Korg EMX-1 Electribe MX

There's a bit of a learning curve depending on you previous experience with synths/sequencers.... especially when you want to progress away from cool accidents towards planned sound shaping.

Covered elsewhere.

I do electropop, but I come at it from a roots background. I have no interest in techno/dnb stuff and it takes a while to figure out how to harness this thing to do something other than that.... but once you do.... it is one of the most creative devices I've ever used. The oscillators generate some awe-inspiring sounds and all of the presets can be tweaked to eventually find a sound you might have in mind. Most of my music comes from a combination of pre-planned ideas and good accidents; the EMX-1 is a great hard sequencer and an outstanding accident machine. It's really fun trying to decide what to keep from the improv sessions. The tubes do fatten things up.

So far so good, but I am worried a bit about the main dial and I'm sure the tubes will eventually go.

A great drum machine, fantastic synthesizer, and contains solid effects. It also looks great. I get comments about the tone and the appearance every time I play live with it. For a while I thought about selling it when I was getting into 80's analog synths but that notion lasted two weeks and now I wouldn't dream of letting it go. It adds layers that the analog stuff I have can't do. In fact, I have recurrent nightmares that it gets stolen because I leave the door to my apartment unlocked, kind of like the "I left the stove on" nag. To put this into perspective, the only other recurrent nightmare I've ever had involved Jason from Friday the 13th when I was a kid. The EMX-1 rocks.

The presets sound good for the genres they are emulating, but useless for the genres of music I produce. They show off what the Electribe can do and how much can go on at once. Mainly, the presets were made and put on the Electribe to get it sold for the "wow" factor. I did not buy it because of the presets, I bought it because of the weird, noisy, loud stuff it could do once I started tweaking it.
Editing patches is pretty easy and straightforward. For the more advanced stuff such as step sequencing and motion sequencing and what not, a lot of buttons and knobs have to be used and a lot of submenus have to be accessed and that takes a bit of practice to get the hang of. But, most of the commonly used parameters are easy to access and straightforward. Making synth parts and modulating them is very easy, as well as manipulating effects and so forth.
The manual covers everything you need to know, right down to advanced MIDI programming and controlling. The manual is as straightforward as the unit itself.

The Electribe's synth parts are monophonic. Chords are possible with certain synth oscillator algorithms, but for the most part, you only get one voice per synth part. If you really felt like it, you could use as many of the synth parts as you wanted to create polyphonic sequences, but for each note of polyphony you'd want to use you'd need to use up a synth part, and you only have five. Polyphony is limited, so don't expect to pull off a bunch of lush pads.
The Electribe has three effects engines you can run simultaneously - independently or in series. In the words of the Electribe, you can "chain," or combine, multiple effects together. The only thing wrong with this is once you chain 2 or 3 effects together, it stays that way. For instance, if you have effect 1 as reverb, effect 2 as flange, and effect 3 as delay, and you've chained effects 1 and 2 together so that reverb and flange are running in tandem, that's the way it is. You can't run a drum part through flange and reverb and then run another drum part through just reverb (if flange and reverb are chained), unless you can give up delay as effect 3 and replace it with reverb. Also, you cannot have more than three effects running at a time - so whatever three effects you select for an entire pattern are the ones you are stuck with, this goes for both synth and drum parts. If you want, you could run an entire pattern through one or more effects by routing (sending) the effect to each part individually. Effect chaining is very cool, but unfortunately it limits the overall performance if you tend to rely on a ton of effects. Remember, you have 9 drum parts and 5 synth parts - 3 effects is nowhere near enough to cover this much terrain in electronic music.
However, there are plenty of wacky effects that make up for this shortcoming. Aside from the common effects like reverb, delay, distortion, chorus/ flange, and phaser, you have crazy stuff like grain shifter (takes a short sample and repeats it until another sample is taken), ring modulation (for anything, you can set the second frequency), talking mod (makes whatever you run it through sound like it's talking, basically a vocoder of sorts), decimator (messes with the sample frequency and sample depth), pitch shifter, and even high pass and low pass fitlers (with resonance) you can route to your drum phrases (or your synths if you want). The effects can do some crazy stuff, too bad they are few and far between. In short, there are some good effects that are easy to use, but the effects portion is limited in my opinion.
No expansion capablilities that I know of, but it can accept Smart Media cards for data storage. As for memory, it has 256 slots for patterns, and 64 slots for songs (string patterns together and set how long the patterns play).
As far as MIDI goes, it can sync up to MIDI clocks, the synth parts can be controlled by a MIDI controller, and you can MIDI dump all the data back and forth from a computer with a MIDI interface. I'm not too saavy with MIDI but I'm sure it's quite compatible.
Does it have an onboard sequencer? If it didn't, it would really suck. The Electribe IS a sequencer for drums and synths simultaneously. You can program everything and arrange it step by step. It's also pretty cool that you can run separate modulations to each synth part.

