Korg Electribe Wave Review

In this video, Jason Donnelly, aka DJ Puzzle, shares his thoughts on the new Korg Electribe Wave groovebox for iPad.

His verdict? ‘Not so stoked’:

My honest not so stoked review of Korg Electribe Wave. For the price ($19.99 intro price soon to be $29.99) this app does not pack a lot of sounds and features compared to other apps like Grooveride GR-16.

This is a fun app don’t get me wrong BUT it has a handful of shortcomings that just really bummed me out.

It doesn’t support AUv3 or IAA. You get 25 presets for the synth. There is no metronome click or count in. There is no undo/redo. The init patterns all contain a small amount of midi information instead they should just be blank IMO.

Overall I’m kinda bummed when originally I wanted to be stoked about this app. Let’s hope Korg adds some features for free in a future update and not in app purchases.

Have you given Electribe Wave a try? If so, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!

18 thoughts on “Korg Electribe Wave Review

  1. I bought this straight away, despite not really having the money, and I love it. I am a bit bemused by all the negative feedback on this not having AU3 etc, it is a new electribe with a new (for electribes) synthesis method. The wavetable synthesis is very well implemented and perfectly attuned to what this is – a standalone groovebox.

    It feels to me that the export decisions are deliberate, you can export your stuff to files, and I have played with the IAA and that worked for me just fine, but if you make it an AU3 or incorporate it into Gadget then it would cease to be what it is – an electribe, a standalone groove box.

    Maybe they will port the wavetable synth into Gadget later on- it would work well, but no point in having the full sequencer/drum machine/song organizer parts to Gadget.. I cant see that you would use anything other than the wavetable synth in a DAW either, so why bother with AUv3?

  2. I can appreciate the lack of presets as unless they demonstrate features or show me how to do stuff I might not grasp right away I usually tweak, change and then over write stock stuff anyway. JMO.

    My one complaint so far is getting tempo lock to actually lock? I turned on tempo lock and yet tempos are still changing when I switch my patterns? Hmmm.

    Besides that, been mixing it with some of my MS2000BR patterns and they sound very good together. I do use Grooverider as well so for me it’s not an either/or issue, it’s more of a “hell yes!” as I’ll always happily take more sonic firepower for my iPads. JMO.

  3. I understand posting a “not so stoked” review of a brand new app but maybe pair it with a neutral or positive one for a counterpoint reference. I love Electribe Wave and wonder if this video by One (not stoked) Guy is going to (if anything) hurt initial sales which could slow or lessen development on the app itself (worst case scenario but not impossible).

  4. This review is utterly short sighted and I don’t get the sense that DJ Puzzle is a fan of grooveboxes. GR-16 is mentioned which is indeed a great app, but didn’t failed to point out that it is completely based on the electribe workflow. 25 presets?! Saying this alone proves the reviewer doesn’t know how grooveboxes work. On the electribe hardware there are no “sound” presets, duh. I’ve owned most of the hardware Electribes and I can assure everyone, Electribe Wave is a gem. In fact it’s surpasses previous Electribes in so many ways! You actually have presets now LOL! But saying there are only 25 misses the whole point of having an Electribe. It’s about the sound design and with the motion sequencing you really can do some fun things in a live set. Imagine motion sequencing with wave table synthesis! Wow! The per bar pattern editor is absolutely brilliant after you get some notes inside, but the reviewer dismisses it just because they didn’t take enough time to look more closely. The motion editing is stellar! This review is really a shame, and uses a negative catch phrase to get more attention. This is arguably one of the coolest apps Korg has released and it surpasses many of the previous Electribes in functionality.

  5. No sample import and and no au support is a big shame nobody who really makes music with an ipad can deny that. All in all a cool app but without these features I like to support more the small Companys like Bram Bos, Audio Damage, Beepstreet or Icegear… Sorry Korg maybe you bring an update for all your apps. Gagdet would be awesome if it could hosts au´s. I mean if even small companys are able to include au why a big concern like Korg does not do it? Its a shame…

  6. It does have IAA. The very initial release didnt. This review i feel was fairly close minded. Its a really solid release from Korg.

  7. I don’t mind critical reviews, honestly I think most modular stuff is pretty lame in comparison to max and realtors but whatever, I’m not a “modular” person so I don’t chime in and waste peoples time. I get a feeling from this review that this guy doesn’t really know anything about this kind of app and therefore his review is sort of pointless. I bought it and am pretty impressed as I used to own all the original tribes and this one fits in that mole nicely. Just a shame this negative review is getting so much traction, I hope it doesn’t turn people off what would be a fun bit of software.

  8. I would still love to know the reason behind bringing this out in its current form as opposed to making it into gadget. What makes this unique when compared to importing a similar wavetable synth into Gadget?

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