Google translated via KORG.de:"The KORG KAOSSILATOR is a new cliche Synthesizer in the vest pocket format with famous KORG Synth sounds and performance possibilities, which inspire abslout. The KAOSSILATOR is served over its touch-sensitive PAD, with which one can fire a rich treasure at Synthesizer sounds. The horizontal axle steers the pitch, during one along the vertical axle parameter such as filter frequency, feedback, modulation intensity, etc. affected. With this new, creative beginning music makes fun above all correct. In the hand turning one enriches a volume Gig or a DJ-set with driven off sound explosions. Even musical beginners can freshly, impudently and freely make music with the KAOSSILATOR.
The most important functions
* Synthesizer sound, sound effects, impact things sounds (100 hochkarätige programs)
* 31 scales, with which one can play simply clay/tone sequences always correctly intoniert
* 50 gate Arpeggio types for sophisticated rhythm figures
* Loop photographs with complex Layer function to the Over Dubbing of the cliches"
via Music Thing.
Finally, a synth with cliches.
ReplyDeleteThe synth sounds were always the most useless part of the Kaoss pads. If they responded to MIDI notes and you could sequence them it would be one thing. This just looks useless to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I know it's just designed for DJs who want to make a random out-of-tune noise on top of their set to make themselves feel like musicians... it's still dumb.
Yes, because we all know that you are such a better musician than the most DJs out there. So much so that you must make anonymous trollish comments bashing DJs to validate yourself.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for the larger maxi version. I just need a rim shot now and some crickets.
ReplyDeleteI bet it's not velocity sensitive.
ReplyDeleteActually I was just addressing the inevitable response to my first paragraph that this piece of gear wasn't designed for me, it was designed for DJs. The RCA outputs make that pretty clear even if you ignore the feature set. But hey, now that you mention it... yes, a musician is in fact more of a musician than your average DJ is a musician. I'm a crappy DJ, lots of DJs are crappy musicians. Is there something wrong with stating this truth? I didn't say they were horrible untalented people, I just said they weren't musicians. Sorry if that rubs you the wrong way, but it doesn't seem particularly controversial to me...
ReplyDeleteI still think the product is lame, and my experience is based on using Kaoss pads for years, and always being disappointed with how limited and useless the sounds were to me. Like I said though, if all you want to do is add a random weird noise on top to make yourself feel like you're doing something... well, it works for that. If the notes could be sequenced via MIDI, by say an Electribe, it would still be limited but would in fact be pretty useful.
"I still think the product is lame, and my experience is based on using Kaoss pads for years, and always being disappointed with how limited and useless the sounds were to me."
ReplyDeleteNote this should say "how limited and useless the SYNTH sounds were to me". The effects are limited, but that's fine, they sound good and work great live.
backing up the second anon in response to the third.
ReplyDeletethe interface coveniently removes the conventions of anything consituting an instrument. so does musicianship stay in the picture? why don't you learn the theramin to make boops and toots over the records. do you dj at cheerleading tournaments?
Fine, fine... not going to get in a DJ vs musician pissing match... or is a DJ a musician pissing match... or whatever else I've been dragged into here.
ReplyDeleteMy point was that this will likely not be useful to most people who are into synths. This is based on my experience with the synth patches in their Kaoss pads, which when I bought them I thought "This could be cool" and found out it wasn't.
The DJ comment was only meant to say... hey, I understand who they are targetting it at... and I know it ain't me.
I wouldn't be badmouthing this thing on a DJ forum. On a synth site, I think I'm within my rights to warn people that this likely won't do what you want it to.
And now I'll put on Mr. Oizo's lovely track "Last Night a DJ Killed My Dog" and try to forget I got baited into responding to all this.
I don't know. You really can't predict what will be used be people that play synths.
ReplyDeleteAs a perfect example of that, look at the Alesis bitrman modfx unit. It was originally specifically marketed towards DJs and it did so bad that they pulled it off of the market. At that point word of mouth made it it very popular tool for synth heads and it attained a sort of cult status. Most of the people that I know that have bought bitrmans form ebay are synth people I don't really know of any DJs who have any modfx pieces, only synth players.
"the interface coveniently removes the conventions of anything consituting an instrument. so does musicianship stay in the picture?"