Velocity and aftertouch? What are those? (Sarcasm, of course) As far as I am aware of, you can't program velocity. You can program "accent" for synth and drum parts, which is similar to velocity in the regard of controlling volume step by step, but if controlling the synth parts from a MIDI controller, I don't know if the synth programs will respond or not. I seriously doubt there is any aftertouch whatsoever.
This is an electronic instrument. Don't expect anything to sound like a real brass ensemble or string quartet or choir. Maybe a cheezy version of it due to the PCM waves, but pulse width modulation on the Electribe does not sound nearly as good as other synths I've used. This machine is intended for making electronic music, and it does this very well. If you want realistic sounds with a sequencer, get a workstation.
The only electronic genre this machine lacks in sounds for is industrial, which is what I produce. Granted, by running the drums through a lot of distortion, you can attain a power noise/ Terror EBM sounding drumbeat, but most of the uneffected (or effected) drum sounds aren't as punchy and gritty as I'd like them to be. If you are into techno, trance, electro, or anything else that isn't as harsh as industrial, the Electribe is great for those genres. But for people wanting to make REAL industrial (and not synthpop industrial-wannabe crap), the Electribe will take a lot of tweaking. I use VPM and Cross Modulation a lot to create metallic, staticy, overtone rich, FM-like sounds. Also, Waveshaper (WS) works wonders for creating incredibly harsh sounds.
I have to give this category a 7 because of lack of velocity/ aftertouch programmibility, lack of sound programmibility (the MicroKorg can do a lot more synth-wise), and lack of harsh, pounding drums. But, the rest of the capabilities really make this a unique machine.

The appegiator slider kinda bothers me since the display model at the store was missing the plastic piece that goes on top of the metal stub. I would definitely carry this around in a case that has lots of padding and I would take into consideration that the knobs are plastic and can break off, and they are about 1/2" to 3/4" tall. But, the unit itself is made from metal and is very, very durable. I wouldn't drop it since it has vaccuum tubes (and the vaccuum tubes produce such a nice overdrive), and vaccuum tubes tend to be very fragile. Other than that, I'm pretty sure I can depend on it because I've never had a problem with Korg before. I would gig without a backup, but I would keep a close eye on it to make sure it didn't break or get stolen at a gig.

I can't have an opinion on this because I have not dealt with Korg for this product.

If it were lost or stolen or broken, I might buy a new one. It depends on if they have a new version by the time this might happen, or if the used price of this unit drops. I have grown fond of what the Electribe can do in terms of sequencing and plan on using it live when I get the chance.
I have been making electronic music for over a year now and have been making music in general for over two years. I own mostly Korg gear: a microKorg, X50, and an 01/W. I also own a Xiosynth that I'm having problems with and I have to ship it back to the manufacturer and get it replaced (one of the keys is not responsive).
I love the fact that more than one thing can go on at once with this unit. I am used to synthesizers that produce one sound at a time and recording that sound then recording another and layering them. It is nice to be able to program everything together and hear it all at once for a change (in real-time, too), it definitely helps creating music. However, I hate the fact that the synth section is slightly limited compared to other virtual analogs. For instance, I can ring modulate two oscillators, I can sync two oscillators, I can cross modulate two oscillators, just like on the MicroKorg - but I can't run them in unison unless I switch the knob over to unison. You can run oscillators in unison, yes, but each type of modulation that would normally be able to be run in tandem on a VA are separate and isolated from each other, they are considered different oscillator algorithms. This makes it difficult to get thick sounds that sound different than JUST unison saw or unison square waves. One thing I wish it had was more effect routings, 5 might be less limiting than 3. I tend to rely on my MicroKorg for my virtual analog sounds and leave only a handful of synth sounds to the Electribe.
I compared it to some products, but nothing in the category of this. Everything else I looked at was a VA synth and I wanted to go for something that could do a bit more than just make one sound at a time. It would also be nice if it was able to program in other time signatures besides 4/4.
It definitely helps me make music, despite a handful of drawbacks. Maybe the "EMX-2" (if it's going to be made) will solve some of these kinks. I'm glad I bought it.

