There have been a few times that I can recall where I came across a piece of music equipment that made the hairs stand up on my arm. The Korg Electribe S mkII is such a device.
One of my buddies, Marc Bauman of House Recording Studios, lent me this device so I could put it through its paces. Marc told me this device was cool but it was not until I had spent some quality time with it did I learn just how COOL it was. Up until now, I had not worked with a beat sequencer and was not really sure what I would be able to do with this device.
So what does it do?
Once you turn this sucker on the magic immediately follows. Basically the Electribe contains about 120 pre-programmed patterns covering the gamut of Hip-Hip and Techno style beats. These patterns serve as a starting point so you can get the feel of what’s its capable of and I gotta say, I have had HOURS of fun just playing with the standard patterns.
After you find a pattern you like you can then start applying effects to each individual sample contained in the pattern. This is cool because you can change the effects in real time and it actually turns your basic pattern into a performance! There are lots of effects too which exponentially increases the coolness.
The Electribe is a beat sequencer and you can modify the sequence of the beats and samples to create new patterns. I have been creating some interesting stuff with minimal effort and for a guy like me, with 800 jobs and limited time, this made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Bottom line, I like this Electrible, alot, I need to make it part of my gear and continue to create fresh beats and samples.
Posted in Gadgets
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Tagged Korg
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Just did a core update to WordPress 3.0 – WOW, I love it already! Now I gotta create some new graphics and stuff so please bear with me!
Upgrading Upgraded WordPress and the PodPress Plugin today. Got a bunch of new songs and blogs to get posted as well. Working on the new posts now.
Over the last few weeks I have been playing with my latest toy, the Numark OMNI Control which I have been using for my Digital DJing kick. Lucky for me I won a football pool this year which afforded me a few extra dollars to spend and I am glad I purchased this device with my winnings. It has been a true pleasure to devote some time to learning how to use the OMNI control and I have to admit, I am now officially hooked on making mixes and pretending I know what I am doing.
Being a novice, this was a relatively inexpensive way to get into the game without blowing mad duckets on some wheels of steel and a mixer. While this is not the best device in the world for scratching up your favorite songs, it can be done but I now see that eventually, I will need something from Serato, with improved platters as opposed to the JOG wheels native to the OMNI to get the control I crave.
In the interim, this solution provides me with a sweet controller that can be used in concert with the included Traktor LE software to provide a very cool out of the box, DJ experience.
Posted in Gadgets
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Tagged Numark
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Been a few days since my last post and there is a good reason. I have been hard at work making beats and tracks using a very useful and portable tool from Korg. My latest purchase was the Korg nanoPAD and it is well worth the 57 bux I paid for it on Amazon. You never know when inspiration is going to punch you in the grill and this portable little pad allows me to make beats on my lunch break without having to carry a studio with me.
For such a small device it packs a decent amount of features, including the X-Y pad which allows you to roll the drums or use the flam feature. The pads themselves are really responsive and I have been able to make some decent beats using them. I also like the fact that you can map the pads to different clips in Ableton, letting me control what plays when and turn on/off clips. Sweet!
Additional to the nanoPAD, Korg offers a nanoKEY and nanoKONTROL device which I will be picking up in the very near future to complete my mobile studio. My lunches never sounded so good!
Until next time!
Posted in Blog, Gadgets
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Tagged Korg
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