Rhythm Production Sampler
This box is the bomb! I am very fond of “lower grade” samplers, because of the characteristics they add to samples. One of my favorite samplers is still my Roland W-30, which samples at a maximum of 30kHz – very similar to this little Korg sampler.
The ES-1 is part of the first wave of Electribes, together with the ER-1 drum machine, and EA-1 synth. It is a rhythm sampler, very immediate and easy to use. The on-board effects are phenomenal, especially the most “extreme” ones like Ring Modulation, Distortion, and Decimator. The separate Delay is musical and lends itself very well to electronica styles.
The concept of Motion Sequence is superb, and it’s possible to record and play back your edits and “tweaks” in real time –
The sampling memory is a generous 90 seconds. I know that this doesn’t sound much in these days of gigabyte-streaming soft-samplers, but compared to old school samplers, is certainly more than adequate… plus, this is not meant to be a full fledged sampler, but a sampling drum machine, so the majority of sounds you will load in it will be extremely small drum, percussion and effect samples…
It’s now been superseded by the ES-1 MkII and the new ESX1, but it’s definitely a very useful piece of equipment.
Korg ES-1 audio demos
Here are the three on-board demo songs.
Korg ES-1 Factory Patterns
Korg ES-1 manuals
Korg ES-1 factory sounds
Korg ES-1 specs
| Year of release | 2000 |
| Polyphony | |
| Sound generation method | PCM sampling |
| Preset memories | 64 patterns, 16 songs |
| MIDI | In, Out, Thru |
| Sound expansion capabilities | load/save samples via SmartMedia card |
| Sequencer | yes |
| Arpeggiator | no |
| Effects | yes |
| Dimensions | 300 (W) x 224.9 (D) x 55.4 (H) (including rubber feet) |
| Weight | 1.28 kg |
Korg ES-1 links