Just as it should be - speed/pitch (spitch, ha ha), +/- 2 octave range, variable by dedicated knob or data wheel entry and per sample, not global. You can't automatically play a sample chromatically but it's easy peasy to resample at another spitch or edit the pattern so the same sample plays back at a different spitch at different sequencer entries, along with pan, level and LPF, or even record knob movements for the preceding as part of the pattern.TGN wrote:How is the pitch on this?
There is also a Pitch Shift in the effects (tempo maintained, pitch changes, +/- 2 octaves, wet/dry balance) but, as usual, it's more for fancy effects than being musically useful.
The ES-1 does have some limitations but there are easy workarounds for most of it. The best £110 I've spent, easy. Seriously overlooked piece. If they'd not had matching drum and synth versions to go with it and not called it ELECTRIBE (yuck), it'd be a classic sampler like the SPs. Having no 'celebrity user' has probs counted against it too, I spose. As it is, no one wants them, so they're dirt cheap. Next to no decent videos about them on youtube. It's like they almost never existed. Weird.
Really good at mangling samples. I had a drum loop going last night and, with a combination of the filter, an effect and the global delay, could get it sounding like a synth line or doomy atmostpherics and all sorts.
Would be REALLY good for live stuff.
Probs not so good for one-shot sloppy hip hop drummers, due to the low sequencer resolution (max 8ppqn, LOLZ - altho there is Swing, apparently). But if, like me, you're into more loop-based stuff or four-to-the-floor techno, this is a machine well worth checking out. Think of it as being halfway between an SP202 and a 303, with a TR808 sequencer.
The MkII is the same machine, just with a metal silver front and a non-global modulated delay instead of the MkI's wah effect (altho I updated mine to the MkII OS, so I have that now too). The ESX is the red one with the starved-plate cheesy valve in it but fixes a lot of the functionality limitations of the first two and is basically a fully featured sampler. But the MkIs/MkIIs are so cheap and really great as they are, so well worth a look.
