Korg Mini Kaoss Pad

Thomas D and Jack Thomas · Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:35 pm

Anybody use this fx unit? Any comments or complaints?

532nm · Post by **532nm** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:51 pm

i had the original...it was weak, aside from being able to do instant reverse on incoming signal.

cant imagine a smaller version being any better. maybe though.

check harmony central reviews.

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:59 am

the kaoss pads aren't that great of toys. They are GREAT for live performance situations. What they are neat for is to implement their midi interface into ableton live and use it on a return track, with some extra work you can create your own chains of effects and control them with the kaoss pad. The interface stays extactly the same as on the kp turning the effect knob will cycle through different effects pressing mute can mute incoming signal, xy coordinates can controll different effect parameters. And so on I find it much more useful for that. On top of that what you can do with extra midi utilities like midi ox or the midi translator coupled with a midi yoke midi driver you can "section off" the kaoss pads and creating for example different buttons or different areas and for example split the screen into four to be able to controll four virtual effects at once.

The effects on the kaoss pads are ok but the units were not intended as effect processors for studio tracks.

I will mention one more thing. They are very very good for resampling sounds. If you have something that makes noise for example a circuit bent board, or a sampler, or even your computer. It has a lot of mangling possibilities to change the sound quite drastically. It's great for making your own sample libraries.

I would highly recommend the kaoss pad 3 if you are into live performance or djing. It is a very very nice touch to those two areas of music. Other then that I would not recommend it for others.

I love my kp2 and do use it often but I am a live perfomer and sample producer.

Thomas D and Jack Thomas · Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:26 am

I bought the mini Kaoss pad. It's a great addition for live pa's and DJing like you said. I would never use it in the studio (I prefer VST fx anyway), but it's awesome for live applications. thanks for your input so far.

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 11:01 pm

and like I said before when you get bored of it, read the manual about the midi, disable all the screen message output except for x , y, and screen touch and gimme send me a pm I'll send you an ableton live project containing an example of virtual effect control from the kp

Thomas D and Jack Thomas · Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:45 am

On my minikaoss pad, the output signal is kind of weak. It's definitely not as loud. For instance, if I use say, the pioneer 600 or 800 and press the effect send, the music gets considerably quieter. When I actually start using the XY pad, the volume of the effects get loud, but the signal from before is still quiet. any idea on how to fix this?

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:20 am

well actually that's a good issue with running the kp's in direct mode.... it's between dry and wet so it's mixing between effects and the original signal... a better way to use the kp's is through their fx loop mode, where you stick it on your mixers fx send (for this mode you gotta switch the switch on the back to fx loop mode)

also most factory presets come with the fx depth knob out of whack.... what you gotta do is find the optimum effect level for YOU and then save it into one of the quick keys.
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whoah!

sorry dude I just came to a sad realisation, khehe the mini kp only has two memory buttons, and no midi so all my previous blabber is probably useless to you. however there is a way to adjust the effects depth on it at least so it says on korgs website....

anyways I guess that's all the help I can be. I wonna get a kp3 but it just seems not worth it to spend that much money on it