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.

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!

It’s called the Korg KAOSS Pad mini-KP . This device lets you apply dynamic effects to your MP3′s and it is really fun to use!

Basically you can hook up your MP3 player right to the mini-KP and you use the touch pad to slid and tap your way through 100 different effects.  To demo just a handful of the effect I  remixed a Santa Cruz by Fatboy Slim below.

Now that I am getting into the art of digital DJing, I am glad that this tool is now in my growing arsenal of controllers and effects processors.