Electribes

polardark · Post by **polardark** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:13 am

Do they run on batteries like the microKorg? That would really make them a nice option for portability.

Post by **Mr Rich** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:22 am

polardark wrote:Do they run on batteries like the microKorg?

No battery slot on my EA1.

I think they're well-worth the money.

clubbedtodeath · Post by **clubbedtodeath** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:42 pm

I've owned an EA-1 and ER-1 for years, and I'm contemplating getting the Mk II versions. Undervalued babies, these: they're good enough for professional use.

technomonster · Post by **technomonster** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:39 pm

good to see ya back clubbed to death.

i also left for a while due to 'technomonster bashing' in my case.
had to let everyone cool down

i came back because this is the best forum on the net after a week and a half.

hope eric fusebox eventually comes back and then this forum will be even cooler.

tt_deeb · Post by **tt_deeb** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:12 pm

technomonster wrote:good to see ya back clubbed to death.

i also left for a while due to 'technomonster bashing' in my case.
had to let everyone cool down
i came back because this is the best forum on the net after a week and a half.

hope eric fusebox eventually comes back and then this forum will be even cooler.

Why did everyone leave?

DGX305 · Post by **DGX305** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:05 pm

technomonster wrote:... hope eric fusebox eventually comes back and then this forum will be even cooler.

yeah, where's Eric?

The Final Cut · Post by **The Final Cut** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 4:11 am

DGX305 wrote:
technomonster wrote:... hope eric fusebox eventually comes back and then this forum will be even cooler.
yeah, where's Eric?

Errr, the words "Ace" and "Invader" spring to mind.

:||CHAMBER||: · Post by **:||CHAMBER||:** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 2:09 pm

i think they are all really cool little boxes. i don't have an explanation for why i haven't bought any of them yet though... although i am still just a little bitter they can't use batteries. when i first read about the A and R prior to release and they were going on about portability I just assumed they could be battery powered, especially since they are so influenced by the 303 & 606... stupid Korg... But after I have some service work done on my car I think I'll still have some play money left and an R is tempting, I'm still kind of undecided on the newer tubular X models though.

DGX305 · Post by **DGX305** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 6:41 am

Ok, so I have little to no experience with sampling, other than using the built-in software sampler plugin that ships with Sonar 4. So, with that little knowledge, what's the difference between the ESX and an MPC1000?

clubbedtodeath · Post by **clubbedtodeath** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:09 am

Never tried the ESX, but own an MPC.

The major differences:

- The MPC1000 is designed to also act as an external sequencer to drive external equipment (the ESX is not). In fact, it excels at this - it has two MIDI ins and two MIDI outs.

- Having a quick look at the ESX-1, it seems to have a better array of effects. This is odd, because the MPC1000 is what I'd consider to be a higher spec machine.

- Sampling memory on the MPC1000 can be increased by buying laptop RAM (dead cheap) to 128Mb. This is a helluva lot of memory; I use the pseudo-multitrack recorder sometimes if I want. 128Mb is enough for pattern-based stuff.

That's about all off the top of my head!

polardark · Post by **polardark** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:36 am

Still, the effect capabilities on both the electribes and the MPC seem very under-specced. When i do drums in software, i usually have one large effect chain per drum sound, and maybe one or two master effects. The MPC does give you the ability to "render" effects to a sample, which is good but still doesn't replace a "live" effect unit in some cases. The electribes don't even have that.

I don't get it really.. Synths in general tend to have fairly bad effect implementations, with the exception of the kurzweils. Maybe it's time to get one of those... or hope that kurzweil makes a drum machine :)

clubbedtodeath · Post by **clubbedtodeath** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:12 pm

polardark wrote:Still, the effect capabilities on both the electribes and the MPC seem very under-specced. When i do drums in software, i usually have one large effect chain per drum sound, and maybe one or two master effects. The MPC does give you the ability to "render" effects to a sample, which is good but still doesn't replace a "live" effect unit in some cases. The electribes don't even have that.

It does, but it's implemented clumsily.

As I said, the effects are surprisingly underspecced for what should be a pretty powerful machine - especially when cheap synths such as the Novation KS-4 have 6 simultaneous effects per part (it's 4-part multitimbral). I suspect it was a deliberate ploy on the part of Akai to make sure the remaining MPC2000s were sold off.

Worse than that - the effects are 'note on' which means when a note plays you can't change the effect until the next note plays.

And yet there's surprising things, like the fact that each pad has a seperate filter and envelope, which gives you lots of possibilities. And these can be sequenced. Sadly again, 'note on' only.

I don't get it really.. Synths in general tend to have fairly bad effect implementations, with the exception of the kurzweils. Maybe it's time to get one of those... or hope that kurzweil makes a drum machine

I definitely think it's business politics at play. Some of me thinks the MPC1000 was a half-hearted attempt by Akai, as they were slowly coming under the impression that software was going to eat up their market. It didn't occur to them (as became apparent), that people might want something that kept them away from computers: the MPC1000 has been very popular, despite Akai.

As it stands, it's still a very nice piece of kit with some excellent features, and I'm definitely keeping mine.

DGX305 · Post by **DGX305** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 3:30 pm

clubbedtodeath wrote:- The MPC1000 is designed to also act as an external sequencer to drive external equipment (the ESX is not). In fact, it excels at this - it has two MIDI ins and two MIDI outs.

How do you that? and why would you do that?

As I said, I have little experience with samplers, but my thoughts are if you load a wav file into a sampler then manupulate and trigger it from the MPC, why would you want to control your synth from the MPC!?! And which note on the synth will be played when triggerring the MPC pads?

clubbedtodeath wrote:- Sampling memory on the MPC1000 can be increased by buying laptop RAM (dead cheap) to 128Mb. This is a helluva lot of memory; I use the pseudo-multitrack recorder sometimes if I want. 128Mb is enough for pattern-based stuff.

Does anyone know if you can upgrade the ESX memory by openning it and just replace the RAM?

clubbedtodeath wrote:- Having a quick look at the ESX-1, it seems to have a better array of effects. This is odd, because the MPC1000 is what I'd consider to be a higher spec machine.

I have an EMX and it has a few decent effects, plus the tubes are really cool. I'd think the ESX has the same, but I never tried one!

tt_deeb · Post by **tt_deeb** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 4:15 am

polardark wrote:Still, the effect capabilities on both the electribes and the MPC seem very under-specced. When i do drums in software, i usually have one large effect chain per drum sound, and maybe one or two master effects. The MPC does give you the ability to "render" effects to a sample, which is good but still doesn't replace a "live" effect unit in some cases. The electribes don't even have that.

Interesting. I remember seeing Atmosphere post in another thread about how he uses the EA (I think) as a main effects unit. I wonder if he has any clips we can hear.

reptar · Post by **reptar** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 1:36 pm

DGX305 wrote:
clubbedtodeath wrote:- The MPC1000 is designed to also act as an external sequencer to drive external equipment (the ESX is not). In fact, it excels at this - it has two MIDI ins and two MIDI outs.
How do you that? and why would you do that?

As I said, I have little experience with samplers, but my thoughts are if you load a wav file into a sampler then manupulate and trigger it from the MPC, why would you want to control your synth from the MPC!?! And which note on the synth will be played when triggerring the MPC pads?

You want to control your synths from the MPC cause the MPC is a sequencer. So you plug all your synths into the midi outs, have one keyboard plugged into a midi in and then record your different parts in one at a time, to have them all played back at the same time.

It's a great feature for those of us with big musical ideas but only not enough hands/friends to realise them.

*waits for the "why don't you do it on a computer" comment*

Electribes

Yes or No?