Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 00:03:33 PDT From: new humanz To: analogue@hyperreal.org Subject: [AH] electribes review (lo-o-ong) >>ok, i bought an electribe...right now i think it's a piece of >>absolute kak, but i'm trying really hard to like it :( > >"kak" - I take it that's "shit" as in crap? :) he he...that's pretty funny. yes, peruse the torrent of negativity below and you might even go so far as to say that's "shit" as in "prophecy's analog osc models with a tr-style sequencer? 909 emulator with a mod section?...my arse!" please bear in mind...i'm an analog slut; i think the drumstation does a bad 808/909. my point of view may not (and almost certainly doesn't) represent yours (or Joe Constantino's). i got the synth one...i was gonna get both, but after a long hard demo of the r (rhythm) drum synth, well...here's a short critique of the r: good: timing is solid. real nice feel to the groove. lots of sounds! beautiful ui. very, very live-tweakable. very cool LFO/mod section. nice assortment of waves. can come up with some very extreme drumsounds. if you've ever played with the eh superspacedrum/spacedrum/sonicboom/etc series, it's a lot like that. lots of fun. 2 audio ins. can be muted as tracks. bad: (very bad) no indy outs! one global tempo-aligned delay. and the sounds definitely don't have that analog punch...they sound even worse than the mc505 drums for chrissake. i a/b'ed with a jomox, which might be an unfair comparison, because the j is the fucking king of analog drumboxes, but the electribe came up SO FAR SHORT in sound quality it made me wince... especially the hihat samples suck. they do NOT have the grit/bite 909 hats do...and you only get one choice of hats...(the airbase gives you 4). no filter, for shit's sake, come on. all in all, the drums sounded very *muffled* and anemic...i don't think it would take analog whores like us to be able to pick this against the real shit in a mix. bottom line for me: lots of not-so-great emulated analog drum sounds in a box with a global delay and no indy outs...no thanks. as a sequencer: maybe. ok, i got the 'A', the synth. they SAY it's the synth osc models of the z1 prophecy. here's the lowdown... 2 parts. each has 2 oscs saw/sqr/tri/audio in, filter (unspecified rolloff), AD env, mod w/sync/ring/decimator (don't ask me). for each of the 2 parts, you get flange/chorus (sound nice) and tempo-aligned delays. tempo aligned delay locks to midi (duh), can act up on jamming the A's in with midi data. for delay and chorus/flange you get a mix knob and a time knob...no feedback...bah. programming is realtime, step, or via grid. for each note on the grid, you can edit pitch, gate and trig (note on/off duh). ok...so WHY THE FUCK CAN'T YOU EDIT KNOB FUNCTIONS PER STEP? well...korg has this retarded thing they call motion sequence, that's why... the motion sequence basically records any ONE knob movement in realtime...i was led to believe it was any number of knob movements. furthermore, you CANNOT edit this AT ALL...only re-record it. hey, wouldn't it be nice to be able to edit this for each note on the grid at least? suck! ok, what this boils down to in the realworld, is, since there is no LFO, and only one knob movement can be recorded...you can use your one to say, record a sync sweep on osc 2 pitch...or twiddle the filter env knob env for bipolarity...or (try to) give each note a different cutoff (hard in realtime recording)...or vary the amount of ringmod...or record your mixing in in delay/flange...you get the point i'm sure. but you can ONLY do ONE of the above...EVERY other parameter is COMPLETELY static...now you're probably thinking, can't you modulate other params via velocity at least? NO! god only knows why. they could have at LEAST put in an accent function. as it is, there is NO accent, and the synth DOES NOT respond to velocity...can you say static sounds? so, what it comes down to is, you use your 'motion sequence' bullshit to record filter env tweaking in an attempt to get bipolar envs...and you're shit out of luck for anything else! now, this strikes me as INCREDIBLY RETARDED...the filter env is in fact a simple AD env...giving it any kind of hardwired mod routing (velocity/accent) would mean nice bipolar env action + one other mod routing...why not, korg? what the hell is the point of making a synth with a nice little AD bipolar env that you can't really make dynamically bipolar? (a la our little silver friend) ok, let's move on. the filter sounds ok. but this box does NOT sound like the prophecy/z1 osc models. no way. it sounds MUCH more digital/artificial. the sounds is still kinda nice...but on repeated listening i find myself reminded of (horror) that abominable quasimidi sound. it's got that thin buzzy raspy tone (no, not like a 303). the ui is beautiful. grid/tr style sequencing for synths is the next best thing to say, a schaltwerk with knobs. but why for the LOVE OF GOD can't you edit knob events on the grid? why only gate/trig/pitch? sheer fucking stupidity on korg's part. having said that, for @$400 it is a fun toy...it sounds ok, it's fun to jam with...until you actually want to inject some dynamism into your sounds, then the limitation of the you-can-only-record-one-knob bullshit really gets frustrating...FAST. ok...if i'd known the above i would NOT have bought it. now that i think about it, $400 bucks is pretty damn close to a pulse...dammit. ok...i guess i'm groove approved now...yeww...i feel so dirty. umair _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. 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