A new Groovebox

Hello everyone,

I need your advice to replace my actual groovebox : Electribe 2 Sampler.

It's a good machine to start with. Its really intuitive and allowed me to be introduced to hardware, making full tracks on it and stop losing time on Ableton where I was distracted by too many plugins / sound available.
I just feel it lack in term of audio quality. For example low become fast muddy and imprecise, (hard to associate kick and bass without it dribble from everywhere) and the high (cymbal, charley etc.) lot of aliasing, not really good effects - who add more aliasing (sensation of crenelage and numeric artefact…) maybe its due to the quality of the convertor I dont know.
I think I just need a more punchy sampler. (I owned a TR-8, DX100, Korg KPR-77, but was still going back to my Electribe. It just suit better my workflow : having everything in one stand alone machine and being able to switch from project to project)…

I have readed a lot about what's were available from old machine to new one.
I never tryied it but I like the ideas of old sampler who add grain/color to the samples.
(thinking about 12/16bit sampler s900/950, EMU-EMAX II, EPS16, MPC60… but these machine got a lot of cons : either too low sampling memory, keyboard based, rack… Is there a standalone groovebox that got the color/punch of those old sampler? It would be associated with my Mackie MS-1202 (used for analogue distortion) and an Alesis 3630 compressor.

My reasearch lead me on :
- ASR-X (I’ve read sequencer is bad but I can still do it with ableton).
- Yamaha RS7000
- Roland MV8000/8800 (doesn’t sample in low bitrate)
- MPC Renaissance?

More expensive but maybe save for a :
- Analog Rythm
- Spectralis (Not sure about this one, wont need the synth engine… On my electribe I wasn't using at all the waveforms osc)

My choice for the moment is more on the ASR-X / ASR-X Pro, i’ve read so good review on it.

Linking some examples of sound I render I would like to reach

- D-Knox ‎- Meditation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcUQK_ENb6g
- Greg Beato - When Monkeys Attack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PuusC0RM-U (I know he saves to tape, would help for the warmer sound…)
- Dana Kelley - Armageddon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1mlywv59lA
- DJ Trebluf - Strikin In Da Hood (look like dr660 sound) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwTFY5lLre8
- DJ Baby Pop - WICKI STIK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwKmChmAfW4
- Terrence Dixon - Midnight Hours (I know TD is an MC-303 user) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUzdegIbKes
- Robert Armani - Kick Off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCEX1HAenGc

Really heavy drums, dirty and distorted.
I'am not going to samples records, will mostly use sampled drums, bass and some hit, tone sound (downloaded online).

Hope i've been accurate on my demand,
Thanks in advance !

Try the Boss SP202. Fast. Simple. Low bit rate. Inexpensive. Under appreciated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyfEC4AO_VY

MPC 2000XL will give you all the groove in a box you need. Hard, punchy solid sound, classic MPC workflow but with enough modern touches to make life easy, tight sequencer. And the prices are not too bad, around £500 should get you a decent one.

Of the other units you mention, forget the RS7000 and ASR-X, they have their good points, but they both have really sloppy sequencers. The MV8000/8800 are pretty good but feel quite clunky, definitely not as purposeful as an MPC. The Spectralis is a great sounding unit, but it is really complex, I would not use it as a main sequencer but it's a great toy to have around.

what about an OP-1?

Mikelundy wrote:More expensive but maybe save for a :

- Analog Rythm

I think this may be your best bet or maybe an Octatrack based on the pounding Techno you're making. I don't want to state the obvious but the sound quality on those videos is terrible, so don't try and go for 'that' sound.

Another suggestion is to wait for the MPC Live to drop and then add overdrive and distortion FX boxes at a later date.

Mikelundy wrote:Hello everyone,

I need your advice to replace my actual groovebox : Electribe 2 Sampler.

It's a good machine to start with. Its really intuitive and allowed me to be introduced to hardware, making full tracks on it and stop losing time on Ableton where I was distracted by too many plugins / sound available.
I just feel it lack in term of audio quality. For example low become fast muddy and imprecise, (hard to associate kick and bass without it dribble from everywhere) and the high (cymbal, charley etc.) lot of aliasing, not really good effects - who add more aliasing (sensation of crenelage and numeric artefact…) maybe its due to the quality of the convertor I dont know.
I think I just need a more punchy sampler. (I owned a TR-8, DX100, Korg KPR-77, but was still going back to my Electribe. It just suit better my workflow : having everything in one stand alone machine and being able to switch from project to project)…

I have readed a lot about what's were available from old machine to new one.
I never tryied it but I like the ideas of old sampler who add grain/color to the samples.
(thinking about 12/16bit sampler s900/950, EMU-EMAX II, EPS16, MPC60… but these machine got a lot of cons : either too low sampling memory, keyboard based, rack… Is there a standalone groovebox that got the color/punch of those old sampler? It would be associated with my Mackie MS-1202 (used for analogue distortion) and an Alesis 3630 compressor.

The eternal dilema of finding one box that can produce whole tracks and does sampling well, and sound good....without spending huge amounts of cash!

If you don't need FX ITB you should check out an MPC3000. Not cheap but amazing old school sound and very good workflow. Not 12 bit, but it sounds way better to my ears than modern samplers. Not cheap either. Run it into a mixer for FX.

As a cheaper alternative if you like the Electribe workflow I can highly recommend hooking up an old school sampler to a regular Electribe. You have the great sequencer and workflow of the Electribe combined with a great sounding akai sampler for cheap. This has now become my all in one box, kind of!

They work together very well and the midi timing sounds very tight thanks to the good midi spec of the S5000. I would recommend finding a sampler with an FX card but if you don't you can route parts from the sampler into the audio input of the Electribe and use the nice reverb. Everything is mixed inside the sampler by routing the Electribe audio into the inputs of the sampler.