I describe the effect, what the controls do, and give my opinion of it.
But first, an overview. The electribe has a good selection of effects. The effects sound fine, they work well in the box, and I'm glad they're here. Despite that, there are some issues.
Many of these effects are simply "presets" of the same algorithm given various names. For example, the Repeater and the Slicer are both LFO-modulated volume effects with different wave shapes. Would it have been better to have one effect and be able to select the modulation shape from a menu of 5 waves? I think so, you may not. One thing is for sure: the effect count is padded with a little filler.
You may agree that many electribe effects are voiced with a fairly narrow range. They seem designed to avoid clipping or runaway feedback and to stay polite. Some are simply too polite to be useful, or are just voiced in a conservative way. Speeds don't hit FM, depths never go deep. Some entirely lack character, however some FX - like the Talk Filter - sound astonishing.
Yet none of them sound particularly "modeled" on anything. They're straight digital delays, plain phasers, run-of-the-mill choruses. Nothing wacky and weird. And not a single fuzz!
There are some effects that have counterintuitive parameters - leaving out something important in favor of a "mix" - which invariably never goes as high as I'd like. And some master effects leave out the second parameter entirely. Every single Insert Effect could benefit from a second "shift" parameter. Some require it to be useful. (insert distortion NEEDS a post level!)
While the food might not always be great, the portions are amazing. 1 effect per 16 parts, plus a master effect. Not to mention the part filter, oscillator edit knob, etc. There's plenty on deck to shape your sound, if not warp it.
Perhaps putting 17 effects in one box is a DSP trick that's hard to pull off - and that's why things like the Looper are limited to quarter notes, and reverbs sound washy. I remember the Kaoss Pad series having some very nice combo effects and a unique sound. I was hoping the electribe 2 had a "built-in KP2 mini" in it.
It does, sort of.
And now, on with the show.
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MASTER EFFECTS
MOD DELAY
Mod Delay is a nice sounding stereo delay. The right channel's repeats are twice as fast as the left channel, creating a pseudo ping-pong effect. The repeats are also slightly filtered as they decay by a high pass. The modulation in this effect is subtle.
The delay goes from a time division of quarter notes (half-notes on the left, quarter on the right) to a very fast repeat - though not quite ringing. The transitions jump instantly from value to value. The wet to dry level is preset at what sounds like a 50/50 mix. Like all of the electribe delays, it is capped to prevent runaway oscillation but has a decently long tail.
Y controls the time division. X controls the feedback.
TAPE DELAY
Tape Delay is a delay where the repeats are filtered on both the top and bottom towards the midrange. Although the Tape Delay time is unexpectedly divided, there seems to be some slew on the pad motion between divisions for that classic "sloshing" effect when playing with the time.
Unlike previous Korg tape delay effects, this one does not model warble, noise or other analog elements. Although this would have been a good effect to feature oscillation and distorted runaway feedback (with limiter) it runs totally clean. It simply does not sound tape-like. But the biggest drawback is that it is a time divided delay and not smoothly adjustable.
Y is feedback. X is time.
HIGH PASS DELAY
High Pass Delay is all in the name. Repeats are time divided, synced to the BPM, with a slight galloping pattern. The delays are high passed until they fade out. Useful for giving bass tones a delay that won't dominate, or to create polyrhythms for hi-hats.
Y is the feedback. X is the cutoff for the non-resonant high pass filter.
HALL REVERB
The reverbs on the electribe 2 are improved over the EMX's "tin wind," but are not studio quality. They have a basic multi-tapped digital delay sound that produces a monophonic ringing character. High quality reverbs tend to be DSP hogs, which is why these reverbs are medium-quality.
Hall Reverb sounds bandpass filtered which helps keep the low end clean. Hall is midrangey and not very long. It's also capped at a fairly dry ratio.
Y is the mix. X controls dwell time from short to medium.
ROOM REVERB
Room Reverb is like a shorter version of Hall. It has a rounder filtered smooth quality, but is capped at a mix ratio that's even drier than Hall. The shortest Room setting sounds the most realistic, providing a small space ambiance. It's very quiet and can't go wet, though it sounds the best of the three reverbs.
Y is the mix. X controls dwell time from very short to medium.
WET REVERB
Wet reverb suffers from the same low-res quivering echo quality as the others, but it is more apparent here as it is wetter and brighter. It goes to 100% wet with a longer time. It's more of a performance effect rather than a traditional reverb, allowing you to momentarily swallow your audio in a sea of digital mirrors.
