KP3 Touchpad Dynamic Effect Sampler

March 27, 2008

The KP3 Touchpad Dynamic Effect Sampler combines features from both the Kaossilator and the Mini-Kaoss Pad in a desktop based format with stunningly cool LED lights underneath the touchpad based control system that follow your finger. What’s more you get the ability to sample sounds, use MIDI, and store the whole mess on an SD Card.

KP3 Touchpad Dynamic Effect Sampler

Korg’s KAOSS technology has been embraced by DJs, musicians and producers alike. No other interface is as intuitive, immediate or just plain fun to use. By simply touching, tapping or sliding your finger over the touchpad, the all-new KP3 allows you to control multiple effects parameters and manipulate samples in real time. On stage or in the studio, these gestures and moves can become powerful and expressive performance elements. More than a processor, the KP3 is a complete instrument allowing you to manage, recall, and play back samples; sample on the fly; and add dynamic processing to any audio signal or to the samples themselves. A new pad lighting system places 64 individual LEDs in an eight by eight grid under the pad, providing visual cues as to the current program, held position, etc. – it can even scroll a custom message across the pad!

The KP3 comes equipped with 128 great-sounding effect programs Sure, the traditional essential effects are there – delays, flangers, etc., and they sound amazing. But using newly developed algorithms, the KP3 also provides fresh, exciting effects such as a grain shifter, decimator, a vintage analog style filter with a tone-bending drive circuit, and expanded EQs that are controlled directly from the pad. And moving beyond effects, there are also drum grooves and even RADIAS-inspired vocoder and synthesizer sounds that can be played free-form on the X/Y pad.

Four Sample Bank buttons on the front panel allow you to create, play and save both looped and one-shot samples on the fly. All samples are recorded using high resolution 24-bit converters, and are stored in16-bit/48 kHz format. Samples can be saved on a Secure Digital (SD) card or transferred to computer via USB. With both mic and line inputs, the KP3 allows you to sample from a wide variety of sources.

Time-Slicing chops a sample into separate parts. You can use the Program Memory buttons to turn these individual slices on or off in real time, creating new rhythmic patterns from the original sample as part of your performance. Sampling and effects are totally integrated in the KP3, so you can sample through the effects, and even resample the entire output to create powerful, multi element samples.

A single USB connection allows the KP3 to share sample data with a computer. An editor / librarian program is included so you can build libraries of samples, and edit them using your computer. The software also allows WAV and AIFF files to be loaded into the KP3, and includes pitch correction for samples not created at 48 kHz. This graphic software is valuable not only for editing samples, but also for creating, editing and saving programs and global data. The stereo inputs and outputs can be set so the KP3 can run in-line to an amplification system, or hooked to the effect loop jacks of an audio mixer.

Available for $399 about £199 from ThinkGeek.com

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