ReplyDeleteUmmm...what? What exactly constitutes an instrument to you? Something with a keyboard? If so, you are one very narrow minded individual. You do know that Moog Music added keyboards to their modular systems as a marketing gimmick, right?
Poor Matrix---most of his commenters seem to be trolls nowadays....
ReplyDeleteActually I think the Alesis modfx stuff was geared towards guitar and keyboard players. They had 1/4" ins and outs at least. I bought the Bitrman right when it came out, I know...
ReplyDeleteTheir AirFX and AirSynth were closer to the Kaoss stuff... and I would say the AirSynth will probably be a lot like this. Which is to say, I had the same problem with it that I have with this. You play with it for five minutes and say "Hey cool" but then never use it because it ends up being too limited in both sound and control. Like the Kaoss pads, controlling effects in this way is pretty cool, it lets you make them dynamic in a very interactive way and there is no need to use a set musical key or tempo (with the exception of delay, which the KP2 added with MIDI in and thus made that effect useful in a live environment). With a synth, unless you are looking for pseudo-theremin type noises, it just doesn't end up being that useful in the context of "regular" tonal music... it's a nice gimmick you can use a couple times, but really, when you play random sounds on top of most music in a live/DJ setting it gets annoying real fast...
Which isn't to say it's useless for everybody. But it has, umm, "limited appeal" to most people most of the time.
But hey, what do I know, perhaps this piece of mass market Korg gear is aimed at that mainstream hard-core atonal experimental DJ crowd...
(Before anyone jumps on me for that comment, I actually like and listen to that sort of music, I just don't think there's a particularly huge market for it, given the small crowds that actually attend such events alongside myself.)
i'm not baiting anyone. most techno producers are djs. i can't imagine the two apart.
ReplyDeleteMost hip-hop producers either were or still are DJs in some capacity. I think that a lot of producers in all electronic music genres get their start DJing. But this is all OT so I'll shut up.
ReplyDeleteDon't want to open a can of worms, but it's not as simple as that. Most big name DJs release tracks, that doesn't mean most DJs release their own music. It's just when you get to a certain level, you can 1) make money by using your name to release remixes and original tracks and 2) you get added credibility as a DJ for releasing your own stuff. There's also the fact that big name DJs often have their name on stuff where they had more of an "executive producer" than actual musician role... BACK IN THE CAN, WORMS, BACK IN THE CAN! Okay, won't go there.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, sorry for the original slight slam on DJs. It was meant more as a dig on your average bedroom DJ, I'm obviously not trying to crack on the likes of Richie Hawtin because that'd just be stupid. And it really wasn't intended to be all that harsh a dig. DJs at some point run into the creative wall and want to put a little extra something into their sets by adding their own little bits. Creating new, original songs that will fit in with the best-of-the-best tracks in their collection is frickin' HARD and takes time and experience. A good first step is remixing other people's tracks, and/or adding something like an Electribe or this thing on top. Then they aren't just playing other people's music any more, they really are taking things to another level. Cool, good for them, it's a nice first step.
If you already have synths though, which you probably do if you are reading this site... you are probably better off getting something else. You can get an original Kaoss Pad KP1 and use it to send CCs to the synths you already have, do the same sort of thing, and have a lot more control over the resulting timbre and timing and melody.
I agree about the KP1, and they are dirt cheap now too. I picked one up from craigslist last month for $30.
ReplyDeleteActually the funny thing about this is that most of the time I refrain from even considering myself a musician, even though I release and sell original music. I've always liked the way Brian Eno refused to be called a musician, he even tried to get them to put "non-musician" as his job on his passport. So maybe change the offensive line in my first post to read "it's just designed for DJs who want to make a random out-of-tune noise on top of their set to make themselves feel like non-musicians". Better?
ReplyDeleteAlso funny would be that fact the Eno would probably like this thing...
there i signed up. does that make a huge difference? the word virification makes everyone lazy. it's faster to go anon.
ReplyDeletewhat the hey... is this real??
