Review: iElectribe offers synthy goodness for the iPad

Ready to drop some block rockin' beats? Look no further than iElectribe for the iPad. Although using its hardware counterpart might feel more rewarding, iElectribe is a pretty great (and affordable) alternative when you're in need of a rhythm synthesizer.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/apple/reviews/2010/06/review-ielectribe-synthy-goodness-for-the-ipad.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[naphini]

Kinda makes me wish I had an iPad

 

[housewarmer]

And you can customize the background image should you tire of the red brushed metal look – just a fun little bonus feature.

 

[ShadowBob]

All the links in this article are broken, FYI.

 

[diskrete]

Someone needs to tell Korg that the iPad is only for consuming content, not creating content!

 

[chromal]

Looks okay, except the stupid vacuum tubes. I suppose they "add analog phatness" to the sound? *sigh*

 

[Singularity42]

In some distant future the software and end result will both be free.

 

[giggity]

Nice feature being able to export to .wav. The big downfall with the majority of the music-creation apps on the iPhone is that you can't export anything, so you're essentially stuck recording live through the shoddy 1/8th inch port.

But "old school beats?" Really? If anything is old school, it's the typical rock band.

 

[dobrien75]

Looks okay, except the stupid vacuum tubes. I suppose they "add analog phatness" to the sound? *sigh*

Just being near pictures of valves will add phatness. Duh!

 

[dobrien75]

old school beats?

Well strictly speaking tribal beats have been around a lot longer than rock. Old school beats is late 80s, early 90s I reckon

 

[dobrien75]

I am actually interested in the iPad for this kind of thing. Primarily as a control surface though. I wonder if Native Instruments will release something for the iPad?

 

[Killing Time]

old school beats?

Old school beats is late 80s, early 90s I reckon

wonder if a teen would say the same thing.

 

[Epicurean]

I'm a huge fan of this App. Especially the built-in Helpfiles are great. But what amazes me, is how many different sounds people are squeezing out of this thing.

 

[dobrien75]

wonder if a teen would say the same thing.

Who cares what young people think?

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!

 

[dobrien75]

But what amazes me, is how many different sounds people are squeezing out of this thing.

That's subtractive synthesis for you. Once you get your head around the standard signal flow, it's amazing what you can come up with, then add FX to really get things happening.

 

[Destron]

I am actually interested in the iPad for this kind of thing. Primarily as a control surface though. I wonder if Native Instruments will release something for the iPad?

I am also excited for the synth apps that will surely be coming out for the iPad. However, we'll have to see about NI -- their apps are huge processor hogs since the early days. I expect to see more digital analog synth hardware ports -- they ran on very limited processors.

 

[Hagen]

Looks okay, except the stupid vacuum tubes. I suppose they "add analog phatness" to the sound? *sigh*

The actual physical electribe has the tubes and they are mimicing the appearance, as well as a large chunk of the possibilities. Plus it's $10, not $400+. There's a lot of music creation goodies that I would pick up if I had an iPad

 

[dobrien75]

However, we'll have to see about NI -- their apps are huge processor hogs since the early days.

True enough. Power costs. That being said, I wouldn't give up Komplete 6 with a gun to my head

 

[dobrien75]

There's a lot of music creation goodies that I would pick up if I had an iPad

List please. As usual I need to find new gear and learn to use it, instead of writing songs with the amazing stuff I already have

 

[AlanC]

One of the first iPad apps I bought despite the fact it's aimed at the "modern electronic" styles. Hasn't stopped me getting some Jarre type sounds out of it.

The great thing about it is that Korg have taken full advantage of multitouch. You can hit multiple sound buttons at the same time and they all play. You can operate a couple of the knobs simultaneously. That puts it a good cut above an equivalent simulation on a PC that you operate one control at a time with the mouse.

Looking forward to more from Korg. An MS-20 would be nice...

