Tips and Tricks Thread

[Tusker]

Here's a thread for us to share stuff we have learned that may not be in the manual (or it may be less known).

Here are two:

- The program/bpm knobs scrolls faster if you hold down the shift key. So when you want to swoop up from 80 BPM to 220 in one move, hold down the shift key. Works similarly while scrolling programs.

- When selecting a slot to store samples on your card, slots that are already taken show up with a square parenthesis around the number (e.g. [27]) which prevents you from trying to load sample into used slots on the card.

What tips and tricks do you have to share?

Jerry

[ijed]

BPM and MIDI Clock Sync

I hope this may help a few people with their midi problems.

Here's the best way I've found of synching the kp3 analogue input into Ableton Live (any other DAW should work the same):

Connect the KP3 up to the computer and open up the KP3 editor.

Under the Ext. Ctrl section:
select a button and change it's Assign Type to START.
Change another one to STOP (you can also set one for CONTINUE if you want
(EXTRA TIP: you can change the assign type of the touch pad here - i.e pattern 4 gives 8 midi assignable finger faders - nice! ))

What this does is give you transport controls which will stop/restart the KP3 midi clock back at 1.0.0 and send start and stop signals to Live.

transmit these values back to the kp3 (hit receive all first so you don't overwrite any samples or whatever) and close the KP3 Editor

then open your Live set and check you have sync and remote turned on for the input of the kp3 midi driver (in xp shows up as usb audio device)

The green led next to EXT should now be flashing in time with the kp3 midi clock.

Turn on EXT.


Now back to the kaos pad:

if you switch to ext ctrl mode on the kp3 SHIFT+8 then press the button you assigned to START the kp3 midi clock will restart and Live will start together at whatever tempo the kp3 is set to and STOP when you press stop.

press the SHIFT button to switch back to normal kp3 mode

Send audio signal from your decks into the kp3 and press the AUTO BPM button. TAP along in time with it until it settles on the right BPM.
*The Kaos Pad rounds the BPM to the nearest whole number so adjust the decks to a whole number BPM. The display may drift .1 either side of it but the midi clock should be generating a steady bpm.

hit Shift+8 again to be back in Ext Ctrl mode and hit START on the beat you want to bring Live in on.
Everything should now be in good snyc, including all your kp3 effects.
If the kp3 starts to drift return to normal mode (SHIFT) and press the ALIGN button (SHIFT+TAP) at the start of each beat i.e on the green flash of the bpm light GREEN-RED-RED-RED

It's not pefect and sometimes it takes a few goes and the Auto BPM can still go haywire when you change the speed of the record but if you've got a steady bpm you can turn off auto bpm (push down the prog button and set it to the bpm manually).

[Tusker]

BPM and MIDI Clock Sync

I hope this may help a few people with their midi problems.

[decrepitude]

This comes from Electronic Musician magazine (July 07), "Loop Trigger Hack" (pg.87):

"The most confusing thing about the KP3 is the way it handles looped samples. Rather than triggering loops from the beginning when you press a sample pad, it runs the loops continuously in the background."

"If you have four samples of equal length that all start on a downbeat, that design ensures they'll always be synchronized with each other. But it also means there's no way to know which section of the loop you'll hear when you press a pad."

So, we all know that to align playback of samples on the downbeat, you must hold down the 'Shift' key and then press the 'Align' button down on the beat.

OK, but what if you are in a performance situation where you've just loaded up some new samples you want to play along with the current groove? Here's a good way to get around it:

1. First, hold down the Mute button and turn on the sample buttons you want to playback.
2. Then, hold down the Shift button, and simultaneously release the Mute button and press down on the Align button.

I've verified this works like a charm.

(Note: Always make sure you are using the newest firmware update.)

[decrepitude]

Record pad movements to sequencer:

Quite useful is that you can record any pad movements to a sequencer track. With some creative surgical editing, control envelopes could be tweaked to give the user very precise control over the finger pad. (At some point I'll post my experiments to try to create chromatic control curves!) Maybe I'll figure out a way to control the Synth programs in a melodic fashion. This would also benefit the Vocoder progs. Oh man, I've had a ton of fun editing my own curves in Ableton Live. (Default CC's: 12[X] and 13[Y] and 92[on/off])

[decrepitude]

Draw an EQ curve:

Both EQ programs allow you to actually draw out the curve on the touch pad. Too cool! As opposed to the usual trailing lights, you'll see that the curve you draw out remains lit up on the touch pad until you release your finger.

