Korg EM-1 Electribe

Heh. If you can count to 16 than you can figure this out.

Generic Roland style sequencer. The manual is okay. Not too great,
but you don't really nead it for much. The presets are bland, but
usable, like somebody else already said in their review... TWEAK TWEAK TWEAK!

The effects are good. Unfortunately you only get to pick one that
works with every part. Shame. I've done stuff like drop out a part
with the effect that I want into audio and synch it so that you can
use the other effects, but that's sorta a pain. There are four knobs
for the drum patches, but one is a volume and one is a pan. The pitch
and the sample length knob are pretty juicy. Specially since you get
a virtual track to store knob tweak movement in. Lo to hi rolls....
easy...

The synth modeler is pretty hip. Sorta basic but a cool introduction.

All the drum patches seem to be culled from popular radio-friendly type
songs, and that's cool... that has it's place...
This was desinged for dance 4 on the floor type stuff, but you can get
it pretty dirty and arhythmic...

Eff... the only thing I had to call them about was something that isn't
covered by the design... I was going to Europe for a month and a half
and wanted to make it battery-operated (not too hard, rc-car battery
and some cable splicin' from RadioShack?...) and the guy just warned
me that that sort of thing was not covered by the warranty. But, it's
pretty sturdy and VERY easy to figure out... so.... not much need for
tech/customer support...

um... I'm about to buy a Darkstar from Red Sound?, so I would have to
see if that covers everything I need from the EM-1...

After about 10 songs, I think you exhaust the sequencer's capabilities
(it then turns into a toy), so I mostly use the mono-synth modeler.

What it should have... AN ANALOG INPUT!!! It only has a headphone jack,
left/mono and right 1/4 inch outs, and midi in/out/thru. If it had an
analog input then you could use it like a 'lil effects box too...
oh yeah! If there was a way to send the sequence out part by part it
would be nice too.... muting.... play/record out... muting....
play/record out.... etc.

I like tha little bugger tho. Good toy.

Most of the presets are different styles of techno that are popular now (Goa/Terror/Tech Step/Blah). I'm not too fond of the presets (boring), but there are a couple of presets I like (check out A03)
You can pretty much learn the basics in one sitting. It's definately not something that will take you months to learn every little feature. I've had this for a couple of months already and I can't remember the last time I opened the manual (manual is very easy to follow if you need it).

2 monosynth parts and 8 drum parts. It features a universal delay and you can choose 1 out of 11 effects to apply to each part, ie. if you choose distortion, that's the only other effect you can apply to the rest of the parts (on or off). The effects are the only thing I really find limiting about this machine, but you can always run it through external effects. The sequencer is very straight forward, especially if you've used any of that roland groovebox stuff. You can use the sequencer to control an external device or use the EM-1 as a tone generator for an external midi controller.

The synth sounds are very dry/boring sounding in their default state, but you really need to play with cutoff/res/drive to make it interesting. The drum samples are very clean, and can be detuned and/or distorted to make interesting new percussion sounds. I recommend playing with the drive setting with various sounds and cutoff settings on the synth parts if you want an EBM/Industrial sound. Although the preset patterns will be outdated in a year or so, I don't think the sounds themselves will be outdated (just tweak the hell out of it)

Seems pretty sturdy, and cool looking to boot. Although it is plastic, I don't think there's much you could do to unintentionally damage it. Haven't noticed any bugs in the synth yet, so that's a good thing.

Haven't had any need for customer support yet.

If it were lost or stolen, I would probably hold out and see what's around the corner from korg :) I was most definately worth the price I paid for it (I bargained with the guy at Guitar Center, make note)
I would recommend this piece of gear to someone that's interested in making some music but doesn't have any equipment yet. It's fairly versatile and you can pound out your ideas fairly quickly.
There's nothing I really hate about it, considering the price. I only wish it had universal reverb instead of delay, but you can run the output through external effects if you need to.

A nice little box... about the closest thing korg has to a groovebox, but it's not. It's more of a groovebox/micro composer mix. Great for creating backing lines to songs.

Super easy to use, everything you need is on the front pannel and many keys double when you hold down "shift" on the thing - No flipping through menu screens and such. LCD screen is pretty low RES, but it's big and you can understand what it's attemting to spell (Like PCH = Pitch). Sequencing is extremely easy to do, particularly if you put the pattern pads into keyboard mode (Yes, you can play it like a cheap keyboard... It's meant as a sequencing aid, not for real performances) and press record to a click track, you'll get some grooves in no time. So the interface it there.

