Been on a bit of a vintage gear acquisition spree the last month after discovering buyee.jp that allows you to bid on Japanese Yahoo and other auctions and takes care of all the shipping. Dope site.
The majority of stuff from Japan does NOT get listed on eBay, although eBay is popular there Yahoo auctions are much, much, much more popular.
So you get the situation where certain gear is listed on eBay to sell to the American (and worldwide) market at vastly inflated prices.
That’s not to say that everything on Yahoo is a bargain, but, you are much more likely to find something cheaper there if it’s Japanese gear (Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Zoom etc) that you are looking for.
With that ramble aside, the first thing I picked up from there was a Korg Electribe ES1 Mkii, I just kinda made a random ‘sniper bid’ and forgot about it then saw I’d won it for about $130.
I had an ES2 for about a year and regretted selling it (despite its many limitations) as it had its own workflow that would have come into its own when paired with something like the SP404 MKii, which I got after selling the ES. I did make a whole beat tape and a few tracks just on the ES2 and it was a fun time.
So, the ES1 arrived about 6 days later via EMS and went straight thru customs with no payment required.
A quick clean of the encoder and all was good aside from a couple busted LEDS that don’t really affect the functionality but I may replace at some point.
So what’s the Electribe ES1 good for?
Well, I got it with using it as a drum machine in mind paired with the SP404 MKii and MIDI synced, and it works just great for that, the transport controls can stop/start your SP404 patterns and adjust BPM, and you have an easily programmable drum track with its own FX.
There’s plenty of big forum threads and other info on the ES1 online, but if you are by chance considering gripping one in current year here’s my review of it.
Build Quality
Very solid, metal chassis in the MKii versions, pads (non velo sensitive of course) basically indestructible, LED 3 character display (does what it needs to do perfectly). Encoder is fine after pulling out and a good dose of contact cleaner. FX and other knobs, some feel a little loose but otherwise fine for something this age.
Sample Storage
99 Mono samples and 50 stereo up the limit of I think its 120 seconds (stereo counts for double), internal storage, switch it on and your samples are ready in less than 5 seconds.
Smart Media card: Used only for exporting or importing samples, NOT for playback like Roland 303/404 – I did not bother buying one, it seems pointless.
Preset sounds
Remarkably, this 20 odd year old machine had all factory samples and presets in it. I deleted most of the samples but kept a few drum hits and percs. Patterns are just saved over each other as you use them so no problem there. Don’t lose any sleep if you don’t have the factory samples.
I/O
- 2 ¼ main outs
- A multi function single ¼ input that you can switch from mono to stereo as desired, has input gain and mic/line switch. Very cool
- Real MIDI ports x3, In, Out and Thru. Nice to have and makes it easy to incorporate into your setup.
- Headphone socket ¼. Output can get loud, decent headphone amp in my opinion.
- Smart Media card slot.
Electribe ES1 in action - some sound demos
This is a little instrumental track I jammed out that used quite a bit of ES1.
For full transparency, there’s no way I could make this JUST using the ES1 but it did feature heavily as I wanted to use it as much as possible when I first got it and see how it could work in to my setup.
- Tape sampled into 404 via tweaking the ES1 FX realtime as it played in.
- Chopped and sequenced in 404
- Drums all ES1 in the box with the Compressor FX
- Bassline played in on synth thru ES1 with (I think) Decimator FX
- Other synth parts overdubbed thru ES and SP404 FX combo, delay on ES and a few other bits
- Recorded in Logic (no other plugins or software FX)
Definitely not a polished sound but I quite like how it came out.
I will go thru the many positive things about this unit shortly, to save you time, if you got this far here are the potential deal breakers.
Severe limitations that might make you reconsider
I pretty much knew what I was getting with this thing as I had the ES2 before which still has most of the limitations I will go thru now.
