Korg ER-1 Electribe

Using the EA1 MkII.

This is a preposterously easy device to program, and I chose it primarily for that reason. The graphic step buttons make it ultra clear what's playing when, which is of great use to non-drummers.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the manual clear and comprehensive.

Editing patches is also really easy, and there's a handy 'original value' light that tells you what a patch looks like when you've just changed patch but not knob settings. (The SH-32 could do with one of these.) That is, you twiddle your knobs and when you hit the patch's value it turns on.

Don't look to this fellah for effects, there's only delay. It's memory is also limited to only 16 songs, but you can dump info.

While I don't think the box sends MIDI velocity or pan controls, it is excellent for running other drum machines, which might be harder to program. I hook mine up to a Yamaha Motif to take advantage of its tasty drum samples whilst retaining the clarity of the step programming from the ER1.

Well, you're not looking for realistic sounds with this box (that's why you might want to let it play master to a drum box's sounds) but its synths are versatile and full-sounding. While its own sampled cymbals are a tad lacking, the things you can do with the oscillators makes up for it.

Looks dependable - it's pretty solid.

I've only had it a coupla weeks!

I would probably buy this box again although I may consider other drum machines now that I'm getting more of a feel for rhythm programming without the graphical help of the ER1.

It's alright, though the manual is sucky sucky. But it's easy enough to pick up on and teach yourself how to use.

I haven't picked up on the MIDI part yet, but it will pretty cool to work with if I do...

Works for goa trance or techno, or lame ravers, or rap of any sort if you use the presets. But you know what, even if you're a brainless "punk" you should still be able to find a good drummer who listens to misfits or whatever...it doesn't take that much brainpower...what I mean by that is this machine will never substitute for a nine piece drum set and my own two hands, especially not with my chosen category, ROCK.

It's cool if you want to use it at parties or to do some remixes.
But this isn't in any way teh pwn.

Read above comments, that's all I have to say really.

have no software to use it but its damn easey to program parts as well as patterns. i use copy paste etc to work faster. presets sounds arent that good its better to create your own or even edit existing ones. I particulary like to shorten up tyhe decay, dont like much long sounds.
manual is easy, but shpuld bring to you more triks, not only basic instructions

don like like most the global delay and little outputs
but what i havent read in the others reviews is about my favorite featur: audio in (x2). Is great to produce weird effects like akufen like, microsamplin from cd of music. i also use voice cd so someone is talking or singing while i play de elecvtribe. I also play in the audio in lots of classic an make kind of remikes. Too play etjhnic cd, making a very experi9mental noise and tension between analog noises and the ethnic ones

as you can create your own sounds, i think its quite versatile. You can use it to create samples and then the samples use in a sequencer,etc

nathing has happened yet in 5 months

hope never to use it

i love the ease of use and might buy it if it was stolen. other drum machines come with basslines, and that makes me a bit envious but i use it with my ea-1. i also have a computer with lots of programs and a master keyboard. i play along sometimes with friends or brother who owns some kor ms 2000 or roland mc 5050 or old gear like casio cz 101 an alesis mmt8, with wich we even made a record.

It's really easy to use! It's so easy, it's the only sequencer-based thingy that I've ever been able to use for jamming with a 4-piece band.

I am actually writing this because I want to know all that I can do with the midi functions. Does anyone know if it is possible to get some sort of larger light to show tempo (the led light is a pain in the ass if i start a song with guitar or vocals, then kick the er-1 in on-tempo)? If you know of a way to do something like this, so my band could have, like, a strobe light or something on stage that would give us the beat before we start, please e-mail me!

Fun, lo-fi beastie boys drums, steve miller-ish synth sounds.

Don't save when global button is on and you have "write protect" or something selected! It will ruin your presets! I fucked this one up a week before a show, so we decided it would be easier to program our beats into propellerhead reason and use a laptop. But the laptop wasn't real-time starting, weird knobby synth-sounding fun!

It's great for punk! It pisses off those who say "you need a real drummer and full stack guitar amps."

Im using the standard OS, I think is about time Korg make a new OS and perhaps update the DSP a bit. (see below) The presets are mainly standard drumbeats. (Techno, Rock, Rap, DnB) and some drumbeat effects. Some of them are very nice though. :) Editing sounds is a breaze. A patch editor however, does make a differnce, I use one for ER-1 and EA-1, you can find it at synthzone.com under the korg section. The manual looks like it was written by a lawer. But other than that, super easy to use. It gets a 10 because anyone can learn the basics of this in a matter of minutes.

