Just bought a Korg ER-1

Suburban Bather · Post by **Suburban Bather** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 12:42 am

I've been gas'n pretty bad for an old Electribe lately. Don't really need it, but I figured it would be fun to have a self contained drum synth with sequencer and fx.

How's the sequencer for controlling external gear? Is it just trigger only, or will it also do pitch and note length as well?

mistercooper · Post by **mistercooper** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:24 am

Congrats- a fun (and useful) little box to be sure.
I would also be curious to know this about the sequencer.

Nice avatar, btw

Suburban Bather · Post by **Suburban Bather** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:00 am

Thx! Zombi is my favorite horror flick.

I see that you have an ER-1. Have you not tried using it to sequence other gear before?

This youtube video made me want it immediately-

and this one as well-

Post by **killedaway** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:29 am

congrats on your new gadget!

as for the sequencer, only the Audio In pads will send note length (using the Decay knob) over midi. everything else is just a trigger. notes can be assigned to each pad, but considering that you can only control the length of two of them, i'm not sure how useful this would be.

still an awesome box.

stikygum · Post by **stikygum** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:40 am

The thing I like most about them is you can do some funny tweaks and it records them. Have many patterns with crazy tweaks. This is a cool and fun box. I love the fizzy fluffy stuff it can do.

Suburban Bather · Post by **Suburban Bather** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:43 am

Thats cool, I wasn't hoping to use this as an external sequencer only anyways, just thought it would be a good plus. Are all of the Electribes like that as far as external sequencing goes? I'm looking at either a Mobius or MFB Step64 to sequence my Dotcom, but if one of the other (old)Electribes can do pitch and note length I'd rather get that instead.

Post by **killedaway** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:00 am

Suburban Bather wrote:Thats cool, I wasn't hoping to use this as an external sequencer only anyways, just thought it would be a good plus. Are all of the Electribes like that as far as external sequencing goes? I'm looking at either a Mobius or MFB Step64 to sequence my Dotcom, but if one of the other (old)Electribes can do pitch and note length I'd rather get that instead.

the EA-1 and EM-1 will send both pitch and note length, for 2 tracks of up to 64 steps. i often point it out to people in the market for a basic 4/4 sequencer. and oh look! i has a synth in it too!

and of course, both the EMX and ESX have this capability as well. for the price that EAs are going for these days, i think it's a smart buy for what you get. the ER (as you already know) and the ES cannot sequence other gear in this way.

i don't know anything about MFB's stuff, but the Mobius apparently shares its sequencer with the Revolution, which i own. comparing it to the EA-1, it has the advantage of the glide-per-step function, which we all know and love. it also will sync with CV gear, and also act as a MIDI-CV convertor, but i know nothing about that as i have no other CV equipped stuff. it also has a DIN sync, which i believe is for use with some older Roland stuff, and more. the downside to both the Revo and the Mobius (in my opinion) is the 16 step pattern length limit. i hate chaining patterns, so that one's kinda tough. even still, i think the Mobius is great, and i'd like to pick one up to add to my setup. even better, the Revo of course has a 303 soundalike in it, so for a few hundred more, you can add "that sound" to your studio.

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:42 am

Just so you know there's a typo on the ER-1's front panel, it says snare but it actually should say clap.

Suburban Bather · Post by **Suburban Bather** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:55 am

killedaway wrote:
Suburban Bather wrote:Thats cool, I wasn't hoping to use this as an external sequencer only anyways, just thought it would be a good plus. Are all of the Electribes like that as far as external sequencing goes? I'm looking at either a Mobius or MFB Step64 to sequence my Dotcom, but if one of the other (old)Electribes can do pitch and note length I'd rather get that instead.
the EA-1 and EM-1 will send both pitch and note length, for 2 tracks of up to 64 steps. i often point it out to people in the market for a basic 4/4 sequencer. and oh look! i has a synth in it too! and of course, both the EMX and ESX have this capability as well. for the price that EAs are going for these days, i think it's a smart buy for what you get. the ER (as you already know) and the ES cannot sequence other gear in this way.

i don't know anything about MFB's stuff, but the Mobius apparently shares its sequencer with the Revolution, which i own. comparing it to the EA-1, it has the advantage of the glide-per-step function, which we all know and love. it also will sync with CV gear, and also act as a MIDI-CV convertor, but i know nothing about that as i have no other CV equipped stuff. it also has a DIN sync, which i believe is for use with some older Roland stuff, and more. the downside to both the Revo and the Mobius (in my opinion) is the 16 step pattern length limit. i hate chaining patterns, so that one's kinda tough. even still, i think the Mobius is great, and i'd like to pick one up to add to my setup. even better, the Revo of course has a 303 soundalike in it, so for a few hundred more, you can add "that sound" to your studio.

I guess it comes down to whether I want glide-per-step for $400 or no G-P-S for half the price. I have a midi to CV converter on my Dotcom, so I can use either CV or midi to sequence it. Using Ableton to sequence is no big deal, but sometimes I just don't feel like messing with the piano roll midi editor.

pricklyrobot · Post by **pricklyrobot** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:57 am

Suburban Bather wrote:Thx! Zombi is my favorite horror flick.

It's a shame the zombie versus shark genre was never subsequently explored to its full potential.

Suburban Bather · Post by **Suburban Bather** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:01 am

pricklyrobot wrote:
Suburban Bather wrote:Thx! Zombi is my favorite horror flick.
It's a shame the zombie versus shark genre was never subsequently explored to its full potential.

That part was lame! They should have made that scene much shorter.

crystalmsc · Post by **crystalmsc** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:46 am

congrats for the new box, I'm also gassing for the emx-1 after listening to Architecture's demos a lot

Tyler2000 · Post by **Tyler2000** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:54 am

I use mine mostly as a sequencer, but it drives me nuts because it does not save midi note data when you turn it off. Does anybody know if I am wrong? I'm tired of reprogramming it eveytime I want to sequence.

It's a fun box, though.

elsongs · Post by **elsongs** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:42 am

I hardly use my ER-1 but I love hanging on to it, mainly because of the Audio Ins. I LOVE running a synth pad through it and getting cool gating effects. I sync that sucker with my sequencer and have awesome rhythmic gate effects in my tunes.

Oh yeah, you can get a "rim" shot sound by tuning the handclap way down and cutting the decay short you'll hear a "tock" sound.

clubbedtodeath · Post by **clubbedtodeath** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:44 am

Moved to Buyer's Guide.