Korg EA-1 Electribe

Some of the presets are ok but most are crap noise .. nothing really cohearant .. editing patches is a bit of a pain the ass but not something you couldnt speed up with time. The manual is pretty easy to read .. it's not a very feature-rich groovebox .. it has 1 purpose .. nasty acid sounds ;)

it has a 2 voice polyphony but 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.

It only has 2 built in effects (delay/chorus) .. and a distortion button which is not really tweakable

The keys are not pressure sensitive and it does not to pitch bends, which kind of sucks but for the price what do you expect (besides stereo :P)

The sequencer is easy but it doesn't let you get in very tight between the steps so complex patterns are not possible unless you speed up the tempo, then you lose bars :(

It makes nasty sounds, which would be great if it was in stereo

Haven't used it in a gig yet because of the stereo problem

Korg has excellent customer support .. I haven't had any problems with the EA1 yet but I've had problems with some of their other products and they are always good to me

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.

if you are familiar with the elctribe series this is an easy peice to work with. It's tricky to actually master it completely, but read the manual.

The featers are quite nice on this. i first owned the er-1 when it came out. I used that as my main drum sorce. I heard that they went well together but wasnt really sure. The pre-sets at guitar center were all messed up so that didnt help. Luckily, two days ago, I asked a teachers son that i knew at my old high school if he wanted to sell it. he said sure. it fell into my lap for 75 dollers. For me, it was perfect. i would have paid much more. The two machines work really well together when mid-ied up. I love the sequencing on this machine. Only because i use the CS1X for a sequence controller on it. Like everyone says, the 16 onboard keys are a pain to play anything in real time. I love the real time affects. i actually use this close to a 303 type.

if you get this, expect some wierd sounds out of this machines. you really have to dig deep into this machine to get the sounds you want out of it. i dont care for the pre-sets. i could flip to a pattern and i would hate the sounds on it. but, hook up the controller and tweak those knobs and you can get great sounds out of it. I like the fact that you can get by tweaking the knobs, two completely different sounds out on part, inside the patern. For any progreesive type stuff, it works great because i can drag out many sounds with the knobs in real time.

I like the reliability of the electribe series. The er-1 has lasted me well and i'm sure the ea-1 will too

Customer support is great in that you can go to thier sight and get manuals and books for it which was very much in my favor.

over all ratng i would have to say i am very impressed with this machince when i hooked it up to my er-1. the sequencing is great when you get it hooked with a controller and the sound curve is great for buzzy sounds but can also be dragged smooth for anything you want. I really felt that i have mastered it in that when i have an idea, i can now get it out on to the ea-1 right away. it took 2 days, but 2 really long days. About 10 full hours of just cramming with the manual and experimenting. buy this if you get it at a good price, which i think even 250.00 new is great.

One of my buds sent me his EA-1 because he couldn't figure it out; I mastered it in about an hour, the only synth I've ever used before was a Yamaha RM1X that just kicked off on me. This is my go between for now nad when the RM1X gets fixed.
It's really simple if you have any background in synths, there a couple little quirks with it; it'd be nice if it autosaved as you went, but you have to put it in "writing mode" to do that... kinda ghetto, but I guess I'm spoiled by full-info dot matrix screens and the like.
The presets are good for an entry-level, specialized beatbox. Nothing amazing, but good for techno/trance/house sorts of stuff. The manual is a big help, I read it on the crapper for five minutes and then hammered out a dozen beats.

Dual polyphony, I think. The keyboard is just fine, I actually like it more than my Yamaha, it feels more like a pro setup than a playstation. The distortion is simple; I'll probably feed it through a Boss DS for more fine tuning. To get the distortion to work, you just push a button and it lights up, then use a knob next to it to adjust the level. Simple as it gets.
I don't really know how expandable it is, I'm not all that into it. It seems like it is an expansion in its own to my existing rig, as my Yamaha can do lots of amazing stuff but can't get the phat bass sounds this can.
For its size & cost the MIDI capabilities are commendable; in, out & through. I don't think the keys are pressure sensitive, but you can "bend" it from one note to another by holding down the existing key and pressing another key, which is sweet.

The only thing this is really good at is fat bass sounds; the farting, ripping ones from old Ataris, deep analog belches & stuff like that, and then the high chirps that correspond with that further up the scale. Excellent for dance music.
As I said, it's best to supplement with a Boss distortion pedal, the orange one, or even an MT-2 Metal Zone guitar pedal if you want it to really distort. The onboard sounds more like ripping.

