It has 5 VA parts, plus the rompler parts. When I owned it, I only used the rompler parts for scratch drums when writing new songs/patterns, so I could do everything on that one box. I could crank out tons of patterns and variations and it was fun because the UI was great. I would take maybe the best 1 in 8 of those patterns and then turn them into “real” songs using the ESX and my own samples for the “real” drum parts. So the rompler stuff never made it past the sketch stage.
I really liked the sound of the VA engine too, for whatever reason it was very easy to quickly get the sort of sounds I wanted.
I recently bought and sold an EMX. The first thing to note is how beautiful it looks and how solid it felt. The knobs were solid and the anodized aluminum looks amazing in person. I thought it was one of the most beautiful objects I’ve ever owned. I bet this has something to do with it. The chassis made my steel/wood Deluge seem flimsy in comparison, somehow.
Glad the EMX-1 got the Bad Gear treatment, such a great-sounding device and great fun when you get the hang of it. Love the touch strip for performance. I paid £100 for mine last year so very pleased.
Edit: Has some cheesy samples on it but the kicks alone are worth having one for! Does a nice synthesised kick or two as well.
I’ve got the ESX-1 and I’m amazed how many “modern” features it has:
Song mode
Step rolls (aka ratcheting)
Recall saved pattern (iirc this is Func+No in Elektron-speak). You can also go from the saved pattern back to the tweaked pattern.
The tempo can follow external audio
128-step sequencer
VERY robust front panel with immediate access to almost everything you need to adjust during a performance
Really rather well-structured menus when you need them
Both machines have a strong 2000s character, both in sound and workflow, but I’m amazed how often modern manufacturers will hype a new function that the X-1s had more than twenty years ago.
That said, today’s instruments almost always do it better. I was also surprised how dated the MMT engine actually sounded — I sold my RADIAS last year and still thought it held up against newer gear. I guess the envelopes and LFOs were doing a lot of heavy lifting!
I first got an ESX-1 as I needed as sampler for playing backing sounds / loops live - that was a lot of fun but a little limited, and a fellow band member brought a Monomachine and the ESX became largely redundant or at least sidelined as we moved more into blast beats.
In the meantime, I decided that the EMX-1 looked interesting and I found one at a good price on eBay (the seller even agreed to stick it in a taxi and send it to me that way!) and it sort of blew my mind how good it was. the sequencer in particular is so immediate, and has plenty of steps with motion sequencing to boot that I’ve rarely used song mode.
The synth sounds are so-so, though not without their charms and doubly so when the valves are turned up to full (is there any other way to run them?), but the FX are actually rather useful, especially on external devices sequenced run back through the inputs – or even better gated by the EMX-1 – and then arpeggiated, for example. Lots of fun with noise boxes and monosynths.
The limitations of the synth engines, though there are plenty of them were, as I mentioned up-thread, why the Analog 4 appealed particularly to me as a next step.
Oh, and there’s a whole existing thread here about why it’s so good (and other opinions too of course):
It’s funny, I later bought a Radius because I really liked the core EMX synth sound but wanted more control over env, LFO, etc like you say. But the Radius was too polished and polite for me, the core sound didn’t do it for me in the same way the EMX did. I have no idea why I liked that particular VA sound so much, I completely understand other people not liking it, but for me it was all sweet spot. And as someone else mentioned the effects also helped.
ESX-1 was my first groovebox. Sold it and regretted it. I’ve had a EMX-1 for years now and still love it. The ‘assignable outs’ are underrated. The ability to just send a few of the synth tracks to separate outs for external fx processing is a feature I wish the Elektron digi boxes had.
I was really surprised at just how simply good the tracks sounded in this episode. I wondered how much multitracking and EQing he was doing, if any. It just Sounded Good.
Manufacturers used to focus on sounds that were designed to sit well together in the mix. At least the good ones did that. Take a Yamaha Motif workstation. I have the XS. You can lay in a drum part, bass, keyboard part, pads. On their own they sound nice but thin. Together it all meshes perfectly, by design. Even though they have per track EQ.
Every good demo I’ve ever heard of an EMX sounds great, I think I just have a taste for that era of flimsy rompler / VA techno. It might be “just” VA, but the options like waveshaping, hard sync and formant give it some nice range for the synthesis. I’ve never owned an electribe but I certainly would love to give one a try. The EMX is also a very attractive looking machine, visually speaking. I think without the option of a bunch of other newer synths / Elektron gear on hand, the EMX-1 might be near the top of the list of devices I’d want to purchase
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