Ideal musical sketchpad to get inspired!

It´s pretty old, but I purchased one for cheap (€50) recently as an impulse buy and I am extremely happy that I did. A lot of the reviews that I read for this product just don´t do it justice and could cause readers to miss out on a seriously great creative tool.

This is a pocket synthesizer with looper and audio input; more like swiss army knife for creating synth and bass lines, laying down basic ideas for tracks etc. It takes a while getting used to using the touchpad rather than a traditional keyboard, but once you do, the results are extremely rewarding. This brings me back to some of the common negative comments that I heard about this device:

• no undo button => is there an undo button on a piano or a synth or any instrument that you play live? For me it´s the most natural thing in the world to practice a specific phrase until I can play it perfectly in time with different phrasings etc. If you do that, an undo button is not really that relevant. Plus, you can record any basic phrase idea on the second track, audit it, delete it and redo as long as you like. Then only when you are 100% happy, integrate or export the loop as an audio file and start using it.

• touchpad is difficult to play=> with the touchpad it is slightly more tricky to hit specific notes, but by no means impossible. I have pretty big hands, but I find that if I roll, rather than move my index finger, I can hit adjacent notes precisely and with ease, making it very much possible to record musically interesting phrases played live. But.......you need to realize that this is not a master keyboard with graded hammer action. If you want great keyboard action, get a proper master keyboard, not a pocket synth. I´m saying this, because in this context Korg have included three principal features that will allow you use the touchpad in a very different and musical way:

• the gate arpeggiator

• the possibility to assign many different types of scales to the touchpad

• the possibility to change the length of the scale on the touchpad

These features are there for a reason and once you start using them properly you can let rip even quite virtuoso solo lines, and most basslines and comping patterns become a piece of cake.

I make music with people who are quite opinionated about hardware, and in the beginning when I showed the Kaossilator to them, the were like ¨does not look serious enough¨ or ¨nice, but I don´t know if it´s for me¨ Yesterday when we were mixing down some tracks, I decided to take this thing to play some solo lines and suddenly all skepticism had disappeared.

In short: this device is great fun, very practical, and if you play it like intended will allow you to create any kind of line phrase or beat that you want, even in a semi-professional context. If you can get one for about €50, don´t hesitate! (even if it´s the ¨plain¨ version without the sampling feature)

You can’t go wrong! This small portable gear will make you inspired in no time.

If you have never tried a Kaossilator before and want to give it a try buy the Android or Apple iKaossilator app before buying this one. I did this myself and now I have the hardware as well. The app is amazing and this one is even better because of the touch pad X Y. Its hard to explain in words what happens to you when you touch the pads for the first time and start to zigzag your fingers randomly and still get good sounds. It’s no weird at all... In fact this pad concept is something to be studied and improved by all music companies. Korg did it wright and there is a lot of fans out there on the internets that will agree with me on this one. If you find a used kaossilator for a good price plese make a favor to yourself and get one. But please don’t go for the new model, the Kaossilator 2s. The “s” version is a complete design failure and very criticized by the musician community on the Kaossilator facebook group. It appears that Korg decide to remove one of the two loopers and with that removed the hability for a musician to make a live jam switching from one loop to another and build the song. Some times innovative companies take bad decisions. But if you buy this one instead you will have lots of fun cheering mini electronic parties to friends. If I’m correct, after some time you will fell in love with this gear, take it everywhere you go and start write good reviews without being paid by the japanese company. I think you will have at least some fun with it!

Fun studio toy.

Interesting little device. Has a decent sound for electric piano-type things, but drums are useless to me. Playability can be difficult, but key and mode settings allow you to tweak it OK. Not a must have, but I also can't get myself to sell mine.

Not the best $150 purchase, but offers fun tweaks

Ok not my best choice in $150 gear purchase, but has some fun little tweaks. I recommend buying a power supply (make sure the right voltage/current). Not as useful as its twin, the Mini KP 2

Multi-functional-portable-sampler and sesh machine

I honestly didn't expect the kaossilator to be as articulate as it is when buying it. I mostly use it for field sampling of chimes, sirens, wind [the lot] also great to take to a party where someone has a speaker with a line in, gets the dancers dancin' if you know what I mean...

Yeah its good

Its a lil bit of sunshine when you want to get lofi on the fly... its a great lil monster

dynamic phrase synthesizer

you have an idea? just listen to it very fast. or make a beat fast for live sets .or with your friends . full of sounds and FXs

Pocket synth for traveling and for live performance too

If you want pocket synth for traveling, this is great decision. You can also record from input or mic.