The Electribe 2 Synthesizer and Electribe 2 Sampler are digital Music Production Stations that were released in 2014 and were created using Korg’s latest modelling technology, have an effect for every part, polyphony and velocity–sensitive drum pads. The Korg Electribe series is a Digital analog modeling synthesizer that was first produced in 1999. Through the years, the Electribe series helped define an entire generation of dance music.

With the 2014 Electribe 2, fans of the Electribe series were hopeful that the new instrument would live up to the legacy that the predecessors established. Unfortunately, upon release, some important features were missing and many Electribe 2 owners are disappointed in a lack of functionality and hindered capabilities on the devices.

While several issues have been addressed in previous updates and a few functions have been added, there still remains a substantial list of problems and improvements to address. Korg has indicated that they are resolved to continue to create innovative and uncompromising instruments which maintain the high quality that inspires professional artists and creators. (Source: Link) We are hoping that viewpoint encompasses these instruments as well.

The user community is recommending continued development of the Electribe 2 and Electribe 2 Sampler to help remove the bugs, address the missing features, and improve and complete the instruments.

These are the current issues and problems:

1. Voice Stealing: Unfortunately, even when no fx and no polyphony is activated on the units, just 10-11 tracks can play simultaneously without voice stealing. It doesn’t seem reasonable that muted parts or IFX use CPU power and steal voices when not playing. For instance, when only 4-8 IFX are used in a pattern, the Electribe 2 seems to unnecessarily calculate all 16 IFX.

2. Note cutoff on pattern change: When switching patterns, the notes and effects from the previous pattern stop playing. This causes issues with the live-playing capability that the units were designed for.

3. Re-triggering glitch: There is a noticeable digital click or pop sound at the initiation/beginning of the sound (synths and samples) when re-triggering notes.

4. Audio and MIDI glitch when saving: When saving a pattern while the instrument is playing, the audio and MIDI clock have noticeable glitches, making it nearly impossible to save a new pattern while playing live.

5. Fix Noise (high pitched noise [~13kHz]) when audio in is enabled, and the hum when power save mode is enabled on the unit with audio in.

6. Fix problems introduced with latest update: The shortcut to clear name using "<" and going back in menu group using the "<" key were removed due to the introduction of undo. Possible solutions could be to use the Shift+Exit or Shift+Part Erase.

These are the current recommended improvements:

-Electribe 2 Sampler:

7. Add the ability for pre-listening of samples directly from the SD card. This would enable users to work from a blank .all file and import only the samples needed for a project. This improvement would overcome the global limit of 24Mb since it would become the limit per project, and the entire SD capacity could be utilized.

8. Enable more direct access to the “sample import” menu. A simple way to achieve this would be: long press on a pad + Menu/Enter = direct access to the SD card file tree (in other words: [Samples] folder), then choose the sample with the main encoder, press play/stop for pre-listen/stop, press again Menu/Enter to load the selected sample on the selected pad (and possibly "Exit" button to cancel the operation and go back to the main screen)

9. Waveform representation on the screen and automatic zero crossing snapping function. This is essential for a good loop point adjustment, to avoid click/pop noises on looped samples.

10. Add a truncate and a time stretch function for samples.

-Electribe 2 Synth:

11. Have the step edit for Oscillator edit on the Electribe Synth just like in the E2S.

-Both the Electribe 2 Synth and Sampler:

File Management

12. Add the ability to save and load different pattern sets (.all pattern files) and associated sample sets to and from the SD card, and an improvement in terms of file management (copy, paste, duplicate files, create folders, delete, rename etc.). It would be preferable not to have to rely on a computer for this kind of thing, and make the Electribe really standalone so we could save our sample-sets (and also our pattern-sets) in several .all files, with different names.

Editing

13. The units should have the ability to copy/paste bars/notes around the whole machine.

14. Improve the step sequencer as the current workflow is clunky and often problematic. Recommended: make the step sequence menu circular so you can left arrow from the on/off screen to the velocity screen and implement a step record function as was present in previous Electribes.

15. Direct access to editing various modifications/parameters of each step. Recommendation: maybe a second mode with the Sequencer button (like the Part Mute button with Solo mode) [example]: press Sequencer button once, it lights, and the Electribe is in Sequencer mode (just like it is now), press the Sequencer button again, it blinks, and we are in step edit mode (with circular menu) press again it goes back to normal Sequencer mode (again, just like the Part mute button) .

16. The units should have the ability to enter notes or chords in sequencer mode and the ability to nudge notes.

17. Key transpose in sequencer mode and make transposing of whole parts easier.

Step jump

18. Units should display the steps in the Step Jump mode (just like in the Sequencer mode). This is essential to see where the steps are we want to jump.

19. Unit should have synced step jump so it stays in time on release, because the step jump is so powerful and unique to the Electribe, but it goes off time to other sync'd midi devices if it's even a little off.

20. The units should have the Step Jump actions and changes recorded and reflected in the sequencer in NORMAL record mode.

Performance

21. Pads should blink in Mute mode. This is essential to know which track is currently playing in mute mode.

22. The units should have the ability in Mute mode to press/hold the Mute button to select tracks/pads and chose record mute on/off, and add freely assignable mute groups instead of only 13/14, 15/16 being able to be set to cut each other off. This should be possible to set for any pad combination.

23. Direct access to part erase. Recommendation: Press the Part Erase button once, the Electribe acts just like it is now. Press again, the Part Erase button blinks and we can erase directly (and completely) a part (by pressing the corresponding pad).

24. Revise the arpeggiator to include Up/down, random, and scales.

25. Units should have the ability to loop individual bars.

26. Units should have the option for per part play speed: allow a single part to be played at half speed / quarter speed or other option. Display

27. Revise display screen to display more information: knob values; FX info; ADSR graph. This would greatly increase productivity and enable quicker editing.

28. Decay and release could be separated. A simple way to implement this would be to use the shift key to edit the release amount.

29. The units should have a visual display of scales and chords played on each part.

30. LFO's should be parameterized by musical values.

31. The units should have the ability to set velocity numerically for each part; 1-127.

Global

32. Create shortcuts for Pattern "Chain Repeat" and Pattern "Chain To".

33. Song mode is lacking: One of the greatest features of the predecessors (older Electribes) was the ability to create entire songs by setting the unit to automatically play patterns in a specific order to build a complete song.

34. Add the ability for per part MFX send level.

35. Add the ability to be able to assign the X-Y pad to do different modification parameters and save that setting with each Pattern.

36. Revise the manual to include details about MIDI implementation and the unit’s voice architecture as well as any improvements. MIDI in/out

37. The units should have the ability to enter notes or chords from an external MIDI controller in sequencer mode.

38. The units should have the option for MIDI local on/off and/or midi thru and MIDI channel choice per part (should allow part layering).

39. Have the units send CC automation values to MIDI out for improved functionality with other equipment.

Many Electribe 2 users are extremely pleased with the instrument and find the new Electribes to be incredibly useful and fun music production tools. In addition, most Electribe 2 users also feel that Korg addressing these issues would help these instruments reach their full potential and likely result in a revived interest in the machines and increased sales.

Sign this petition to help make the Electribe 2 and Electribe 2 sampler updates a priority for Korg, Inc. We are requesting that they address the problems with additional updates so we can make the most of these incredible machines.