Korg ER-1 Electribe

seems intuitive and pretty easy to make good sounds (only have had it a couple of days)

re: erasing entire patterns (= patches for those not in the er-1 jargon yet).

Simply leave one pattern blank (as a preset, say the last pattern in the D bank). Write the blank pattern to the one you're trying to erase. Zap. All data is gone.

good blips, bloops, etc. I've made some cool ambient drone things already (similar to GAS). Seems fairly flexible.

very easy. just about bliss to work with cant really imagine anything much easier. as usual presets are bad. but you dont buy things like this for presets. it is a drum synthesizer. you buy it to make sounds nobody else has. ive owned three and never had much interest in the manual. if you cant figure out off the bat how to use this then im also guessing you bought this to make cliche 808 and 909 beats with which in that case you should do yourself a favor and just stop making what you call music and others call crap and go back to selling drugs at your local university.

not sure about the poly id guess its the ammount of instruments. id hope anyways.the psuedo delay is blah, you can make some flange and chorus with it but unless you feel its useful then it really doesnt matter. id hope you wouldnt buy this for the delay. i personally like the 606/808 style step sequencing. which is about all id want from those machines. but your listening to someone who wasnt happy about the use of 909 samples for hihats. i wish they wouldve gone with minipops hihats or compurhythm ones. i love the simple synth edit knobs on top. its great. im pretty much completely happy with the features on here the only one i wish it had was seperate outs but i know the price of this thing would be about ten times as much.

ok im sorry but why the **** would you buy this for 808/909 sounds? ive read some of the reviews and man is that stupid. thats like using a moog for 303 sounds. the parameters on the 808 and 909's were very simple you couldnt change the occilator or modulate it. 808s and 909s wernt big on editing sounds. you could vary it up a lil bit but thats about it. they were big on punchy snares and crisp hihats and phat kicks. and for having such a friendly sequencing interface. there is litterally tens of machines out there that can emulate or have samples of those sounds. its almost a standard with all electronic instruments nowadays. so why would you buy a instrument called a rhythm synthesizer for that? i bought this because i wanted the ability to have rhythmic synthesis without having to buy a handful of va's or monophonic analogs. im thrilled it doent do 808 or 909 sounds good. i have a novation d station for that and to be honest i barely use it because im so sick of those sounds. i got it for punchy analog drums but am just so tired of the roland sounds and you cant edit enough to get away from that. theyve been so overly used its pathetic. but i can get exactly what i want with this. sounds that nobody else really has used that much. and thats great by me.

my first one had a bad power jack. my second one i just traded to get a synth. the first one was in horrible shape when i bought it used. there fairly sturdy considering what they do. im pretty sure you could drop this and an machinedrum on concrete and the odds of the er1 still working would be much greater. im all about reliability, when it comes down to it it can sound like heaven. but if it has parts that cost an arm and leg to replace and its not very reliable i wont get it for cheap even. this is why i dont own moogs anymore and wont come near arps with a ten foot pole. well the originals anyways. ive heard the lil phatty is a lil lame though.

couldnt say. ive owned 3 poly800's 3 er1s one ea1 none of which have ever broke down. the polys had horrible midi issues but it was a different time, midi was new. and all of them were treated bad.

well i bought this one because when i traded my other they were in pawnshops all over, i figured id just get another down ther line, this was in 2002. shortly after they started to vanish. i never didnt like these i think theyre a great instrument for those who want to make music. but if you just want cliche techno sounds stick to a mc303 and especcially dont complain about how they dont sound like the real thing. because god knows hearing that line isnt getting old. i sold all of my analog gear off because of that. im tired of the cliche sounds. went all va.they have already become pretty damn overused. if you gonna do that you might as well just take other peoples music and play it. in other words stick to being a dj.

This thing is dead simple. I actually bought an EA, fell in love with the dinky lil sequencer, and found the ER for the equivalent of about $30US. What a bargain!

Its a drum synth/ sequencer designed for electronic music for very little money. To expect this thing to be loaded with features would be unfair unless I was laying out large cash. Still, there was room for improvement i a few departments like a few more real synth parts.