It's disconcertingly lightweight; it kinda freaked me out the first time I picked it up, I'm more used to my Yamaha, which weighs about as much as five of these. It's simple enough though that it'd probably hold up to bumps and whatnot, it also has a big plastic bumper thing on the front and sides which helps out.

Never dealt w/Korg.

Awesome as a supplemental tool, or a beginner's unit. I do prodigy/NIN style rock/techno, and this thing is great for basslines, especially when used with a real bass. I also do some cliche Autechre style stuff.
It's a very limited little thing, as I said it's only really good for a few things, whereas a Yamaha or E-MU or one of the bigger Roland's encompass a number of different bases. My Yamaha does some great realistic bass stuff and the drums kick ass, but can't do the analog-style bass that this thing does.

Korg would be smart to take the price down to $100-150, I think that the $250 my friend paid is a bit steep. I rmember lookig at one a year and a half ago and it was like $300, way too much. Now you can get them at Mars for $200, which isn't bad. Again, this is more of a beginner's unit or something to supplement a larger, more specialized rig. But definitely not a toy.

Easy to use. Bought it used after playing with a friend's ES1. Suggestion on buying used, don't listen to the presets, just reset it to factory first. Learned almost everything about it in a week. Some presets are cool, others aren't. Editing patterns isn't hard as long as you don't use the keyboard in real time. Weird stuff going on there. No manual came with it but the manual downloaded and printed off the Korg site is excellent. Little pictures and everything for the illiterate and impatient.

Polyphony, two parts. But it's not made as a stand alone unit. The ER1, ES1, or EM1 alongside is the way to go. Personally a buddy has the ES1 and we get together and jam. The keyboard as discussed above leaves something to be desired in real time recording mode. Built in effects are ok, but have a tendency to be hard to control when switching parts. I haven't had any trouble with MIDI OX, Sonar, or Acid pushing or pulling. Korg's site even has new patterns from some guy named James Bernard to download and push to your EA1.

Realistic, no. Fantastic, yes, and very controllable. Dance, Techno, Trance, etc... Onboard effects are a little touchy sometimes. Doesn't exactly get what you expect every time but I think that's what I'm looking for sometimes too.

Haven't had any problems... don't gig... just jam.

Haven't dealt with them, but I haven't been able to find a support number on the web site either. Oh, I haven't looked.

Yeah, I'd find another used one. Fun toy. Just started a week ago playing. Hasn't worn out it's playfulness yet and that's saying something for my short attention span on new toys.

The EA-1 is as easy as it gets. Turn the knobs and choose wave-forms to create sounds. The sequenser is easy to learn although I prefer using cubase as sequenser for this little piece of machinery.

Well.. I bought this thing because I needed a synth for bassline's and as a TB303 substitute. If you plan on using it for something like this you will become VERY happy with it! it is a wonderful machine and for the low costs it makes it one of the synthezisers I would say is most priceworthy. But if you are planning on making a complete song with it you can forget it. The machine can play two voices at the same time, it has no velocity or aftertouch and it is Monophonic. In short: This machine should be used for bassline's, FAT lead sounds and bisarre spacey sounds!

The sounds on this cheap little baby is VERY warm, fat and analogue! creating fat basslines with 303 like sounds or creating warm sweeping analogue leads are no problem! For this price you get some of the coolest analogue sounds you can get! if you're looking for strings and piano or drums then I'd suggest you look somewhere else.. But if you look for the spacey sounds of Dance and Trance then this is a machine built to invoke power on the danccefloor!

Well what can ye say.. it's plastic and its leightweight.. I wouldnt drop it if I were you!

I've never dealt with KORG so I cannot say how they are to talk to..

If it was lost or stolen I would definatly buy me another one.. I love this little tweakin' monster!

This is for the guy that wants to use it as an FX unit. Do this:

Set OSC1 to Audio In, and turn the OSC balance all the way to the left. Max your cutoff, and turn resonance off. Now record a long sustained note into the sequencer (or 16 steps with 100% gate time) and start it playing. Now you've got the distortion and delay or chorus running on the signal. Enjoy!

This box is a piece of cake to operate. About 10 minutes after it came in, I was tweaking some presets and making some funky sounds. If you know how to operate a sequencer and you know how to turn knobs, this should be a breeze.