 

[BEIGE]

thanks for this - I just got my iPad today and wanted a real demo of what this thing is good for and this was perfect. I'm surprised at how good this sounds - crunchy and deep. Making some good poor-man's Toecutter tracks:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7990437/beigecutter.mp3

 

[dobrien75]

thanks for this - I just got my iPad today and wanted a real demo of what this thing is good for and this was perfect. I'm surprised at how good this sounds - crunchy and deep. Making some good poor-man's Toecutter tracks:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7990437/beigecutter.mp3

Trippy All you needed was to build into a banging kick track and you would have a bunch of hippies running around by crazy people! (crazier than normal anyway )

 

[Destron]

Looking forward to more from Korg. An MS-20 would be nice...

MS-20 would be great, but how would you control it? We would need some sort of iPad wireless midi controller. That might take about 10 years since it took this long just to get a bluetooth keyboard...

 

[Hagen]

Looking forward to more from Korg. An MS-20 would be nice...

MS-20 would be great, but how would you control it? We would need some sort of iPad wireless midi controller. That might take about 10 years since it took this long just to get a bluetooth keyboard...

Actually people have already been using the iphone as a MIDI controller for awhile. a quick google for iphone midi controller gives several hits. The Korg DS-10 is pretty great. The Electribe appears to be up to snuff. I just wonder when some of the other synth manufacturers will follow suit. Moog? Roland? Dave Smith?

 

[Yoozer]

The best part is that you could even consider to have a low-resolution/light-weight-corner-cutting algorithm for the iPad and then have all the note information sent to a rendering server which drops a 24-bits 96khz wavefile in your inbox.

Rebirth's on the iPhone too - but they could probably revise the interface to make it fit.

 

[giggity]

It would be cool to have the little finger ribbon "mopdwheel" that the actual electribes have. that thing is hugely fun

 

[Destron]

Actually people have already been using the iphone as a MIDI controller for awhile.

Actually, I'm thinking in the other direction -- in order to properly play a synthesizer, you need a midi keyboard controller and a way to hook it up with low latency to your iPhone.

 

[funkatron]

Electrify on the iPad is also worth a look. I found it a little better for composing than the Electribe.

 

[neodorian]

Plus it's $10, not $400+.

$10 plus $500-800+ worth of iPad.

 

[EmeraldArcana]

How is this thing not a drum machine? It totally is a drum machine, other than the fact that it is not actually in hardware. It does everything you would expect a synth based drum machine to do.

This was the first paid app I bought for my iPad.

 

[frankie1969]

Looks okay, except the stupid vacuum tubes. I suppose they "add analog phatness" to the sound? *sigh*

Of course they do! Everyone knows that tube amps are better than digital, so clearly virtual tubes are the best of both worlds.

And for only $49.99 more, you can buy the Monster Cable app, which applies their amazing deoxygenated phase-matched copper technology to your iPad's WiFi transmitter! It guarantees that the radio waves carrying your audio signal will only pass through the nitrogen part of the atmosphere, which has an odd number of protons therefore emphasizing the odd-numbered harmonics. Any true audiophile will be able to detect the improved tone quality instantly.

 

[irish]

There is some software that patches into Max/MSP on a workstation, providing the ability to setup controls on the ipad/iphone itself. I haven't investigated this yet to see if the workstation can be cut out of the equation once the control setup has been written, but I would imagine it has. It also seems that the 3.5mm audio jack is being used quite a bit as a generic serial interface between any given component and the ip*d

 

[Robofish]

OH my lord. I'm drooling.

Though I'd still rather has the real deal.


The DS-10 they made for the Nintendo DS is a pretty slick little synth as well.

 

[Hagen]

Plus it's $10, not $400+.

$10 plus $500-800+ worth of iPad.

Yes but clearly people already bought the iPad and it is used for al ot more than just the Electribe, so I wasn't counting that cost. $500 for the iPad plus a few bucks on apps gives you a synth, an electribe, a theremin, a MIDI controller, etc.

 

[DeltaOP]

Would like to see Korg do their Kaosillator product on the iPad.