I believe all items in the Korg Electribe series are the easiest to use of ANY groovebox-type product. I usually can read the manuals one time then not have to look back again much afterwards.

I wish there was a way to assign more than one effect to more than one sound at once...that's a pretty big wish though. The onboard effects it does have though are very nice sounding. You can transform boring sounds into wacky sonic blasts with the effects and a little knob tweaking. I love how the sequencer on it goes up to 8 bars instead of 4 (like in the first electribe series). I used a 64 MB Smart Media card in mine, it was more than enough for what I needed so to tell you the truth it might be a bit overkill....

I used my EMX to produce acid house, electro, IDM, techno, industrial and psytrance. I think it did best for electro because it has deep thumping bass and snappy snares sort of like an 808 but much more better sounding because of the tubes and the fact it isn't an old worn out analog piece of junk. Not so good with industrial - not enough mechanical and industrial type of sounds in it (like real industrial, not the industrial pop crap out now a days that's actually just trance with emo vocals)...but for that I plan to get the new sampling electribe so I can just put those sounds in there and it myself....The easy to use sequencer along with the arpeggiator makes it great for producing wacky acid riffs. It's like having a way more evolved 303 in front of you.

I have used this to play live with 4 times. It never did me wrong yet my $2,200 Alesis Andromeda A6 did..go figure.

I've never had to deal with Korg because every single product i've bought from them has worked fine. I always buy new though, not from pawn shops or from eBay.

Actually MINE DID GET STOLEN! :( I'm probably going to get it again along with the sampling electribe. I first started using electribes as soon as they came out. I had initially wanted a Roland MC505, so I walked into the store with a load of cash in my pocket, walked over to where the MC505 was, played with the thing for 30 minutes getting frustrated due to not being able to figure out how to do A DAMN THING, my being a female and men in music stores never wanting to help females looking at gear...So I wandered over to the electribes..Hadn't even heard of them. I thought "What the hell are these weird looking things?", figured out how to program my own beat in in less than 5 minutes, fell in love with the motion sequence knobs, bought them, and didn't leave my house for about a year. Since then i've also bought a Yamaha AN200, Roland MC303, Roland JP8000, Alesis Andromeda A6, Yamaha RS7000, Alesis Micron, and Roland Juno (can't remember which version it was, it broke in a week). Out of all that stuff I love electribe most. The Alesis Micron and Yamaha RS7000 come in second. teehee.

this box is very easy to use to make noise right out of the gate push play and twiddle aways. while there is a history of dance music from the begining of the millenium in there the preset patterns sound dated but this isnt what we buy boxes like this for. i mean its a noise maker and a damn good one at that. i dont care for the tubes i mean i suppose its ok when used very slightly but anything over twenty percent i find useless.
lots of classic drum sounds in there and well allthough they can be slightly out of fashion for some i stil think its worthy set of samples.
the modelling of analog is good allthough this box doesnt sound overly like any other synth. it has its own flavour. for some its a great sounding box for others its not thier thing.
i think this is a classic and could very well eventualy gain a cult following along the lines of a tb303.
lets face it as serviceable tbs become rarer and rarer there is always going to be people who want hardware to use to make electronic music.
lots of options here.

polyphony isnt what you buy this box for . making beats is great and coupled with a sampler wich you can control via midi on the emx1 you have a great base for hip hop electro trance industrial. anything you want to do realy.
audio ins for processing signals.
lots of effects different filter types. envelope control or lack there of is a let down but you can work around it.
using this box with a pad oriented synth can yield some amazing results. over the top acid sounds are there this box is a acid monster. sorry for all the haters wich say the tb303 kills this box. i mean it doesent sound like a tb303 however it can do so much more and if you are smart how you process things you can get a great acid sound from this piece of gear.
its great for lots of different modulation routing as well. knob moves are mermorized up to twenty four per pattern. great stuff here.

