where to start with grooveboxes

[friendship]

I've been thinking about picking up a little tabletop groovebox to record dumb little ideas with, and while vintagesynth.com has been pretty helpful, I'm still a little overwhelmed with what's out there. I'm primarily looking for cheapness/ease-of-use. I've been recording using DAWs and soft synths for a little over 10 years so I'm not a total beginner, but would like an intuitive workflow. The idea here is to have something that I can make music with easily and quickly and not have to wrestle with a bizarre design. I would prefer some MIDI I/O so I can use it with my keyboard controller but maybe that's not totally necessary, I'm not certain. I'd most likely be using this with effects pedals, a POD, and running it either into my digital 16 track or to computertron.

What do you think? Is there something you like to use that fits this kind of description?

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

electribe dude

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

also, if u already have a smartphone or ipad or something, there are lots of cool ones on there u could try for only a few dollars.

[friendship]

also, if u already have a smartphone or ipad or something, there are lots of cool ones on there u could try for only a few dollars.

Word, I actually got this idea from playing around with Propellerheads' Figure app, which is highly excellent. I made almost like 80 little blurbs with it. But I'm looking to get a little further away from software and more into turning knobs and pressing stuff. I use Reason which offers me a lot in terms of synths and beats and stuff, but it feels claustrophobic sometimes being bound to mouse clicks and a computer screen.

As for the Electribes, I'm getting the sense that ER-1 is mostly beats/drums, ES-1 is mostly sampling, EA-1 is mostly synthesizer, and EM-1 is... I guess a combination of synthesizer and drums? Maybe that particular one would be best? What's yer experience with 'em?

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

figure is dope!

if combo of drums and synth is what you're after, take a look at the EMX or the ESX. they are the newer models of the ones u mentioned. (ESX is all sampler, EMX is built in drum sounds and korgs synth engines)

i've had the ES1, EM1 and the EMX, they are super fun and easy to use. not alot of head scratching, but a lot of versatility and knobs for tweaky.

[friendship]

Awesome! Is there a huge leap in sound quality and/or features between the EM1 and the EMX?

edit: oh also, what's a normal price on one these days? And are there any reliability issues I should be aware of.

Thanks for your help, doctor.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

yes, i was pleasantly surprised by the EMX drum sounds even tho they are built in and u can't change them and the synth engine is fresh (same tech as a lot of other korg synths). not so much by the EM1, which i believe is all PCM waveforms, not an actual synth like the EMX, and sounds were a bit dated for my taste.

also the newer electribes sport a better fx block (3 routable fx slots vs. 1) a 128 step sequencer, and a ribbon controller that is sometimes cool for arps and stuff)
and while the tubes aren't really doing a whole lot, (or anything possibly. i never tried rolling a different pair in there tho) the drive knob makes the sound of the EMX a lot fatter/louder than the older ones.

the electribes probably aren't the deepest machines, there are a handful of other options, but i like their simplistic approach (less menus) and on-the-fly nature of creating.

some others u might want to check out, roland mc series, maschine, elektron boxes, yamaha an200 & dx200, rs7000, korg ds10 (for nintendo ds).

[Achtane]

I like the EMX a lot. My main interest is in using it outside of the oontz-oontz way it was marketed.
You can do some neat stuff with the individual output and audio in features. If you set a drum pad to one of the individual outs, run a patch cable from the out to the audio in, and set a synth pad to "audio in" mode, you can run the drum through the filters and LFO. You can play other stuff through the EMX like this, too. It's kinda dumb that they don't let you filter the drums right from the get-go, but that's how it can be done. Nobody reviewing the EMX seems to know about this.
I like lowering the pitch of drums until they sound like heavy machinery. You can also pitch-shift some of the PCM sounds (like the "rave hit 6" or whatever) and it makes for an awesome pad.
It's cool that you can record knob movements and setting changes, too.

The tubes feel kind of gimmicky but the drive setting and tube type does make a big difference. I thought the distortion on the stock ones sounded like shit past 12 o'clock, so I changed them out for Eurotubes ECC81s and it became about a million times better. It can still get distorted, but it doesn't sound like a no-name practice amp being overdriven. So worth the 20bux.

One of the common issues that I've read about is that sometimes the parameters will change slightly on their own, and it's because the two circuit boards inside of the enclosure are touching at certain points, so people slap some wax paper in between 'em and it's fixed. I did have this issue, but I cleaned all of the pots and that did the job.

[kaeth]

I have a few. Here's some mini reviews that might help.

Korg DS-10 for Nintendo DS: This is the one I spend the most time with. really flexible in terms of sounds, and it's even good for live performance. I find 16 patterns and the number of parts to be a little limiting for an entire song sometimes, but you can find creative loopholes.

Korg Monotribe: Really simple. The analog bass sounds are unreal for the price, and it's knobby, but the drums are thin (you can beef 'em up with fx), and you can only keep one pattern.

BOSS DR-202: Super cheap and underrated. Very digital sounding, but very cool. You can really mangle the sounds on it. MIDI is limited, but functional for basic control.

E-Mu Command Station: Sounds incredible. Possibly the most fully featured groovebox out there (except no samples), but it's so complex that I haven't found the time to really learn it yet and I've had it for about a year. Dedication required for this one, but I think it would pay off.

[kosta]

ESX-1 in the B/S/T -> http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=39076

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

if the EMX allowed u to sample in new drum sounds or just resample the drum sounds thru the FX to free them up, i would still have it.

[trace]

I have a yamaha rm1x that I am really enjoying. I researched grooveboxes for a while and went with the rm1x because it has awesome midi capabilities. For instance you can program midi cc's and what not into the sequencer, not just notes. Right now I'm playing with sequencing the looper on my m13 with it. Lots of fun!

[Hyphen Nation]

Not super cheap, but I am finally seeing the first gen Elektron stuff hit around $500 and I really cannot stress how easy and musical they are.

[doommeow]

I had the Monotribe briefly - and flipped it. The sequencing was fairly easy to work out - and I'm some new this realm - but I just wasn't happy with the sound. No thump whatsoever and all of the drum sounds were exponentially lower output than the synth stuff. Might be right for someone else - not me.

I'm still on the hunt for something that will let me put together minimalist beats - think pan sonic - with a small learning curve on the cheap. Bleep Drum may be my next attempt.

[Hyphen Nation]

The Korg volca series is pretty amazing for the price.