The features are pretty good, in my book. Nice selection of filters (resonance, decay, cutoff, etc.), selectable waveforms or audio-in on oscillator 1, delay, chorus/flanger, real-time or step sequencing... A few problems with it are polyphony (it's monophonic, yecch), no velocity-sensitive, although I think you can hook up a velocity-sensitive keyboard to it no problem. Except for those small things, it's jam-packed full of features.

This is where this machine truly shines. Nice fat, warm analog sounds coming out of a digital box? Korg has their act together. The filters are a LITTLE bit slidey, but almost as good as the real thing. The delay on this box adds so much to the warm sounds. You can pretty much construct your own instruments by tweaking the knobs, which makes things really great to create signature sounds for the dancefloor. BEAUTIFUL!!!

I've had the machine for about a month now and not had a hint of a problem with it, but then again, I am a fanatic of keeping my gear clean and as scratch-free as possible at all times. The knobs are a little wobbly and the machine is a little too lightweight. Also, the rubber grips on the bottom of the box don't seem to stop it from sliding on the table very well. I am considering taking the 'Tribe apart, reinforcing the knobs, fixing small sandbags to the interior of the case, and putting new rubber grips on the bottom, so that it doesn't fall off my table just by tugging a cord. I would gig with this thing without a backup just on the principle that I don't have much cash or decent gear! I definitely think that if cared for properly (I recommend a heavy-duty flight case) and cleaned often, it should last a lifetime.

Luckily, I haven't had a single problem with it so far, but by looking through the manual and warranty card, it seems that repairs, if needed, would be quick and hassle-free, as they have a LOT of authorized service centers all over the world.

If anything should happen to this machine, I'd cry and then save up my money for another. This machine is a very cost-effective alternative to the very expensive, older analogs. Still not as nice, but for the cost, it's a masterpiece by Korg. I've been making electronic music since 1996, but just recently got away from my computer's sample-based software into outboard gear. So, for all you outboard-veterans who think this thing sucks, fine. For the majority of musicians and beginner musicians, you NEED to buy this thing. It stomps all over Roland's competition, the MC-303 and MC-505. True, this box doesn't have drums, but the analog sounds are MUCH warmer than Roland's roovebox series. Couple this synth with the Korg ER-1 and make some serious waves on the dancefloor. One thing I wish this synthesizer had is velocity-sensitive keys, but that's something I can deal with.

This thing is a cakewalk. If you're a complete idiot you can still twiddle knobs and make some funky noise. Two parts yadda yadda. The sequencer is easy to use and anything you would need is completely obvious where you can find it (such as tranpose, tempo etc) without a zillion menus and submenus on the lcd. The little menu light area is extremely helpful.

Hopefully no one has the conception that this can compose an entire basic song like an mc-303, 'cause there are no drums sounds. Just tweakable bass and funky noises and leads. Anything you can come up with it. Some presets suck, some don't. Mostly I think of the presets as tone generators, find some cool sounds, delete the sequences, tweak the sounds a bit and record a new sequence. The thing has tons of memory, i don't think anyone will ever -truly- use all 256 pattern spots. The waveforms are good, just about anything you'll need is there. No velocity but the expression is in the filters, you can record for each pattern one motion sequence (cutoff, decay, resonance, eg int.)(I think you can assign velocity values via MIDI though.) Maybe I'm a deaf idiot but to me most of the motion movements sound pretty smooth, maybe it's cause my amp isn't "good enough" (roland kc-500). The effects are pretty good, the distortion works just fine for me even without a knob. The chorus/flanger sucks but the delay is awesome. Be warned though, I thought when I bought this thing that you could run like a sampler through the audio in and assign the delay, chorus/flanger and distortion to it. You CANNOT. You can only have it go through or have the audio in act as an OSCILLATOR for a pattern on the EA-1. Which is kind of neat but the fact that you can't use it as an fx processor bites. I could be wrong, and if I am someone please correct me but I haven't found anything in the manual.

Well I guess I kinda covered this. If you're looking for some real pianos or strings or whatnot, well learn what you're playing with first. This thing is only for janked up bass and leads and other random video gamey noises (not that it cannot be used professionally.) Right now I am using it to write parts for the hardcore-industrial band I'm in, and it's my most useful piece of equipment yet (against my alesis qs6.1 and sp-202 sampler). I've written some lovely, sweeping synth parts and some janked up acid-sounding breakdown things. So this thing can be as expressive as you want it to be, I think. Definitely a major bargain for $300.

