Korg Electribe EMX-1 Cubase Device Panel

I’ve been trying to embrace a DAWless production workflow, testing out various grooveboxes and their sequencers to come up with a setup I’d like. The Korg Electribe EMX-1 is very fun to work with standalone.

I decided to approach using it as a sound module, with Cubase as the primary sequencer, during production… and then dump the MIDI patterns into the device for live performance later.

I’ve noticed that the Device Panel feature, which is unfortunately only supported by Cubase Pro, makes it possible to access all the controls across different parts quicker than using the hardware interface. This also reduces the wear and tear on the hardware itself. I’ve mapped out controls for everything except for part muting, which isn’t possible with the Cubase Device Panel features due to the complex binary logic that is required to properly mute/unmute parts.

Features

• Channel Panel for Synth Parts (MIDI Channel 1-5)
  • Individual Inspector Panels for Synth Parts
    • Part Common
    • Modulation
    • Oscillator
    • Filter
• Global Panel (MIDI Channel 1)
  • Swing
  • Roll Type
  • Effects 1-3 (Type, Edit 1, Edit 2, Motion Sequence, FX Chain)
  • Synth Accent Level and Motion Sequence Switch
  • Drum Accent Level and Motion Sequence Switch
• Drum Part Mixer and Modulation Matrix (MIDI Channel 10)
• Cubase Drum Map

ChangeLog

• v1.1 (03/04/2025)
  • Resolves issues with preset loading across banks
  • Adds multi-channel mixer as default panel
    • Replacing drum mixer and drum modulation panel
  • Adds channel strip panels
  • Adds global inspector and strip panels
  • Adds Electribe logo and tubes artwork for global panel
• v1.0 (03/01/2025)
  • Initial release

Download

• Download v1.1

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Installation

Go to Studio > More Options > MIDI Device Manager.

Click on the “Import Setup” button.

Choose the XML file that was downloaded from this page.

The only choice will be the “Korg Electribe EMX-1”. Press the OK button.

A window will pop-up allowing you to choose which preset banks to use with the different MIDI channels for the EMX-1. This is not necessary, as the EMX-1 loads patterns globally for all parts.

We do need to let Cubase know which MIDI Port to use to communicate with your Electribe. Click on “Not Connected” to display the MIDI ports that are available on your machine.

Select the appropriate MIDI port that your Electribe EMX-1 is connect to.

If you already closed the bank assignment pop-up window, you can also assign the MIDI port to your device from the MIDI Device Manager window.

Usage

Enable Device Panel Section

Right-click over the Inspector for your MIDI track to reveal customization options, click on “Set up Sections”.

Near the bottom of the list you’ll see a “Device Panel” section. Click on the checkbox to enable that section.

If you prefer, feel free to drag the Device Panel section up under the “Routing” section.

Link MIDI Track to Device

In the Routing section of a MIDI track, click on the Output Routing menu, shown as “Not Connected” in the image below.

You will see your the MIDI ports available to your computer in the menu. These are shown with MIDI port icons on the right. MIDI Devices also show up in this menu without the MIDI port icon. Click on “Korg Electribe EMX-1” to link your MIDI track with the Electribe EMX-1.

Program Selector

Below the Output Routing and MIDI Channel menus in the Routing section, there is usually a numeric Bank and Program number menu available.

When your MIDI track is associated with a MIDI Device, the Banks and Presets configured for that device are loaded in this menu, and will send Bank and Program change messages to your device for the selected MIDI channel.

The EMX-1 only honors Bank and Program Change messages that are received on the Global MIDI channel configured under the MIDI menu of the device. By default this is MIDI Channel 1, so you should make sure you select presets from a MIDI track configured to use MIDI channel 1.

Inspector Device Panels

For your MIDI track, make sure to select MIDI Channel 1, then expand the Device Panel section.

Click on “Select Device Panel” to access a list of the panels that are available for the MIDI channel your MIDI track is assigned to.

When your track is assigned to a MIDI Channel associated with the synth parts (Channel 1-5), the individual panels can be loaded and used from the track inspector. Click on the ‘Common’ panel to view the Part Common controls for the synth part.

You can also choose to display the Modulation, Oscillator, or Filter panels.

Strip Panels

It’s also possible to display smaller device panels in the MixConsole window.

You can load the global panels that aren’t related to an instrument by choosing “Any” as the MIDI channel for a MIDI track.

You’ll have to right-click in the top section of the MixConsole and choose “Set up Sections” to enable the “Device Panel” section.

After you’ve done this, you can click on the “Select Panel” button that appears when you mouse over the panel header for a track.

Under Channel 1 > Global, you can load the panels that do not apply Globally, instead to any specific instrument track.

There are also channel strips related to each track that you can load.

Here we have the channel strips for Part Common, Modulation, Filter, and Oscillator.

General Panels

Drum Panel

Assign a MIDI channel to Channel 10.

Under the Device Panel section, click on the gear icon to the right of the panel selector.

Expand the “Channel 10” menu in the tree, and click on “Drums”.

The Drums Panel offers a Mixer style pannel on the left for general mixing and shaping the drum parts, and the panel on the right gives you all the options for applying modulations to the drum parts.

Synth Panels

From a MIDI Trak assigned to a Synth part, click on the gear icon in the Device Panel section to access the “Channel” panel that combines all the sections into a single window.

You can do this from each MIDI track that is assigned to MIDI channels 1-5 to open all the synth part panels at once.

Global Panels

Most global settings are controlled by the EMX-1 on MIDI Channel 1. Click on the gear icon under the Device Panel section, then expand Channel 1, and the Global folder, to access the “Global” panel that provides you with controls for the Effects section, Accent Parts, Swing, and Roll.

If you change to the “Any” channel, you can access panels that are an aggregate of other channel specific panels.

Choose the “Global” panel under Korg Electribe EMX-1.

This will reveal a panel that provides channel strips for each of the five synthesizer parts, along with global controls.

This panel, and the drum panel, are very powerful in helping you to shape the the sound of whatever MIDI tracks you’re throwing at the Electribe.

Drum Map

I’ve included a Cubase Drum Map for the Electribe EMX-1.

Under the Routing section, click on “No Drum Map” to access the drum map menu.

Click on “Drum Map Setup” to access the Drum Maps window.

Click on the “Load Drum Map” button.

Choose the “Korg Electribe MX Map.drm” file that was included in the ZIP file, click on the “Open” button.

From the Routing section for your Channel 10 MIDI track, you should see the option to choose the map.

After selecting the drum map, you’ll the drum sequencing editor for the MIDI parts, with the proper drum notes ordered at the top of the editor.