Korg ElecTribe S (ES-1)

Back in 2000, this little beast brought sampling to the Electribe family, letting you chop up loops and build rhythms on the fly in a way that felt like pure electronic magic—no computer required.

At its heart, it's a PCM sample-based workstation with 12-voice polyphony across up to 10 parts: one time-slice part for loops, nine one-shots, plus accent and audio-in parts that gate external signals for killer basslines or leads. Load up to 150 samples (100 mono, 50 stereo) totaling 95 seconds mono at 32kHz sampling rate, tweak them with multimode filters, pitch, level, pan, reverse, and motion sequencing to record knob tweaks in real time. The 16 velocity-sensitive pads and step keys drive a sequencer with 128 patterns (64 steps max per part) and 16 songs (up to 256 steps), complete with tap tempo, part mute/solo, rolls, and fractional BPM. Effects shine with a tempo-synced master delay plus 11 insert types like reverb, distortion, phaser, and resonant filter, all dialed via intuitive knobs. Connections include stereo/mono audio in with mic/line switch and gain knob, dual mono outs, headphone jack, full MIDI In/Out/Thru, and SmartMedia slot for backups— all in a super-portable 300 x 225 x 55mm metal chassis weighing just 1.28kg.

Over two decades on, it's earned a cult following for its hands-on groove-making and time-slice wizardry, though some note the sample time feels tight by modern standards and SmartMedia is a retro hunt.