Korg EMX1SD Electribe Music Production Station

Korg EMX1SD Electribe Music Production Station
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
List Price: $750.00
Sale Price: $499.00
Today's Bonus: 33% Off
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  • 5 Synth Parts (+1 Accent), 9 Drum parts (+1 Accent); MMT modeling + PCM: 207 Drums & 76 Synth waves
  • Valve Force circuit with two 12AX7 vacuum tubes adds warmth or snarl; 3 chainable FX (16 types per)
  • 256 Patterns, 64 Songs; Step or real-time sequencing, motion sequencing, sync able modulation
  • Arpeggiator tied to ribbon and slider for fast song creation; Internal, Tap, MIDI or BPM-detect sync
  • Stereo + 2 Individual outs, Audio In, Headphone out (All 1/4"); SD data storage

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To understand what this is, you have to understand what it is not. It's not simply a drum machine or rhythm box to be used by instrumentalists looking for accompaniment nor is it really meant for people looking for a midi-sequencer for composition. This machine tends to push you away from more traditional chords and melody and more towards playing w/ sonic textures and rhythms. In some ways, it's limitations are what's great about it.

As far as the sounds, they are as good as the time you put into them. You start w/ a simple, cheesy (cool cheesy but cheesy) sounding waveform and sculpt it into whatever you want. There are some really great analogue synth sounds from bubbly baselines to whiny leads to be had from this unit but you aren't necessarily going to find them right away. The sculpt-ability of the sounds is almost to the degree where it's a weakness because it's sometimes more fun to play w/ the settings than to write songs. There are included effects which add even more things to play w/. Not all of them sound spectacular in a traditional sense (I would not, for example, rout my guitar through this thing to use the reverb) but each can add it's own particular something to any given part, which is really all you need anyway. (Yet to find a use for the compressor though. Who needs a compressor on something that's not touch sensitive?). You get eight decent sounding drum tracks and five synth tracks. The synth tracks are not polyphonic so a standard piano part is not feasible but since there are five of them, there is really no trouble getting your tracks sounding thick and full. (You can have the thing play chords but it is one chord per part so they have to all major chords or all add7 chords or whatever.) The filters provide means of getting sonic separation between different interlocking parts and I've found I can have all five sounding clearly and distinctly in the mix which really gives you a lot to work w/ sonically--more than I need almost always.

My major complaint as far as sound quality is the limited sample library. It seems like w/ very little effort, Korg could have expanded this to be a lot more useful for more traditional instrument sounds. Still, w/o polyphony there will not be too much you can do w/ them. I do find myself missing to ability to get bass-guitar-like and piano like sounds sounds out of this though. It is just not really wired to do that so trying it just leads to frustration mostly.

What is really great about this box is how much fun it is to play w/ patterns. I find myself endlessly tweaking sounds and retweeking not because I don't like how it is but just because it's so easy to do. W/o polyphony, I tend towards manipulating the arpegiator and getting textures as much as I come up w/ ordinary melodies or basslines. Again, this box is more about texture and pure sound than anything else. It does odd time signatures (though it is naturally in 4/4) and you can set it either to use a pattern tempo when composing songs so tempo changes are super easy and natural. Speaking of song mode, it's decent, simple step-based sequencing but you can do a lot of tweaks to get what you want and I believe you can program it to save mutes and tweaks based on what you want but I think most people will find themselves wanting to put their hands on it and manipulate it live as it plays. It is just too much fun not too.

I would recommend this as a path of least resistance to great analogue-like synth textures and rhythmic accompaniment. If you want to compose symphonies, you will need a more serious midi-sequencer and synths that can do polyphony. If you want something that sounds like a real drummer, there are better boxes for that though this could do in a pinch. Software does better at either of these things these days anyway. What this is is a hands on instrument for creating music through sonic textures. You can use it on it's own or in the context of a band or a more advanced recording/sequencing setup. It has limitless possibilities but it can't do everything.

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Are you currently using ProTools, Cubase, Sonar, Ableton Live, or some other DAW? Delete it. Format your hard drive. Sell your laptop.

One word: inspiration. You can create songs and patterns so quickly on the Electribe that it will leave you lightheaded. Giddy, even. The user interface is a wet dream, no joke. The visionaries at Korg spent some serious time making this beast intuitive, user-friendly, and fun. And it shows.

Yes, this machine has some limitations -but they are limitations that ultimately help you. Your creativity will be focused like so many laser beams, because only the truly important parameters can be tweaked. Everything else falls by the wayside, and that is good, especially for recovering DAW fiends. Stop trying to tweak and customize every freaking setting, and get on with writing your song. The Electribe is waiting.

Now let's talk about the sounds: The drums and bass parts are phat enough to produce a hip hop album, and you know that's saying something. There are copious effects and oscillators. I mean, even the preset songs sound good.

Other users have talked about swapping out the valves (i.e. vacuum tubes) to get various flavors of analog overdrive, and that is certainly an option, but I think you'll find the default valves to be more than satisfying.

After experiencing the Korg Electribe EMX1SD, I can say that my approach to song writing and producing has been radically changed. And for the better.

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I bought the older version used on Ebay. It is just super fun to create cool loops and twist the knobs.

Yes, one knob is a little flimsy, but who knows what the previous owner did with it, since it has dents all over the place. However, the device runs still like a charm.

This device is targeted to producers of electronic dance music. You can produce complete tracks with it. On YouTube you can find plenty of videos with amazing E-MX tracks.

With the E-MX, you have a great sounding drum machine with 9 drum tracks, as well as five synthesizer tracks. You can build your own sounds for all five synthesizer tracks and also influence the sound of the drum tracks. On top of this, you have three effects which you can assign to the drums and synthesizers.

The device has also samples of more natural sounds like piano, guitar etc. When I use them, I have a hard time to get some of them sound right. I do not know what I am doing wrong, but they sound better in the factory demos. However, the new version might be different. Regarding to Korg's website, the sounds have been updated. But what do you expect? This device is not initially made to sound like real instruments. It is made for modern dance music with really good synthesizer sounds.

At this point, I have to make one thing clear: Even though the E-MX has amazing synthesizer sounds and the tubes are adding some analog feel to it, you can not expect that it sounds like a TB-303. When you want 303 sound, you need to go with a real TB-303 or a well built x0xb0x.

The only thing which I really miss is a sampler. Korg should add this to it and the world would be perfect. The E-SX is not an option for me, since the synthesizers of the E-MX are better. However, Korg did a great job on both of them.

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Even still being new at this, I found the Korg EMX1SD to be very entertaining. Anyone new in the music production, don't be afraid to let this be a starter piece.

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But the ESX-1 is better because you can load your own samples into it (that's the Red one that looks just like this).

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