There is 4 note DSP, 2 note gate input, and 2 note PCM polifoni. Its mighty easy to play simple beats with two or 3 fingers and record them, and you can fix your mestakes via step sequencer.
A onboard global delay is onboard, making the ER1 drowny, zappy, flangy, or just whacky delay. You can modulate the delay using motion seq. to achive a unique customized flange, or you can set a fast delay to put the drums out of phase in time, giving it a stereo comb filter effect. Kudos to Korg for making a global delay, it will allow users to put in new ideas of insparation, and frusterations! :)
How ever I beleive that there should be a part delay bypass function.
I wish the can expand this with a new OS and Updated DSP.(see below)
All voices are velocity sentitive, but does now repsond to standard CC#'s, you have to use Nrpns for over 40 parimaters.
The onboard sequencer is awesome, 16 step, 4 bars, swing, and quarter, double, tripliet time signatures. But i do have some gripes with the sequencer.(see below)

Nothing sounds bad about this at all, in fact I beleive the ER-1 will become a classic, soon we'll be seeing ER1 emulators (there are alrady products distributed and being developed with the insparation of the ER1, including myself).
This is a uniqe little monster, as there are to drum machines that sounds like this, and dispite the fact you can recreate the sounds on VA's using EG and LFOs on your Oscilators, its the Er-1s User interface and limited archetecture that makes it uniqe. And stand out of the bunch.
The bass is Bassy. The HH are 808ish wilst the CR and CP parts can be manipulated in the most remarkable ways. But because the pcm samples are somewhat dull (no other variants) I think Korg couldv stuffed an extra two or three PCM kits for HH CR CP parts, shame on you Korg.
The ER1 defenatly cries out loud, "More DnB Please!" This is the ultimate secondary (mayby primary) drum machine for DrumNBass! Also good for Hard Kicks and Bass rattling drops :)
This just as veritle as a Primary House and Trance Drum Machine.

Very dependable, never lost an grain of data in past 2 years I played with it (except once). I used it on neumerous gigs and it had its share of falling onto concrete ; the unit, not the box; when unloading from the truck. I would however periodicly backup data, when surge went out one time when saving and my pattern went Bie Bie, but thats a good thing, only that patern went out, and the unit didnt malfunction ( I dont think so at least!:-O
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If you are Doing DnB or Hard Trance, Please Get this Think, you will be Super Happy!:!

Iv ben playing with this for 2 years. I got a JX305, witch got some Nice Drumz, Alesis SR16 witch is totally underrated, and EA1 and JP8000(Well I dont own it, but sometimes Im lucky to brrow it)



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Now lets see what Korg seemlessly overlooked or forgot to put in the ER1.

I am a human with two hands and I want to do fast manipulations on multiple units and keyboards durring a live PA and/or DJ set. Somethings I simply cannot do fast enough in realtime on the ER1 so lets find some problems and possible solutions with the UI.

Mute Problems/Solutions-
Problem ... Normally you have to hold down tap and part button to mute it. (Its not that bad, but irratable sometimes) By doing this, I have to use my right thumb and pointing or middle finger to mute a part(s). However, I have to use my left finger on tap to do rapid/complex muting, but now I am un able to tweek my bassline and trigger my sampler in time with the beat, "OH WHAT TO DO!?!" I ask myself.
Sol #1 Well I ended up Spliting the ER-1 into 6 channels on my mixer via cross over, and muting on the mixer is more convienient for me. (It's my command station;) )(I'll address that later.)

New OS solution ... I think Korg should imlement ^SHIFT^ + TAP for MUTE ENGAGE, so you will be able to do single button mutes without MR.Tap button

Problem... I made 4 patterns in succession using the same 'kit', pattern 'A' in intro , 'B' is Main, 'C' is Alt Main, and 'D' is outro. I like the patterns I make, and switching between them. But now I want to mute out the HH and SD for the end of this song to slowly lead to the next. My B pattern has Thump Thump Thump Thump 4/4 kick whilst my C and D patterns had alternate Thumps and adding motion seq., going slower and faster, occasonaly skipping a beat.
But wait, now when I swich the patterns the Shares and HH kick back in when I dont wnat it to! Oh the agony! :( What is a young man to do in such a hostle environment?) I end up muting all but my ER1 input channels but one (left bass channel) on my mixing board and closing the delay on the er1 to achive desired result. I could hav just as easaly taped in the sequence manuly in time but now both my hands would be preoccupied, redusing the effecantcy I have while playing pads and loading new sequences on my keyboard, thats a damn shame...