Y is the mix from totally dry to pure effect. X controls dwell time from medium to long.
LOOPER
Looper is a very fun and useful effect that lets you grab a chunk of audio and loop it, forward or reverse, in various time divisions, up to 32nd notes for tight rolls. It does not change the character of the sound at all. It is not a MIDI effect, it samples and loops the sound, even from the Audio In oscillator.
Sadly, the longest time division is quarter notes. It would have been nice to go from a full or half bar up to 32nd notes.
Y is divided into 2 zones: the lower half loops in forward mode, the upper half reverse. X is the time division.
PITCH LOOPER
Pitch Looper shares the standard Looper's time divisions. But instead of a forward/reverse zone, you get a pitch control which also speeds/pitches up the repeats. Pitch up does not cover an entire octave. There is no pitch down. This is harder to control in time on a whole mix, since the looping speeds up and scrambles your sync. It's probably a good effect for a single part, but is fun for mangling audio.
Y controls the speed, increasing as you move up, back normal on down. Only the top half of the Y axis controls speed, giving you less fine control. X is the note division, from quarter notes to 32nd notes.
STEP SHIFTER
Step Shifter works like a grain shifter where each step is one grain. This produces retriggered sounding effects, but is not a MIDI trick - it also works on the audio in oscillator. It works as expected but there may be better ways to produce glitchy stutters.
Y controls the mix. X controls the repeat rate from rough to tight grain-shifted effects.
SLICER
Slicer applies a gated effect to audio. It ranges from slow to medium. You are limited to a square LFO pattern for the gate. It's somewhat uninteresting and would benefit from various gate patterns.
Y is the mix. X controls the speed which is a tempo division locked to the BPM.
JAG FILTER
Jag Filter is similar to the Slicer effect but instead of an amp gate there's a filter controlled by a saw LFO. The filter is a standard electribe style lowpass preset with medium resonance. You can achieve the same effect with a part filter and modulation, and have much more control and LFO shapes to choose from. This is the definition of "filler" - padding the effect count.
Y controls saw direction (up/down). X controls the time division of the effect.
GRAIN SHIFTER
Grain Shifter is a standard grain repeater, chopping audio into various sized slices and looping the short audio samples at different rates.
Y is is grain repeat speed. X controls gain size.
VINYL BREAK
Vinyl Break gives you an approximation of analog vinyl record manipulation. The result does not sound exactly like "scratching" nor does it provide enough control or precision to duplicate the behavior of manually backqueing a record and using a crossfader. But it does capture the texture of slowdowns and speedups. Good for a "baby scratch" - back and forward. It works like a looper where the captured audio does not repeat - imagine the XY pad is a spinning record surface that you catch and queue.
Y is the forward-backward motion. X controls how sudden slowdowns react to finger motion. You can "stop the record" by pressing and holding. The left side produces quick stops, and the right has increasingly slow time. On release there may be a delay mixed in.
SEQ REVERSE
Seq Reverse is a MIDI effect that makes the sequence play from last step to first. It does not affect audio input. It would sound more impactful if the sounds revered as well, but then it would no longer be a MIDI effect.
It has no controls - touch the pad and the chase lights go backwards as the sequence is flipped.
SEQ DOUBLER
Seq Doubler is another internal MIDI effect that is applied to the pattern data. In this case, the effect will play each step twice, three times, or 4 times. It should probably have been called Step Repeater.
Y has no function. X controls the number of step repeats. The far left is null - a repeat of "x1" producing no effect.
ODD STEPPER
Is another MIDI effect, in this case it only plays the odd steps. It can be used to add variety to a performance. Use of these types of effects can scramble the sync in OS 1.03, so hitting "record" after using it may cause the metronome to click off beat.
It has no controls - touch the pad and you're odd-steppin'.
EVEN STEPPER
Self-explanatory if you read the Odd Stepper description. Plays the even steps - in many styles of music there is less happening on these steps so it will produce interesting variations on your pattern.
It has no controls - touch the pad and you're even-steppin'.
LOW PASS FILTER
This is a pad version of the standard electribe 24db low pass filter. It does not have the part knob version's full range of cutoff or res - but it provides DJ-like control to lowpass an entire pattern.
Y is resonance. X is cutoff.
HIGH PASS FILTER
This is a pad version of the standard electribe 24db high pass filter. It does not have the part knob version's full range of cutoff or res.
Y is resonance. X is cutoff.
