Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)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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Korg EMX1SD Electribe Music Production Station
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