Awesome! Still V/A, but unless ou're a real purist with very expensive taste, this thing is more than expressive enough! Its not going to give you any real sounding drums because it was not desiged to sound realistic. It was designed to be a drum synth, and it does that quite nicely. Listing that as a weakness is really pointless! You might as well mark it down for not being able to make a realistic guitar sound,
Its a synth, not a sampler!

Haven't owned it for long enough to comment. I can say that the pots are not surface mounted and feel very flimsy. With my clumsy hands, its staying in the studio!

Support? Waaahaha! This is Africa, its cheaper to order aother 2 than get anything repaired!

It would be replaced! I've been making dance music for 4 years, I own a Virus B, Novation Supernova2, A Korg ER and EA. My bigger synths absolutely destroy the korg EA, but I use the sequencers of the korg EA to handle sequencing, while the ER is wired into Ableton as a drum sequencer for various vst's. The synth sections do add a different dimension to the big V/A's which is nice, but the sequencers are bloody magical! Great way to get hands on instead of mousing in stuff which I find makes me lose creative momentum. If you can pick one up for a bargain I'd say go for it! It has already surpassed my expectations.
The ER an EA remind me of why I fell in love with synths to begin with, so even though I have larger synths, I find that they detract
from the actual sequencing. I prefer to come up with stuff just using the ea, and then when the idea is down, plug in the bohemiths to get the synth sounds needed.

Extremely easy to use.. Plug and play indeed.. I love it. That's what it's all about, to create music right away.

4 synth that creates your hh, kick, blips , bloops. THere are also some sampled crashes, hh and open hh.

There is a delay fx section and it will record your knob movements too but that's a different story. Still, fair enough to me.

I bought the Waldorf Attack software and I don't like it the functions. The ER1's sound is what I after because I make electro Kraftwerkian/JOy Electrickish type beat instrumentals. THis is my main drum machine these days. It sounds good for Electro (aka Freestyle Electro)

Yes.

For 75.00 dollars this is a dream machine that I dreamed in 1992 when Techno was alive and well.. Now you can own the dream.

Now create those blips.

This unit was very easy to use and had almost no learning curve

No upgrade potential, does have on board sequencing.

Sounds great, many possibilitie. No velocity or aftertouch features.

I have had mine for over 2 years, and during that time, it has lost patterns beyond #25 on several occasions. (ex. A24= sounds good, A25+ = a constant ringing sound and patter lost)
I dont use the midi-in, but I use to control my EA-1, and also my alesis qs6.1.

I have seen other people with this problem, but no support from Korg on the matter. If anyone else has had this problem or knows what triggers it, I would love some input.

Also, the jacks on the back go bad very easily.
I have a maxikorg ( Late 70's 2-voice analog synth) and is still functions. It seems KORG was better 20+ years ago.

Horrible.
No advice, the item is no longer manufactured, was under $400 U.S. and is therefore unimportant to them.

I would not buy this product again, I became very attached to it, only to have years of work lost due to an inability to be able to dump the patterns I made from it.

Very easy to use. Has the typical 808/909 method of programming.

Four oscillator based sounds. Four PCM samples. Delay, Low Boost.

This is in response to the lenghty review below that indicated you should just buy an 808 and some off-board effects. Considering that an 808 and a delay unit alone will run you about $1200, you could actually pick up 8 or 9 ER-1's for the same price.

This little beast can do some amazing things. In fact, I think that in 10-years this little machine will be sought after the way that 303's and 808's are sought after now. I've used this machine at some club gigs and it really shines. The last gig I used it at, the bottom end on one of my sounds shimmied glasses off the tables.

It is not designed as a comprehensive analog synth replicator, but given the small number of parameters to tweak, the range of sounds is spectacular. And hey, If you've got $400 you can buy two or three of these things and string them together.

For all of those people who compare this unit (unfavourably) with the sound of an 808 or 909, keep in mind kids that this unit, when purchased used, is about 1/10th of the price of these other units.

Give it a try, you might be surprised.

All Electribes have a very simple and intuitive user interface, with dedicated illuminated buttons for percussion parts and for steps and common buttons for most other parameters (shared between the different parts).

