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I'm looking to get an ER box to hook up to ableton live and provide some easily tweakable percusion sounds, and as a sketechpad away from the PC screen I can get ideas down on.

I also like the idea of using it as a hardware stepsequencer for live.


Question is, what are the differences between mk1 and mk2 besides the case, is it worth holding out for a mk2 or should i just grab whatever turns up first?


Ta, Ian.

the original ER-1 had a Decimator (bit crusher, lo-fi'er) effect available. this was replaced on the MkII with a "Cross Mod" function (cross modulation between the two oscillators).

the MkII's alloy faceplate is an improvement, in my eyes. the knobs are hard plastic, while the ER-1's were rubber-coated. the rubber made them "faster" for me -- easier to grab and twist.

besides that, all functions and sound quality are identical. patterns/patches are completely interchangeable, but obviously anything using Dec. on the ER-1 will be exchanged for Cross Mod on the MkII.

Thats a great help, thanks.

This cross-mod, what sort of sounds is it good for producing? I'm quite into my minimal/techno so little blips and clicks would be worth the extra cash if thats the sort of thing it'd be good for.

The ER-1 mk1 does not have decimation. It has ring modulation between parts 1 and 2, and between part 4 and the stereo inputs. Plus the global stereo delay.

I really wish it had decimation instead of ring modulation, though.

fac wrote:The ER-1 mk1 does not have decimation. It has ring modulation between parts 1 and 2, and between part 4 and the stereo inputs. Plus the global stereo delay.

I really wish it had decimation instead of ring modulation, though.

ugh, that's the second time i've made that same mistake while explaining the differences to someone! thanks for the correction.

river, fac is right: the old ER had ring mod, not decimator.

river wrote:Thats a great help, thanks.

This cross-mod, what sort of sounds is it good for producing?

Hi river. I have both units.

The cross mod is great for combining 2 onboard sounds to make those piercing portamento-ish FM metallic basses that you frequently hear on mostly older deep house/techno (although they are thankfully, clearly still a firm favourite today ).

Some folks refer to them as the clonky sheffield, detroit techno and chigago house bass sounds that these early 90's genre defining electronic guys originally got from their Yamaha DX synths (as these are analogue modelled osc's on the ER1's they are great for also producing those twanging brain melting pendulum ball sounds that people like Autechre champion so well).

You might also be interested to know that the ER1 MK2 also has a Ring Mod section as well as the aforementioned Cross Mod section - whereas the original ER1 had 2 Ring Mods only. The Ring Mod is nice but nowhere near as strong as the Cross Mod.

I think both machines could have done with Self Oscillation + Feedback controls attatched to their Mod sections for further impressiveness, other than just an on-off facility.

Tinkering with the Pitch/Speed/Decay and Wave shapes though, whilst these Mod sections are lit are the best way to find that sweet spot.

Sonically (apart from the 2 Mod sections) they are supposed to be identical although for some weird reason I have always found the sound of the MK1 a bit cleaner than the MK2 (tried this on duplicate models and found it again to be this way). Just a guess but maybe there is a better D/A converter on the 1st model or a slightly different processor.
Who knows?

Here are the pros/cons of both units IMO--->

ER1 mk1:
Better knobs for fast jamming/editing in clubs as rubber coated (and turn faster too than on the MK2s).
The plastic casing is at the ends can be chipped quite easy - watchout!

ER1 mk2:
Capable of producing excellent CrossMod (fm type) tones that are unavailable on MK1 (although most of these tones will be better suited to effect or bass type hits than percussion).
Although this unit has a strong metal upper body its undercase is still plastic!