This is where I am disappointed. I haven't had the EA-1 crash or anything, but it's case SUCKS. I have yet to play a gig and just between carrying it back and forth to 3-times-a-week practices, it has gotten quite a few knicks and scratches just in about 3 weeks. And the lcd cover has a few wrinkles in it. Once all my parts are written I will probably sample them on the 202 and play the loops that way (that sucker is built like a tank), but that kind of demeans the idea of the EA1 being a live performance tool as opposed to a "studio instrument".

Never had to contact Korg, the manual has explained everything pretty good except for how the heck to process the fx onto an audio in device. oh well.

All in all yeah i'd buy it again if it were lost. Or maybe I'd wait and see what the EM-1 is going to be like. I just wish the case was a bit more rigid (watch out for those knobs too.) Just take good care of this baby and he'll treat you well. An absolutely bargain and worth every penny, despite the sucky case.

The EA-1 is a simple bass/lead machine for silly electronica music, anyone thinking its for complex music making should take it back to the store and get Reaktor and a powerful PC. The presets are just horrible cause i bought the floor model, so im deleting it all. But the layout is simple to understand- realtime editing or step sequencing, just a basic dance machine.

i love it cause i've hooked it up to my TX-7 (FM Power) and the sequencer rocks over london, and it does well with octave range (no bach's on this little too though) I wouldnt use it for aphex twin type music or BT style either. And the sounds are great, they make all the fun space noise ive been looking for. I think price wise it kills those german power synths. But of course sound wise it cant even compete.

And the sounds are great, they make all the fun space noise ive been looking for. I think price wise it kills those german power synths. But of course sound wise it cant even compete. But if your into Plaid or Miami bass music, this is the tool to use for heavy bass or wierd tweak noises.

Cant say, havent gigged with it.

i hope i dont have to use it.

This is the second groove box ive bought in the past 3 years, my first was a silly Roland Dr-202. It was cool for about 3 months, then i got rid of it and bought a MPC2000xl- but the one thing i missed about it was the bass. Well im glad i got rid of it and got the EA-1, it solved my bass problems, and fun child like tunes. If your looking for 5 year-old based electro, then i would buy this and a elektron drum machine too. Too all those morons that hate this box, get a life and buy reason or reaktor for gods sake.

come on! This thing is so hands on. You can't walk past it without just having a quick tweak. I have had it for a couple of days and am creating some really nice sounds. It is all there in front of you and with a midi keyboard you spend all your time kicking around new sounds rather than scrolling through deep menus. The presets (a bank and b bank) all sound kinda day-glo and hands in the air but the d'n'b give you some good base bass to start fecking with. VERY EASY

Two parts blah blah you probably know the stats. The little rubber buttons are no replacement for a keyboard but then when you are somewhere without your k/board they are completely lovely. Shame about the distortion but it does give some nasty edges to bass drones so i'd rather it was there than not. It midied up fine and is such a godsend compared to my jupiter 4 and polysix. I wonder why i ever mucked around with pre-midi noisy synths when something dirt cheap like this can do so much.

It bleeps squeaks and hums all the sounds quite nicely. I was unsure wether it would give me what i want but just a wee bit of playing around and its replaced a much bigger heavier box'o'analog. And all for NZ$400, which is like US$200! And i'm glad to get such clean sounds no noise floor!

I got it second hand, the box is light and plasticy but so what. don't soak it or throw it across the room and it will be fine i'm sure. The guy i got it off hadn't really touched it but i did notice on someone elses ER-1 that the knobs can get a bit loose. treat it well, it never did you any wrong. And i will use it live as it has no drives or delicate bits.

I've never tried. I found the web to be the best resource for mods and upkeep of other bits of gear, and i checked this list of reviews before i drove three hours to look at and buy this little beauty.
If something goes wrong, its probably happened to someone else and they've written all about it on a web page somewhere, and besides, korg are busy writing manuals in crazy talk. Attention KORG! employ me and i'll translate your manuals into logical speak.

So cheap, less than a third it's retail and its hardly used. I don't think i'll find one this cheap again but i would replace it unless i could afford an MS2000R. It sits in with my juno2 and drum machines very nicely, doesn't take up too much space and when sampled is absolutely killer. I've tinkered with lots of unreliable older gear and am sick of it. This thing is so much stronger with nice stable sound and easy to use. I have written three tunes (using it and other gear) in one night all seriously thanks to the EA-1. I get sick off all the analog stroking as i like crisp sharp sound and this thing can really cut through.