Electribe 2 VS Electribe Sampler 2

headhunter242 · Post by **headhunter242** » Wed Jun 24, 2015 11:20 pm

Greetings! I've been looking forward to the Electribe Sampler 2 for a while but it seems like there aren't any good reviews out there at the moment. Some of the videos on youtube have been helpful but not overly comprehensive (e.g. one guy just playing and turning knobs). So if anyone can help me out with a few question I would greatly appreciate it.

I have an ESX 1 and I've put it up for sale. I've seen people upset about the lack of song mode for new electribes but I never used it. I also never used the SmartMedia card feature as well. If I purchased an ES2 I would probably use the audio in jack more than the card reader for samples (unless the drums options are garbage).

1. Are the pre-loaded drum sounds on the ES2 the same as the E2? I've seen a video of all the sounds of an E2 but not for ES2. I'll be using one of them mostly for a drum machine and master clock, voice samples, and any synth features as a distant 3rd.

2. I've read in a preview that the E2 has analog modeling & PCM sounds but the ES2 has only analog modeling. Can someone explain what this means in regards to the synth features? Is there a massive difference between the synth capabilities of the E2 VS ES2?

3. Are the effects the same for both models? I have yet to see a good video of someone mangling a user sample using the track pad on the ES2. Is the trackpad FX use comparable to the KP3? Obviously not as robust but in terms of effect modulation.

If the E2 is an all around better drum machine and the synth capabilities are light years ahead of the ES2 than I am willing to forgo the sample capabilities of the ES2. If they are similar enough than I will go with the ES2. Also if anyone has any links to professional reviews of the ES2 please share.

Thanks!

apapdop · Post by **apapdop** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:19 am

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr15/a ... ctribe.htm

dutchcow · Post by **dutchcow** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:28 am

If you can live with the loss of filter types and loss of loads of oscillators it's better to pickup the sampler and use single waveforms instead.

The loss of filter types is purely to differentiate between the 2 two models, and so is the loss of oscillators. Korg could've easily merged these two boxes. The hardware is identical.

I doubt Korg needed to remove the oscillators and filter types to make the sampler work

Tom 62 · Post by **Tom 62** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:52 am

dutchcow wrote:I doubt Korg needed to remove the oscillators and filter types to make the sampler work

Indeed. From the technical point of view that was a completely unnecessary decision from Korg. However, in my opinion the sampler is the better choice. The lack of oscillator models can be compensated with single cycle samples and the restriction to a single filter model is not really a deal breaker (at least for me).

dutchcow · Post by **dutchcow** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:26 am

For me this kind of behavior is confirming I did right by getting my money back when I still could.

It somehow reminds me of Sony and their Walkman phones. Those phones were exactly the same as the cheaper range. They had a different firmware only. You could flash the Walkman firmware on the cheaper models and voila, you had an expensive Walkman phone.

Korg is doing pretty much the same. They remove features when it's not needed purely to create 2 products. They could've easily kept all functions on both boxes and charged 50 euro more. But they rather sell us 2 boxes.

Of course, Korg isn't making musical instruments because they love music or like musicians. They do this purely to make more money. If they had some love for music or musicians they wouldn't steep to these kind of things.

DR.DR · Post by **DR.DR** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:16 pm

I have the E2S sampler, and today I went to the local music shop in MTL to play the E2 (non-sampler.)

I want to use the box as mostly a drum machine to play live with. Genre somewhere between Boards of Canada and Portishead.

I am a little bummed with the drum sounds on the sampler. I found the E2's oscillators to be fairly useful - that edit knob does a lot. I suspect it is just cross fading two samples under the hood, but who cares, it works.

The filters on the E2S are sleepy IMHO. I dug the filters on the E2.

Here is the rub - even with a few drum sounds in the "All Samples" thing - it takes more than a minute to load on start up. Really slow.

So for my uses - tonight I'm gonna pick up the E2 and I'm going to sell the sampler.

headhunter242 · Post by **headhunter242** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:00 pm

I was a little confused about the drum capabilities on various websites. Sweetwater lists E2 as having 400 sounds and the sampler as having up to 999 samples but doesn't say how many of those are taken up by factory sounds.

I tried reading that soundonsound link a few days ago but the article is behind a paywall which is kind of annoying.

Regardless, thanks for the replies everyone. Still not entirely sure which one to get though. I think at this point the sampling capabilities are more desirable to me than extra waveforms and filters but I'm going to do some more research first.

