Like on most of the Korgs: easy to write live, cumbersome to edit afterwards. But since every channel is monophonic and it’s not a workstation, not a big deal
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It has a straightforward Roland-style vibe but with the added bonus of playing in melodies and drums with the touch strip. There’s some cool aspects to it like switching the automation style from smooth to stepped on the fly, and being able to turning off automation completely, while the sequencer is running. There’s no p-locks as such but you can get pretty granular by doing step edit stuff in the menu. And there’s a pattern reload feature so you can ‘return home’ after mangling things up. It’s not as fluid as modern Elektrons and takes a bit of getting used to.
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Id say this there is P locks. Its just not as easy to do as on elektrons. Step edit menu is quick enough once you get used to it, and you can do it with the sequencer running.
I also like stepped motion control, + repeat function.
One thing I really like is the ‘move’ function. Scroll across to random and it shifts all notes around the grid, but doesnt change which notes are played. So I write a phrase, copy it to another part, then randomise the 2nd one. Fucking amazing overlapping melodies.
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Amazing once you get the hang of it. So fast.
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Both the EMX and ESX are great for live, super intuitive, maybe limited in certain aspects, but I actually miss some of the features compared to Elektron. Korg really dropped the ball by not improving on this concept further.
This thing is 10x better than the useless retrig buttons on Syntakt:
Plus the Solo button. So useful.
What I don’t miss is the sound, I mean very literally the tone quality of everything that comes out of it. Weird enough, it sounds just fine played live in a club setting, but at a home studio and also recorded, there’s a “cheap”, kind of shallow feeling to it.
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Indeed, there are p-locks kinda, just not the ‘hold and twist’ type. 
Step edit mode is surprisingly flexible.
The move function sounds awesome, I need to try it!
@buska so many cool techniques in this vid.
At 3:32 when he switches to the 1/4 time pattern for the build, playing in the kicks with the arp strip, then drops back in with the next pattern… I have no words.
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Me too - another new technique to try out.
Absolutely - something I missed on other devices after using Solo all the time.
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As used here
Copied the bassline to another part, revoiced it, made few step edits. Done.
Also- sine wave sub bass holy speaker rumble batman. (That EP is full of it)
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