Korg Updates Their Aging Electribe Series – Lipstick On A Pig
Korg has “polished the turd” that is their antiquated Electribe devices and released the MX-SD and SX-SD. These pattern-based music production stations have been revitalized with new patterns and SD data storage. (I KNOW…we’ve crapped our pants with excitement too! —Ed.)
It’s hard to imagine that anyone is buying these puppies anymore, but since Korg has only recently gotten their act together by releasing a couple of meaningful products in the last year or so, they probably need to find the last remaining suckers who are willing to drop a whopping $750 bucks on this 200 B.C. technology.
Korg solicited the help of Ninja Tune/Big Dada artists Emika and the Anti-pop Consortium to create some new patterns. They then must have run out of their $65 marketing budget, so they asked MySpace artist Shrikednb and YouTube’s Denkitribe and Scribej to contribute in return for a couple of Happy Meals.
The addition of convenient SD/SDHC card storage allows up to 32 GB of sound, pattern, song and sample data to be saved on an individual card. Korg claims “this enables an entire live show’s worth of data to be saved on a single card” (not that you’d be caught dead rocking one of these things in public. —Ed.).
Features:
» Twin vacuum tube VALVE FORCE circuitry, “delivering analog warmth or menacing bite” (ahh, not really. —Ed.)
» Three stereo effects that can be chained together
» Filter and timbral modulation
» Built-in step sequencer
» 1985 Motion Sequence function
» arpeggiator, ribbon controller and slider
» Auto BPM Detection
Now we can’t kick Korg completely in the groin here. They did re-release the WaveDrum and the Kaoss product line is pretty sweet, but 750 beans for an Electribe? Come on, now! In this economy, they should have significantly dropped the price. In fact, eBay sellers can’t even give away an original Electribe…so who’s going to buy a new one for this price? No one. No matter how much lipstick you put on this pig.
The Korg Electribe EMX-1 SD and ESX-1 SD will be available sometime in June 2010 for a “grab-your-ankles-cost” of $750. More information on the Korg Electribe EMX-1 SD and ESX-1 SD.
