Korg Forums

Hey Folks,
New poster here. I have an older electribe that was the first piece of musical equipment I blew my own money on -- blew my money in that I bought the thing without really understanding it. I still don't, but I've renewed my interest in the device.

I also have a new Roland SPD-30 Octapad, a sweet piece of equipment for any drummers out there looking for a new toy to, like me, perhaps add to their acoustic setup.

When I dusted off my electribe, of course the idea popped into my mind that I can connect it to my new baby. However, I really have no idea what this would accomplish. Could I then use the Octapad to trigger samples, a la Roland's SPD-S? Should I be in a Roland forum?

I realize this post allows for an elaborate response, which I welcome.

No, you should definitely not hook your Octapad up to your Electribe, particularly with midi cables. Then you might make that new fangled loud music and disturb my listening pleasure of Barry Manilow. There's nothing worse than some drummer making a racket when I'm enjoying "I write the songs." Now stay off my lawn or else.

P.S. If I catch you buying $3 midi cables, I'll tell your parents what you're up to, and you'll be sorry. You're probably on drugs, buying liquor, and up to no good, mister drummer boy.

in all honesty man im not sure how the octapad works but there are several things that you COULD do with it. the pad looks dope by the way.

hit the pads on the octa and trigger sounds out of the tribe

the pad samples? has patterns? trigger the stuff you make on the pad with the tribe into more complex patterns/funk...

you can make it to where you hit a pad and a sample or sound will play at the same time on the electribe or possibly even trigger an entire pattern and be free to get funky on the pad via live drums.

i was scared of midi i didnt wanna mess something up or to just get frustrated. if you real a little in the manual and just get them set up to talk to each other the rest falls pretty easily into place.. its kinda cool and sorta opens up doors as far as creativity goes. i hook two different tribes up but ive been meaning to use my roland sp 606 and esx together with some sample capture miditrigger madness just havent had time really. just give it a whirl

the octapad is essentially a drum module (or brain, whatever you wanna call it) that has a series of "kits" on it, which make use of the 8 available pads, plus the ability to add on a few extra pads (for hi-hats, or a kick pedal, or another cymbal, or just another drum pad i believe, i have it set up with just the 8 pads, nothing extra).

these kits may be, indeed, composed of drum kit sounds, or they could be some combination of melodic sounds/effects, which you can then tune to, say, a major or minor scale. so it has the ability to create some really cool sounds.

it then allows you to record these kits live as "parts", up to 3, which will then loop after you tell it how long you want the song/beat to be. you hit record, luckily there's a built in click track, record your part for the duration of one loop, do as many overdubs as you like, and then move on to the next part.

SO, i guess i'm wondering if, like you say, by connecting the two via midi, i can talk between the two machines. i guess you're saying that it's certainly possible, but there's no guarantee. could i really screw stuff up between the two machines, since i admittedly have very little idea as to what im doing? certainly i can follow directions in both machine's manuals to ensure i connect them properly.

but oh man would it be sweet if i could, for example, use the electribe to sample the patterns i've made on the roland, then use all the effects and stuff to change them up. the roland is super sweet for composing organic sounding beats and songs, but it doesn't have a ton of ability to change the songs once they've been laid down.

i'm gonna try it out and see what happens, i'll post whatever findings i have here. thanks.

there really isnt anything you can HURT when connecting via midi.

Watch this video: ESX and OCTAPAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHFegchRTs

those guys are great.