Korg EA-1 Electribe

Firts of all, I'm writing this review about 8 years since this machine came out, and about 6 years since i saw it last. I'm not doing much music anymore.

If there ever was a standard for "Ease of use", this thing set that. Really basic operation, the display (minimal) does its (minimal) job and it's mostly needed for the sequencer. You can tweak little of the sound but you'll find that this "little" actually does a lot.

It's a TB-303 of the new millenium, if you know the TB-303; and if you don't, I'll explain: it's two monophonic synths with less-than-basic filters coupled with a nice and easy to use step sequencer, all analog-style, and it's better suited for arpeggios, bass lines, and propelling electonica background rhytmic sounds. But once you get started, you'll find more fun in this baby than you'd expected. If you ever thought of getting a TB-303 (ridiculous, in 2009!) get this instead.

Well the machine is marketed for Electronica; don't expect pads (it's monophonic), pianos, horns. It provides few sounds, but they are all aggressive, dynamic, propulsive, and very analog-y. As far as "how analog does it sound?" goes, I'll just say this: the people who'll listen to your music won't really care as long as it's slammin', and this thing delivers.
I usually laugh at analog freaks who'll split hairs in two looking for the perfect waveform; in fact, I've fooled many of them with simple digital synths, only very well EQ'd...
It has delay and little else, and it suits it very well.
Also, if you connect a real midi keyboard to it, it'll play piercing and poderous synth solos like a 1976's Minimoog, from the lowest to the highest note of the scale. 'nuff said.

It's a simple plastic box, shouldn't have too many problems unless you drop it too often.

Never needed it.

I'd give it an overall 10, also because of the minimal price tag you'll get it for these days .
Its sibling, the drum-oriented ER-1, is not as versatile and gets boring real quick. Its younger brother, the sampling ES-1, is lame. The maxed-out version, EMX-1, with real tubes inside and more features, leaves the fun home and packs the same amount of problems most grooveboxes have: you just don't get any feeling with them, that's why it's one of the most sold-off items on ebay: people try it and then tries to get rid of it asap.

The presets are great. Sure, the are some things in there that I do not like but others may like them. I think of the "presets" simply as demos. The guys that programmed the demos did an excellent job of showing what the thing can do if you really work it. Editing the sounds is completely simple. Most people will find the manual very helpful for the sequencer section but without it you could figure it out with enough time. The "keyboard" is hard for me to play on so I have to connect a real keyboard to really play it.

2 monophonic synths in one box. That is cool. It would be cooler if there were a button that would allocate two voices to one program, giving you a duo-phonic synth. You can do layered sounds though by setting both parts to the same midi channel. This is a nice feature. The distortion is on or off and it is not very good....but...sometimes I want a bad distortion. The delay and chorus/flanger are great. No pressure or velocity, which is a sad thing. The sequencer is old fashioned and it is what it is. My only complaint is that you can only have one knob move per part. So, if you want to change the filter you can ONLY change the filter in that pattern. You can change it constantly throughout your pattern but you cannot change the filter and then the oscillator tuning, etc. I just do all of this on an external sequencer as a work around. Also, no LFO, no EG for the amp section, the EG for the for the filter section is as basic as it gets while still being present, and you cannot change the pitch of oscillator 1.

It cannot sound very realistic when compared to sample playback, and physical modelling. However, certain sounds can have a realism to them if you think in terms of old analog synths. It reacts to your playing if you play it. You must tweak it while playing to get it really expressive. This thing is perfect for anything from baroque to bluegrass.

Seems reliable to me but I would never use anything without backup.

Never tried.

I picked it up because it was used and DIRT cheap. I do think that it sounds good though. You can get around the lack of LFO by sweeping the desired destination and recording that movement into an external sequencer. I really do wish that it had a button that would be the equivalent of patch/multi. This would make it possible to play two notes at once with one sound. And of course I would like it to be velocity sensitive. I cannot give it too high of a recommendation because I would not have bought it unless it was so cheap but considering what I paid for it I really like it.

