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I recorded a mono sample from some outboard gear directly to the ESX. It's two bars @120 BPM so I stretched it to 32. When I play it just as a one-shot, it sounds pretty good. When I play it as a stretch, though, it sounds mangled and broken. The timing is basically right but it's garbled and choppy. I reset my ESX to factory and tried again to make sure it wasn't the patch or something and I don't think that's it.

I notice that there's a BPM value for the sample but i don't know how to change that outside of OpenElectribeEditor. Is that the issue you think? I recorded at 120 to match and it didn't help.

Also, I'm wondering if the only way to insure success for importing samples, particularly loops, is to process them on the PC first. It seems like they have to be truncated by eye more than by ear. Any other experiences? Or I wonder if there's not a sample length that's exactly 32 steps...

Finally, when you sample to the ESX, are you satisfied with the audio quality? I'm sampling bass lines from my Virus and Moog and the recordings sound duller with less head room and brightness. You? Ideally I'd put all this stuff in the box to play out but if it doesn't blow up to a big sound system, then I'm better off carrying my gear around I think.

What do you do?

Thanks,
CCQ

I don't think the ESX will ever be able to faithfully sample from true analogue gear (or the virus for that matter), Not sure what the AD/DA converter specs are on it but the only way to get a really good recording will be with the best AD converter.

As for the stretching, I don't have an ESX so cant comment on that but I would prepare samples in software where possible especially if doing timestretching.

I'm principally an EMX user but I've become increasingly disappointed with the audio quality I can achieve with it so I'm upgrading to my newer gear soon. Also bear in mind that the output from the electribes might be hindered a bit by the tubes which will reduce the high-end headroom a bit, but I don't think the output from 3/4 will be all that much better either.

I'll try the other outs. That makes good sense for testing out the tube sound quality in general. I'm also dropping the $50 for new tubes today.
Also, when I switch between audio-through and the audio-in part, the sound takes a real dive. Not just for the stretch parts.
I'm going to cut a bunch of samples in Audacity today (how are you spending your Thanksgiving...) and will report back.
-CCQ

Measuring by eye on the pc the way to do it.

On Audacity- Record a 'click track' for use as a ruler (of the exact length that you want).
Then record in your phrase on another track. You can now align your phrase with the ruler and trim till your hearts content. There is a brilliant feature on the new Audacity for this. You can now zoom right in- And jump straight to the start & end for editing it with no hassle- this makes it all very easy, quick and pain free.

Then all you have to do is mute your ruler- then export/ save

You can sample with the esx, but as it has already been suggested it can be done better/easier with a computer. Depending on whether or not im recording my samples I'll either use protools or ableton live. Though audacity is a great free alternative if you dont have the software.

Click track is a super idea. I ended up lining up all of my patches as presets and using the sequencer so that I could get multi-samples to split in the ESX.

Also found a plugin for Audacity called chain-it-up for tightening up edits and another for trimming silence on either side. Amazing stuff.

When you record a sample you can set the tempo of the sample. In Open Electribe Editor it's obvious how to do this but on the 'Tribe directly, not so much. I was messing around with it yesterday and when you go to record a sample it flashes the default tempo (120) quickly on the screen. Here is your chance to use the tap tempo button to dial in the rate of your incoming audio for easier editing later.

A trick I'm working on for live-looping: Save blank sample slots to the drum parts and set them up for 1 bar play. Then record incoming audio and overwrite these slots.