Korg KP3 KAOSS pad

[DeathShrimp]

I ordered a the Korg KP3 KAOSS pad off of musicians friend a couple days ago!
It gets in tomorrow to my house, I am beyond excited.

Does anyone in here have one?
If so, give me all the advice/tutorials/help you can, I would greatly appreciate it.

I want to be using it live as soon as possible, but I'm not going to do that until I'm completely comfortable with it.

[Dubreak]

I got a mini KP last year, loved it.. especially for live gigs with a laptop, ableton live and a BCF2000 midi controller.

I then got a KP3. Yeah, it's all I expected and more. It's amazing.
I got a 2gb memory card for it too. So basically it's an all in one creation tool; it's like a 4 track sampler (with resampling) and loads of cool effects.

With regards to tutorials, I didn't see any yet.. but after a few months using it and reading the manual, I think I've sussed out how to properly use it. It's really quite easy and intuitive.

The hardest part is getting used to the sub-menu shortcut keys, a lot of the functions are [shift] selected, plus there are a load of ways to input/select commands and access functions. But you get used to it by reading the manual a bit.

What can I say..? It's great. I can see why Brian Eno likes using them. You can make the lushest full sounding pads and drones from it. I usually sample a melody line from one of my synths into it, then slow the tempo of the playback right down slow. Say if I record a 120bpm melody, I'll then slow it down to maybe 40bpm or so. This way it stretches out the sound into a nice drone. And the best thing is the pitch-shifting algorithm is very good, very little audible anti-aliasing occurs even when slowing something down this much. Then you can do a finger motion on the touchpad and record the movement and have it loop over and over (the lights on the touchpad retracing your movement over and over too). Some amazing sounds alright.

Make sure to update the KP3 to the newest OS (from the korg website) for additional features and improvements. e.g. 4 new button 'sample-triggering' modes and improved sample volume adjusting features. I think it tightens up the midi sync too, Although I've not used it with midi yet. I haven't had to bother yet because the audio-in automatic tempo sync is usually bang-on time.

Enjoy it.

[rodge]

i want to touch one!

[sethastian]

Ditto on updating the software, important---

Got mine 2 months ago, and I'm already scheming to sell gear to get another one, it's just a great instrument.

One of the coolest features in it is this: after you to either load samples or sample on the fly in realtime, you can remove beats of the sample (e.g. beats '1' and '5') to create a completely new groove. And you can do it on all 4 samples, chopping them up individually, all in real time, and then mess with effects on the whole sheboigan. Sick. Straight up sick.

[DeathShrimp]

Yeah, i got it now, I just dont know where to start?

Id really appreciate it if you guys helped me with some of this stuff, because I want to be actually using the Pad ASAP and practicing lots!

I havent got any sound to come out of it yet

Im guessing I need a cord that will transfer from the KAOSS pad(midi)to my computer(USB)?

And then where do I go from there?
Like how can I actually get it to play through the computer?

Will it only come through a certain program?

Can I hook it up to an amp or a stereo?
Or do I need a mixing board?

Are there samples already on there, or do I have to pull them off of the computer?
And if so, how do I go about doing that.

Ive read alot of the manual, and it says nothing about playing the pad through a computer.





Sorry for all the questions, but its just really frustrating that I can use it yet! Im gonna buy cords tomorrow, Im just not sure what I need to buy.
Do I need to buy a memory card as well?
whhat are the specifications on that?

[sethastian]

To hook it up, you need to use the "Line Out" Red and White Phono/RCA cables on the back. Take a look, you should see "Line out" printed in White on the back of the kaoss pad. Hook those cords up to some speakers, or to your sound card on your computer -- you might need an adapter for this -- and you should hear the output of the Kaoss.

If you go shopping for cords, take the Kaoss pad with you, in case you need to ask questions.

Or if you have headphones, you can use the headphones jack to hear the output.


The usb port on the Kaoss pad is to transfer samples to and from the Kaoss pad from your computer. So you can take .wav or .aiff files off of your computer and put them onto your Kaoss pad, or take mangled loops from the kaoss pad and store them on your computer. You will need the software that came with the Kaoss in and a USB cable in order to do this. Alternitavely, you can sample directly into the Kaoss pad throught the "Mic" input or the "Line Input" on the back.

The Kaoss pad, (I believe), has a small internal memory. But if you want to store many samples, you should get a 1 or 2 gb sD card. They have these at best buy or comparable store.


Hopefully this will clear some stuff up. If you can't hear sound coming out of it, then it's not much fun to use!!!

[Thinktanx]

Originally Posted by sethastian

One of the coolest features in it is this: after you to either load samples or sample on the fly in realtime, you can remove beats of the sample (e.g. beats '1' and '5') to create a completely new groove. And you can do it on all 4 samples, chopping them up individually, all in real time, and then mess with effects on the whole sheboigan. Sick. Straight up sick.

Whoa! Never done this and never knew the kp3 could do this. Was this in the original OS? Can you explain how it's done? Or even just tell me which fx program to use, and I can figure it out pretty quick, I'm sure.

I really neglect my kp3. I need to stop doing that.

Cheers.

[sethastian]

I'm not sure if this feature is in the old OS, but it is in version 2.0 ---

To do this, load or record samples into the sample banks A-D (any one, or all of them.)

Once you have samples loaded, press SHIFT + Any Sample Button (A-D) corresponding to the sample you want to edit.

You will see the program bank numbers 1-8 at the top of the KP are all lit up in red. When you press any one of these, the red LED corresponding to the number you pressed will turn off, and the kp will no longer be playing that beat in the sequence. You can turn any or all of these off.

If you have more than one sample, you can switch the sample you are editing by pressing on a different sample's column on the touch screen, or you can just press the a different sample (A-D) button. But be aware that pushing a sample button will either turn it on or off depending on which state it is in.

In this mode, you can also adjust each of the sample's volume by pressing on the touch screen. (I know for a fact that this feature is only in OS 2.0).

This tool is invaluable if you load up 4 different drum percussion breaks, then start eliminating beats. You will come up with stuff that you just couldn't think of. It's also fun to record the output while "playing" the beats by turning them on and off while the KP3 is playing, beacause the KP3 always stays in time.