It takes some time to learn all the features it offers. But the user interface is very well designed. From this point of view the ea1 is my favourite machine.

pros:
+ a lot of pattern memory
+ very good sequencer
+ good filter
+ absolute reliable midi master
+ external input processing capabilities
+ extremely clean (dynamic and noise-free, almost high end) output

cons
- limited variety of effects
- no memory card support for expansion or backup
- max bar lenth is 4 bars per pattern

Nevertheless a lot of bang for the buck

this is the weak point:
you can get some - but unfortunately just a few very good sounds out of this box.
An EA-1 synth does not come close to a JP8000, MicroWave or AN1. Also the EA-1 is not a tb303.So what.
It is crazy and rude. And kinda brassy. I like it.

MK2 is well built. No problem.

I use the EA-1 together with a Zoom drum machine in order to compose backings for practice and my own tracks. For me as a bass player this box does not have to be the main ingredient of my music making.
It is fun to play and fits in my setup. No regrets.

For a beginner on hardware-synths (befor i used software)as myself it was indeed very easy creating the first pattern. The presets are a good from my point of view and gave me an orientation on what this baby can produce. The manual is great, not like rolands cryptic manuals.

2 Monophonic parts, well a third one would be very usefull strictly for a solid baseline, specialy when i am in song-mode, a waveform more like a sine would be nice, effects are ok, chorus/flanger is a little bit thin and the delay is very good. The sequencer is very easy to use. I'm still missing a simple ADSR. Ring, Sync and the other thing the 'Decimator' is very good!

Pure electronic sound. It could produce very harmonic sounds (sweet and subtile) and on the other hand very harsh music. The EA1 is for sure not a high-end equipment but it serves me well. Also the so called 'liquid sound' like the Novation can be archieved (when resonance is far on the right. When compared to the other gear from Korg like the EM1, i still prefer the EA1 sound-sets (it sounds more realistic and authentic). So overall i would say it with one word: GREAT

The EA1 never let me down till today and if you can imagine i treat this engine like a psychotic person (thanks god i'm not), tweaking and twiddling as hell!!

Never had any problems!!

If it brokes, i would buy a new one. I'm relativly new to the hardware-universe! Before i used Reason. I've got an ER1 and an EM1 (which i will sell in the future), and i also bought an Roland SH-32 which i sold after two weeks of using it (sounds to synthetical and not like a analog). Because of it's limits i'am have to be very creative creating patterns. Korg you are great!! Maybe the MS2000b will be the next!!

ea-1 mk 1
The presets are ok-ish maybe a little cheesy, but you get the idea of what it can do, and it's not gonna be long befor you have replaced them with your own. Editing patches is so easy.
The manual is good enough (though I had to get a pdf)

1 poly per part is a real shame.
only being able to record one controller change is a crime.
not having the knobs available as midi controllers is close to criminal. I have overcome the previous 2 problems using the fruityloops ea-1 dashboard and linking the controls to my phatboy controller at least allowing me to overcome controller change recording restrictions within the ea-1s own sequencer.
The lack of stereo channels made me go and buy a mixer.

for analogue modelling it's great, more poly would have been nicer. The chorus and delays are superb fun and sound awesome, I can play for hours with them.
receives midi fine.
Does what you would expect very well.

seems to have been seriously abused by its previous owner!! works like a dream.

Having the manual available online rates it higher than an mc303 for me.
never needed support other than that.

I love my EA-1. I wish it had more parts and more poly (or that I had about 10 of them and a big enough studio!), which is the only reason I won't give it a 10, but for the price it deserves a 10.
It's very easy to use, very addictive, great value for money and as far as I can tell better than an mc303 (which on version 1 was rubbish in sound module mode). It's great for productivity and works well with electronica and dub.
I wish I could get the mx-1 for the same price as that would probably overcome my gripes with the ea-1.
I would buy it again.

As easy as easy gets , presets show what its capable of or most, manuals as good as you could wish for.

well i wont go into features.Its does what it says it should.

well the sounds are interesting . its odd.I have the korg z1 and a nord 2 , nord mod and basstation and some fm synths but this still fits in well.Its sound could be considered VA , its a character of its own for sure , i guess i would call it trashy or something , its like rude analgueness , very funky hard edged leads , basses nad stuff.Its fat , but i seem to be liking the ring mod edgy sounds more or the cheesy nasal leads and stuff it can do , has a lovely hollowness.Its features are basic.You find yourself looking for an
lfo or adsr or amore complex envelope but this is a very cool little box for the money which gives imediate access to some very cool sounds , i go a little hot and cold with it , i think its similiar to a basic phochecy voice maybe , has a nice portamento and the onbaord sequncer is basic enough.....i prefer to use as a module....
the built in echo and flange / modulation fx can be cool and handy.Distortion on it seems fairly normal , this box can rip for sure with that on , filter seems fine , not analgue in the classic sense of the word but fine , quite z1 like.The resonance i find to edgy and not so cool but fine.....for 100# or so its a good buy if you after bass and lead sounds.The presets i found very goa like....some loevely leads that whilst simply i dont have elsewhere.
The ring mod and sync features for the oscillators i love....thast where the mad stuff is though it can also be very smooth and liquid like and do some nice bendy 303 like sh101 stuff....

