Customer Reviews

Korg mini-KP Kaoss Pad Dynamic Effect Processor

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buy the red and black Mini KP to run your sounds THROUGH. If you want the one to make sounds WITH, you buy the yellow "Kaossilator". That's the short of it.

I have both and both are good for different reasons.

The yellow Kaossilator is for making phrases. In otherwords in an electronic synthesizer and phrase machine. It also has a beat maker in it and you can modify, record and layer the sounds any way you'd like. The yellow Kaossilator is pretty much a "One-Man-Band" device! Very powerful and I would not consider it just a toy IMO. People can write entire music albums with that one device.

Now for the Mini KP Kaos Pad.
I Bought this through Amazon for $109 SHIPPED at the time so shop around and you could get lucky. It came the business day after Christmas and I had ordered it a day or two before so the free shipping was amazingly fast and awesome!

The Mini KP is for modifying existing sounds. Yes, it does have a few synthesizer like sounds in it (I believe about 10 or twenty) but the other 80 channels are for running sound "through" to modify those sounds when you press the pad. It won't play any sounds you run through it on the RCA input to output unless you press the pad and let the sounds through. When you move your finger around on the pad the sounds are modified according to that effect parameter, as shown in the manual. (pitch, frequency etc etc etc the list goes on and on)

So you can't really use the MiniKP as a stand alone one man band device like the Kaossilator. It is more along the lines to modify sounds than create them, although it does have a very very small slice of some built in sound effects that are pretty cool on their own like one I relate to sounding like " evil harsh wind" that you control the depth and pitch of. Much unlike the Synth like qualities of the Kaossilator.

As you can see they go hand in hand nicely. I'd even recommend hooking the MiniKP up to a Bliptironic 5000 and using the kaossilator separately and you have some crazy meditative grooves to be made! See my other reviews for the Bliptronic 5000.

I hook all these little instruments up to my 5 channel dj effects mixer and get jiggy with it. I also hook the miniKP up to my bass guitar sometimes for some funk! Have fun with it folks! You know you need them both!

This is practically a Kaoss Pad at a fraction of the price. a very interesting and useful tool for adding real time special FX to any type of music. Though intended mostly for the DJ or electronic musician this can be very creative and useful any more conventional type of music! you get 100 effects and two memory locations to store your favorite Fxs and settings.
a BPM control button that sets the right tempo for the music you are interacting with, very simple to use with spectacular effects at a very reasonable price. For the complete music at your fingertips experience the mini Kaoss pad can also be combined with the Kaossillator finger synth!!!

i have been using kaoss pads for about 6months now,(kp3, and dj mixer wpad), this is my favorite simply cause its so small and runs on batteries, i have a 400cd changer, i run my rca line out to the kaoss in and kaoss out to my receiver, hit random play, and go to work, the fun is instant, from old blues, to hank sr, to joy division bass lines, to world music from the Smithsonian, i find a bank(62!) with cool delay, find a nice spot on the pad, and hit hold, just listen to the whole disc, every once and a while go and the touch the pad and get a whole new sound, very cool machine for those who cant get enough of their favorite cds, this will allow you to manipulate songs, many times, really sounding better than without the effects, or maybe its just more fun but if you want to incorporate into recordings, it takes a little time, mainly cause you have to figure out which effects(total of 100) sound best w different types music, once you get to know each effect, you can do really cool things, one way to explian is, 15 years ago, i would sometimes pull out all my effects, run them together, get a loop, and tweak all the knobs till i got bored, it was lots of fun, but took so long to hook up, and 9volt batteries littered my floor,and the cords, to this day they are every where in my room, well kaoss pads provide common effects(delay, loop, distortion) and lets you control many different effect sounds(knobs on your effects) on the pad w your finger, when i first heard of the kaoss i was a sceptic, but i have bought korg effects for some time now, so i tried it out,and couldn't be happier, esp this one, the price is right, and the power and sound quality have not been compromised, great for all ages, pros and beginners, one of the only things i really wished had been around in the 80s and 90s, when i spent so much time and money on effects.

The mini KP has most of the effects of the larger KP3 but lacks the KP3's mic input, MIDI, lighted touchpad that remembers gestures and SD card slot for samples and stored settings. But the Mini KP can run on 4 AA batteries and is about a quarter the size of the KP3.

