Korg EMX1SD Electribe Music Production Station Review

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(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 Kaossilator Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer Review

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(More customer reviews)Ok, so this thing is kind of a toy, but my oh my, what a toy it is. I'm absolutely in love with. I'm kind of an acoustic musician. I play acoustic guitar (don't even own an electric) and upright bass, and any other box of sound I can get my hands on. Most synths and whatnot never seemed worth my money. I saw this little guy when I went searching for something I could use with special-needs students. I wanted something you could produce sound on without needing to know anything about playing an instrument. The price was right, so I got it, and the kids have loved it. I first thought it was a nice toy for the classroom, but then I started practicing on it myself, and I just couldn't believe how involved you can get with it. Once you unlock the little loop extender (from 8 beats to 16- you can find the trick on Korg's website) you can really get inventive. Anyway, for those thinking about it, whether or not you're experienced in music, it's a whole lot of fun and it can be very expressive. I'm feeling like I'm getting solid enough at it that I'm going to hook it up to a PA and play with a jam band. I'm even trying to scrap some cash together to get the KORG KAOSS Pad Dynamic Effects Processor so I can really get lost. You can hook the yellow guy into the red guy and get a whole new level of groove. Here are my pros and cons that might help you decide if it's for you...
PROS)
1)With the arpeggiator and the 16 beat code, mixed with sound effect parameters, you can find nearly endless amounts of new rythms to work with. If you feel like you hit the end of what you can do on it, you are just on a temporary plateau; more will come.
2) With some fancy rechargable batteries, this thing seems to just go on and on. It's so portable, I have it on me nearly at all times. I look like a geek with my studio headphones on tripping out on a campus bench all by myself, but I'm already married with a kid, so I'm more interested in my groove then looking cool.
3) With a little work, it's practically the easiest drum machine out there. You have some limits on actual drum sounds, but it is just so easy to set a groove, put it down, and pick up another instrument to play along with.
4)It's very versatile and intuitive to use. My students, who are fairly low functioning, have a great time playing along, and even my two year old likes tapping on the trackpad to a beat. It's fun for most folks.
5) The versatility of the programmed scales, ranging from arabic and mixolodeian to ragas and dorian, seem to express any, and I mean any emotion you want it to emit. With some practice, you can seemingly get any hard-to-express scence. It's like painting pastoral scences across the cultures of the world with your index finger. It's like Bob Ross' and Rick Steves' impossible love child singing you to sleep every night. (please, somebody get that joke).
Ok, now the CONS
1) The 100 loops and sounds programmed on here are mostly aggresive dance kind of sounds. I'm a ambient kind of guy, and like I said before, I like my acoustic sounds. They're are hardly any great acoustic sounds on here, and if I could reprogram it a little, I'd put on some Mellotron sounds, like flute and strings, and other more organic stuff. The strings and whatnot on here are pretty cheesy. The piano ain't bad, though, and that gets points.
2) You CANNOT program anything onto it. You got your 100 sounds and that's it. It gives the K it's own signature sound, which is fine because it's cheap and kind of a toy. If I could have uploaded new sounds or samples, I would have peed my pants with excitement. Unfortunately, I sit here continent and limited.
3) This last one is my biggest complaint, and it would have been great if Korg had thought this out. It's a small thing, too Maybe they'll read this, see my genius, and send me a corrected version of their device.
This "small thing" it lacks is the only thing that makes this device a toy for me. Otherwise I would have considered it the neatest gizmo ever. You CANNOT adjust the volume of individual sounds in your loop. Say you lay a fat drum beat and a chunky bass line. You go over to the sound effect pad to add a little hiss or sizzle, or over to the chunky lead synth pads to add a hint of a melody in the background. Often times, there is no putting it in the background. You're stuck with the volume that goes in. The Korg folks boast that you can just keep adding stuff, but I've found after 4 or 5 elements, you get really noisy loops really fast. I would have liked another button that would have let you adjust the master volume of any sound you were adding. The way around this is to use a multitrack recorder and set your loops up into that, but now your portability is gone, not to mention that instantneous groove element. Even if your multitrack is a small one, now you're running wires instead of just your headphones.
Otherwise, I think of this yellow box like the Game Boy invented for music geeks like me. It's really nice, and in the two months I've had it, it's been a nice retreat from my daily grind.
Hope this helps!

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