this synth is a jimi hendrix synth in my opinion all kinds of squelchy leads and buzzy bits are possible. pads are there too allthough not to my liking i am sure some could find it usable.
i am going to say the sounds are a ten for expressiveness its a great little box.i wouldnt say they are pristine quality but i will say it does sound realy good.

so far so good but who knows if it will stand the test of time. i have some concerns about the data knob. seems way more solid than the other electribes i have owned over the years. i do think i would give her a go live. its seems like it was well thought out nice tension on knobs .

for the price i paid wich was two hundred eighty dollars like new in the box i couldnt ask for anything more. i remember when these were new they were twelve hundred bucks here and there was no way i would have paid that much but for what they are trading hands for these days they are pretty much one of the best deals around.
i think that these boxes are undrated and are the last great groove boxes. lets face it so much has changed since the early nineties in terms of gear moving to software. i think theres a lot of people who would laugh at this box however if you think about laughing alot of people buy software for way more than this only to have it fall by the wayside in their kit list in a year or two. you cant realy sell software to someone three years down the road but if you grow tired with your hardware you should always be able to get some money back.

This is the strong point of this machine.Childsplay

The effects in my opinion are weak.Also the so called "warm" sounds of the valve tubes are just harsh.It is a bit toylike in many ways. it is very limited in many ways.I would recommend this to anyone who wants instant,simple music.It is a dance box,plain and simple.You cannot layer loads of sounds and be overly creative.There basically isnt a lot to it.

The sounds are average.Some of the pads are quite good.The drums will bore you after a while.It all depends on what you are looking for.If you just want a bit of easy fun on a dance orientated box,then this is for you.If however,you want pro sounds,then you will definitely need other gear to make it sound better.

Average

Never needed them

I sold mine on ebay,but wouldnt buy one again,simply because you can get better stuff for the money.

I had already had practice with a previous electribe (EA-MK2), so this wasn't all that diffucult to learn and adapt to. I made my own original tack the first night I got it. Editing patches is simple.

If it had a built in sampler the EMX-1 would be the ultimate groovebox. Even without the sampler it still kicks the MC-909's butt.

Definately not an all in one machine.

Mostly making trance and a little techno, to me the synth sounds do have a deep, warm feel to them, the problem is that there just aren't enough of them. Synth sounds in this unit are limited. The piano and string instruments sound semi-real and do the job.

Now the drum and bass sounds are pretty amazing. I love making beats with this machine. The low ends are incredible and the 9 drum parts really open up the sounds of your patches/songs. The only problem with the bass nots is the little "clicks" that sound at the end of them, though this isn't usually an issue with the type of music I make since they are always being covered by a hi-hat sound.

The effects are nice, but once again are limited. The delays are great and the reverb is ok. The distortion sucks! The drive and cut off feature are awesome as are the synth oscillator effects. I like the fact that more than 1 effect can be assigned to a part.

The arpeggiator is cool, but I don't use it that often.

Although the knobs are made of plastic, the rest of the unit seems pretty solid. Unfortunately the main circular knob does start to wear and loosen over time (i've played the hell out of this thing)causing pattern switching or other features associated with this dial to be quality compromised. For example, when I am on pattern A30 and rotate the knob over one click to A31 it will sometimes skip to A32 or backwards to A29. This can be very annoying at times. I now have to be more firm with the dial when turning it.

I had a few questions when I first bought the unit so I called customer support to clear a few things up - they were quite rude and impatient. So I called a second time to get someone else on the line and again very rude to me. I had to figure most of these things out for myself.

If the unit were to be stolen or busted I might buy another one, or I might just buy something else just to have something different. I really don't have to many complaints about this box. It does some cool stuff even without being able to sample. Definately worth the money, especially compared to the overpriced 909. My advice is to buy one, you won't be disappointed.

OK. This machine is fantastic, working with it in songmode is so much fun, exactly what i was looking for when i decided to leave computerbased sequencing (cubase). Fast and hands on.
BUT, there is a major bug in the OS, also in the new updated OS version 1.02:

According to the manual, recording of "event data" (mute's, knob twists, arpeggiator performances etc.) should overwrite old event data of the same kind on the same part, but it does not work. If i for example record a filtersweep (cutoff knob) and then record a new filtersweep on the same position and on the same part. The filter cutoff will jump betwen the two recordings.

