I know a few people around here use the KP3 as a looper.
I’m looking at the Kaoss Pad Quad as a looper (a’la song OT transition-style). It’s a little bit smaller than the KP3.
Does the Quad effectively work the same as the KP3 for looping? It’s hard to get an idea of the differences.
I see that the Quad doesn’t have midi i/o.
On the KP3, is Midi clock being used in any of the loop rec/start functionality?
And what about the Kaossilator Pro?
And KP3 vs KP3+ ?
the quad doesn’t do looping and it has no midi.
the kp3 is your beast. was hoping the quad would be an even better looper but sad to say it has no samplepads. its advantage is being able to use multiple efx simultaneously, unlike the kp3 on which you can only use one at a time.
the kp3 does have midi, unlike all the other kp’s, and it’s not connected to start/stop. in theory you can use it for sync, but tbh you’ll be better off sync’ing the bpm manually. though it’s totally fine for a transition, it drifts noticeably after several loops and ironically when receiving midi clock it’s worse.
no difference between the kp3 and 3+ other than some expanded efx algorithms. haven’t tried it but no korg heads seem to think it’s worth the upgrade. you might grab a used kp3, they’re built well.
A couple of things to add:
The loops on the KP3 are free running. This is infuriating if you ever need to stop your sequencer and recall a loop in time later.
As is often mentioned, the midi timing isn’t great with the KP3, but I’ve also found it to be solid so long as it is receiving a solid clock source. I have yet to run into noticeable sync issues when clocking it from the Octatrack or Monomachine.
Thanks! Great info. I would be clocking it from MonoMachine. Though, I suppose I could just manually adjust BPM to the BPM I’m using with my other instruments. Will have to get one and experiment.
Sounds like the free running behavior won’t effect the functionality of just being a transition looper w/ FX.
I only wish these KP3s were an inch smaller on one side, so it could fit into the same case with my Elektrons.
Cool, I think you’ll be pleased with the KP3. They have gotten so cheap that I’m tempted to grab another. It becomes far more powerful when you control it from the Monomachine sequencer, btw. P-locking or using LFOs to control X, Y, Pad On, and Program Change can get you into some wild territory. I think the sample pads can be triggered by CC as well.
This is the one thing that has me hesitating on the KP3. I like long transitions. 32 bars minimum, but preferably more.
Can you define “several”? Are we talking 4? 16?
I’m also eyeing the EH 45000, which I’ve heard sync’s great to midi clock, and there are some quantized record features too. But the price is right on the KP3.
The Quad doesn’t have MIDI but it certainly does have a looping function. I have been able to pull off some interesting things with this looper but overall it most likely does not work well with what the OP is looking for as the loop is very inaccurate (depends on your timing and where on the pad you touch) and the effective sample time is rather short.
Somewhere in between. It varies because the clock isn’t that great (and I’ve not had Accent’s good luck with clocking it from my Elektrons), but you’d probably have 32 bars to bring in your next track. Just be aware that the loop you can capture is a maximum of 4 bars in length.
Don’t get too freaked by all my caveats, it works quite well in a live context … because of its immediacy, I’m still carrying the KP3 to gigs and using it for transitions four years after I bought the OT, even though the OT transition trick would eliminate the timing issue.
Somewhere in between. It varies because the clock isn’t that great (and I’ve not had Accent’s good luck with clocking it from my Elektrons), but you’d probably have 32 bars to bring in your next track. Just be aware that the loop you can capture is a maximum of 4 bars in length.
Don’t get too freaked by all my caveats, it works quite well in a live context … because of its immediacy, I’m still carrying the KP3 to gigs and using it for transitions four years after I bought the OT, even though the OT transition trick would eliminate the timing issue. [/quote]
Thanks for your response.
Are you clocking the BPM on the KP3 by using the tap tempo? Or (if possible) just manually setting it to the same BPM as the Elektrons?
manually. very easy.
me to, manually, works very good…
and maybe my loop is not playing as long as others, I don’t know… but I don’t have problems with drifting tempo
This is reassuring.
If you don’t mind, could you do a test and see how many bars at 130bpm your loop will go before drift?
This is reassuring.
If you don’t mind, could you do a test and see how many bars at 130bpm your loop will go before drift?[/quote]
justy tried… and I can play for more than 10 minutes without any problem.
No auto sync, just both on 126 bpm
I make a loop, mix on to next song, play next song
and go back to loop
still in sync.
I don’t know for studio fx
but for playing life, for me it feels like 100% in sync
Hell yea! Thank you!
I’ll fwd this thread to Korg and B&H because you just sold me on a KP3!
Are you using it fed from an aux send, with output sent to a designated channel on a mixer?
Hell yea! Thank you!
I’ll fwd this thread to Korg and B&H because you just sold me on a KP3! [/quote]
wow … yeah this may have sold me on a new one too 
the timing issues are pretty well documented so it makes me wonder if korg started using better components.
@ de wouzer - do you remember what year you got yours?
i don’t know, I bought it second hand. There is no KP3+ mark on it, so it must be a normal KP3 (I paid 125 euro for it)
I am afraid I am doing something wrong, but was listening to this very nice and heavily underrated soundcloud this afternoon.
its speed is exactly 125bpm
I made some loops and kept on listening, After a while I checked the loops and the speed was still okay. So for me it still feels like a perfect speed.
I recently used my kp3 with my OT, just to mangle a sample and resample it. I could hear it go out of sync after the first repeat, a sort of flanging sound that got worse each repeat. No MIDI sync, just set to the same tempo. I’ve had it MIDI sync’d to other gear though and it still did this.
Bump for interest, looking at a KP3 myself as there isn’t much out there that does fx+loops in such a fun way. How are you guys getting on with yours?
I love it but my fader and knobs started to leak… so now I have the Octatrack again…