Korg Kaossilator Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer

by Korg

Product Features

• Included Items - Owner's Manual, parameter sheet, four AA "test" batteries
• Programs - 100 including synth basses and leads, natural instruments, chorded sounds and drum sounds
• Outputs - Stereo line out (Dual RCA), mini headphone out with volume control
• Power supply - 4 AA batteries (6V) Approx 5 hours battery life (with alkaline batteries) Optional AC adapter-ready (DC4.5V available from Korg)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches ; 5.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000ZJWZYU
• Item model number: KO1
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,281 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
  • #2 in Musical Instruments > Keyboards > Electronic Keyboards > Synthesizers & Workstations
  • #5 in Musical Instruments > DJ, Electronic Music & Karaoke > Electronic Music
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Kaossilator 2 Palm-Sized Phrase Synthesizer

Boasting a supercharged sound generator, Kaossilator 2 delivers excellent synth and drum sounds spanning a wide range of genres, plus dramatically expanded loop recording. Use the internal mic to record guitar, vocal, or other audio sources--and layer them infinitely. The Organic Electroluminescent (OEL) display provides superb visibility. Add to that a touch slider for ease of use, microSD card data saving, plus a built-in speaker and battery power. All of these features reflect the enhancements incorporated into the sleek and exciting Kaossilator 2.

Korg Synthesis at Your Fingertips

The unique interface allows melodies and phrases to be played by simply tapping or sliding a finger across the Kaoss touchpad. Horizontal motions control the pitch; vertical motions control aspects of the tone such as filter cutoff, feedback, or modulation depth. When using a drum kit program, multiple sounds can be played simultaneously, and you can even play the touchpad as if it were a drum pad. The intuitive design and amazing flexibility of the touchpad allows users who are not keyboard players to perform easily, as well as creating performances rich with tonal changes.

The Organic Electroluminescent display provides superb visibility. View larger

Create performances rich with tonal changes--no keyboard required

150 Built-In Sounds Covering a Full Range of Musical Styles

Korg's acclaimed synthesizer technology has been meticulously packed into this sleek, compact format. The 150 ready-to-play sounds cover a broad range of styles including hip-hop, house, dubstep, new disco, and electro. In addition, the Kaossilator 2 provides a solid set of synth sounds such as synth lead, synth bass, acoustic sounds such as piano or guitar, and even sound effects for DJ use.

Play melodies and phrases simply tapping or sliding a finger across the Kaoss touchpad

Featuring an intuitive design with amazing flexibility

Play back performances created using the master recorder

Accurate PCM Drum Sounds

PCM sound generation provides drum sounds and drum performances that are more realistic than ever. There are 15 Drum Kits in the Kaossilator 2. Each Drum Kit consists of instruments such as kick, snare, and hi-hat. In addition, there are 25 Rhythm Loop patterns that let you create drum phrases simply by moving your finger. The lineup of sounds covers numerous genres, so you'll be sure to find the drum sounds you need.

Musical Scale, Key, and Note Range

Even if you've never played a musical instrument, the Kaossilator 2's Key and Scale features ensure that the notes being played will match the song being performed. Use the Key setting to specify the musical key or "root". Choose any of 35 scales, ranging from popular scales such as chromatic, major pentatonic, and minor blues, as well as unusual scales such as Spanish, Ryukyu, and Raga. By using both the Key and Scale settings to match the song, you can play perfect solos without a single wrong note. In addition, the Note Range allows you to specify the range of playable pitches. You can set this to a narrow range to ensure that melodies will be played accurately as you intend, or to an extremely wide range to allow unexpectedly dynamic and unconventional phrases to emerge.

Gate Arpeggiator Expands Your Performance Power

The fifty built-in gate arpeggiator patterns can automatically generate phrases and beats by simply moving a finger across the touchpad. As a new capability of the Kaossilator 2, you can now edit the arpeggiator's gate time and swing settings so that musical phrases are created exactly as you intended.

Loop Recording Allows Intuitive Overdubs

The Kaossilator 2's Loop Recording feature can overdub touchpad performance as many times as you like. By adding layer upon layer to a simple phrase, it's easy for anyone to create amazingly intricate tracks. Thanks to the Scale/Key settings, the results will always sound musically appropriate, each and every time.

Dual Loop Recording Banks

The two Loop Recording banks can be used alone, or used together for truly dramatic results. By combining the two loop recording banks, you can create new performances that were not possible on earlier Kaossilator units. Different sounds and phrases can be recorded onto each of the two loops. These loops can then be cross-faded or muted, or the loop length can be changed in real time to create dynamic live performances. Unwanted loops can be erased and rerecorded while playback continues, so you'll be able to create DJ-like performances on the Kaossilator 2 without the sound ever stopping.

