Which groove box to buy, ESX-1, EMX-1 or else ? Pls help

[denistu007]

Hello All,

I am starting an acid-jazz project and I am thinking of incorporating some nice groove loops? The style that I'll be pursuing is Brand New Heavies, Incognito and Jamiroquai. Basically a lot of jazzy/soul grooves mixed with deep house.

I've never used a groove box before and would appreciate if you could help me make decision which one to buy. I know there are ESX-1, EMX-1 from KORG but I am not sure which one to take and whether they are a good choice for this type of music at all (it seems that they are more suitable for Techno).
I might use some deep house groove, but not Techno.

Thanks a lot!
Dennis Wink

[KarmanHardon]

Hm...

An MPC machine? Way more flexible than any drum machine.

My friend just upragded to the 2500 model and it's a charm. 16bit 44.1 though. I don't get that one.

[shaft9000]

I have both EMX & ESX and have used MPC3000 and 1000.

EMX is not recommended unless you really know your programming to tame it; it's too bright and gritty for what you seem to want to do, unless you are willing to dedicate some outboard to warm it up all the time, or adjust EGs to take the spike off the high frequencies.

MPCs are great for composition of simple beats w/o many tweaks or fx, but i feel they are best used as MIDI sequencers for external gear, or for the usual hip-hop beatmaking . They are overpriced compared to the Korg X-boxes though, imo. Some will feel otherwise.

I say try the ESX - it's a lot warmer than the EMX and you can load your own samples or find samples of every friggin' drummachine in history on the web. If you don't like it sell it for a minimal loss. I got on with it right away, and have made some satisfying, deep & smooth house cuts utilizing this box.
Of all the modern grooveboxes, nothing short of a Spectralis sounds as warm and full to my ears as the ESX, no kidding.

i have made mp3 demos of both EMX & ESX:

ESX-1 - deep/trancey tune I made called SWEETPEA the bit-crushing towards the end turned out nice imho . All ESX, no external FX or processing.

http://www.awrongturn.com/SWEETPEAedit2.mp3


EMX-1 - redux of Art of Noise's 'Moments in Love' the saxophone solo is played on Korg Prophecy, the mellow brassy pad is the Novation Supernova 2
* keep in mind this is NOT typical of the EMX's character - it's usually much more aggressive and bright. i 'tamed' it for this song*

http://www.awrongturn.com/AONmilbyshaft9000.mp3

[jksuperstar]

I agree with shaft9000, the Korg's are easy to work with, and I think are much more amenable to jazz and grooves. MPCs are good for hip-hop beats, but don't lend themselves to much tweaking, improved sequencing, or realtime modification. I've owned both an MPC1000 and an ESX, I'd recommend the ESX for sure.

[BobTheDog]

Wakey Wakey thread.

Are the two synth voices on the ESX the same as the synth voices on the emx or cut-down in some way?

Cheers

Andy

[Antimon]

The two "keyboard" parts on the ESX-1 are pretty much the same as the other parts (i.e. they play a sample), with added note functionality - i.e. they have one MIDI channel each and respond to note ons by playing the sample at different speeds. All the other parts are packed into one channel and mapped to one note each.

This is reflected in how you use the sequencer on the groove box - you program the keyboard parts by setting triggers to on or off just like with normal parts, then you can change the note for each trig by switching focus with some button and using the 16 steps as a keyboard - a bit cumbersome to my taste. I'm usually satisfied just using the nine first parts - never got my head around the stretch and slice parts.

Don't know how the EMX works, but I suspect it's more a VA-synth approach to how you program the thing.

/Stefan

[BobTheDog]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for the info.

The EMX is a VA type synth so it sounds like they are quite different.

Cheers

Andy