You can start playing with it as soon as you take it out of the box and plug it in, but I would recommend taking a look at the manual while you're at it.

The features can be found in the Korg site and on additional non offical websites. Korg have cut down functionality to the necessary minimum while putting an emphasis on playability and tweakbility.

You can tweak the sounds live, record knob movements hook it up to your midi setup (in, out and through. The ER can provide midi clock or be slaved to an external clock).

More expensisve drum synthesisers pack features as individual outputs, dedicated knobs per voice etc. Given the price, this unit rocks!

It has it own sound. I read a review here on site where somebody described the sound as plastic/ bubble gum :-) I tend to agree. It excels at squelchy acid tones.

The sound quality per-se is not so great. The lower end (bass sounds) is a little week and the overall the ER has a tinny/ metalic appeal to itbut what it lacks in sheer sound quality, though, is recompensated in tweakability and the vast range of possible sounds. You are well encouraged to route the sound through a fuzz/ distortion pedal and experiment with it. Some compression would probably do it good.

For a tiny unit at this price level (and by any standards) it is simply a joy. I love love my ER mk II. It's a modern classic. I chose this (and the EA mkII to boot) over the move expensive EMX.

Some of the presets are quite nice, some too cheasy. I would recommend creating your own sounds (with any synthesiser, not just the ER).

Aluminum faceplate, wobbly knobs, cheap but OK inputs and outputs.
This unit is cheap so the nice hardware has been traded off against functionality and affordability.

I would certainly depend on it on gigs. Just make sure you have a nice case to carry it around and that you don't spill any booze over it.

I haven't had any problems with it so I cannot state my opinion on this issue. It would also depend on the the territory/ local distributor.

A modern classic. These units are extemely versatile, playable, tweakable and fun. I have enjoyed (and still am, a year after having bought it) mine thouroughly.

This review refers to the Korg Electribe R mk II.

I own the ER-1 mkII

It's very easy to use and ships with a very good manual. The presets are of varying quality, but it's when you start programming your own pattern the magic begins...

Everything is great, with a few small exceptions:

1. I'd like individual effects for each drum part. I do like it when you have a delay module on the main mix and then alter the delay time, but I'd like to do so individually with the parts. But maybe, that would ruin the simplicity (which is a plus in this machine!) of it.

2. You cannot ring mod the drum parts unless you have an external sound source. This sounds quite cool when you ring mod drum part 4 with a MIDI synched EA-1, but when it would've been better if the ring mod feature was switchable between drum part 4 x external audio and drum part 3 and drum part 4.

3. A few more waveforms would be good, since the sine and the triangle waves sound quite similar to each other. Once again, this would probably ruing the simplicity of this machine. With the modulations available you can create some complex waveforms anyway.

4. More PCM samples! Actually, the ones available sounds very good (especially when you increase their pitches), but I'd like to have a wider range of sounds.

This is its strength: the sound. Oh yes, it sounds so COOL! This is exactly the drummachine I wanted! I've made dance/trance loops, electro/synthpop patterns and even some hiphop drumloops and they all sound good! If you want it all to sound chaotic (but still cool), add some cross mod and delay and play around with the delay time. If you're a good patch programmer everything will sound like a dream. It's perfect for Kraftwerkish boings and smack sounds as its envelopes are very snappy and clicky (you know the lovely snappy sound of the pro one's envelopes? it reminds me of them...).

The ER-1 and the EA-1 makes a great couple and I use them synched together. They're meant to be used together and I really recommend you to do so too if you can afford them both and you think you need both of them.

Dependable? You bet. Sturdy casing (while we're at it, I just gotta mention that its bronze/red metal casing is really HOT!) and lovely knobs (even though they're plastic). The software is very well programmed and seems reliable (I haven't had any problems). I would definately use it on a gig without a backup.

Haven't dealt with them.

I payed 1100SEK (approx. $140) for it (new) a few days ago. They were sold at a clearance sale and I got the last one! Gosh, am I lucky or what?

I someone stole mine, I'd probably kill the one who did it and then kill myself. No, not really, but I would definately buy a new one. I'm a Korg fan (my gear setup only consists of Korg gear at the moment) and this machine hasn't made me dissapointed. Another amazing product of Korg!

