With its ease of use and versatile set of features, Korg's Kaoss Pad has become a standard DJ tool and the effects unit of choice for live situations. It's fun to use, very responsive, and comes with Korg's reputation for quality. The KP3 overhauls the entire platform, featuring expanded effects (now 128), a new control pad lit by 64 individual LEDs, more sample capability, computer connectivity and more.

FEATURES
The main feature of the Kaoss Pad is its touch-sensitive control surface. Simply touch the surface and you activate the effect; drag your finger and it changes the parameters of your effect. Move it up and down to control one parameter, left and right for another, or even diagonal to control 2 parameters simultaneously. It's so easy to use that you really don't need to know what you're doing at all, and you will be able to master some cool sounds in about 10 seconds. When you do decide to jump into the next level of Kaoss Pad features, there's a ton of to play with in here.

The Kaoss Pad features a whopping 128 effects. Of course there are the essentials like filters, delays, reverb, and flanging, but they've also developed a bunch of new algorithms to give you fresh, untapped sounds from effects like grain shifter, decimator, a vintage analog style filter with a tone-bending drive circuit, and expanded EQs that are controlled directly from the pad. Korg has also included 15 synth sounds, drum rhythms, ethereal ambient sounds, vocoder programs and more. All of which are controllable from the X/Y pad. As for memory, the KP3 can not only store your most popular effects in the program buttons, but it has a hold button for saving the "sweet spot" on certain effects. The Pad Motion program can even memorize and repeat a fluid or complex gesture played on the pad.

The Kaoss Pad features a built-in BPM engine. You can use the Auto BPM function to detect the speed of any input source, adjust the BPM manually, tap in the tempo yourself, or even sync the KP3 to incoming MIDI Clock messages. Eight new BPM patterns can be triggered from the touch pad, allowing rhythm and bass synth patterns to be played, perfectly synchronized to the BPM.

The KP3 now has 4 sampling banks which allow you to play & save both looped and one shot samples. Plug into the KP3's line or mic input and sample up to 16 beats of sound through the 24 bit processor. Run the samples through the effects, just trigger it, or you can process a sound through the effects and then sample it. Use the touch pad to apply time-stretch, reverse-playback, pitch shift, or scratch effects to the samples for unlimited creative possibilities. You can also store these samples on an SD card or transfer to computer with the USB connection.

The KP3 is also a MIDI controller, sending out three controller numbers from the touchpad, and additional messages from the slider. The Sample Bank buttons send and receive note messages. Program Change commands and clock information can also be sent or received. The inclusion of MIDI IN and OUT allows even the most daring and complex KP3 moves to be recorded and played back by an external sequencer or software sequencing program.

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.

OUR OPINION
The Kaoss Pad was already the best effects unit on the market and a favorite among many working DJs, now the KP3 has come through and just made everything better. It is an excellent effects unit for live DJ sets with its ease of use, hands-on control and countless effects options. Use the sampler to sample your favorite phrases and noises to drop within your sets. At your home studio, the Kaoss pad is excellent for BPMing your records, and adding effects to your mixes. For music production, the Kaoss Pad offers a inexpensive way to further alter your sounds with quality Korg effects. Quite a lot of flexibility with this unit.

- 128 effects including filter (16 typers), modulation (12 types), delay (16 types), etc
- 4 vocoder, 10 synth & 7 drum programs
- sampling at 16 bit, 48kHz - stores up to 100 samples (16 beats max each)
- dual RCA input and output
- 1/4" mic input with gain control
- MIDI input and output
- connect to computer with USB (type b)
- headphone output with volume control
- storage on SD card - 8.27" x 8.9" x 1.93"
- 2.87 lbs

reviewed by the mgmnt