Harrison Zafrin On The New Korg Electribe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tksDIcTDSwY

In this video, via Korg, producer Harrison Zafrin of Bombs and Bottles shares his thoughts on the recently announced Korg’s Electribe Music Production Station.

This is primarily a sneak preview/promo video. We’re looking forward to seeing a more in-depth demo of the new Korg Electribe. 

Korg says the Electribe should be available in December 2014 at $550 (US) MSRP.

27 thoughts on “Harrison Zafrin On The New Korg Electribe

    1. True – but when they announced the new Electribes, I think there were those cartoon hearts going around my head.

      The big dilemma for me is figuring out which one to get – leaning towards the Electribe Sampler, though.

      1. I preordered the non-sampling electribe. It’s all about the filters for me, and the electribes seem to be better “drum machine” style samplers than phrase samplers. I’d probably end up loading up a bunch of similar drum samples anyway.

        I wish the electribe had some basic sampling, just like the electribe sampler has a basic synth engine.

        I wonder: If the effects routing on the electribe is flexible enough, you could use the master effect only on the audio input. If one of the master effects is a Kaoss-style looper with a level parameter – you could grab a vinyl drum loop and keep it going until you power off, dropping it in and out, replacing it with another loop, etc.

    1. Analog modeling synth plus PCM drum samples, and some sampled instruments.
      You can program analog modeled drum sounds too.

      ROMpler is a term that usually refers to electronic instruments that have “real sounding” pianos and orchestral instruments and guitars, etc, due to ROM sample playback – workstations, that sort of thing. The electribe does not really fit in with that stuff. It’s mainly an analog modeler and digital drum machine.

  1. These kinds of videos are always so useless, because the artists just lie for the endorsement deal. Also, are people really going to their roof or the park and making beats? That’s always such a weird selling point to me. Sometimes I’ll play around with an iPad app on an airplane, but that’s about it.

  2. I like Eno’s comment about people wanting “intimacy” with their instruments. Portability is not a high selling point for me, either. IMO, you sacrifice more power than you gain. I enjoy meshing with a central rig, pipe-organ style. Its the juicy mystique of the nerve center where you’re the supreme kahuna. I could easily get behind a pad and XKey for the occasional trip, but my idea of “real” work still calls for a more serious DAW. I wouldn’t say that you can’t make useful headway with a portable platform, but my personal zone is in my head. I like Korg’s general direction, though. These will sell.

    1. I like desktop computers and big solid gear. I don’t mind the occasional battery compartment on the bottom as long as it does not feel like a toy. I don’t want to take my electribe to the beach, but it’s nice to have that option. Being made of zinc makes the electribe less prone to charges of toyism, such as the monotron.
      You don’t have to jam it full of Duracells. Makes a great place to stash pills, microfilm, passports, money, a knife, mints, etc.

  3. If it holds up like old electribes.. Awesome, I’ve had my emx1 for over ten years, perfect working order, I think it’s sweet!

    1. Korg has been on fire lately.

      But I’d really like to see them move beyond the cheapy syntha and instead do a nice full-blown analog keyboard

      1. It’s a race between Korg and Novation as to who can bring a proper (yet streamlined) analog polysynth to market that retails for $500. My money is on Novation. Korg seems to be working on monos for now. But it’s only a matter of time before someone does it.

          1. Arturia, maybe – but they just got their feet wet with analog.

            DSI will never bring a poly with 1:1 control and a full sized keybed to market for less than $1,000. It’s just not their market – they’d have to make a big course change.

            There’s a magic gear price point of +/- $500 – when your gear costs $500 or less, it sells big. That’s why the new electribes are $400. Kids can ask for them for gifts. Working people can afford them without going into debt. It’s almost a impuse buy.

            The further you go over $500 the smaller the potential market becomes. The sweet spot is MicroKorg style value to price. Once you cross 1,000, it’s professionals and status symbol seekers. You go over $2k, and it’s a few hundred eccentric millionaires and status symbolists.

            That’s why I think it’s down to Korg and Novation. Korg has been making all kids of great analog, each synth a little better than before. Novation is fantastic at packing a ton of high level features into an affordable synth – the BSII is better than a ton of vintage synth models, for a fraction of the price.

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