ReplyDeletegoogling it
ReplyDeleteDid you mean: CALCULATOR
ok.... "Here's something interesting from a big manufacturer. The Korg Kaossilator (that link might have gone dead by the time you read this): It's a (presumably) cheap little box. 100 sounds, controlled by the x-y pad from a Kaoss Pad. Left-right controls pitch, according to one of 31 scales. Up-down controls anything else - cutoff frequency, modulation etc. Presumably it's playing arpeggios locked to MI [...]"
could this be a tenori-on response done korg-style? it seems to lock to a scale and do arpeggios somehow controlled and modulated through the touch pad. could be some dumb fun, I guess.
Doesn't seem to have MIDI In though.
ReplyDeleteSquinting I can see a scale button, so it looks like maybe you can enter it in manually? That plus the arp would solve my atonal complaints somewhat...
Assuming there is no MIDI, you would need to sync with tap tempo, which is okay with something like a delay, but for arpeggs I dunno. I guess DJs would be better at beatmatching and keeping things synced than I would.
I assume "cliches" means "presets".
ALL Korg Kaossilator users are not musicians. In fact, 99% of human beings do not know even know what music is. Much less find themselves on a map.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, let's talk Rock vs. Disco.. REAL musicians do not play keyboards. Press a button, whoppee.. there's an outer space sound!
Broad generalizations are fun.
SIncerely,
Anonymous
where i'm from people really do scream for a good dj. it scares some of them.
ReplyDeletewether this thing would get that reaction is a tough call. personally i wasn't pleased by arpeggiators on korgs serious synths.
As stated earlier, this thing looks like a Tenori-on killer.
ReplyDeleteLimited synth sounds, arpeggios, patterns, loops based on the Kaoss touch pad. Personally, I'd give this a look.
It might be useful as an input device or sketchpad and I'm sure it will be reasonably priced.
Maybe if Korg rolled it out with the same pretention as Tenori-on you guys would see that this has a great deal of potential.
For the amount nof cash this things costs...$200 or lower, it isn't a bad unit...but it is a preset machine basically. If you are looking for a real synth, buy a real synth. This thing could be useful.
ReplyDeleteI'm just waiting forthe stylophone to come back, then I'll commit to an electronic music toy. thank you.
ReplyDeleteI've been in the process of building something fairly similar to this and can see the angle they are going for. The idea of this thing is sound, simple fun bleep box with an intuitive way of mixing sounds and patterns.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree its not necessarily aimed at DJ's nor as a midi sound source, more people who just want to pick up something and make tunes on the go or just get inspired in the studio lounge. My only regret is that it doesn't have a card slot for directly mixing your loops to mediacard. maybe a version2 will be for me.
On the other hand, perhaps yamaha might drop the ridiculous price of tenori after this is out?
I don't think this thing competes with the Tenori at all, except in the most basic "can make sounds when you touch it" sort of way.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I do think the Tenori is overpriced.
ok it does not compete with tenori-on. point is that it seems to be thought up as such by korg marketing.
ReplyDeleteMark my words this will be a huge seller for Korg, it looks very much like it has the Arpeggio features from the EMX/ESX, if you have ever played either of those you will know what a killer feature it is to be able to select a scale and improve over your tune always in key.
ReplyDeleteI just wish it had Midi out, then the presets would not be a factor, as it stands it's probably a very cool little battery powered VA synth that you can fuck around with on the bus, on the beach etc, and for the price (£117) it is unparalelled.
I just don't get why everybody is a hater on this new gear, it is a low risk product for Korg which could lead to better versions with more features in the future, just buy one and shut up ;)
It's cute as hell and looks like a fun thing for the pocket, just wish it had midi.
It's about time that something finally allows me to "freshly, impudently and freely make music". ;)
ReplyDeleteMore Korg touchpads FTW! I want a setup of nothing but 300000 touchpads.
ReplyDeletekorg, make the KAOSSPHONE NOW!!
ReplyDeletewith cliches.
Got my Kaossilator this weekend. Great little box for the price. Pluses:
ReplyDelete-The many arpeggio patterns are a nice feature when building up little bass lines or blip based leads.
-Finally a hand held which allows you to build up beats while on the toilet!
-Have not yet hit the limit of number of simultaneous layers, but can do 5 layer loops with no problem.
Minuses
-No battery backup of memory or save slots. Keep a recording device handy in case you come up with something genius. I'd have definitely paid a little more to get something like that.
-If you build your loop at a much lower speed than you intend to use for playback, there may be clipping if you increase the speed dramatically.