It's very simple and fast to use and that's what I like the most about it. And, as a plus, it sounds good and is so fun to use! Buy one!

Win XP on an Intel Box, Mac OS X on my 2 G4's, and various Unix-derivants on my other Risc boxes.. doesn't matter since I haven't used any exclusive editor for each platform - AND - in opposite to the neat similar from Yamaha (AN200/DX200), it does NOT come with a packed CD & editors/goodies & pdf-manual - you are just getting a thin localized manual (but it covers everything, even twice (quick-guide & full)).

- The Preset sounds are showing off quite a bit of the flexibility this rather limited "va" & PCM -based DSP-engine can deliver.. Drum & bass, 4/4 techno, freaky electronica & stuff that belongs to the "cheesy but cool"-section are part of the preset patterns, which fill up almost all of the memory (IIRC at least 3/4 of the memory-patches are pre-loaded)... general these are LOUD, dancy, shiny, and max. about 1/3 is more delicate, detailed & nicely made.

- Editing patches:
Oh well.. it's quite nice, and delivers almost all advantages that you are most likely used from your copy of Rebirth-338, or the originals, with a few minor differencies.

VERY nice, is the thing that most likely pops into your eyes as being very flashy, it's the "parts" section on the right side, it's a group of dedicated buttons that allows you direct selection of each "instrument", and also *displays* the activity of each "instrument" during playback.

This is especially of good use when you are examining some of the preset patches, and want to modify one of the sounds, since the 4 VA parts can be whatever you program'em too - and there would be almost no other way to tell which part is generating the desired/disturbing sound.

The structure is definitely just simple as on any x0x-based machine:

You've got the SONG, which contains the pattern-numbers to be played & tempo-information (& some)

The PATTERN, which consists, despite of individual tempo-information (&some) of the

PARTS which hold
a) the settings for each sound (the "patches" if you want so)
b) the "motion-sequences" (basically a free-draft, single-shot LFO form)
c) the delay-effect-settings (tempo-oriented/motion-sequence/off, depth & time)


This all gets accompanied by a hand full of editing functions, which can be accessed via the shift button & the alternate functions, dedicated to some of the step-buttons


MAJOR FLAW:

-> There is NO option that I am aware of (with my firmware-version) which would allow the deletion/clearing of a WHOLE pattern at once...

-- So when you are just about to clear up a perviously programmed pattern-preset, in order to carefully construct your idea starting off with silence...

You will have to select
a) EACH PART's PATTERN,
b) select the CLEAR PART function utilizing the SHIFT-key & the STEP 11
c) then you have to "ok"/verify the operation by pressing the CLEAR-PART button(STEP 11) *again*...

and do this happily for each of the parts, which happen to be

4x VA
1x closed hi-hat
1x open hi-hat
1x hand-clap
1x "crash"-cymbal
and
1x accent

this totals 9 times for this part (points a,b,c) of the procedure..

but it isn't over yet..

THEN you have to

d)
de-select the cross-modulation & ring-modulation functions

to finally
e) re-adjust the whole sound-settings for each parts you want to use..


Now... this could be ALL solved with a click of a button if Korg would've implemented a "clear/initialize pattern"-function for the whole pattern...



The way I used to improve that is simply
- Holding down the SHIFT button all the time during the procedure, and the quickly alternating with the other hand between each part & the CLEAR PART function, similar way like in old movies when people jammed& pulled out a knife between their fingers in a speedy manner :-)

ANNOYING THING #2:

Each time you press one of the PART-buttons the respective sound gets triggered..

Now this is nice when you

----> 4 VA voices (in theory, and for simple cases it's 4)
- "4" PCM PARTS contain (OPEN/CLOSE HIHAT, HAND-CLAP & CRASH), so one might get tempted to name 4 PCM PARTS -after all each part has it's own pattern/sequence/part-button.

However, as the separation with the "," in the brackets might indicate, they have been set up in a way that NOT all of them can sound at the same time.. : means:

closed hi-hat & open hi-hat cannot sound at the same time.. ok - that makes sense..
but unfortunately this seems to be valid for the other couple as well.. for what reason ever..