New OS Solution ... Save Mute Pass fuction, allowes user to switch patterns, saving the previous mute setting on the new loaded pattern. This can be done by adding additional MUTE Engage settings on the Pattern edit part of the Er1 matrix menu. It will have an '0N1' '0N2' and 0FF setting. ON1 will allow save Mute Pass, while ON2 will do Mute Pass and disable part trigger/unmute when you push a PART pad while the sequencer is playing. This way you can select Parts and edit a parts rapidly without the sound going out of beat or sounding while pattern is playing. On the new beats you may simply tap 'Solo' and this will automaticly unmute all your parts. This will defeat the 'SHIFT+PART' purpose to select tracks untriggered.

Problem ... I need multi outs. I ended up Taking Two left outputs two right outputs (using mono spliters) and Head fone output into 6 tracks (I use 4 now). I made a crossiver for Low/HI Freq goes unto differnt inputs of the mixer, and paned the BD/PCM sampl on left, and pan SD and misc low freq sounds onto right channel on the ER-1.

New OS Solution... New global command, for output (L R) for 2 channel operation, and (4CH) for 4 channel operation. 4CH will disable the Main signal going into the Headfone output. By pressing and holding the Audeo input (next to main volume) Button, you will be able to rout the parts into the L/R or Headfone output by selecting parts LITEUP (L R out) or Dark (HeadFoneOUt), the cross delay secton will be disabled on the Headfone output and only output on the L R outputs. This will effectively g

Really easy to use as are the other 3 Electribe boxes.
programming patterns is pretty quick although there is no way of outright clearing a whole pattern. Instead you have to clear the individual parts. Tweaking the drum synth sounds is easy enough to. The knobs are pretty sensitive, but it's no big deal.

4 synth drum sounds + 4 pre made drum sounds (HHs, Clap, Crash). The synth drums are pretty cool, you can get some cool drum sounds out of it, but like was stated earlier it's hard to get realistic drum sounds out of it. The premade drum sounds are ok, but there's not much you can change about them. No effects, except a global delay. Great sequencer though. Also has audio in which you can tweak. Great option IMO. MIDI in/out/through. Also great motion sequencer to record know movements

Sounds are ok, but once again the pre made sounds will always sound the same. The synths are great for most kinds of techno. The global delay is ok, except it affects every part. there is no velocity sensitivity, but it has accents which you can tweak with the motion sequencer. So you can change the volume of the drums over the course of the pattern.

Will probably be reliable unless you drop it. Plastic keys could cause problems in the future, but otherwiese seems reliable

My roomate owns this and I've played with it. It's ok, but I wound up buying the EM-1. I think it's way better than this thing and it has a synth and effects. If you want a drum machine there are plenty of better ones. If you're looking for some funky drum sounds though, give this one a try.

No brainer: had it playing in a second and was editing patterns / sounds a second later. Haven't looked at the manual yet...

Okay, so it would be nice to have separate outs for each sound and effects for each part... but these units are selling for #189 in the UK at the moment, and that beats all the Boss beat boxes hands down... plus its got midi transmitting knobs on!

Well, I'm an old Kraftwerk fan and blow me if those guys at Korg aren't too! This thing positively oozes those blips and hi-qs from "Computer World", "Electric Cafe" et al.

I guess it's an an acquired taste, but I love it. I bought this for a bit of fun and to reignite my rhythmic juices and it has far surpassed my expectations...

If electro comes in big style, these are going to be soooo sought after.

Well, it's only been with me a little while and case wise, those knobs don't look too sturdy and i hate wall wart power supplies... time will tell.

Hmmm... I've dealt with Korg before regarding a Wavestation problem and they were less than keen, but that was old technology so maybe I'm doing them an injustice...

