wrote:The closest you'll get is either copying the same sound to different parts at different pitches, or motion sequencing pitch on a given part.

Hi. I'm new to the es1mk2, in regard to the motion sequencing of pitch, the manual states -64/+63 for the lowest & highest value but any idea how that relates to chromatic intervals? That's 127 steps but I cannot work out how to land on exact notes with that figure when editing a motion sequence of pitch changes.

Haha! Trial and error mate!

sl23 wrote:Haha! Trial and error mate!

That's actually incorrect because the increment value doesn't allow for such a varied scope of semitone & cent tuning. It's either +63 or -64 so not including zero, that's a finite value of 127 steps, there's no possible way to fall on an exact minor 3rd, major 3rd or tritone interval. The closest you can get is with the pitch being off by some fair few cent amounts, so sharp or flat either side.

I found this out after posting the question but had to follow up after seeing your reply because it gives out incorrect information in case someone else buys one and stumbles across the same limitation.

There is a list on here somewhere that shows what intervals you can get via the pitch knob. Off the top of my head I know that +64 is two octaves higher and +48 is one octave higher than the root note.

Taken from Sauce's YouTube video on this topic:

C2 : -48
C# : -44
D : -40
D# : -36
E : -32
F : -28
F# : -24 (mod depth @ 14, speed @ 37, mod settings @ EG- Pitch)
G : -22
G# : -20 (mod depth @ 14, speed@ max setting, mod settings @ EG- Pitch)
A : -19 (mod depth @ 16, speed@ max setting, mod settings @ EG+ Pitch)
A# : -17
B : -14
C3 : 0
C# : 14
D : 17
D# : 19 (mod depth @ 16, speed@ max setting, mod settings @ EG- Pitch)
E : 20 (mod depth @ 14, speed@ max setting, mod settings @ EG+ Pitch)
F : 22
F# : 24 (mod depth @ 14, speed @ 37, mod settings @ EG- Pitch)
G : 28
G# : 32
A : 36
A# : 40
B : 44
C4 : 48

Link to the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkoHdW70JzQ

Thank you. Yes, I came across that youtube video and posted on it but that was after I had posted here. I was about to do a similar test with a sine wave and analyze each increment value. Cheers

FYI, the electribe2 uses these same incremental values on the pitch knob. So these seem to be the standard that Korg uses

I suspect, at least with the ES, that Korg assumed people would be using it as a sampling drum machine where such accurate pitching wouldn't be of paramount importance. Baffling as to why they'd continue to use that in the 2 though. I dunno

Maybe it makes it simpler to work into the MIDI standard they're working with? Most of the values seem to work out to 128. Might have to do with motion sequencing, Maybe they just reasoned that people would do most of their chromatic stuff using note data on the models that support it.

Mvibe wrote:That's actually incorrect

No, that's actually correct! I have owned an ER-1, EA-1 and an ES-1, so I know for a fact that trying to get the right pitch in the context quoted in the previous post is in fact trial and error!

Mvibe wrote:That's 127 steps but I cannot work out how to land on exact notes with that figure when editing a motion sequence of pitch changes.

WTF? I never specified anything about "a varied scope of semitone & cent tuning."

When using the ES-1 and your trying to get the pitch knob to precisely land on any particular pitch in a performance situation takes trial and error. Why? because your damn lucky if you land on it straight away!

sl23 wrote:

Mvibe wrote:That's actually incorrect

No, that's actually correct! I have owned an ER-1, EA-1 and an ES-1, so I know for a fact that trying to get the right pitch in the context quoted in the previous post is in fact trial and error!

Mvibe wrote:That's 127 steps but I cannot work out how to land on exact notes with that figure when editing a motion sequence of pitch changes.

WTF? I never specified anything about "a varied scope of semitone & cent tuning."

When using the ES-1 and your trying to get the pitch knob to precisely land on any particular pitch in a performance situation takes trial and error. Why? because your damn lucky if you land on it straight away!

I'm not sure why you're misquoting me, I never said I was trying to land on a pitch during a performance situation, I said I was trying to enter a perfect pitch value via editing of the pitch in a motion sequence. That's a per step event and your initial post of 'Hahaha, trial and error mate' doesn't help clarify anything, much less that you come back to defend it.

In any case, regardless of the procedure used to tweak the pitch knob to an exact certain pitch, if you cant dial it in, you can't dial it in and no amount of 'trial and error' will allow you to arrive at the pitch. In this case, it's either flat or shapr of a minor 3rd, not exact and that's by moving in incremental values as small as you can.