Korg • ElecTribe/R ER-1
"Korg has created the ultimate analog beat machine. Simply by tweaking the knobs on the ELECTRIBE-R, you have unlimited control over all the elements that make up the sounds - like pitch, modulation depth, waveform shape and much more. Drop these sounds into the built-in sequencer and you've got unique rhythms with your own creative signature. And with the ELECTRIBE R, you can hear every change you make as it happens, allowing you to mold the groove on the fly."
"The built-in step sequencer's 16 pad keys make it easy for you to produce rhythms from the sounds you create. Each pad keys lights up so you can easily see what rhythm a part is programmed to play. Plus, you can play in beats in real-time using the 12 trigger pads. Four of the pads are assignable to any analog modeling sound you come up with, two are reserved for controlling sounds accessed through the audio input, and the other four permanently control the indispensable PCM sounds. So you can tailor your own custom "kits" to fit each musical situation."
"To add even more life to your patterns you can record the real-time movement of any of the ELECTRIBE-R's oscillator, amp or effect parameters as a Motion Sequence. This lets you change your sounds as your groove progresses in a way that more traditional drum machines just can't match! Plus, every sound or rhythm you create can be stored as a pattern that includes your knob movements. And you can save up to 256 1 to 4-bar patterns in internal memory."
"The ELECTRIBE-R can also be controlled from an external sequencer, keyboard, or sampler to function as an analog sound rhythm tone generator, or set up to control or be controlled by other hardware or computer-based sequencers." - Korg-USA The Electribes are used by Orbital, Cirrus, Dan Hekate, Saulaterre, The Prodigy, YB70, 69db, MDFMK, Crystal Distortion, the Crystal Method, Massive Attack, and the Chemical Brothers.
good for noise
....use two of the four percussion voices simultaneously to create snare sounds, they're still not fabulous but adding some bassier overtones does seem to make it a bit punchier! Can't believe I missed that for so long, d'oh...
Otherwise a superb little machine ideal for creating the Kraftwerkian style drumsounds that I found impossible to create on anything else. A drum synthesizer with a frequency range that goes from subsonic to an effective bat repellent I imagine.
The Mk1 still looks cool and is dirt cheap on ebay these days.....
Awesome and fun little box for making weird, zappy, evil sounding music and some quicker electro breaks. Don't use it as a drum machine really, more of like a sequencer for 4 weird voices and some bad hi hats. Hook an EA 1 or another synth to the slicer and go nuts.
pretty good for noise...