seems solid like all electribe stuff aside from the main dial which ive found on numerous electribes to be a little flawed or gratey if misued.You need to turn in a light fashion or they start to rub....

not sure?

a great little box which goes well with the er1 and es1, all are good machines even if you have high end gear these machines are highly creative and can do stuff ive not found eleswhere.I'm looking forward to the mx !

If you want to just listen/tweak the preset banks, that's easy...but superficial.

It's taken me about 3 full days (so far) of slaving over the manual to really start understanding the editing proccess. The manual is unorganized and sketchy overall, plus it has a bunch of completely unnecessary and confusing diagrams.

About 75% of the presets sound pretty bad and distorted (too much "funk" style), but they can all be edited.

Polyphony, shmolyphyony - I have no idea what that means. I can tell you that the "keyboard" will only play one note at a time (no harmonizing) and is usually sketchy when playing over a preset.

The effects are so-so, but I really do like the "analog" delay.

It does have an on-board sequencer, but I haven't completely figured that out.

It also has MIDI, but I haven't progressed enough to hook my keyboard up to it.

The "keyboard" has no velocity (touch sensitivity) and I would have to say it's quite "static", but for an extremely inexpensive machine with a "modeled" (digital facsimile) sound, I am really impressed how close it sounds to those old MiniMoog's. I just bought it for some occasional etherial sounds on my recordings, so I'm stoked.

Super light and "plasticy" seems to be the trend for Korg these days, but their products are more dependable than they feel (I've dropped my PX3 several time with no problems). For the price/sound ratio, it's good enough.

Don't know.

IMO, the EA-1 are only worth about $99, but I had a fixation with it and at $150 (used but MINT) I couldn't pass it up. I'm actually a guitar player and I've never owned a synthesizer (but since I already have a cheap Yamaha MIDI keyboard...).

If it were lost or stolen, I'd sell my keyboard and upgrade to a MiniKORG.

The korg EA-1 is very, very simple to use. Most of the presets are wack, but you need to tweek it out to make it your own sound anyway. I love how you have 3 different ways to create/edit patterns. Live recording, step recording, or just inputing a sequence manually. And the manual does an excellent job explaining the functions.

I love the FX it has. The delay does some funky !@#$. The flanger could be better, but it is good for the price i suppose. There is one problem, the flanger seems to also run a slight delay. But that creates some cool sounds sometimes.

The MIDI is ok. It's nice to assign a MIDI keyboard to 1 part, and run the built in keyboard for the other part so you can be playing both at once. It could have been better if you could assign external controller knobs to run the filter, volume, fx etc of the EA-1.

The sequencer is good for the price range. Working with patterns is excellent, although i wish you could adjust the volume for each step individually. But the gate time and pitch is very well done. The song sequencer isn't that good in my opinion. It doesn't do anything of any use to me.

The range of sounds you can extract from this piece is quite large. Larger than i expected anyway. With such a small amount of tweekable parameters, you can really go off and produce a wide array of sounds. I surprised myself with some sounds that you would have sworn were from an FM synth. And it makes thick + full sounding subbass with ease.

Overall i'd say this piece of gear is well worth the money. Is is limited in some aspects, but really shines in others. And you can even use it as an FX unit for other sources, so its kind of a 2-in-1 deal. The MIDI could have been a bit stronger, and it could have a few more parameters to edit via the knobs. But for the price, you can't complain.