2 notes with a single osc and 2 effects Busses isnt much. Even more is that the unit kinda cheats on the effects busses... You can ONLY choose delay (You can tweek it though) for effect bus #1, and bus #2 gives you one of 11 other effects. So basically, you get 1 non chooseable effect, and 1 chooseable for the entire pattern, not per part (Though you can turn it on or off per part). However, korg kinda makes up for the lack of dual oscs limitation by providing several waves that can only be created by a dual osc or more setup... but still. Drum wise, you get 4 parts that can be used at the same time, and 2-2 parts that have to be used indipendantly (Cant be triggered at the same time), so you have 8 drums. Not that bad of a limitation but could use more. There are 50 synth wave forms covering everything from a saw tooth to funky guitar cords/strikes. They can be run through a 2 part filter (one for each synth part) which contains Cutoff, Resonance, EG Int (Basically Env Amount) and Drive. The drive is particularly interesting and can get so nasty that you wont even need the distortion in the effects section many times. In terms of modulation, there arn't any LFOs or sources/destinations - Instead, you use "Motion sequencing" to do this, and it's actually pretty cool. You also get a very simple Amp controller (ASR), pan, accent, and glide (For bending and portemento on synth lines). So on the synth side of things, I was kinda surprised that the lack of many sound shaping capabilities wasnt so bad and that this little sucker can actually create a decent pallet of sounds - Especially for it's price range. On the drum side, you get 144 waveforms, and shared effects from the synth parts, but no filter. You also get Amp EG, pan, pitch (So you can change the pitch of the drum on a per-note basis) and accent. So you wont really be tweeking the drum sounds THAT much without the filter, but they are still pretty good.

Grade A, Top notch, wonderful. Nearly all of the 190 some patterns are excelent and sound great. The sounds themselves in the patterns are amazing for the price too. 2 notes of poly can actually go along way if they sound good... it actually sounds fat and like there is more going on than there really is. The Motion sequencing and delay helps a lot. Everything in it, from the patterns, to the sounds within the patterns, to the drums are extremely refined and clear. Nice indead sound wise. For those wondering, it's geared towards Dance, D&B, and Hip Hop.

It's been reliable so far. The build quality isnt awsome, but then again it's not suppost to be. The knobs and buttons all seem like they will last a while. Wouldnt want to drop it on the floor though.

Screw them :)

I had a problem with it (And still am), but cant get any help from Korg because the news group and list registration page is all messed up.

You probably shouldnt own this as your only instrument unless your getting it just for fun :) Works great as a background synth, atleast with my Virus Kb anyway. It can do the "Minimal" style pretty welljust on it's own.

If you can get past it's limitations (Lack of poly, modulation, and effects busses), you will find an extremely good sounding, easy to use unit at a bargain price (400 US).

I found this machine very easy to use. From the start as a standalone unit you can chain preset patterns, tweak them, and put together your own new patterns and barely touch the manual. If you want to get a little deeper, say patterning from scratch, editing waves from scratch, you'll need the manual but it's still way easy.

The presets in my opinion are outstanding. I wouldn't use them directly in a song i was releasing, but i use them to build off of. I may change the waves, tweak them, edit the rythym, but they give me a great starting point so I don't have to do it all from scratch.

The MIDI implementation is great, very straigtforward, except the NRPN numbers are not yet available from Korg to sequence the controller changes. So rather than record the notes directly to the Sequencer (Sonar) I just have sonar do patch changes on the EM-1. That way I have to change the patterns on the unit itself, which is very easy, but I also have to keep track of which patterns are which, without the visual ease that computer sequencing offers. It's a tradeoff. I'd rather do it all in Sonar, but that'll happen when the full NRPN implementation is out.

Otherwise, very easy to use. I had a useable pattern set up within minutes of getting it out of the box. By changing presets I had a (preset-based) song going within an hour.

If you really want to get complicated in the playing of this thing, use a controller. I use the CS1X and have no problem. It's really easy though to use the built in keypad, and the transpose keys.

The built in song or pattern chain sequencer is very good, basic 16-step dance sequencer with motion controls. Just stringing patterns together. But you can then step individual notes into it. Cool.

