Puts powerful sampling tools and performance effects at your fingertips.
The Korg KP3 lets you use and abuse realtime effects and sampling by touching, tapping, and sliding your fingers on the revolutionary KAOSS pad. The combination screen/touchpad interface and KAOSS technology make it intuitive, immediate, and just plain fun to use. It's a complete instrument and processor 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.
Korg has given the KP3 exclusive effects algorithms, synth sounds derived from Korg's RADIAS engine, better sampling, and computer connectivity. It comes with 128 programs in filter (16), EQ (2), modulation (12), compressor (2), LFO (25), delay (16), reverb (6), grain shifter (5), looper (13), sample effect (7), sample bank crossfade (4), drums (6), synthesizer (10), and vocoder (4) categories. 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!
Killer Effects come to Life
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.
As you move your finger across the touchpad and find that "sweet spot," pressing the Hold button will lock the settings, so you can take your hand away to do other things. The LED grid on the touchpad will show the held location, so you can pick up where you left off without any "jumps". Better yet, Pad Motion can memorize and repeat a fluid or complex gesture played on the pad. Once again, the new pad lighting system enhancements can actually display the Pad Motion pattern as it plays.
A separate FX Depth knob sets the overall balance between the original signal and the effect, so you can add just the right amount of processing. The eight Program Memory buttons allow you to store all of this information—Program Number, Hold button On/Off status (and coordinates), Pad Motion, and the FX depth setting—to a single button for instant access during performance.
Another new innovation in the KP3 is called FX Release. Basically, FX Release adds an adjustable delay tail when you remove your finger from the pad. In addition to being a creative performance tool, FX Release also prevents the abrupt dropping out of the effect as you transition from one setting to another, providing a smoother and more musical performance. The FX Release delay effect is automatically set to the current tempo—whether manual, MIDI, auto BPM or Tap Tempo—and the amount of the FX Release and can be set and saved individually with each program.
Superior Sampling
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 in 16-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.
The KP3's sampling system thinks and speaks in the language of music, hiding incredible technology below the surface. When creating loop samples, for example, sample length is set in terms of beats, not seconds. You can generally set the sample length up to 16 beats long (extremely slow tempos capture fewer beats). When sampling is finished, the sample will immediately start playing in sync with the sample source. As the sample plays you can adjust the start time of the sample to "fine-tune" it to the original tempo, or to dial-in time shifted playback.
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.
Stay in Sync
Tempo is an integral element of the KP3. Sampling times are set in terms of tempo, and many effects are also tempo-based. All tempo-related functions are accurate to .1 (one-tenth) of a BPM for more precise matching to external devices. To keep everything sync'd up, the KP3 features auto-BPM detection from the audio input; Tap-Tempo entry, as well as a manual tempo setting. The KP3 can also send and receive tempo information via MIDI clock. This extra versatility allows the KP3 to detect BPM info from a turntable, and in turn provide MIDI clock to other devices down the line, keeping everything moving together.
Take Control
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.
Part of the Team
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.
Korg KP3 KAOSS Pad Dynamic Effect/Sampler Features:
Posted by L0LZ@URF@C3 from Virginia on Apr 10, 2009
Experience w/product: I have used it
Reviewer's Background: Active Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Post-Hardcore, Electronicore, Electronica...
After wondering if the KP3 is really worth the money, I was able to try one out at a local music store. After a couple of minutes of trying to figure out how to even make some noise with it, I found a setting with some synth sounds, and even though it is an amazing tool, I just don't think its worth the money.
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Better than previous KP generations
Posted by chad9477 from DC on Jan 2, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Active musician/DJ
Reviewer's Play Style: lounge electronica
I'm a live PA artist who works with grooveboxes. I finally bought a KP3 after deciding against the KP1 and KP2, because this latest pad has a 4-bar phrase sampler that allows me to use it as a mixer to transition smoothly between tracks. If you have similar goals and don't have a dedicated effects processor, this is a good solution, very tactile and user-friendly. It's not flawless, though; its internal clock does not sync up perfectly with MIDI clock signals, even from other KORG gear, meaning a track and a sample will fall out of sync after 15-20 loops. For the most part, though, the KP3 is well-made, easy to use and road-worthy. KORG also posts updates to the OS to its website from time to time, so I hope they eventually get the last few glitches ironed out.
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Noisy
Posted by Ribosomematt from San Francisco on Dec 11, 2008
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Hobbyist
Reviewer's Play Style: Experimental/electronic
This unit has an unusually high noise floor (it adds a lot of hiss to your signal). Usually you can compensate by sending louder signals through it, except the unit clips at volume levels that aren't very loud. Since I removed it from my live gear setup, sound checks have been much more painless.
That's a shame too, since the features on the unit are extraordinary. Many of the effects are unique to this sort of interface, (such as the pitch-bending microloop). You're also able to add effects to a single note -for example, you can let the reverb for one that note ring out while you continue playing.
One last complaint - it takes up a lot of real-estate in your gear array, and costs more than twice as much as the Mini-KP. I feel like I paid an extra $200 for fancy blinking lights.
I'd recommend the mini-KP instead, though I'm not sure if the Mini version has the same noise/clipping problems.
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Quality
Features
Value
I'm sure it's great for live, but...
Posted by Anonymous Musician on Jul 10, 2008
Experience w/product: I have heard about it
Reviewer's Background: Amateur Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Progressive Rock
I'm really not at the point of leaving my home studio to perform live. I bought this thinking it would give me another arsenal of effects to run through, but the truth is that I have a Pod X3, Gearbox Plugin, Ableton Live, Guitar Rig 3, some soft synths and a bunch of free VSTs, and between all that, the KP3 is just not worth it for me.
With the control surfaces I also own that can automate more than two parameters at a time, I get much higher quality effects that overlap 90% of what the KP3 has to offer and a whole lot more. This thing was pretty much superfluous when I pulled it out of the box.
All of that said, however, it is a cool little noise box. I wish I had a touchpad implementation for my VSTs, because I DID really like the feel of manipulating loops and such in the KP3. If I were going to perform a few times a week, it would be indispensable for controlled sweeping delays ran through filters and such.
The bottom line is that this is a piece of gear to use live. It doesn't have TRS ins/outs, and the quality and variety of the effects are easily beat elsewhere, but it does great loop sampling and manipulation and is pretty easy to use once you read the very short manual.
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Features
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Love It
Posted by Spits from Calgary AB on Jul 6, 2008
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Active Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Electronica
I bought this little machine for extrapolating my strange Electronica, IDM music to stage. I use this a roland SP-555 sampler and several instruments. This thing is just great! I love it great effects, Great sampling style, and also a very cool thing to show off on stage. I have one problem though, I plug anything but a mic into it (I.e. guitar, Keyboard) and the tone dissapears and distorts. I've tried everything, maybe my model is diffective. but other than that great product.
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