Both models only have stereo RCA ins and outs. Why should only DJ's benefit from these effects? It should have at least mono 1/4" in and out jacks (like an effect pedal).

Great fun in a tiny package.

[DW]

I love it. I enjoy using this device in ableton live with my other midi devices. It adds a fun dynamic to your performance. If you are getting into electronic music production and want to look cool when you are playing and add fun and interesting effects to your music, you definitely want to purchase this product. However, I do believe you need an audio box to plug it into in order to record the effects that it is applying. Other than that if you just want to play around with it, hook it up to your mp3 player and start messing around. BUY IT!

what more do you want? you can make all sorts of f/x & noises, some really grating & some that fit right into the song.

and it's battery powered! best thing for hooking an ipod to & making some quick dub mixes.

Now I'm just waiting for a kaoss pad ipod touch app...come on korg!

PLEASE NOTE: I received the KORG Mini KP only a few days ago so my experience is limited.

I bought the miniKP as an experimental tool. I'm into alternative electronic and acoustic music so I thought it would give me a little bit more variety. My intention is to use the tool with keyboards, but so far I have only tried it on vocals, guitar, and an MP3 player.

Overall, the product seems fine. The quality doesn't feel "top-notch", but I am very pedantic with that kind of thing. For example, one of the buttons is slightly skew, and the battery cover moves a little bit. This may be something that most ppl would overlook. It's not like I'm going to send it back over these things.

Sound - the effects are pretty good. One thing with FX processors seems to be that they always leave you wanting more. Fair enough, this is a very small and portable device! I applied effects to tracks and incoming audio and produced some interesting results. I must say though that I wasn't like "wow! this opens up so many opportunities!". My first impression was "ok, nice, but I'll have to learn more and see if I can actually apply this to songs". As a performing musician, I'm not really looking to simply play around, but in fact to write music so I'm pretty critical. Still, I know that the device has been used by famous musicians so it's definitely not just a toy.

Guitarist - this won't take the place of real kick-ass distortion/delay/etc pedals

vocalists - has a few nice reverb and delay effects

DJs - i think this is most useful for you BUT there don't seem to be that many effects that an average DJ would use. Might be wrong here, but I can't see a DJ wanting to mash up sound to this extent.

Noise artists - you'll definitely have fun with this.

FOR
small and portable
easy to use and learn - very intuitive!
batteries/AC
fun
variety of uses - instruments, voice, keys etc


AGAINST
100 effects still leaves you wanting more
has a few synths that sound great but are very hard to actually control in terms of pitch
doesn't feel cheap but also doesn't feel superb quality
reduces output volume

bottom line: still early days to completely summarize here, but so far i'm enjoying the product and will continue experimenting with it. I definitely don't feel ripped off so don't worry about that aspect!

This device is brilliant. I've been a DSP tweaker for years, mostly working with virtual environments such as Reason. While there is no real substitute for the deep processing capabilities of a program like Reason, this little box comes as a breakthrough and a much needed efficient effects processor for anyone interested in sound design and manipulation.

The effects are grouped by type, including some classics and some pretty far out digital mangling effects. If you want a complete list of effects, the Korg website has a user's manual that lists all 100 effects. This was something that did not come with the unit, and I'm grateful for the reference. Memorizing 100 effects by number is not my bag, and when I have something specific in mind it's helpful to look up the effect, spin the dial, and start processing. On the other hand, if you're working with unique audio clips it's always a nice surprise to see that some unpredicable twists are made.

One major caveat: using the line out will drop your audio by about 50%. This is a real downfall. Instead, I just patch a 1/8 cable to the phone jack, route that to the recorder, and I have no drop in level whatsoever.

There is little information on the effect that changing from "direct" to "send" will have, but most seasoned users know what that means. I found that running drum patterns through the KP while in send mode, and then touching the pad, I could create new drum clip variations, with effects. That alone makes for hours of fascinating experimentation.

Bottom line: this is a very affordable, reliable audio effects processor that cuts some of the guesswork and theory out of DSP and allows just about anyone to dive into some crazy effects.

I bought this item for my son for Christmas. The item was shipped well and in a very timely fashion. My son was pleased with the Effect Processor and I have heard nothing negative from him. I would use this seller again.
Thanks!

Excellent product works as it is advertised. I have been using it for minor music production and it adds all the effects I've been looking for with my MIDI trigger Finger, absolutely love it and don't regret it.