At the price I paid (new, by god) I'd get another one without thinking if this one got stolen. My remit was to have a beat box with XOXO programming and some retro style sounds. The MachineDrum seems overpriced (and overspecced?)the Boss DR series are a bugger to program and I hear the new lot are unreliable and I'm not throwing away money on a 909... I reckon Korg have got it exactly right with this one.

Simple to use, up and running in minutes. Presets sound alright but only one preset per pcm or drum sound, but the machine was designed for creating your own. Editing is simple, a matter of turning a few knobs. Manual is as good as needs be.

Hmm.... There arent any effects other than a delay which affects all the parts...very disappointing. There is a motion sequence recorder however, which can record realtime changes you make while the pattern is playing. Can come up with some good sounding loops using this feature.

The 4 PCM parts are tweakable via an 6-wave lfo, of which depth and speed can be varied. The other percussion sounds as well as the PCM sounds can be altered using the decay, pan and low boost knobs. The low boost knob simply adds more bass to sound, is nice for muting the sounds to an extent or to add absolute anarchy to a bassy sound.

With a bit of practice, one can come up with some great beats.

There are no expansion possibilities.

MIDI capabilities are good enough. The electribe can be used as a tone module, with the sounds triggered from a sequencer. I havent tried it with pedals or anything like that. Works fine for simple applications.

The machine sounds very analog and electronic, not at all natural. Sounds good if youre gonna use it for dance music.

If you are into analog, this is your baby!

No problems so far. Would use for a gig.

Never dealt with Korg.

If lost or stolen, would probably get another just for the analog drum sounds. Try and get one used. Might look at an electribe es-1 since you can sample your own beats??

Love the sounds, hate the lack of effects.

A nice little machine, good for coming up with new ideas.

It was easy easy easy to get a good sound with, but harder than shit to figure out how to save and form songs and whatnot. I eventually had the patience to sit down and read through the manual as I messed with it, and now it's really easy to do just about everything.

As many have said, the delay is kinda crappy. And the presets suck. I haven't found any use for the ring modulators, because they just sound like a nintendo game.

(continued from "features") Hell, the whole thing sounds like a nintendo game, which is what I was looking for! It's really fun. I am using the line out from my geetar, running it into the audio in. I'm having my vocalist play with knobs and mess with my sound as I play my normal-ish guitar. It makes a neat two-guitarist effect.

I haven't had it that long, and if it broke down I'd probably just get something with more features, maybe an alesis or something.

nope

This thing is like the Hammerhead Rythm thing in a box. Except this is more fun because you don't look quite as douchebag-ish at a gig with it as opposed to a big computer. I'm using it for our pop-new wave-metal-tori amos band while we search for a drummer.

Very easy to use

BUYER BEWARE

Right before a show I corrected a beat (about ten minutes before playing) and when I saved my correction, the machine erased the program being saved, as well as the next 25 programs - which constituted well over half of my two hour set. When I tried to save a working program to one of the ones which the machine had erased, the machine went ahead and erased the next 25. I now had no drums for my show. I lost a lot of work.

Theoretically, (according to the manual), one should be able to perform a midi dump of the data on the machine onto a computer, however, no suggestions are offered by korg as to what software should be used, and no software I had was able to recieve the midi data dump.

I must also add that on the ES1, (Korg's Electribe Sampler), completion of data backups onto a smartmediacard complete rather vaguely, and it is difficult for the first time user of the backup method to know for sure if the backup was succesful.

I know someone else who has had her ER 1 erase completely on her while saving something (she nor I touched the machine while it was saving). She began using only the ES 1 for her sets and that did the same thing. She reprogrammed the ER 1 and it erased itself completely again a couple of months after re-writing her set.

Some drum machines do this when a battery they might have runs out. Korg offers no reference to an internal battery in the ER 1 manual. I removed the base of the machine to see if it had a battery and I found none.

To summarise, the ER 1 sounds great and is easy to use, but I think that it not reliable enough for normal use. I have had mine for about a year and a half, adn I have to say that this is the greatest dissapointment I have ever had with a piece of equipment. To have important equipment fail right before a performance is quite embarrasing, and to lose months of work is even worse.

I live in Switzeland, the webpage is of no assistance (no contact info outside the US), noone answers the phone in Japan, and my warranty expires after a year.

Shit should work.