10 minutes in, your laughing at how simple the electribes are to use.
I love that about the electribes, big bright numbers and easy to find in the dark pads etc.. I don't fancy writing songs in ultra-lit environments...It's all about the vibe man-dudez..
Presets?... We all know the answer to that now don't we?
Manual? .. Don't even need the manual... but it's idiot friendly:-)

Features?
Well... Is there ever enough features? (they got to keep us buyin next years model)..
polyphony-2 wah.......
Tweakable and changable enough to keep things fresh for a while :-)

Well for quality.. it's a little thin and in the analog emulating end of things,.. but it has a large spectrum of sounds and the variations are seemingly endless.. Think of "rewired Atari/speak and spell/acid indigestion/bubble gum ice cream"... I love shiny things that change color when tilted!!... It's a freaky fun sounding garnish to anyones plate of gear.(yum)

Here's why I actually wanted to write this review, It is my very humble opinion that Korg makes very disposable fragile gear in general. Unfortunately, they make my favorite sounding gear... I believe that the reason they do this is so that we will have to buy the EA-2 & 3 & 4 and so on... But, Is it really necessary to make the headphone and ?ins/outs? so fragile that immediately after the warranty runs out, the static starts? I mean they can fit a miniature imitation Moog into a box the size of a Chihuahua, but after all these years they can?t make a sturdy Jack?? What the F@#$ is that about? ? ! ? ! ? !
It?s that consumer conspiracy? Just like Microsoft Windows, Chapstick or deodorant.
Anyway, I know these things are made for DJs and the likes of, but I think that one good fall and it could be game-over with this thing (we?ll see).

I love this thing.. Like anything with "this years sound" in a couple years there will be no more use for it I'm sure... but hey, in another 15 years it will come back again... so keep it in your box with your Speak and Spell!!! I would replace it if it were stolen, I dig it........ I have been playing music all my life (since I was 7), I am now 32 (I spent the first 8 years on the drums though, does that count??...haha).. I allso own a Korg MS2000 (for freehand playing) an EM-1, a loaded up PC (running a Delta 44 soundcard), and a Roland VS880 & a sp-303, for small time sample fun. I really like Korg and Roland A LOT!!
Wish The EA were a little sturdier and had more various outputs...
and polyphony......
Thanks Korg for making some cool gear to help those of us that aren't rich enough at least fake their way through music with affordable great sounding modern easy to use live stuff... YOU ROCK...

Uhh Billy?!? You cant be serious....

"this is my biggest gripe - VOICE 1 GOES OUT OVER THE LEFT CHANNEL AND VOICE 2 GOES OUT OVER THE RIGHT CHANNEL. If you only have 1 voice, you have a MONO device. Even with 2 voices playing, it sounds weird because each is playing in a different channel. I supposed you could ghetto-rig it and split, then combine the outputs but it's a pain in the ass and is the only thing keeping me from using this in my setup. " ---

This is a two part MONO synth, you dont need it in stereo, and there are no Stereo(L R) outputs, only Part 1 and Part 2 outputs witch you patch into a Studeo or PA mixer and mix from there. If you want to "ghetto Rig it" to plug it into a DJ mixer, all you have to do is get a Balanced 1/4 plug (With two stips) that has a female stero 1/8th input, and get a RCA to 1/8th inchand pronto, you have stero output with your EA1.

"Haven't used it in a gig yet because of the stereo problem "
Obviously you havent giged at all...

"It would help if it was in stereo and not mono .. that just irks me to no end .. what kind of producer is going to need a mono bassline? I would have taken it back if my 30 days weren't up (spend 30 days trying to figure out if there was a setting to change to make it stereo) .. other than that the noises are nice and its easy to use."
..."What kind of producer is going to need a mono(output) bassline?..." let me ask you this "What king of producer is going to need a stero bassline?" There are dozens of famus mono bassline machines out there, such as 'Mini Moog' Roland 'TB303' 'TR808(Has MONO OUTPUT)', SH101, SH09, MC202 Korg Monopoly, Arp 2600, Oberheim Matrix 6, damn so many to list, and you dare ask "What king of producer is going to need a stero bassline?" Have you no shame...

The electribe is awesome, I use it on gigs using a 16 CHANNEL ANALOG MIXER... {hint hint}

It sounds good, one of the good features it has is it has Indi Outs! and also a STEREO OUTPUT on the HEADPHONE SECTION, witch could be easaly "GHETTO-RIGGED" by using a insert patch cable

I depend on it, and I use BACKUP on to a yammie Mdf3,

Korg is awesome customer servace

I lost one, so I baught two, and ill never loose one again, thank goodness I saved those patterns