BAND PASS FILTER
This is a pad version of the standard electribe 24db band pass filter. It does not have the part knob version's full range of cutoff or resonance.
Y is resonance. X is cutoff.
TOUCH WAH
Touch Wah is an envelope-following filter, where the volume of the input signal controls the cutoff. Like most traditional wah and auto-wah effects, the filter sounds like a 12db bandpass. However the attack and and release behavior are preset in a way that does not react well in all situations. It spends too much time closed.
Y is mix. X does not have a function. (Mix is a strange parameter to implement, Y could have been sensitivity, and X could have been either release time or cutoff.)
TUBE EQ
One of the most debated features of the EMX/ESX was the usefulness and sound of the "Valve Force" tubes. On the electribe 2 we get a Tube EQ that delivers a slightly louder, softly compressed sound with a warm midrange EQ curve and a very subtle crunch. It does not provide the hot preamp overdrive of a guitar amp, however. Like many effects, it seems to be hemmed in to a very polite range.
Y is mix. X pulls the tone towards the treble as you move to the right.
DECIMATOR
Decimator provides a gritty low-fi crunch, coupled with a lowpass filter to tame the aliasing.
Y decreases the sample rate as you go up. X is a preset lowpass filter that opens up towards the right.
DISTORTION
Distortion is fairly gentle on the electribe 2's master effect section. At maximum setting it has a medium crunch with a nice tone and is quite usable. It does not boost the gain too far - but also does not provide enough dirt.
Y increases the distortion amount. X shifts a boost from bass to treble.
COMPRESSOR
Compressor delivers standard level compression. It's neither subtle nor extreme. It's more of an effect than a mastering style compression, but does add some boost and pump. There's no situation I can think of where the electribe's compression could substitute for outboard processing, especially if going into a PA system.
Y is the amount. X has no function.
LIMITER
Limiter is more extreme than the compressor with sharper attacks and a louder overall level. It boosts quiet portions way up high and slams the kicks down in an aggressive breathing pattern. Lots of impact but not enough control.
Y is the amount. X has no function.
CHORUS
Chorus is a classic square-shifted doubling effect. It's stereophonic and able to go to detuned extremes.
Y is the amount. X is both the depth and speed.
XY FLANGER
XY Flanger provides classic sounding manual flanging, allowing you manipulate the flange or park it in a sweet spot. The feedback amount is preset somewhat low with only the delay timing being controlled - this makes the effect less useful than it could have been.
Y and X are unusual on this flanger, both control the same parameter. Moving up decreases delay, as well as moving to the left. Since the pad is slightly rectangular, X has an extended range. It's possible to trace your finger in a horizontal path from the upper corner of the pad and maintain the same flange "pitch." Seems like a lost opportunity to control a second parameter like feedback.
LFO FLANGER
LFO Flanger provides the same voicing as the XY version, but modulated from a triangle-shaped LFO. It could really use more range.
Y is the feedback. X is the speed.
XY PHASER
XY Phase is another manual effect, providing swishy phase shifting. Unlike the XY Flanger, this phaser has a feedback level. But just like the Flanger this effect is capped in a small range, never getting extreme.
Y controls feedback. X is phase.
LFO PHASER
LFO Phaser delivers triangle-modulated phase shifting. The range of the phaser is very limited and does not go as "low" or "high" as the manual version. Nor does it have as much feedback. The effect is voiced very weak and is far too subtle - I'm convinced this was an oversight.
Y sounds like a mix level. X is LFO speed.
AUTO PAN
Auto pan is a smooth, simple, circular L/R panning effect. It goes from quarter notes to 32nd notes. Great for adding movement across the stereo field.
Y is amount. X is speed.
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INSERT EFFECTS
PUNCH
Punch is like a simple compressor that emphasizes the attack transient. It works great on bass and drums for extra snap.
The knob goes from no effect to full effected.
OVERDRIVE
Overdrive adds the mid-range boost sound expected from an effect of this name. It's more of a EQ. It gets a little louder and beefier, but with no real crunch. Not much overdrive is on tap here - and it does not feed into a virtual tube stage. It's the beef without the sizzle. It's also one of a handful of effects that don't live up to their commonly understood namesakes.
The knob goes from null to full.
DISTORTION
The Insert section's Distortion has some real crunch. Sadly, there's no way to tame the gain boost post-effect, so your distorted parts are going to be loud. Trimming the part level does no good, it comes before the insert and will reduce the distortion level as well as the volume. Many insert effects could use a second Shift parameter, and this is the poster child.
