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Korg’s Kaoss Pad is a professional audio sampler, effects processor and MIDI controller. They are characterised by their lit touchpad,

The Kaoss Pad is used by a wide range of artists and DJs, including The Prodigy, Enter Shikari, Muse, Radiohead, Slipknot, The Mars Volta and Beardyman…

Many of you will have seen the Kaoss Pad’s touchpad integrated into guitars, notably that of Matt Bellamy from Muse. In this setup, the pad controls the Kaoss Pad main unit, which either modifies the audio directly, or is just used to control another MIDI device.

Whilst the original KP1 debuted back in 1999, the KP3 dates back to 2006. There are also others in the range, such as the KPE1 which also processes video, and the mini-KP. Related Korg products include the Kaossilator and Kaoss mixers.

Looking at the connectivity, the KP3 has quarter-inch jacks for microphone input and headphone output, each with a volume/trim control; on the back there’s phono pairs for line-in and line-out, a USB connector, and a pair of MIDI in and out ports. There’s an SD card in the front for storing loops. The power supply is a simple 12v DC wall-wart.

The UI varies from beautifully simple to strangely awkward. Many functions require shift to be pressed, and one of the knob selectors has a secondary use if pushed in. These are clearly marked on the unit (shift functions are in a white box), but it’s still easy to forget about a functionality.

Whilst pushing audio through the unit, set the program knob to any function (or use the 1-8 buttons as shortcuts) and run your fingers around the touchpad to get the effects. This is the simplest usage of the KP3, although watch out for the volume, input selector and effects depth controls. The effect programs themselves range from simple (synth, filter, eq) to some stranger filters and delays which can take a long while to figure out what you should do on the touchpad to get the sounds you want.

The next set of functionality is the sample bank on the ABCD buttons. These are pre-loaded with loops, but you can record over them and import more via USB onto the SD card using the provided application. The BPM can be changed by pushing and turning the program selector, via tapping the round button, or auto-detected from the input. You can edit a loop using the 1-8 buttons to determine which parts of the loop play, and use the touchpad to alter their respective volumes.

The audio quality has been great, with no hum or distortion. The volume has been tricky to match on a couple of occasions, but that’s bound to happen when the KP3 has five different ways to change it (level, fx depth, input volume, headphone volume, sample volume) and then the effects have an effect on it too.

Overall, this is an amazing piece of kit – highly recommended for live DJs and studio artists who want an amazing level of control over their effects. I’d hesitate to recommend this to a casual guitar player, but the effects in this make it a great tool for those dedicated to those kind of sounds. It’s well built, full of features, and has limitless possibilities. Just don’t expect it to be automatically awesome.

Offical specification: Korg