Also, does it seem like the Sampler barely had any press compared to the regular E2? I usually look to sonicstate for reviews and they only had a preview of the E2 with barely any info from Korg about the ES2. The sampler came out a month or 2 ago and Korg doesn't have any videos on their youtube channel. You would think they would promote the thing to some capacity.

blackholesun · Post by **blackholesun** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 11:23 pm

The Sampler can have up to 999 samples, but I'm pretty sure less than half of that is factory samples. Not sure what samples are included, but I know some of them are the same as the E2. You could load any drum sound you wanted in there anyway.

There is a huge difference in the synth modeling of the E2 and ES2. The E2 has nearly 60 waveforms/synth models while the ES2 only has a handful. You could load waveforms in as samples, but you don't have the filters of the E2 on the ES2. The filters are one of the strongest points of the E2. You can shape your sounds in huge ways. With the Sampler, you just have the one filter and it does make a huge difference.

The effects are the same.

I've had the E2 for a while now, and if I had to go back and just choose one, I'd still choose the E2. If I was only doing drum stuff, I'd probably go with the Sampler unless you are into using synth waveforms to create new drum sounds.

_INTER_ · Post by **_INTER_** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:00 am

500 or 499 of those 999 are factory samples, but those can be deleted. It does not free up slots, but overall sampletime (so you get more than the default 270 sec).
Im not sure on that one though. See: http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/ ... ?t=97993[b][/b]

Also 07.06.2015 Frenzies:

Hey, Dutchcow,
We know you hate this machine and have taken it upon yourself to go on every thread telling everyone just how much Korg have personally insulted you and all your family and friends by making a unit with some flaws, but it's getting a bit dull now.

You sold yours, what are you still bitching about in here?

ComputerControlled · Post by **ComputerControlled** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:37 am

DR.DR wrote: I suspect it is just cross fading two samples under the hood, but who cares, it works.

This is not the case. The E2 is not a ROMpler, it's analog modeling. There are no samples inside, it's all code.

DR.DR · Post by **DR.DR** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 2:16 am

You are correct that the waveform oscillators are an algorithm, but some of the drum samples on E2 sound like cross fades. They're also called oscillators. It is a pretty standard studio trick to mic a drum (especially the kick and snare) from the front/back and top/bottom to have some choices at the mixing board. I suspect they have a few different approaches under the hood and are abstracting all of that into "oscillator."

headhunter242 · Post by **headhunter242** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 2:55 am

ComputerControlled wrote:
DR.DR wrote: I suspect it is just cross fading two samples under the hood, but who cares, it works.

This is not the case. The E2 is not a ROMpler, it's analog modeling. There are no samples inside, it's all code.

So are the drums on the ES2 samples or do they come from the same thing? That's the million dollar question from me. I've read about someone deleting all the factory sounds on ES2 but if that's the case, what's the point of the "analog modeling" tech on the ES2? I'm so confused.

I understand the ability to load samples from the computer and that's a bonus but the longer I can stay out of computer software programs the better. Some of the E2 drum sounds piqued my interest and would be great to have access to on the ES2 while I find different samples.

Tom 62 · Post by **Tom 62** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 5:52 am

ComputerControlled wrote:This is not the case. The E2 is not a ROMpler, it's analog modeling. There are no samples inside, it's all code.

That's not correct. Take a look at page 9 of the parameter guide: The E2 has exactly 54 oscillator models (all sounds of the category "Synth"). Most of the remaining sounds are based on samples. Where do you think came these boring vocal sounds from? There are tons of samples inside the E2! The BIG difference: you can't delete, modify or exchange them. If you want to do this you have to buy the E2S.

ComputerControlled · Post by **ComputerControlled** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 7:31 am

Yes the drum sounds are samples, and vocals obviously. I'm referring to the synth sounds.

dutchcow · Post by **dutchcow** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 8:52 am

_INTER_ wrote:500 or 499 of those 999 are factory samples, but those can be deleted. It does not free up slots, but overall sampletime (so you get more than the default 270 sec).
Im not sure on that one though. See: http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/ ... ?t=97993[b][/b]

Also 07.06.2015 Frenzies:
Hey, Dutchcow,
We know you hate this machine and have taken it upon yourself to go on every thread telling everyone just how much Korg have personally insulted you and all your family and friends by making a unit with some flaws, but it's getting a bit dull now.
You sold yours, what are you still bitching about in here?

Didn't you mean to direct that at me? Another person who wants silence me. By the way, I did not sell it, but returned the faulty product to the shop it came from. Teehee.