Knob goes from no effect to a healthy serving of dirt - along with too much gain.
DECIMATOR
The insert version of the decimator lacks the lowpass, but it does have more range - from a slight quality drop to full on ringing and aliasing. Very cool lo-fi circuit bent tones.
Knob goes from full audio quality to the sound of a cheap talking greeting card.
BIT CRUSHER
Bit Crusher will lower your bitrate, giving you anything from a gentle spray of noise to total lo-fi distortion. A great way to add some digital rust to otherwise clean sounds.
Knob goes from pristine to 1 bit chaos in a full turn.
RING MODUALTOR
The ring mod on the electribe is acceptable. It does have a fairly useful range and sounds like a classic ring mod. But it is mixed at a preset wet level - your original sound is always there, lessening the impact.
Knob goes from no effect into shortwave tuning emulation to upper order metallic pings.
SUSTAINER
Sustainer is some kind of compressor preset, lifting decays and releases up higher in the mix. It's not that useful, other than padding out the effect count. Probably best on drums with a roomy sound, and on other PCMs where there are ambient tails. It does the job - but who asked it to?
Knob is a amount control.
LIMITER
Limiter is one of those effects that's generally best on a group of sends and not as a solo part insert. But here it is and it sounds fine. You may have need of an insert limiter but I have found this less than handy.
Knob increases the limiter's output, from nothing to fairly reasonable limiting.
LOW EQ
Low EQ is a one-knob kill/boost. It dues suck most of the low end out of a part, and will boost it too. Seems to be enough headroom to avoid clipping. This and the other 2 EQs would have been better implemented as dedicated knobs, DJ-style. Or as pure kills, mapped to 3 positions on the single knob in a united effect.
Knob goes from almost no bass to a decent boost.
MID EQ
Mid EQ is a one-knob kill/boost for the midrange.
Knob goes from almost no mid to a mid-dominant gain.
HIGH EQ
High EQ is a one-knob kill/boost for the treble.
Knob goes from almost no highs to a loud top end.
RADIO EQ
Unlike every radio effect Korg has had in the Kaoss Pad series, this one sounds nothing like a radio. There's no static, no ringing, and even the EQ is too polite. It's more like a mid-high boost. It should sound like your audio is blasting through a crummy out-of-tune transistor radio with a 3-inch speaker. But instead it stays hi-fi and makes your sound slightly worse, too mild to sound intentional. Genuinely useless.
Knob goes from zero to a low cut/mid boost to a high boost.
EXCITER
The Exciter is perfectly good, imparting a driven top end clarity to any sound. This would have been better in the master section, but it's welcome on the insert side. Pulls any sound forward in the spectrum.
Knob linearly crossfades 2 phased exciter stages. Various mid knob positions or LFO modulation will produce out-of-phase behavior on your top end, another interesting side-effect. With the knob fully left or right, you get 2 distinct-sounding exciter tones.
LOW PASS FILTER
The insert low pass filter is voiced similar to the master effect version but is less resonant. It's the tamest filter on the electribe with almost no control, nice to have the option even if it goes unused.
Knob goes from closed to open.
HIGH PASS FILTER
The insert high pass filter is voiced similar to the master effect version but is actually a little more resonant, strangely enough. Shares the low pass filter's shortcomings.
Knob goes from low to high.
BAND PASS FILTER
The insert band pass filter is voiced similar to the master effect version but is also more resonant. Shares the low and high pass filter's shortcomings.
Knob goes from low to high.
TALK FILTER
The talk filter is a signature electribe sound. It has formant-like vowels and imparts a distinctive vocal sound when in motion, and a tubular EQ when parked. Sounds great on nearly anything that needs a strange quality, either fixed or in motion. Like many effects without builtin LFOs, you can modulate this parameter from the modulation section of the part.
Knob sweeps across a "eyoi" vowel range.
DELAY 1/4
The quarter-note delay is a mono delay line. Locked to tempo. This is another effect with quarter notes as the longest time period.
Knob goes from no feedback to what sounds like an even 50% - mixed too low.
DELAY 3/16
The 3/16 delay is a mono delay line. Locked to tempo.
Knob goes from no feedback to something like 50% feedback. Not wet enough.
DELAY 1/8
The 1/8 delay is a mono delay line. Locked to tempo.
Knob goes from no feedback to something like 50% feedback. Too dry.