- No sample chopping. You may be fooled by the button marked Time Slice…. This functions the same way it does on the ES2 in fact. First of all, you can only slice a Mono sample, not a stereo one. Secondly, yes, the sample is sliced (according to transient settings that you can play around with and audition) BUT, once sliced, let’s say into 16 as there are 16 pads, all you have the ability to do is determine which slices will play in the pre designated order by lighting up the pads. You cannot, for example, play transient 8 on pad 1, you can only select if transient 8 is played on pad 8 or skipped – thats it. So, this was implemented I guess as a kind of rudimentary time stretch, and is intended mainly for use on drum breaks. You CAN get some interesting effects with pitching etc and the FX (delay to join up missed slices e.g.) but don’t go buying one of these if you think your gonna be chopping away like an MPC or Ableton Simpler – not happening.
- Polyphony/Amount of samples. OK, so you get 9 main pads/slots to assign samples, plus the special ‘Time Slice’ pad and one for Audio In. Sounds OK right, but reduce that to 7 if you use Stereo samples on pads 1 or 3 as they will eat up 2 slots. Additionally the final 4 pads (marked 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B) are choked, so either pad on 6, or either pad on 7 can only play when the other is not playing i.e choked. Good for hi hats but this is baked in and cant be changed. On the other hand you can copy a sample, set different truncate or start points and use it as a choke/cutoff for longer samples, still only 2 of them tho.
- Note velocity is fixed. This is not really true as you have both the ‘Accent’ button/pattern and motion sequencing that can record volume and many other things. Accent is OK for getting some groove but it does apply to every pad/note on the particular step in a pattern, so you’d have to get creative with motion sequencing if you wanted your accent to apply to only the kick drum and not the hi-hat on the same step for example. Also, the accent is NOT transmitted over MIDI, which is a bummer.
- Sequencer resolution. No surprise here, it’s a 16 step XO sequencer (can be changed to 32 /64 or triplets if that helps you) but the swing on the ES is not too shabby. Works great but if you want to make wonky “turn off quantize bro” Dilla type beats probably not the device for you. Could be done with resampling pattern and playing back hits by hand simultaneously I guess or using different start points on drum samples).
- Chromatic mode for sample hits – Ha, no….
Why the Electribe ES1 is still a dope piece in 2024
I’ll skip the basics of how the sequencer etc works as it’s very simple and intuitive and the manual is very well written (linked at the end). So let’s get into what might make you want to pick up a crusty one of these things in 2024 and self inflict incredible pain on yourself by not programming drums in Ableton or Logic….
- MIDI Clock. Can act as a MIDI clock and start/stop for more hands on devices like the 404. You can use the ES as your drum machine and play it in real time while you play pads or record patterns on the 404 MKii. Ready to record? Switch to External clock mode and your DAW can start/stop the ES and anything it’s MIDI’d up to and record the MIDI from the ES and play it as a sound module complete with velocity and whatever sequencer resolution you prefer. Couple of passes and using the External In pad or volume knob on the ES and you got your stems in the DAW.
- Painless and relatively flexible MIDI setup – Setting up the ES MIDI is real easy, you pick a single channel for both send and receive, then pick the MIDI note numbers you want to assign to each of the 9 pads. Any MIDI passing thru can go out to any channel from the THRU port. This sounds really basic but if you’ve ever looked at the SP404 Mkii MIDI implementation you will be wondering why this 20 year old box pisses all over it for an actually workable setup.
- Sound. The ES sounds pretty damn good, 32khz sampling rate, not lo-fi but characterful and rather warm.
- Real time sample switching. Switch pad sounds on the fly while the sequencer is running. Not sure about that snare? Twist the dial and change it on the fly to any other sample, tweak any parameter (pitch, filter, FX) in real time. This is mainly why I wanted it, it’s like an even better version of Ableton hot swap, so many things you can do with this if you think creatively.