For people who make dancemusic, which is based on alot of knobtwisting, this bug is very important. Since there is no undo, and you can not overwrite old event data (because of this bug) you will only get one chance to record your performance.
However, it is possible to erase event data by holding down a button combo while recording - but this will erase ALL event data on ALL parts. So if you recorded alot of event data - part mutes, filtersweeps, keyboard performances, etc, etc.- and then make a mistake while recording you have to erase all of your previous recorded event data and start all over again.. This is a major bug.

This machine is wonderfull, but there are alot of interfacetweaks which could be done easily thru a OS update that would improve it alot. Korg does not seem to be intrested in improving this product which is ok, but in my opinion its their responsibility to fix this huge bug. Its a shame Korg have put alot of work in developing this awsome machine.. but then they let a little bug ruin it..

I have tried to inform Korg about this bug, but the do not reply.
Please Korg release a new buggfree OS.

It is the ease of use that makes the Electribe so good. It makes writing music a real pleasure. I bought the electribe because I was finding that the complexity of using my PC sequencer with various soft synths, samplers and sound modules was taking the fun out of making music. I am serious when I say that six months after buying the electribe I have written more and better music than in the 5 years previous.

The only minor critism I have is that recording mute events when recording songs can be a pit of a pain sometimes but dont let this put you off.

It is small enough to have on your lap so you can use it wherever you are in your home.

Plenty of features. The effects are great and don't underestimate the power if being able to record all knob movements with the motion sequencer - it really does add serious expressiveness to your music.

A bit of a shame it can't play chords although there is the chord oscillator as the last person mentioned.

Sounds fantastic. I have owned MS2000, AN1X, Nova, Waldorf XTK, Extreme Lead. I would say that it is not as good as the Nova and Extreme lead for creating complex layered sounds and neither is it very good for evolving pads. However its great for just about everything else and I would rate it as the best sounding synth I have ever owned! There are quite a few different oscillators to choose from including formant (human voice sounds - very nice!) and PCM which has about 100 different synth and drum sounds. All of the sounds can be spiced up with the great effects and motion sequencer.

The drum sounds are superb - I would honestly pay the money for this instrument based on the drum parts alone!

Another thing that strikes me about the sounds is just how professional the whole thing sounds. It seems to have a certain warmth and clarity about it and I believe you could create professional sounding finsished songs with little (if any) further mixing or processing.

No trouble in six months of use. Seems to be well built although it does get a little warm.

Never had to contact them but their website is pretty informative.

Fantastic instrument that has rejuvenated my love for music writing. If you are suffering from writers block buy this instrument right now! If you are not, buy it anyway and ditch your computer for ever!

If you've ever used a 16 button groovebox, this should be a no brainer. With an attempt to add something useful to this thread, The ease of use should not hide the fact that this thing is incredibly powerful (to be discussed in the features section). Like any piece of groove gear, this thing should be treated like an instrument. It takes a while to play a guitar well -same with this. It, unlike a guitar is much easier to get started on. Its super easy to get simple trance/house songs out of - a bit more difficult to get more complex styles out. I've been doing some glitch/IDM patches on this. I love being an electribe power user!

5 VA's, 7 part drum polyphony. Most has been covered previously. The synths are cool - doesn't have an ADSR which is a problem with low sine like basses because they tend to click off at the end of the note. Oh well.

COOL STUFF YOU PROBABLY DON'T KNOW:
All knobs and buttons can be controlled in song mode. ALL. I've gotten some really crazy glitch sounds by simply rotating the effects knob while the two pre automated fx knobs fling the whole mix into chaos. Automating the fx chain is also fun while in patch mode -especially when you want to do drum rolls with the grain shifter (Buffer underun).

Most importantly - THE ELECTRIBE CAN CONTROL EXTERNAL SYNTHS!!!
Nobody seems to know this (mainly because its not really in the manual under any definitive chapter). Try clicking the MIDI button and then down on teh MIDI CH menu. Click the drums and then the synths - going in and out through 10 and then 1-5 respectivly. You can shift these around to whatever tickles your fancy.
Currently I have mine hooked up to a SH-32 (4 voice poly) and an electribe. I can do all synths externally if i want. This requires some slight reprogramming if you want it to work smoothly- mainly to avoid knobs and automation changing unwanted parameters in other synths. I took pretty much all the cc data channels exept filter and res cc data and dropped it on cc35 (a blank one). Don't forget to not send volume cc data. This is really annoying when you're trying to turn down the internal synth volume and the external one drops too. This is all explained in the manual.