Record and Loop Nearly Any Source

The Kaossilator 2 offers both an internal mic as well as an auxiliary mic input. This combination allows the loop-recording of nearly any audio source. Plus, you can easily mix different audio sources, so that as a loop phrase created using the Kaossilator 2's internal sounds plays in the background, you can overdub your own rap, vocal, or other external sound, or enjoy a loop recording session with a musical collaborator--such as a guitarist.

microSD Card Slot for Data Storage

A microSD card can be used to save loop recorder data. In addition, performances played on the Kaossilator 2 can be recorded using the master recorder, and stored on the card. Whenever an important musical idea begins to take shape, it can easily be saved, and can even be used later as part of a studio production. This is also a convenient way to share Kaossilator 2 performances on the Internet. The Kaossilator 2 also acts as an audio player, and can play back performances created using the master recorder. Listen to your best performances for comparison, or share them with your friends.

Operation Linked with Korg iKaossilator for iPhone

You can use the Kaossilator 2 together with Korg's iKaossilator app for the iPhone/iPad. This allows audio data to be transferred between the Kaossilator 2 and iKaossilator, and lets you use the two devices in a BPM-synchronized performance.

Although iKaossilator and the Kaossilator 2 share Kaossilator name, their sound generator and recording style are completely different. While iKaossilator uses a PCM sound source, the Kaossilator 2 uses a modeling synth. And while iKaossilator provides a five part sequencer that lets you freely insert or remove notes as you perform, the Kaossilator 2 allows unlimited overdubbing as well as recording of external audio input. By combining these two with audio data that utilizes the advantages of each, you can vastly expand your performance possibilities.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 108 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost limitless October 19, 2009

By R. McGrath

Amazon Verified Purchase

Ok, so this thing is kind of a toy, but my oh my, what a toy it is. I'm absolutely in love with. I'm kind of an acoustic musician. I play acoustic guitar (don't even own an electric) and upright bass, and any other box of sound I can get my hands on. Most synths and whatnot never seemed worth my money. I saw this little guy when I went searching for something I could use with special-needs students. I wanted something you could produce sound on without needing to know anything about playing an instrument. The price was right, so I got it, and the kids have loved it. I first thought it was a nice toy for the classroom, but then I started practicing on it myself, and I just couldn't believe how involved you can get with it. Once you unlock the little loop extender (from 8 beats to 16- you can find the trick on Korg's website) you can really get inventive. Anyway, for those thinking about it, whether or not you're experienced in music, it's a whole lot of fun and it can be very expressive. I'm feeling like I'm getting solid enough at it that I'm going to hook it up to a PA and play with a jam band. I'm even trying to scrap some cash together to get the KORG KAOSS Pad Dynamic Effects Processor so I can really get lost. You can hook the yellow guy into the red guy and get a whole new level of groove. Here are my pros and cons that might help you decide if it's for you...

PROS)
1)With the arpeggiator and the 16 beat code, mixed with sound effect parameters, you can find nearly endless amounts of new rythms to work with. If you feel like you hit the end of what you can do on it, you are just on a temporary plateau; more will come....

2) With some fancy rechargable batteries, this thing seems to just go on and on. It's so portable, I have it on me nearly at all times. I look like a geek with my studio headphones on tripping out on a campus bench all by myself, but I'm already married with a kid, so I'm more interested in my groove then looking cool.

3) With a little work, it's practically the easiest drum machine out there. You have some limits on actual drum sounds, but it is just so easy to set a groove, put it down, and pick up another instrument to play along with.

4)It's very versatile and intuitive to use. My students, who are fairly low functioning, have a great time playing along, and even my two year old likes tapping on the trackpad to a beat. It's fun for most folks.

5) The versatility of the programmed scales, ranging from arabic and mixolodeian to ragas and dorian, seem to express any, and I mean any emotion you want it to emit. With some practice, you can seemingly get any hard-to-express scence. It's like painting pastoral scences across the cultures of the world with your index finger. It's like Bob Ross' and Rick Steves' impossible love child singing you to sleep every night. (please, somebody get that joke).

Ok, now the CONS
1) The 100 loops and sounds programmed on here are mostly aggresive dance kind of sounds. I'm a ambient kind of guy, and like I said before, I like my acoustic sounds. They're are hardly any great acoustic sounds on here, and if I could reprogram it a little, I'd put on some Mellotron sounds, like flute and strings, and other more organic stuff. The strings and whatnot on here are pretty cheesy. The piano ain't bad, though, and that gets points.

2) You CANNOT program anything onto it. You got your 100 sounds and that's it. It gives the K it's own signature sound, which is fine because it's cheap and kind of a toy. If I could have uploaded new sounds or samples, I would have peed my pants with excitement. Unfortunately, I sit here continent and limited.

3) This last one is my biggest complaint, and it would have been great if Korg had thought this out. It's a small thing, too Maybe they'll read this, see my genius, and send me a corrected version of their device.

This "small thing" it lacks is the only thing that makes this device a toy for me. Otherwise I would have considered it the neatest gizmo ever. You CANNOT adjust the volume of individual sounds in your loop. Say you lay a fat drum beat and a chunky bass line. You go over to the sound effect pad to add a little hiss or sizzle, or over to the chunky lead synth pads to add a hint of a melody in the background. Often times, there is no putting it in the background. You're stuck with the volume that goes in. The Korg folks boast that you can just keep adding stuff, but I've found after 4 or 5 elements, you get really noisy loops really fast. I would have liked another button that would have let you adjust the master volume of any sound you were adding. The way around this is to use a multitrack recorder and set your loops up into that, but now your portability is gone, not to mention that instantneous groove element. Even if your multitrack is a small one, now you're running wires instead of just your headphones.

