Korg ElecTribe A (EA-1)

Back in 1999, this little box kicked off the Electribe revolution, packing two full analog-modeled monosynths into a featherweight desktop frame that let bedroom producers and live performers sling acid lines and gritty leads without breaking the bank.

Each of its two parts rocks dual digital oscillators pumping out saw, square, and triangle waves, with ring mod, sync, and decimator tricks for wild textures, feeding into a punchy lowpass resonant filter, amp section, and per-part effects like distortion, tempo-synced delay, or chorus/flanger. Sixteen velocity-sensitive step keys double as a playable keyboard or pattern launcher, while real-time knobs capture motion sequences—your tweaks on cutoff, decay, or EG intensity get recorded right into patterns up to 64 steps long. Tucked into a super-portable 296 x 220 x 55 mm metal chassis weighing just 1.5 kg, it sports dedicated mono outs for each part plus mix L/R, a mono audio input for filtering external gear, full MIDI I/O/Thru, and a headphone jack—all powered by a simple 9V adapter.

Over two decades on, it's earned cult status for its raw, aggressive tone that slices through mixes, though some note the duophonic limit and basic envelope keep it firmly in the groovebox lane rather than polyphonic territory—perfect for techno heads chasing that vintage Korg bite.