ALSO please before buying please bear in mind that in order to create a GOOD sounding VA-snare-drum (808'ish) you HAVE to use 2 oscillators..

Likewise for (the completely missing) rim-shot, nice toms,etc..


THIS means:
When going for good sounds, this box delivers at MOST:
2x VA parts
and
2x PCM parts..

AND unfortunatelly the cross-modulation, which is the way to use more oscillators together when simply mixing it isn't enough, is ONLY possible for VA- voice 1 & 2..

The only option left for the other 2 oscillators is, beside simply mixing'em in parallel, to toggle on RING-modulation, which again is unfortunately bound to one of the other elements (PCM/IN IIRC) and is NOT possible between the 3 & 4th VA-voice..




----> The keyboard, as the step-buttons, and the function buttons, are quite good, the are almost completely directly illuminated, and well layed out.

Only one would wish seperate buttons for the editing functions, and maybe an extra memory for sound-patches & an extra 7-segment-LED-display for that *but* that goes to the wishes/expansion section..


----> The Effects present are a bit more than one might think on the first look or even after examining the manual..

The most obvious thing is the DELAY - it can be tempo oriented, or get modulated by a motion-sequence..


Controllable parameters are depth & time(/tempo-ratio)..
The best thing about the delay seems to be the motion-sequence ability .. You can slide through it from flanging-thin to canyon wide, which can give you awesome beat-doubling/tripling / bouncing effects, you can let it "dive in" & fade out using the depth-control (which seems to be something more than just the volume, I think it's a combination of feedback & volume .. maybe even some more)


So - you'll find out that the knobs of the delay effect contain control over many options at the same time...


SIMILAR can be found out about the "low boost"-knob in the upper right corner.. this knob is *fortunately* active for *all* the sounds - so no matter whether you are facing the PCM handclap, or the most flexible VA -synth, it's *always* active (what can not be said about all the knobs)


Cut short: It's a kind of a Filter (well duh, every EQ is), which operates as a bass-boost in one direction, and as a high-pass filter into the other..

Now don't get too excited, it's unfortunately *NOT* as massive in the high-pass direction as it is in the bass-boost direction..

I'd estimate a 3db - to 6db high-pass at max..

The bass-boost however is strong.

As a bonus - this thing gives you a distortion effect when you go past the 3'o clock setting (cranking it up to the max)

So you have:
-a bass boost
-a high-pass filter (w/o resonance increase)
-and can combine the bass-boost with distortion (grungy/fm-ish)

..and you could in theory modulate, for instance, distortion in& out with a motion sequence on the volume / or other - however I haven't tried it out yet.



----> Expansion:
Heh that's an easy one:
NONE
besides of maybe firmware-upgrades, which are highly desired..

I honestly hope someone will manage to hack that device if Korg is not going to be more friendly into that direction, in order to at least swap these horrible 909-like-samples out with some decent, clean 808 ones..

The DSP should be the same as used for their Oasys boards, as

- VA section (valid for each of the 4 voices):

1 oscillator, selectable waveforms: SINE, TRIANGLE (only..)
+ tunable in a wide range (though with the 39kHz sampling range - you will want to stay way beyond 16kHz ;-) - )

1 LFO - selectable waveforms: SAW,TRIANGLE,SQUARE, RANDOM, NOISE (tunable ! = a sample..), and "ENVELOPE" (simple an AD-envelope, or inverse ramp)

+ though it has a very nice bandwith (we are talking about 5kHz), it's routed to the main oscillator (as usual) - so you will never hear it directly/ can't use it as a "free" second oscillator.




QUALITY:

The section is "ok", unfortunatelly very thin (as there are no 2 flexible oscillators)
The worst things are
- it doesn't go "down" enough "per sai", you have to force the main oscillator to a lower frequency using the modulation feature..
So when using the main-oscillator free-running you are *very* limited

- the modulation control is the WORST
Sometime (I: most of the times) you are just occupied with fiddling around with the modulation knob around the mid ("0") setting to get the desired amount of modulation which is extremely finicky since you are getting massive changes with about just ONE step around "0".. meanwhile the setting on the rest of the scale - it's totally useless - unless you want to have it "ping" somewhere at the >5kHz or higher.

