A group of Electribe users have created a petition, asking Korg to prioritize making updates to the operating system of the Electribe and Electribe sampler.
Korg released a free update to the Electribe’s operating systems today, which addressed some items on the user petition, so the petition has been updated to reflect this.
The organizers note:
Many Electribe 2 users are extremely pleased with the instrument and find the new Electribes to be incredibly useful and fun music production tools.
In addition, most Electribe 2 users also feel that Korg addressing these issues would help these instruments reach their full potential and likely result in a revived interest in the machines and increased sales.
The petition outlines 7 things that users would like to see improved:
- Voice Stealing: Unfortunately, even when no fx and no polyphony is activated on the units, just 10-11 tracks can play simultaneously without voice stealing. It doesn’t seem reasonable that muted parts or IFX use CPU power and steal voices when not playing. For instance, when only 4-8 IFX are used in a pattern, the Electribe 2 seems to unnecessarily calculate all 16 IFX.
- Note cutoff on pattern change: When switching patterns, the notes and effects from the previous pattern stop playing. This causes issues with the live-playing capability that the units were designed for.
- Knob (filter) improvements: There is a significant amount of “jumping” when trying to adjust the knobs in small increments. This could be improved with improved tracking of the knobs, or greater resolution of the filters, or simply enabling the shift+knob (fine tune) option for filter movements.
- Re-triggering glitch: There is a noticeable digital click or pop sound at the initiation/beginning of the sound (synths and samples) when re-triggering notes.
- Song mode is lacking: One of the greatest features of the predecessors (older electribes) was the ability to create entire songs by setting the unit to automatically play patterns in a specific order to build a complete song.
- Audio and MIDI glitch when saving: When saving a pattern while the instrument is playing, the audio and MIDI clock have noticeable glitches, making it nearly impossible to save a new pattern while playing live.
- Fix Noise (high pitched noise [~13kHz]) when audio in is enabled, and the hum when power save mode is enabled on the unit with audio in.
In addition to these items, the petition includes a wish list of feature requests for the Electribes.
to be honest if they actually fixed these problems, I would probably re-buy the sampler. I actually really enjoyed it when the issues listed didn’t get in the way, but that wasn’t very often.
Korg fixes these issues i would seriously look at one, i have kept my eye on the progress and have been put of by the issues raised on the forum.
i love a groove box and would much prefer an electribe as a traveling companion than a laptop or an i pad to have a mess around on when am on the move (my preference, not every ones granted).
whilst its not cheap, cheap, if they get on top of the bugs, a battery powered electribe is a winner for me.
hats of to the users for standing up and been counted, long may it continue!!!!!
How about a update for the Korg ESX-1 too? :S
like a smart media converter?
very glad i sold mine.
it ate up batteries, had clickie envelopes, voice stealing, poor manufacturing – see recessed pads, very little editing, crippled fx and non existing effect chain. the stores i buy from are tired from getting returns.
i spent loads of time with the mx and sx, and they felt like mature instruments with extremely well thought out workflow. the limitations were inspiring and fun. they had character.
the new generation took so many steps backwards i was shocked.
these electribes broke my heart a bit. they really made me sad.
the massive limitations only make sense if there is another PRO version in the pipeline but i sort of doubt it and really dont care anymore. korg killed the electribe brand for me.
i will never buy korg products on release. learned that for sure.
for shame kooorg.
the biggest problem i can see with any more updates may be the hardware , some of the limitations may be hardwired in and they can’t be worked around (unless a actual board is added)
It may be easier to ask to fix the smart media interface of the old EMX and ESX
is it me or all this issues could be bypassed with a seperate sequencer?
Sold my E2 and got a Circuit. No regrets. The invisible limitations are too much to deal with. Polyphony and voice stealing wouldn’t be such a problem if you knew where the limitations were.