Otherwise, I think of this yellow box like the Game Boy invented for music geeks like me. It's really nice, and in the two months I've had it, it's been a nice retreat from my daily grind.

Hope this helps! Read more ›

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars KAOSS fans will Love the KAOSSILATOR March 2, 2008

By Mike90125

The Korg Kaossilator is billed as a `Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer' and if you want phrases to loop and make your own creations, this is the machine.

Dynamic = The X-Y touchpad surface allows for limitless real time manipulations of patches. Phrase = This is a phrase machine. Each preset is a sound/phrase. Other Kaoss Pads had some synth and drum sounds, but were also effects processors; the Kaossilator is all about sounds and loops and making its own noises, rather then manipulation of others; hence no inputs on the Kaossilator.

The Kaossilator looks similar to the other member of the Kaoss Pad family, this time in yellow. About 4 by 5 by 1 inches; 4 `AA' batteries power it and free it from AC supplies. Front panel has the touch pad, knob for selecting patches, and three buttons for controlling record/play, scale, tap tempo, and other parameter. RCA outs on top next to the AC jack.

Fans of the Kaoss pads should love it. This fills the void for Kaoss fans used it mostly for making sound, as opposed to the former Kaoss pads, which were more about the manipulation of another instrument's sounds. Kaoss pads have some wonderful sounds and drums, but a limited number. The Kaossilator has 100 distinct patches.

Patches are grouped as follows: 20 Lead, 10 Acoustic, 20 Bass, 10 Chord, 20 SE [Special Effects], 10 Drum, and 10 Pattern, 100 total. You will become a scrolling machine navigating the 100 selections, it makes for sometimes busy work, but that's part of what makes it an actual instrument that you play. Yes, I'm talking to you, Guitar Hero.

So how do you play it? With no piano keyboard or guitar frets for navigation, how can you stun the masses with that riff in your head?... The touchpad is set up such that sliding from left to right will give you two octaves of the patch. Notes? This is where the Kaossilator shines; over 30 scales to choose from to break out of your riff rutt. Ionian is the default, so if you play the first patch at power up; L00 Ambient Lead and scroll left to right, it sounds like someone playing two octaves of the C major scale. Chromatic and Dorian and Phyrigian are in there of course, but also Raga Todi, Arabian, Japanese Miyakobushi, and Major and minor blues scales, or turn it off and go completely microtonal.

A button on the bottom lets you select diff types of gates and arpeggios, taking you out of the lock step of strict 4/4 time. A card is included that lists the 50 diff gate arpeggiator patterns on one side, and the scale list on the other. The categories for patches are givenon the card also, but you'll need the users manual or your brain to retrieve the specific names of the 100 patches. Again, it being a real instrument, faves phrases will soon stand out and burn into your head; the Power Chord patch 55 is one example, adding sorely needed guitar distortion to de-sterilize a loop.

It's all about timing when stacking sounds, but the Kaossilator makes it easy enough; just dial in a patch, preview it, hold the record button when you want to add it to the loop. Drum patterns and drum sounds may be reach for first, then stacking bass, accents, rhythm, and then you can solo over the whole thing. It's easy to get stuck in the preset techno patterns for starting your loop symphony, but just as easy to create your own rhythmic loops using any of the preset sounds.

The AC Adaptor is not included, but that will just weigh ya down, the battery power option is huge plus and sorely needed; a set of small self powered iPod-ish Speakers and you're a mobile one man Kraftwerk. Read more ›

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great meditation device, too May 9, 2008

By Roquentin

Took me all of about 30 minutes to master the button combos needed to build, save, and edit some very satisfying multilayered loops. Those who haven't really put one to good use may dismiss it as a toy, perhaps because it's so easy to use and appeals to more than just trained musicians. But it's an extraordinary little device, particularly considering its portability. I just want to mention one unexpected benefit that I've realized: it's a great tool for meditation. Something about slowly building loops (starting with a thick, swampy bassline for example, or just a string of distorted, echoing phrases), and hearing them go round and round and round in your head . . . it becomes like chanting a mantra. At the end of a session, I feel as if I'm waking up from a deep, hypnotic trance. If you work for a living, include about 15 or 20 minutes of Kaossilator in your lunch hour. Great stress reliever.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome February 10, 2010

By Eric C. Williams

Amazon Verified Purchase

Length: 9:05 Mins

This is a fun little toy / musical instrument that I have had trouble putting down since I picked it up a couple of days ago. There's not much to add to what others have said: It's a great way to decompress and lay down some nifty beats. I think it deserves to have a video review up here so people can see it in action. In the video I give a short intro to the Kaossilator and then create a beat on it. My little song is not very good -- search around for Kaossilator videos on Google if you want to see what this thing can really do -- but it shows you what someone who does not play an instrument and who has only used the device for less than 5 hours can do with it. Enjoy!