Korg Electribe ESX-1

[DJ ALX]

Has anybody used it?
And what's a good price for me to buy it off ebay?

Thank you.

[Darm]

If you are looking for something to do hip-hop, look for used MPC 2000's. Electribe's are fun and love using them, but they don't work well with hip hop...

[stereobot]

I wouldn't pay over $400 for it. I think new they are like $500-550.

make sure its packed well if buying used.. UPS throws stuff around, and there is a tube in the ESX that you don't want broken..

[stereobot]

Agree with the MPC2000 recommendation. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles as the Electribe, but it sure has served the genre well for many years. You play one and you will know why. And don't get the modern remakes, find an old MPC2000 or MPC2000XL.

[cynic one]

what about an emu mp-7 with a load of proteus roms in it? i've seen em going for cheap on ebay lately (in the $300) range. been thinking of picking one up just to **** around with.

ps: why emu didn't stick a sampler on those things is beyond me......stupid move.

[DJ ALX]

Originally Posted by cynic

what about an emu mp-7 with a load of proteus roms in it? i've seen em going for cheap on ebay lately (in the $300) range. been thinking of picking one up just to **** around with.

ps: why emu didn't stick a sampler on those things is beyond me......stupid move.

I already got an mp-7 with the Mo-Phat , X-Lead and Composer rom in it.
Great machine. Ive produced a whole 17 track album with that machine and i didnt miss sampling either.

Now i just got to the States and left my gear behind. So i want to buy a sampler / sequencer till my peeps have my stuff sent here. I already own a akai mpc-60 thumbsup (great machine-great sound), a kurzweil k2000rs and lots of other stuff...

So i think all of y'all are right. I should skip the electribe and go for the mpc 2000xl. Well i was thinking of getting the electribe just to have the experience of working with it, till i save money to get a mpc3000 or even an mv8800. i dunno.

Thanx

PS: Has anybody worked with the electribe sampler? CAn i hear any tracks made on it?

Peace

[stereobot]

I messed around on the ESX once at guitar center, with preset samples. It actually sounded pretty decent IMO, better than I was expecting. I thought the synth one sucked.

The sampler has lots of bells and whistles that probably won't get used in real time, and the tube is kind of worthless, more for show.

Is this going to be used live or something? I think the process of loading samples in and out of this thing seems like a pain in the ass, and the memory available for the samples isn't too high, especially if you are working with higher quality samples (bigger files).

[Darm]

If you can- use google translate and go to electribe.ru . There are lots of tracks there done with diferent electribes. Most of it is techno, and that's what they are really good for.
But MPC's rule for Hip Hop, and I don't think that anythyng in the world can beat it. I played with an MV and to my opinion it's not nearly as good as an mpc

[DJ ALX]

Originally Posted by stereobot

Is this going to be used live or something? I think the process of loading samples in and out of this thing seems like a pain in the ass, and the memory available for the samples isn't too high, especially if you are working with higher quality samples (bigger files).

Well, i dont want it for live. Just to make beats with a cheap machine till i have my m,achines sent here. And i will not be working with large samples. Ive worked with mpc60's 700kb ram and had no problem making dope tracks on it.

Originally Posted by Darm

If you can- use google translate and go to electribe.ru . There are lots of tracks there done with diferent electribes. Most of it is techno, and that's what they are really good for.
But MPC's rule for Hip Hop, and I don't think that anythyng in the world can beat it. I played with an MV and to my opinion it's not nearly as good as an mpc

I might save some money and get an mpc instead. Maybe a 2000XL. Ihave never worked with one.

[Versatile255]

Id say definetlely go with a mpc for hip hop instead but just for a few more you can get a mpc 1000 on ebay. there going for 500 something. i would agree with getting a 2000 but thre going for alot more on ebay.If you dont get a mpc i just reccomen use reason with a mpd 24 or something i wouldnt reccomend anything but a mp.

[Dj Pound]

The ESX blows the MPC away almost in every regard. I have a 2k and trust me it doesnt get much use
Besides being far more intuitive and expressive, the sample mangling and sound manipulation possibilities on the ESX are light years ahead of the MPC's load a sound and punch a pad aesthetic...and alot more fun too.

And trust me, making "hiphop" is not rocket science. Laying down some 4/4 beats set to 16th or 32 notes isnt something that is particularly difficult to do, especially on the ESX. In fact the ESX provides you with all the neccesary tools to go above and beyond you're typical hiphop beat, allowing you to do things with you're music that you simply cannot do on an MPC

Dont buy into the AKAI hype....especially now, since theyve been bought out by Numark. The overall quality of the machines they are making now have taken a serious nose dive.

[ololi]

Can the esx-1 do realtime sampling, like the kaospad, i.e. sampling when the sequencer is running and start to play back the sample in the correct tempo. Without stopping the audio. I know the electron md can do this but I would rather like having the esx-1

[Studio507]

The esx is cool as a portable workstation...has sounds too so it's more "complete" than say a sp303/404...I used to have one and enjoyed it

[dorfmeister]

Anyone have the new model that uses an SD card for storage rather than a Smart Card?

I used to have an EMX-1 and liked it but the smart card was a pain.

I am liking the fact that they have finally updated this with SD card storage.

[Jomox]

The ESX is a very good peace of kit and it offers something different to the MPC, it can do some good hip hop kinda of beats also, very good at them from what I have produced and seen others do, obviously the MPC is a bit better on that front but the ESX is also very good at it.

