Hi all, just wondering if you guys could recommend any other grooveboxes like the KORG EMX? Citymusic stopped bringing in them quite a while back, was curious if you guys know any other brands to recommend?
The Elektron machines (machinedrum, monomachine and octatrack) are products with very similar (and better) capabilities. I haven't seen them for sale anywhere in Singapore but mail order is always an option.
The Elektron grooveboxes are a lot more fun than the Electribes, in my opinion.
I should add that i used to own an ER-1 and EA-1 some years ago. They were a lot of fun and i loved some of the features but in the end i sold them off because i felt like I'd tapped the full potential of them and that there was nothing left to inspire me. I wanted more depth. The newest Korg Electribes are more capable than those but they still don't have a lot of versatility (and they made things slightly more complicated).
I think grooveboxes that fit in a very narrow set of musical genres have a limited life span. That's also what i felt when i decided to sell off my ER-1 and EA-1. The original electribes were meant to cash in on the popularity of the vintage TB303 / TRX0X synths at the time. When you get away from the dance/trance/whatever genres of the time, the original electribes were of limited use.
These days you can always argue that software does a better job. The sound that comes out of the box is pretty much the same. Well-designed hardware with good controls will always remain more intuitive and more musically useful than shuffling little windows around on a screen with a computer mouse and trying to hit the right pixels though.
There are a lot of groovebox type products from different smaller manufacturers today (especially European manufacturers) if you start to look around. It's not a market that's dying out. I'd argue that the Elektron products are the best of the "all in one" boxes out there and their sounds aren't going to be obsolete any time soon.
If you have money to burn and leftover space you can also pick and choose your own setup according to your needs. My current hands-on "groovebox" solution from different manufacturers is an Analogue Solutions Europa MIDI sequencer driving two MFB NANOZWERG analogue synthesizers and an MFB 503 analogue drum machine. (Sometimes complemented by a Chimera Synthesis bC16 and hacked bC8 for sound effects.)
Well personally for me EMX still the bomb..
U can create diff types of genres wif dat box.
Yea City Music stop bringin' in Korg's Electribes maybe not high in demand..
Im saving up to get one myself..eBay is one of the alternatives..
Hope u'll find wat u seek for bro..
Cheers.
I asked city if they were going to bring it in. They took my email and nvr heard from them since. i guess thats a NO. I went to Japan to get the Electribe, price was..... DAMN. So I guess EBAY is the best. Got midi controllers for DAWs instead.
It think if you could convince city music to place a special order for you, that would be the cheapest option. City typically has pretty good prices for Korg gear.