I especially like the BPM delay. James Bernard does this really cool roll effect with it.

The onboard effects are great, but only about half are really useable (at least that I've found). You can make a lot of them fairly subtle, and they come out well.

The overall sound quality of this unit is much higher than the RM1X or my CS1X. It's very clear, though it has a limited number of sample waves to start with (50). But you can program those out in any number of ways, so not a big deal.

I find that I often run the main synth part or the bass part out to my CS1X if I don't like the sound I'm getting for it. PS... That's how you get Arpeggio out of this thing since it doesn't have it built in. Just have it play your synth patch set to arpeggiate. That makes for some cool complex leads or basses that it would take forever to program on the EM-1. PLUS then you still get the original part in it's original patch onboard.

The sounds are definately tuned towards Trance and Breaks. Some of the d'n'b stuff is good, as well as the trip hop. If you want some quick new stuff, try taking a preset, sequencing the notes on the computer, and playing it back then with a different patch on the unit.

I'm relatively new at creating music, so I tend to use the presets to build off of more than a more experienced musician, but I guarantee when I'm done with it you wouldn't think I started from the preset, hearing them side by side. It's that tweakable.

It might be a better unit for beginners or those without much other equipment. Someone else might like to program everything out from scratch. But then again, you can do that with this machine if you don't want to use any presets.

No idea yet. It's not metal or anything, so I wouldn't want to drop it.

I wish Korg had the NRPN implementation online, other than that I've not had to deal with them.

I would replace this unit if I lost it. I actually like it a lot. It provides a great base for the CS1X, and probably for any other synth. It's geared toward 16 step dance patterns, so don't expect it to be good at anything else. I have not used the other electribes so I can't compare it to them. I tried the RM1X and I like the EM-1 better, though if you needed a hardware sequencer I'd go with the RM1X instead.

The sounds on this thing are great. It was made to make dance music, and that's what it does.

Since I didn't know anyone who had this model at the time, I was floored by the complexity of the presets. It really gives you a good idea of what you can do with it. But I warn that they are not all good. Its very easy to set the sounds to the corresponding drum & synth parts. If you are familiar with the electribe series you know what I'm talking about.

The EM-1 has 2 synth parts that can be played at the same time, and 8 drum parts (4 of the of the drum parts share 2 channels). When I asked a salesperson about what its capable of he said "it's basically a combo of the ER-1 & EA-1". THIS IS NOT AT ALL TRUE! Unlike the EA & ER there is pre programmed waves for all drums & synths. So to all the naysayers of the ER1 in particular, you DO NOT have to tweak knobs to search for a sound. This is fantastic. There is 144 different sounds for drum parts & 50 for synth. As for the synth end of things it works just like the EA1, just a little harder to edit notes that you've added. As for the notorious motion sequence, I haven't completely figured that one out yet, but it has more flexability than the other 'tribes. The roll feature is nice but must be used as a motion sequence

As far as sounds go, I have to admit that the reason I got this was because of the clarity of the drum waves used. I must warn that I upgraded from the Boss DR202, and if you know that machine I'm sure you realize that the DR202 has bad sample clarity, and not a wide variety of kicks and snares. I personally do trip-hop & hip-hop, and the EM1 works well as far as I can see, but I'm sure that it's best for trance, because the synth waves programmed into the machine are very trance oriented (just try it and see). The effects offered by the machine are good, but you can only apply one type of effect for all drum parts. (The effect can be turned on or off per drum part). It is also very easy to alter your work on the fly, unless your using a fast BPM (haha to all trance fanatics). However it is not touch sensitive. But out of the drum waves is a good variety of kicks & snares, with more percussion type sounds than I bargained for (congas, bongos, maracas, many types of traditional style drums, and latin)

Haven't used it live when it really counts, but the only thing is that if you change patterns on the fly you will always hear it re-adjust your effects parameters.

Never dealt with them.

If I lost this machine, I would defineltly buy it again. I got the ER1 & EA1 also, which is the only equipment I use. This kicks the pants off of my DR202, and its also $20 cheaper. If your wondering why I'm using the EM1 & ER1 at the same time, it's because I use a wide palette of kicks & snares, and instead of using up its 8 drum parts on any kind of percussion, I use the ER1 for all percussion.