The MPC has a more punch sound, so it's more punchy and sounds cleaner when all the sounds are put together.

The ESX with it's tubes has a warmer sound, more raw and massive, brighter but don't sound as good as the MPC once all the sounds are put together, but you can tweak to adjust that by using the extra out puts. ESX also offers more in terms of creating full tunes on it, you can do more with it.

On a big soundsystem the ESX usually sounds better, due to it's massive sound it blows you away on a big system, having the tubes there is handy and is not worthless either, it makes your beats have a much warmer and brighter sound and adds very nice harmonics, you can also replace the tubes with some higher quality ones for an even better sound.

[Goa-Dubs]

Mpc is more for real time beat input.Esx-1 more for step time(with real time tweaking gone crazy).Personaly going by the general flow of the thread,i would choose a second hand mpc1000 with the new pad sensors and jj and a esx together.Portable!!!Then you have it all.Kind of....

[jpeg]

I used it heavy for 2 or 3 years very dope unit as far as creativity with samples its the best, very thick sounding bass and general plushness.

very quick and fun to make beats on.

the thing i did not like was the mute groups implmentation which makes detailed chops a pain as far as having samples cut each other off, but the actual auto chop is fine.

but i can overstate the value of having all the knobs and sliders as far as creativity and the build quality is the best period.

[Methlab]

The EMX1 is awesome..easy to make beats on and super fun. and I hear a lot of people like the ESX more...Like a lot of people said..the knobs and build of the device are high quality. The tubes suck and sound pretty bad, so you will want to upgrade those, but when you do, you will be able to drive them really hard and it makes a huge difference on your drums.

[Stoneface]

If you're going to go MPC...I'd say spend the little extra and get the 2500. To me it's worth the price of admission for the USB connectivity. I just can't see using any MPC without it.

[jpeg]

the esx is very underated but again its fustratingly close to being perfect if it has the following:

freely assignable mute groups on all 16 pads

maybe a waveform edit but the know movements r so percise it aint a big issue

maybe usb connectivity

[Griffin Avid]

I think they should have made this latest update the kind of thing that would make owners want to upgrade.

1) Samples using names/category search
2) Pre-load audition
3) Soft Editor
4) USB drag & drop
5) More sample slots

Fantasy would be a Waveform view with user editable slice points.
Sample rolls at normal speed, using the arp fader speeds up/slows down the sample playback. Hitting accent or TAP inserts a slice point. Holding Clear Part and hitting TAP removes the closest slice point.

[ether88]

Electribe's are fun and love using them, but they don't work well with hip hop...

dilla had an electribe and mpc

any sampler is fine and will work you just have to know it

[75th Power]

I've got a 2000 xl and was thinking about adding an ESX. My question is, does it have midi and how many parts multi-timbral is it? It looks like a very fun sampler to combo with my MPC. I'd pick one up if it was 16 part. I'd use the ESX for samples and just trigger with the MPC.

[STRATEGY]

Originally Posted by ether88

dilla had an electribe and mpc

any sampler is fine and will work you just have to know it

I never bought into the whole "certain instruments, plugins, groove boxes, etc" aren't good for hip-hop. Maybe using sounds not commonly associated with hip-hop is a good look? Who wants to sound like everyone else?

I remember an old Lil John interview where he talks about how he came up with his sound. He would buy lots of techno records, listen for sounds he liked, then searched the back of the record cover for mentions of what equipment was being used, etc.

Not very hip-hop of him!

STRATEGY

[75th Power]

Originally Posted by STRATEGY

I never bought into the whole "certain instruments, plugins, groove boxes, etc" aren't good for hip-hop. Maybe using sounds not commonly associated with hip-hop is a good look? Who wants to sound like everyone else?

I remember an old Lil John interview where he talks about how he came up with his sound. He would buy lots of techno records, listen for sounds he liked, then searched the back of the record cover for mentions of what equipment was being used, etc.

Not very hip-hop of him!

STRATEGY

That explains why his sound was more like dance music than Hiphop.

[mrsound]

Is it possible to take samples from an lp, not like 2 seconds, but maybe 20 or 30? I've read the specs, and they said it is capabel of 283 sec (total i guess?)

Seeing the knobs i suppose it's hard to trigger some random samples from an lp?
(i mean sampling and playinh an LP as on a mpc, the oldskool hiphop way)

Anyway i could always make sample edits on pc, and then load them up the esx i guess.
I'm not gonna sample on daily base, but sometimes it is nice.

I'm going analog al the way so far possible, so all this features will expand my producing possibility's (minus my limitations) more than 'just' a mpc 500/1000 i think.

I want to make more acoustic/singersongwriting, synth based, electronic, some mainstream dance pop tracks like lmfao or daftpunk and all combinations of this, and whatever i feel like making. I think this is for the price and features/sound something i could use.

[4dnightmare]

Hello! New member here - I have a Korg Electribe ESX-1 and decided I wanted to restore the factory settings before selling it. I read how to do this on another forum but ALAS - the thing won't make any noise at all now! All of the patterns are gone, you can't add samples, you can't make a single sound out of it, even just hitting the steps is silent. Is there a way to reset the reset? If I got a Smart Media card from someone who loaded the pre-set settings into it and loaded it, would that solve the problem? Bad day - I accidentally did the same with my EMX-1 and I didn't lose the noise, but I lost the 27 songs I had put together. Ugh.

Any help would be most appreciated, thank you!

Tom