The Korg
Electribe
Electribe is a group of electronic musical instruments by Korg. From its beginnings with the Electribe R to the ESX-1, this series includes both analogue modeling synthesizers and sampling drum machines that can be programmed the same as a drum ...
EM-1 is a
digital synthesizer
A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. This in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digit ...
first produced by
Korg
, founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners. Under the Vox brand name, they ...
in 1999, alongside the
EA-1 and
ER-1. Korg discontinued production of the EM-1 in 2002 and replaced the model with the Electribe EMX.
The EM-1 combines a
drum machine and two-part synthesizer with a
sequencer
Sequencer may refer to:
Technology
* Drum sequencer (controller), an electromechanical system for controlling a sequence of events automatically
* DNA sequencer, a machine used to automatically produce a sequence readout from a biological DNA sam ...
. Its design combined elements of the Korg Electribe EA-1 and ER-1 to offer an "all-in-one"
groovebox
A groovebox is a self-contained electronic or digital musical instrument for the production of live, loop-based electronic music with a high degree of user control facilitating improvisation. The term "Groovebox" was originally used by Roland Co ...
. The Electribe series was noted for its compact size, weighing 1.25 kg and measuring only 300mm x 222mm x 55mm.
The synth's sound engine consists of 50 synth and 144 drum
waveform
In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time.David Crecraft, David Gorham, ''Electronic ...
s, both pitch and rhythmic in nature. Waveform editing capabilities include: volume, panning, envelope, filtering, roll-effect, internal effects processing, pitch, and glide (
portamento
In music, portamento (plural: ''portamenti'', from old it, portamento, meaning "carriage" or "carrying") is a pitch sliding from one note to another. The term originated from the Italian expression "''portamento della voce''" ("carriage of the v ...
). The filter is a 12 dB/oct low-pass with cutoff and resonance controls.
The onboard sequencer can hold 256 patterns which can be chained together to form a "song". Up to 16 "songs" can be stored in the EM-1's internal memory.
The EM-1 was targeted at semi-professional DJs and musicians, but it was also adopted by professional musicians and bands, including British techno group
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...
, who used it on a number of recordings and live performances.
Although the EM-1 was not supplied with an editing interface for PC or Mac, an
aftermarket editor for PC was developed by H.J. Stulgies of German company
Midiweb with assistance from Korg and released as
shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
. The editor significantly expanded the speed at which the EM-1 could be programmed.
References
External links
* Korg EM-1 Review on VintageSynth.co
* Korg EM-1 User manua
* Korg EM-1 Edito
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korg Electribe Em-1
Korg synthesizers, Electribe EM-1
Drum machines