Korg Electribe ESX-1 Cubase Device Panel

Note: This device panel will only work with Cubase Pro. I created this panel to facilitate using the ESX-1 as a sound module with Cubase. I wanted to explore a workflow where sequencing and arrangement is primarily done in Cubase, but then later the patterns are dumped into the ESX-1 via MIDI with MIDI clock sync.

Features

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

Future Updates

• Fix Drum Strip Panel Sizing to enable Channel Strip Panels for drum parts

ChangeLog

• v1.0 (03/07/2025)
  • Initial release

Download

• Download v1.0

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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 ESX-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 ESX-1. This is not necessary, as the ESX-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 ESX-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 ESX-1” to link your MIDI track with the Electribe ESX-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 ESX-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 keyboard parts (Channel 1-2), 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 keyboard part.

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

Channel 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 the keyboard parts that you can load on MIDI tracks for channel 1 and 2.

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

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 panel 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.

Keyboard Part Panels

From a MIDI Track assigned to a Keyboard 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 1-2 to open both keyboard part panels at once.

Global Panels

Most global settings are controlled by the ESX-1 on MIDI Channel 1. Click on the gear icon under the Device Panel section, then expand “Korg Electribe ESX-1”, then click on “Global” to access the panel that provides you with controls for the two keyboard parts, as well as Global controls such as the Effects section, Accent Parts, Swing, and Roll.

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 ESX-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-ESX1-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.