This could've be solved *way* better...maybe I will solve the problem myself if there won't be a firmware-upgrade in the near future.

PCM:

Well.. the samples are definitely 909-samples with all the disadvantages.. if you like the 909 - there's your chance to get the hi-hats & a similar crash.. however I'd recommend getting a 707 or alike when really desperate for authenic sounds - and if you want variations - go grab the Novation Drum-Station - way better sounding.

The hand-clap seems also very 909ish - which reminds me of another very annoying issue:

You can't control the decay-phase fine enough in order to give to very short claps.. it's just ONE step, that you have to fiddle out with that knob, that is inbetween "almost complete handclap audible" and "click sounds".. this is extremely bad - despite of the problem that the sample seems to start a bit earlier as the snappy part of the hand-clap begins.. so you can't make some short, really snappy hand-claps with it that way..


SOUND QUALITY PCM total:

Very present, somewhat low-fi-ish, but clean enough as long as you don't tune'em way down (remember - there is no "cosmetical" low-pass filter active/ not even an option)

Should be replaced with hq-808 samples, or simply more VA-voices in the next Eletribe R-mkIII IMHO

----> What Music for ?

Definitely standard dance 4/4 banging high-shiny stuff producers, as well as some kiddies just starting up, and even some brilliant electronic freaks will be happy - as you can unleash some of your creativity even with this tool.. but so you could with an DX200, Jomox xBase (used), and PC-edited: Micro-Q,Micro-Modular,PC contained: Creamware Pulsar, Korg Oasys..


Everybody that loves clean, punchy sounds, really fine resolution & very low and at the same time hi-fi-ish analog"like" bass drums should either go grab a used 808 & some nice multi-effects, or some other, recent unit at best..

I head the Alesis Micron features an onboard sequencer, and 8 voices plus a whopping DSP power in spare - it has extra drum-oriented pattern sequening helps & it should smoke this re-vamped DJ-tool anytime..

However - no intuitive directly visible step-sequencer..


Hip-Hopers will be, as usual, happy even with this tool, and alike could be for RnB guys & some hardcore-techno freaks.


Should be club suitable for any of those flavors.


----> Onboard FX quality is - despite of the flaws of the (desired) resonance, good - so all advertised effects are good. Distortion is ok too..


---

Can't give you an opinion here, since it's too new for that, but I've seen some dead ones floating around on eBay, though scarce, so they ain't foolproof as well, the flickering of the back-lightning LEDs I've notices could be simply due to the fact that the processor is controlling the LEDs multiplexed (as usual nowadays), and varies a bit in frequency due to the interrupts / or CPU cycles used during that, or the writing procedure in general - so I guess it's not a weak power-supply or alike.. this for the technical minded :)

Korg.. oh boy.. let's put it that way - they used to make good products.. back in 1970.. these were even solid.. last good things they've done were the Prophecy & the Oasys card, and the D16 HDD recorder.
The D16 was one of the most amazing examples (Oasys being another) how good & enthusiastic their support can be (one could almost start to love this company) - It's a marvel what they have included in the *free* 3.0 OS upgrade for the D16 recorder & how fast they've reacted on critics written in some mags..

BUT the Electribe series, as well as the MS-2000 are examples of very poor by-products which shouldn't see the daylight until they where really ready...which some of the products aren't even today..


Service -> Had the luck to now have to mess around with them..

Upgrades -> as long as the product was expensive, or they loved it out of one reason or another (mostly when a whole developer team was involved) - there were many - however - I am anxcious about the cheap Electribes (as for "throw-away" DJ-tools in general)..

However - for the now present raised price of 230 bucks (was 188 blow-out once, last year) - they definitely need to deliver improvements

I would not buy another one if someone would steal it - In fact I'd give him 5 bucks & tap him on the shoulder pittying him.