- Use it as an FX box. The ES can apply FX to any incoming audio by highlighting all 16 steps of a sequence and adjusting the gate parameter until you hear all the sound you are playing. Audio In Thru mode does not allow FX BUT you can hold the Audio In pad to apply FX momentarily as long as you are holding it. I just have it permanently on in my sequencer and turn off FX for the Audio in pad if I’m not using them. The BPM synced global delay in particular (which can be combined with the insert effect) is amazing, try running your synth/keyboard whatever thru it.
- Sample mangler. Whilst I stand by my opinion that the ES is pretty useless as a sample sequencer for anything other than drums it can be great for mangling stuff up on the way in. I sampled longer takes from cassettes into the SP playing the FX in the ES on the way in as an experiment (see the track posted above), totally different way of ending up with something almost like a MUDPIE to chop up in the 404 – highly recommended (yeah you can also do this directly in the 404 but it’s much more hands on, quicker and simpler in the ES).
- FX. Speaking of the FX, they are pretty decent with a couple of standouts like the grimey Pitch Shifter, Decimator, Compressor (great on drums) and filter delay. The bread and better stuff like flanger/reverb/ring mod won’t win any awards but if you like the retro hardware sound they do have their own character that wouldn’t be easy to recreate in a plugin.
- Immediacy. Everything is on the front panel, aside from importing samples there’s literally no menu diving.
- Resampling – the ES has it and can include the FX. Limited sample time but still a nice feature to have if you want to custom some drum samples for a particular track.
- Pitching – it’s rough by any standard today but that makes it great if you like that kind of aesthetic.
The Electribe ES1 in home studio setup
I started writing this a month or so ago and forgot about it, at that time I was using the ES as described in the beginning, basically as a drum machine with FX and transport stop/start and MIDI clock for the SP404 Mkii.
I shifted my setup around a little as I picked up an E-MU MP7 that’s kind of become the brain of my MIDI setup, so the ES I’m now mainly using to run in tape samples to the SP and I have my Yamaha 4op synth permanently running thru it as an FX processor, LP filter and programmable accents as the synth doesn’t really have any FX, so this is quite a decent use case for the ES if you have FX limited older hardware like synths or drum machines.
I still use it for drums a bit and the occasional one shot sample.
As you got the full 3 MIDI DIN ports it should be easy to fit the ES into any sort of small home studio setup with other groove boxes, samplers and a DAW.
So is it worth buying an Electribe Sampler ES1 in 2024?
I would say that no hardware (outside of an audio interface if you want to record anything) and a decent pair of cans or monitors is essential with all the flexibility we enjoy with DAW’s and plugins.
That being said, The ES is pretty cheap for what you get (less than a lot of VST plugins) and the sound is great. It’s also a fairly small footprint device and doesn’t take up much desk space.
If you can get one in decent condition for $150 or less I would consider it a sound investment even if just used as an FX/Color box for sampling, but it can do a whole lot more than just that.
Electribe Sampler 1 VS Electribe Sampler 2
As I owned the ES2 for a year here are my thoughts on this.
The ES1 is ‘better’, at least for me. Why?
- The ES2 is a strange sort of device that has some nice upgrades but also feels like an early 2000’s device.
- The insert FX are more in number but significantly worse than the ES1 and only have 1 parameter each and are not in the least bit ‘hands on’.
- You have to menu dive 2 or 3 layers to save your samples before shutdown or lose them all, wut?
- It has some incredibly fruity lights under the chassis that makes it look like a budget Chicano lowrider.
- The menu diving in general is hideous and disruptive to any sort of workflow.
- It sounds cleaner but has zero character.
- The sample time is woeful to the point of feeling like Korg is laughing at you considering this is a recent device.
- Still has no sample chopping or mute groups 15 years later? Come on man.
What about the Korg ER1 VST plugin?
I have trialled it, the functionality is remarkably authentic (all the version 1 boxes work the same) but with modern QOL updates.
This is obviously the drum synth ER-1 Electribe and not the sampler version, but worth getting the trial version to see if the workflow gels before committing to a big boy box.
