Korg KAOSS Pad 3

This is a tool that is popular with electronic artists and DJ's but I have found this just as versatile for use with my guitar music. There are many styles of effects on offer here which can be utilised to your taste using the X and Y pad. The only naff thing I have to say about the KP3 is the vocoder, it's the cheapest part of the unit. Other than that, worth checking out! For an example of guitar based music using the KP3, click here - http://slownews.bandcamp.com/track/4

But I did have trouble with noise no matter what cords I used to connect it to my rig. It was a lot of fun to play around with and has very cool effects and the touch screen is great to input with but couldn't get a good enough output to use. Now I bought this second hand over Kijiji so I do not know if it was damaged in any way. I can see great potential though if I could get a clean output!

Don't get me wrong, the KP3 is a superb piece of gear that has sold thousands units, just like its predecessors.

The KP3 has all these great new features; more effects, more sampling time and options, a wet/dry fader..

It's hard to find any bad things to say about it, but my only gripe would be the price. This iteration just like the KP3+ (plus) have so much potential on paper, but just feels short when you're playing it. The sampling feature seems to have so many guts to it but it still relies on operations on the touch pad itself, which is pretty much always inaccurate since it's pretty hard to hit the right spot on the pad to achieve say a pitch note and record over or overdub the actual playing pattern.

Also the effect selection while pretty extensive, does not bring much more to the table than the KP2. There is newer effects, but I didn't use them at all.

What could be better on the KP3:

• A better support for external MIDI clock
• A better support for sample importing
• A way more precise touch pad
• Unbalanced connectors are fine for DJ gear, but no so much in the studio
• Crazier effects

Other's have spoken fairly of the power of this unit's FX, sampling, and looping. However, the KP3 feels just a bit clunky in that it has a shift key, and can switch context. The KP1 and KP2 did not.... with the exception of downtime-modes like setting up MIDI channels, the previous KPs were touch-and-go... and the operations of sampling, saving presets, etc NEVER disrupted the flow of playing in a "hands on" way (even without looking).

The buttons/lights/screen on the KP3 switch between at least modes: - main mode, where touch-pad controls FX and buttons ABCD start/stop/mute the Sample/Loop tracks, and keys 1-8 select Programs - Track Edit mode, where the ABCD keys select a track, the keys 1-8 will (dis)engage slices of the loop, and the touch-pad adjusts (relative) level of that Track.

Couple this with the fact that that the Shift key can dive into various menus, and Saving presets is a two-button, two-step, "confirm?" process... I feel like I spend more time looking at this thing, and less time "hands on/eyes off" FEEL-ing it out. Starts to feel too structured and organize to be "fun Chaos".

This is why I own two KP3s, but still kept my two KP2s, and one KP1.

Great tool for livesets

effecter

FX Processor

Having everyday fun in studio with dub and techno sessions.

Looper, delays, grain shifter, this thing has it all. There's even a vocoder and enough banks to store a multitude of patterns and settings. Although known for it's place in electronic production setups, it's equally at home processing guitar effects. Lots of fun to use.

This is a very interesting sonic tool. I run my it throught the effects loop of my amp and have had the most success with it there. This is a DJ tool, but on guitar it opens up a ton of sonic possibilities. Love how Matt Bellamy used one, so I would a Kaoss Guitar, and this thing is like nothing else. Great delays and filters. Great if your looking to sound like no one else. Not for the purist.