All and all, this is a very cool box given the fact that it can send note and cc data to other synths/drum machines. Here are a couple of cool things I did with it:

*Muted a couple of the drum parts and triggered data on my 1st gen Es1 Electibe sampler.

*Played all the drums through my old Alesis D4

*Controlled my microkorgs vocorder and sang over preprogrammed synth lines.

*Plugged my guitar (after amp modelling) into the audio in and used the internal effects to filter/res and mod delay my playing.

Great synths sounds- not a lot of programming. Contrary to popular belief (Geezar 303) this box has the ability to play chords, albeit in the form of chorded pcm samples. M/m/M7/m7 all are spaced 2 octaves apart from themselves. The chorded rhodes patch is really cool -especially with some help with the fx section. The analog synths are balzy as hell and the convient distortion knob throws grit into pretty much anything. A distorted unison square wave is the greatest jungle bass ever. Just twiddle the filter/res knobs.

Alright. I'll come clean. I work at guitar center (125). Off all the time I've been there, we've had 1 go out twice. Now, before anybody gets scared that was because we had it left on for 4 months STRAIGHT as a demo piece on the floor. It came back with new tubes and some small component. Another 4 months, same thing. Thats 2928 hours of straight cookin the tubes. Mines never had a problem.
Aluminum chassie - i give it a 9

I deal mostly with the reps, who are awsome.

For 499- only 100 bucks more than the es1mkii electribe, this thing is bangin for the buck!
I love this thing. Just got a hiphop track that I made on this with some vocals. Sounds like it could be made on a triton. Right now, the interface is more or less totally transparent. I love this thing, I use it often in leu of my laptop for live performances - I do a lot of jungle/dnb/breaks as well as more experimental electronic stuff.
If theres a piece of information that I don't know about the EMX, I want it dragged out into the street and shot. This is my baby. Ableton live 5 is also my baby, but I love both of the unconditionally.

Okay, so I'd be considered a "semi-pro" by most, since my entire income doesn't come from music. That being said, I've been heavily into computer based production for some years, as well as owning quite a few specialty keyboards and beat machines. If you've ever had experience with a beat machine before, this is a walk in the park. I took it out of the box, plugged it in, and started working on my own patterns immediately. I spent literally five minutes with the manual and was off to the races. Very intuitive.

Features are pretty damn good for something in the price range. The major downfall to the sequencer is that the pads have no velocity sensitivity, but on a synth of this nature you probably not too concerned with dynamics anyway. Expansion is limited, only allowing for a smartcard for file backup. The sequencer is straight-forward and simple though. Anyone with experience in any major DAW or anyone who has owned a groovebox (any one) before should understand all of the concepts used on this piece.

If you're reading this you probably already know that this box is geared towards electronica/techno/dnb/dirty electro. That being said, I'm into hiphop primarily and find that this thing provides some nice additionaly sounds that I didn't already have at my disposal. The synth section is especially good for knob-tweak-freaks, and the sampled instrument sounds are so-so (but get more and more interesting with knob turns). The onboard drums are right up my alley, mostly 808 and 909 style, with a few live-sounding percussion and hi-hat sounds. All in all, it has a lot of diversity for it's size and price.

Only had it a short time, but a unit like this should last forever if you take care of it. I'd use it at a gig, no problem.

No experience.

I produce almost all of my tracks exclusively on my DAW. I bought this unit as a backup (my comp just crashed!) in case my computer when down again so I wouldn't be without production capabilities. If you're looking for something simple with a pretty good range (albeit electronic) of sounds, this is a good unit. I've owned the Roland MC-505 and other Korg beat machines in the past, and the synthesis capabilities of this unit far surpass that. Unfortunately there's no drum synthesis, but I guess Korg would like you to buy ER-1mkII for that. The sequencer is right on the mark and the step sequencing is cake, and since this thing is driven more on button locations than menu everything is quick and concise. This unit is very good example of an inspiring piece of technology, rather than something you're constantly troubleshooting. I reccomend it!