But since I am stuck with it, and music doesn't need to be made with the most "perfect" tools, and simple tools are easier for bringing through your idea, it will (have to) serve good.. in worst case, it will be a sequencer for my DIY-808&909 clone I have planned to finish soon

I love the step-sequencer, despite of the lack of pattern-erase, love bleeps & tight beats plus delay bounces & variations made with it, plus that it outputs sync, and also the notes.

I hate the 909 & alike trashy samples, the lack of real VA filters, at best for all voices, the lack of some controls for the PCM samples (you can't apply an LFO & alike), the fixed routing for Cross-mod & ring-mod, and the lack of a second Oscillator & separate envelope *per voice*, as this would just make this box worth calling itself a 4-part polyphonic VA equipped drum-box.

The sonical quality which is just about the one I had in my Quasimidi-rave-o-lution 309 is also not cutting any edge.


- I've chosen this one since I was lacking another sequencer, and a dedicated flexible drum-box (besides the 707 & a borrowed 909).

- As said many times :) already - I wish it would have
- Filters, since it lacks buttons it should be cut-off control up to 3'oclock & then raising resonance, or simply resonance added by menu
- 2 oscillators per voice + LFO, with dedicated envelopes (for snare-drum/toms/etc emulation)
- improved control-ranges for the knobs (especially modulation & AMP-decay)
- Motion sequence-memory which can record ALL the controls (by storing the movements sequentially & with noted knob number), one at a time - in one pattern.

- Individual outs for each part (at least PCM) in order to correct the horrible sounds & the lack of filter would be very desirable too.

Best would be removing all the PCM parts & improving+expanding the VA parts - being of same sonical quality & flexibility as the Waldorf Rack-Attack

- It helped out after intense tweakage even with more relaxed trip-hop, chill-out & @ some aggressive but rather intuitive electronic tracks so far. When I add the auto-filter with help of my external FX unit, it becomes even very nice from time to time.. however individual OUTs would be worth gold.



Overall - good for 909-addicted, loud music, and for some patient fans of electronica as me.. though it's not the last & definite drum-machine that I'll be buying due to the lacks..


You could get it if it's dirt cheap & you want a step-sequencer that bad.

Very easy to use step sequencer, and the manual is pretty good, although more tips on creating sounds would be nice to get you started. Editing patches is easy, just grab a knob and blast off. The knob reponse is a bit finicky, and matching values from pattern to pattern can be irritating. The over-sensitivity of the knobs and the anger this causes knocks this rating to a 7.

Limited features, but super for the price/performance ratio. It's really a sketchpad kinda box, but with a little thought, you can create some great tracks. The MIDI features are basic but good. The swing feature is super for giving the patterns a feel, and is conitinually variable from 50% (no swing) to 66% (swing) to 75% (ridiculous swing). The delay is the only effect, but it's 3 modes are quite nice.

Here's an area that needs a little clarification. Yes, this is a dance oriented box, BUT just because the demo patterns sound like the musak in an an ecstacy burnout ward doesnt mean you cant put your own brain to work. I have fooled people into thinking I had a drummer playing on tracks Ive laid down with this. And some of these people were not in the aforementioned ward.
If you want to create a fat, analog sounding kick, use TWO tone generators and don't tune them to octaves or fifths. Try something close to a third or a fourth (musical interval, that is) and make the higher pitch shorter in decay and clearer. Use a white noise-including waveform for the deeper of the two and make it decay a bit longer. The little decay of white noise sounds like snares addling along to the kick.
Layer your 'snare' in a similar way. Just nab some sounds from the other patterns.
Set the swing a bit over 50 if your pulling off straight rock stuff (try 54-58) and fills become livelier. Program creatively and you'll be surprised what this little box can do.
Oh yeah, and use the accent part ALL the time, dropping it out for effect. This gets your level up WAY over the self noise of the unit. (This is why all the demo loops are so loud and punchy. Check it out.

no prob so far

I love this unit and would replace it with another if it were to die or be killed during a attempt to match sounds between patches. I want to try out the other electribes now, but am happy with my ER-1. If the other ones are than this then I NEED THEM.
I prefer this box to a Roland or Alesis drum box in a similar price range because I am able to dial in some real and really odd sounding drums that surpass PCM samples by far.