The Korg Electribe EMX-1 is a powerful, yet easy to use piece of music production gear for a variety of dance music styles. In my studio, I was able to take the EMX-1 out of the box, plug in a pair of powered monitors, and have great sounding music coming out within minutes. The wide variety of preset patterns are easy to browse and play. And, with direct access to pads for each instrument part, an arpeggiator with a ribbon controller, stereo multieffects parameters, and global settings such as tempo, powerful customization of each pattern was a breeze.
Upon exploring the EMX-1 a bit more, I found that creating my own patterns and songs was equally intuitive – as simple as selecting the parts I wanted to arrange and using the 16 step pads to determine the beats on which each part should be played. For those just starting out, this is a great feature. Of course, for the more rhythmically savvy, parts can easily be recorded “on the fly” as well.
The built-in ValveForce technology added a nice tube warmth to the entire sound when desired, and the high-quality multieffects processing opened up additional creative possibilities. Anyone looking for high quality, easy of use, and powerful customizable effects and features should take a serious look at the Korg EMX-1.
