Music Thing: Korg's Kaoss Pad 3
By Tom Whitwell 
posted August 4th 2006 1:22PM
posted August 4th 2006 1:22PM
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment:
Yes, it does look like the control panel from a TIE fighter. Yes, it could be a useful part of a Darth Vader Halloween costume. This is the Korg Kaoss Pad 3, announced this week after a leak on Music Thing. Kaoss Pads are fairly cheap digital effects/sampling boxes, but what makes them special is the interface -- a backlit touch-sensitive X-Y pad. When you move your finger over the pad, it changes the sound, tweaking delay time, shifting pitch, scrubbing a sample backwards and forwards. The first Kaoss Pad was introduced in 1999 as a DJ tool (even the new KP3 has only phono ins and outs) and pretty soon it started getting namechecked by the cool kids. Radiohead used them live to recreate studio effects, seen very clearly in this YouTube clip. Meanwhile, Brian Eno was collecting the things: "Kaoss Pads... are a way of taking sounds into the domain of muscular control," he said, as he does. "If you have a few Kaoss Pads in line, like I do, you can really start playing with sound itself, with the physical character of the sound." The KP2 arrived in 2002, with a bit more memory , a few more effects, and a more gig-ready aluminium case. The KP3 is again the same idea, but with still more memory, a USB connection, and SD card so samples can be stored and a crazy pixellated display which can, for no apparent reason, display scrolling text messages. UK Price is £315, and it should be in the shops in October.
Right now there isn't a single new KP3 available for purchase in the entire country. Anyone know what Korg's problem is in getting these devices to market?
Wait, what about the WWDC?
I'm ordering one now.
I found a kaoss entrancer used - it has all the audio effects of a kaoss pad (last gen), the same interface, except it has LIVE VIDEO scratching. about 50% of the effects are shit (wipes, dissolves, etc) but the res let you time scratch with live performance, it has like a 20 second buffer. REALLY REALLY fuckin trippy. worth it used , hard to find, and like $899 new
I have a Korg mixer with an integrated Kaoss 2 pad. Absolutely incredible the types of sound you can make very easily. In terms of mixing, it gives you so many options to mix the tracks you banged your head trying to figure out how to fit it in to a playlist. Definitely a tool that opens doors and turns heads.
Just got mine today and gota say its lots of fun. The KP3 Editor works great to store different banks of customized programs on mac or pc attached via USB which was not available in previous models. The only flaw with the SD card 'save program/sample' option is that you're limited to naming it to SNPrg:A-D with Bank:1-99 combination. Instead of customized name which would be an easier seek option if labelled correctly. I hope there would be a firmware/software update to this. Afterall both LED and LCD screens are scroll enabled. C'mon KORG, lets make it 100% rockin! A must buy for any live sound musician.