[muso/tech] Kaossilator & Kaoss Pad 3

[TotalMink]

I have been looking at You Tube videos of these 2 things and I am absolutely mesmerised by them.  The kaoss pad looks beautiful, like something out of Buck Rodgers but with even better tunes.  I dont quite understand what beardyman is doing but I love it.  It seems to be a sampler/effects unit and seems to cost about 300 quid. The Kaossilator seems to be a synth thing. The kaossilator seems an amazing amount of fun and its only 100 quid.  Does anyone have either of these pieces of kit?  Would it be worth getting/do you need both?  Are they as fun as they look or too good to be true?  Will i be filled with buyers remorse if got either?


The Kaoss pad 3
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39n4wow8fWE[/youtube]

The Kaossilator
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeQOuNBuJwg[/youtube]

The Kaossilator & KP3
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYJlCZy4HWI[/youtube]

[The Boston Crab]

I think I saw Radiohead using one of these live, just fucking about with vocals. I don't have much affection for them usually (if you're reading...sorry, lads) but they were getting some proper wildness out of it.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Matt Bellamy of Muse has Kaoss Pads built in to his guitars to monkey with the sound. If you have a Nintendo DS you could get the Korg DS10 game, which has a kaoss pad on the touchscreen.

It does look quite fun but, in my case, I can imagine it being a bit of a white elephant after the novelty wears off.

[TotalMink]

THe DS10 option sounds good - but those red lights - droooool

[Cack Hen]

the ds-10 is so much fun! but if you want to use it for more than just a bit of fun, hook your DS up to an amp or something (i've never personally done this but i've been told it's safe)

[dmillburn]

The Kaossilator is probably the most fun gadget I've bought for years - had it about 5 months and pick it up almost every day for a quick 10 minute blast. It's incredibly easy to use (a monkey could get a passable tune out of it within 10 minutes) and completely addictive (two of my friends have bought one since I got mine). Battery powered so you can take it anywhere with a pair of travel speakers or headphones. There a few limitations, the key one being you are limited to 8 steps (or 16 with a hack involving holding down buttons on startup) and there's no midi so to record anything you only have the audio outs. As you get used to it the 16 step limit becomes less of a problem as you find ways to work around it on the fly and midi is less important as it's more of a live performance thing. You definitely won't regret it, one of the best purchases I've made in ages and even if you hate they hold their value well on ebay second hand so you'd recoup most of the cost.

A nice companion is the mini-kp, which provides 100 effects in the same battery powered portable form as the Kaossilator - it's basically a cut down version of the KP3 and can be picked up nice and cheap on ebay (I paid £67 for mine). Works great in tandem with the Kaossilator but obviously can be used with any audio source. It's far less sophisticated than it's bigger brother (no nice led patterns, midi, usb, proper sampling etc) but still a lot of fun, has the advantage of being portable and a nice introduction if you aren't sure about spending £300 quid. The effects are of similar quality with the usual reverbs, delays, filters, loopers, bit crushers etc all controlled by the touch screen. Again it's just really fun (we had hours of fun with it linked up to the TV remixing Family Fortunes on the fly) and well worth the money

DS-10 is great fun and also recommended but the kaoss pad screen doesn't really give you a feel for the real thing so try and find a music shop with one on display so you can have a 10 minute blast for yourself, once you see just how easy it is to get a decent tune going you'll want one for yourself .

[The Boston Crab]

the ds-10 is so much fun! but if you want to use it for more than just a bit of fun, hook your DS up to an amp or something (i've never personally done this but i've been told it's safe)

In fact, if you want to use it for more than just a bit of fun, hook it up to an amp and have a LOT of fun. I used to this regularly, screaming turbo squalls flying around my apartment complex. The management had a word.

[TotalMink]

Its settled then.  They will become mine, proably the mini version of the kaoss pad 1st  Thanks!

[Maximash]

I was looking for an effects processor for my live setup just recently so it was nice to come across the thread, so thanks TotalMink for starting it and dmillburn for that informative post :)

So, minikp for me!