Hey all! I’ve been into Trip Hop, Downtempo, slow Garage and UK Street Soul for a few months now, and I’ve been really inspired by their drum sound especially. Right now, i’m doing all my drum and percussion on a SP-404 mk2, but I stumbled upon a pretty cheap Electribe Es-1 mkII and was planning to use it as a dedicated drum machine, and I was wondering if anyone was still using that machine for that purpose.
Feedback and advices are really appreciated!
I love my ES-1, it was my first hardware sampler, but be prepared for some headaches. It’s a much older instrument and missing some features you may consider essential, the biggest ones being Sample End Point and Envelope.
For me, this is ES-1’s biggest flaw. It might not be a problem if you’re using it for short drum hits, but be aware that you’ll need to destructively chop anything you don’t want to hear at the end of a sample.
In other words, it treats every trig like a piece of tape that cannot be muted, stopped or untrigged unless it’s choked by another sample in its choke group, or by another trig on the same slot.
Otherwise there’s no way to keep the “tape” from playing out, which can really mess up a performance if you’re not ready for it. So bear that in mind.
Similarly, there’s no control for Attack/Release etc. All of that has to be printed into the sample itself.
What else? The filter is pretty basic. You can’t play samples chromatically, and the tuning can be pretty coarse. Another big limitation, but one that often leads to interesting creative choices and new ideas.
Oh and don’t overdo the sync BPM delay! It can get cheesy quick, and if you’re anything like me, the urge will be to use it constantly.
Thanks for the advice and the answer! I’m not really bothered by sampling shortcomings and the lack of sample modulations, as I plan to load my sample with a Smart Card. I was wondering if it was easy to chain/recall patterns to creat songs (1 pattern for intro, 1 for chorus and 1 for verse etc) ?
Yep! It has a Song Mode. I never really use it but IIRC it’s pretty user-friendly.
You get 16 Songs per project, and I think each song has max. 256 slots to fill with patterns.
I don’t have a lot of advice except this. The ES-1 is designed to let you go pretty wild messing up your patterns during a performance. So changes to patterns will not be saved if you change patterns. You need to remember to save. It’s really easy to forget if you’re used to an Elektron sequencers.
the best part is the adc. everything sounds amazing if you sample directly into the es1 via its external input.
i like almost everything about it. i like the way it looks, the way it feels. i think its limitations allow you to be more creative while retaining a unique characteristic sound. but it also has a lot of features you wouldnt expect from 2002 gear like motion sequencing. always wanted the mk2
Yes! This is an extremely good point.
Even before I started using Elektron stuff, it was really easy to forget to save before moving to another pattern. I’ve lost a lot of wonderful music that way—poof.
That said, you can also use this limitation as a really powerful performance tool. I think sauce/snowmetal has posted about this on the forum before, but here it is in a nutshell:
Like Doug said, the Electribes won’t save changes you make if you move to a different pattern; all that new info gets dumped.
So unlike an Elektron box, where you make tweaks, then copy that (new) pattern and move to a new (often blank) pattern to paste & save it, the Electribes let you choose the pattern you want to paste into while you’re still in the old pattern. Once you hit “Save” you are now in the new pattern. This lets you seamlessly create & save new versions for as long as you have blank patterns to put them in, without any break in audio. Here’s how it works:
—You start playing a pattern you’ve prepared (say A.01).
—After you tweak that pattern to hell, you choose a new pattern (e.g. A.02) to save those tweaks to. The new pattern number will flash while you’re choosing your slot.
—Once you hit Write, you are now in the new pattern (A.02). You can tell because the pattern number won’t flash anymore.
—Now, dial back to the first pattern (A.01 again). On the “1,” everything will just “pop” back how it was before you tweaked it, because the first pattern reverted (dumped all that info) when you moved over to the second one.
This is a great way to return to a chorus/verse or come out of a bridge/breakdown/solo/etc. Especially if you’ve gotten a bit lost in your mangling.
It was also really weird and off-putting to move from this workflow to an Elektron box, because it’s a totally different way to turnaround back to your main riff/head/etc.
Just remember to save to a new, empty pattern unless you want to overwrite the original one, or your old work is lost!
Oh, and make sure the power adapter is in good shape and be very gentle with it. Every old school Electribe I’ve owned has had a really delicate power jack or plug that’s just dying to come disconnected on you. Combine that with the lack of an autosave and it can feel lifewrecking.
Lots of ways to lose your work on an Electribe!
Thank you all for your advice/input! Can’t wait to play those 32 kHz drums with some cheesy FB-01 bass and cheap rompler strings!!
Some people say that samples sound better if you sample on the ES-1 itself instead of importing from a SmartMedia card.
I haven’t been able to check it though, both times I bought cards, they turned out to be dead, so I just resorted to sampling on it anyway.
Electribes are cool.
Lots of fun to play, and sound better than you might think. This is an old one but on a massive system that would sound amazing
Another
yes, this is the biggest benefit from owning this sampler. the dac is 12 or 16 bit, i believe. and sampling into the machine makes everything sound very very beautiful and slightly crunchy/grainy. sounds better than any other “lofi” analog method i’ve ever used to dirty something up in hardware or software
im a big fan of the delay sound too
It was my first machine, interesting little box with plenty of effects and options for resampling. I wouldn’t go for it, the workflow is so much hassle, honestly.
I traded it for a Yamaha Rm1x many years ago, completely different machine, and never looked back. I also sold the Rm1x about three years ago 
My ES-1 mk2 is on way! Can’t wait to try it!! thankss
Funny that I had the RMX1 for a while (still have it somewhere) but I stopped using it because I didn’t like the workflow… I have a Sp-404 for longer samples, guitar and synth so the Es-1 will be a glorified drum sample player, like an old school Elektron Model:Samples
Cool, let us know how it goes, and I hope it fits your needs, but I seriously don’t see any similar workflow comparing it to Model:Samples, besides both playing samples
Just wanted to thank you all for you advice! I recieved it last week and didn’t have much time to play with it. I cleared all the samples and patterns of the the previous owner and meticulously recorded my samples already prepped from the 404. It took a while but it was worth it!! Sounds incredible not really lofi, but on that sweet spot of compressed and slightly filtered. Really nice!! I put my more lofi samples on it via the SM card the owner kindly gave me and it was less painfull than expected.
I like the sequencer and effects (although limited), and it’s quite easy to put together a couple nice patterns (dont forget to save tho!!). So yes, it’s limited, but as a DM it really adds something to the groove (the swing can get quite funky) and sound of a drum pattern.