DELAY 1/16
The 1/16 delay is a mono delay line. Locked to tempo.
Knob goes from no feedback to something like 50% feedback. Too quiet.
ROLLER 1/32
The 1/32 delay is a mono delay line. Locked to tempo. It does not substitute for the EMX's dedicated Roll button and the sound of retriggered drum parts, but is handy for a machine stuck with 16th notes at a non-doubled tempo.
Knob goes from no feedback to something like 50% feedback.
ONE DELAY
The One Delay is a mono delay line. It's a single repeat slapback but can be smoothly time-swept.
Knob goes from fast to slow.
SHORT DELAY
Short Delay is a mono delay line. It works like the One Delay, but with feedback causing multiple repeats. Way, way, way too quiet and not enough feedback. Short Delay was implemented much better on the EMX. I would like it to go into runaway mode (or close to it) with a built-in limiter/distortion to prevent digital clipping and volume jumps. It should sound modeled on a BBD chip but has no real character. And it should go even faster. Not every 0-127 knob value will produce a time change - really let down here.
Knob goes from fast inharmonic ringing on the left to slower on the right.
RING DELAY 1
The first of the ring delays provides smoothly swept (not time divided) delay, ring modulating the repeat but not the initial signal. The ring modulation itself is modulated by a square LFO, so that the repeats alternate in ring frequency. Repeats pitch up or down as the knob is turned.
Knob ranges from very fast (not quite Short Delay speed) to fairly long.
RING DELAY 2
The second of the ring delays provides the same dry signal mixed with ring modulated repeats. In the case of this delay, the repeats are treated to a stepped ring frequency increase on each each echo. The time is shorter than Ring Delay 1.
Knob ranges from fast blurps of glitchy delay to a longer delay with less repeats.
CHORUS
The insert chorus is the same square modulation as the master version. The level is preset though usable. It is not locked to tempo divisions.
The knob control both depth and speed, going from subtle and slow to fast-pitched warbles.
FLANGER LFO
This LFO-modulated flanger (sounds like a triangle) has a preset level. It goes from slow and subtle to raygun effects.
The knob ranges from no effect to increasing depth, eventually shifting the speed up into a fast warble.
FLANGER +
The Flanger Plus is as expected - a positive flanger, manual mode. Unlike the Flanger LFO, it has an effect on the sound even when the knob is at minimum - the effect is on as soon as you press the insert button. The range is full, with both extremes nearing the same frequency.
The knob goes from one extreme to the other.
FLANGER -
Flanger - is a negative flanger, manual mode. It has a more distinct and pronounced character than the positive version, sounding sometimes like oscillator sync. It will get very close to phase cancellation but never quite vanishes into the zero crossing.
PHASER LFO 1
The Phaser LFO 1 works much like the Flanger LFO-1, but voiced in a phase shifter mode. Subtle or sci-fi FX. It has a bright phaser sound.
The knob ranges from null and adds depth to the effect, eventually controlling speed increases.
PHASER LFO 2
Phaser LFO 2 is identical to the first version, but is voiced differently and is darker sounding.
The knob ranges from null and adds depth to the effect, eventually controlling speed increases.
PHASER MANUAL
Phaser Manual is a manually swept phaser, obviously. It sounds darker than the others and may be a mix of dry and wet signals. Though it brightens up in at the top range. It also seems to have some audible zipper noise when sweeping the lower range of the knob.
Knob goes from dark to bright phasing.
TREMOLO
Tremolo offers classic volume modulation with a speed control. At slow speeds the effect is also more subtle, always having some dry signal. As speed increase, so does the depth with increasingly quieter dips in the volume. It goes fast for a guitar-style tremolo, but not into a synth-like FM range.
Knob controls speed and depth.
OFF BEATER
The Off Beater effect applies a square wave modulation to the volume level, accenting the off beats. It can work like a little boost or as a hard gate.
Knob controls the intensity.
PUMPER
Pumper works like the off beater, but in a up-sawtooth shape. The result sounds like sideband compression of audio with a 4-on-the-floor kick drum for a pumping pattern.
Knob controls the intensity.
REPEATER
Repeater seems to create retriggering effects on a part by applying down sawtooth modulation to the volume. It's similar to the pumper effect with tempo divided speed control and a preset 100% mix.
Knob controls speed division.
SLICER
Slicer is the repeater with a square shape.
Knob controls speed division.
I was hoping it would be in the parameter guide, most kicks seems to have distortion but some have EQ or something else.
