Hi guys, this is my latest piece of gear and I noticed someone talking about getting one, so I figured a review would be helpful. Note that this is not the mkII version, it's the original. As far as I can tell, the mkII just had one new effect, and some more presets. What fun are presets when you are just going to delete them anyhow?
This is my first review here, I think, so I hope I didn't forget anything important.
1. Tell us how much you paid for the unit.
I got it used on ebay for about $160, with 32mb SmartMedia card
2. How long have you had it?
About two months now
3. Rate it on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best.
I'd give it an 8 or a 9.
4. Things you like about it
Quite a few things. I had been in the market for a drum machine for some time, and someone recommended the electribe ER-1 drum machine. However, I really also wanted something that could use drum samples that I buy or make and also a few non-rhythmic samples as well. The ES-1 fits the bill very nicely!
It's laid out in typical (16) step-sequencer fashion, and it also has buttons for each of the 9 (+2) 'channels', and plenty of knobs for the VERY strong effects section. It's also got a mic/line 'audio in' feature, with rhythmic gating that you can control with the step sequencer. This is a really cool feature as you can use it to make some very cool synth/synth bass lines with a cheaper synth like a casiotone, or something that doesn't have midi, like a guitar or an older synth. Speaking of midi, the ES-1 does have midi in/out ports and syncs up just fine with other midi hardware and software.
You can feed it samples via the smartmedia card slot. The day that I got the ES-1, I went and got a card reader for my computer, and loaded some of my favorite drum samples, some samples from old SNES video games, and some one-liners from the movie 'Breakfast Club' for good measure
The other audio source, aside from the 9 drum parts and the mic/line in, is the 'slice' channel. This allows you to load a sliced sample, and choose which slices of it to play in the sequence. The ES-1 does a fairly decent job of auto-slicing rhythmic loops you load into it, if you ask it to - you can always fine-tune it yourself. too.
5. Things you don't like about it.
The sample rate is 'only' 32khz. I thought it might be a more severe issue than it really is. All it really means for me is that I have to convert my samples to 32khz before loading them onto the smartmedia card. It's pretty easy to do with a batch action in quicktime pro. As for sound quality/fidelity, it's just fine, in fact I think it might even be a strength as it, coupled with the excellent effects section, give this unit a LOT of character.
The pads are not pressure/velocity sensitive. Not that I expected them to be, I guess. This is no MPC, that's for sure
Despite the fact that some people have 'hacked' these features in, there's no way to put batteries in it, and there's no built-in mic for on-the-fly sampling...you have to use the audio-in port for that. These are very minor quibbles and I only mention them because the ES-1 is small and light enough that I want to bring it everywhere!
The screen is just a 2 or 3 digit numerical LED readout. That means, no naming of samples, patches, or anything else, aside from a 2 digit number. Not a big deal, I guess it keeps things simple.
Oh, and...the built-in presets and songs are laugh out loud funny. They're geared towards electronica and maybe a bit of hip hop. Maybe some of the individual drum samples are usable, but not much else. Then again, it's a sampler....no one buys these things for the pre-loaded stuff!
It should also be noted that it might be hard to find a SmartMedia card these days, something which I consider to be almost a necessity for this device.
6. Anything else you wish to add--for example, compare it to other similar gear, tell us your tips, sites with free patches, problems, list your website that has info specific to this piece, etc.
Well, I haven't really used many other drum machines or samplers, but basically it's a cheap(ish) sampler in the body of a step sequence drum machine. The buttons are all backlit which makes it very easy to use and see in a dark club or on stage. You can always tell what it's doing, and when. Anyone who's used the Kaoss pad knows what to expect from the effects section of this box...I really really like this, I just wish you could use more than one effect at once sometimes. One cool thing about the effects, however, is 'motion sequence' which allows for you to automate the various parameters of the effects and the global delay. It's fun to tweak the knobs to play with your samples, and with motion sequence, you can record this tweaking.
Tips:
One feature of the time slice function is to 'stretch' out the slices without changing their pitch, if the BPM is lowered. I wanted to know how to stretch out my regular samples and here's the solution I came up with:
Every part has it's own pitch/speed control. Turn it down until the sample is as long as you want it to be. Then, enable 'effect' and use the master 'pitch shift' effect. Shift the pitch up until it's back at it's original pitch, but now it's stretched!
Links:
Korg's ES-1 page specs, manual, quick guide, update files, midi docs
Electribe Yahoo Group some free patches, tips, discussion
ES-1 Yahoo Group (not much happening in there)
A YouTube video of someone playing the ES-1 mkII. It's a good showcase/tutorial.
Korg ES-1 mkII at zzounds note: this is the newer, revised version of the ES-1