Furthermore, if you press down the 'Hold' button, you can fine tune the curve.

[decrepitude]

Triggering samples in sync with an external sequencer: (Requires the KP3 editor to work. Loops can only be triggered at the beginning of a given phrase.) Please note this is to facilitate a more unattended approach to triggering the samples, perhaps for a section of sequenced music where you have your hands busy doing other things..

1. Load any "looped" samples into the editor and convert each sample to a "one-shot".
2. Note which midi note numbers (or edit them) are designated to trigger each sample. Assuming that you're using the maximum of 16 beats for each sample, record (or edit) each note into a separate sequencer track as one long 16 beat note.
3. Un-mute the sequencer track (for a given KP3 sample) just before the downbeat and the sample you want will be triggered in time with the other material.

If you want to change tempo during the performance, you'll need to establish midi clock sync. One disadvantage to this approach is the inability to trigger the samples during any time other than the beginning of the sampled phrase. But then again, with some planning and creativity, you could get creative with this limitation by re-triggering and slicing up the loop.

[logic_user99]

(EXTRA TIP: you can change the assign type of the touch pad here - i.e pattern 4 gives 8 midi assignable finger faders - nice! )).

Please please please can someone help me with this!

I've turned the 'Programme' knob to P.004 and still nothing. I've checked the MIDI send in Reaktor under a MIDI Monitor and there's all kinds of crazy signals going on!

And all I want is the eight faders...

[argento]

found it on casuality Kaossilator:


TURN ON, kaossiator while hold down TAP/BMP and LOOP REC/PLAY buttons and "DLY" appears on display.
Release both buttons ,KAOSSILATOR initialize.
Then press again TAP/BMP and LOOP REC/PLAY , rotate clockwise PROGRAM/VALUE and you can set up to "16".
Then record anything.
To erase recording press both LOOP REC/PLAY and SCALE , and "ErA" appear on display, so while pressing both buttons ,rotate PROGRAM/VALUE clockwise and "Clr" appears on display, release both buttons and memory is free now.

[m4m]

kaossilator
to restart the loop on the downbeat(1), reduce to H and back to 8, it will restart on the beat (not a tip, but nice to know when u use it with the minikp looper and lost track of the 1

also, in 16 beats mode, the loop lenght is pretty f***ed up, allowing to do glitchy breaks (it seems to keep the h, q, or smaller part in the loop when you bring it back to full lenght, really weird, but pretty likeable thing

seen on youtube, a piece of paper on the pad of the mini and ko1 will not prevent it from working like the kp2/3 (with a stylus) so you can mark your scales

[jeicrash]

A lot of time you want to record a loop or a once shot and not have it play when complete.

By turning down the FX Release [level] the loop can be "muted". Be careful though, by turning down the lever you might also mute something you want to record. This is best done for setting up for a later show.

I've had my KP3 a few weeks now and love it. Just gotta sit down and really do something with it.

[ishfaq]

Easy All

Just wanted to add how I have my KP3 set up for live looping with an mpc1000 and a footswitch. I usually have some drums rolling from the mpc, then make live loops over that with a bass and a synth. So:

I set my Kaoss sample pads to trigger with the following midi input:

A = C2 / B = E3 / C = G#4 / D = C6

The midi notes are basically just corresponding to PAD 1 on each pad bank of the mpc (A, B, C & D).

Then I have my footswitch set to trigger PAD 1 on the mpc (I'm using JJ's OS XL, not sure if this is possible with the standard Akai OS). Now, when I'm jamming live and want to sample a loop on the Kaoss, I hit the sampling button whenever I have a free chance to arm it for recording. I can select the Kaoss sample pad to record to by choosing the corresponding pad bank on the mpc (which are conveniently labeled A to D also, which is a nice coincidence). Then when I want to start recording, I simply tap the footswitch.

[wallstreet]

ishfaq, curious if you run the MPC/KP3 setup with any additional midi devices connected? Do you run into any problem when you do? Last time I tried out MPC/KP3/+synth I ran itno problems with the MPC's soft thru sending MIDI data to both the KP3 AND the synth.

[ishfaq]

I haven't actually tried it with any other midi devices. I just play my synth live and record the audio, so don't midi it up. But have you tried the JJ OS on your mpc? Has waaaaaay more options than the standard one. Really makes the mpc into a whole new machine. If you make a blank drum program just for triggering the KP3, you can then set the output midi notes from the pads (only on a drum track, not a midi track). So you could set each Pad 1 on each Pad Bank to the lowest 4 notes, like C-2, C#-2 etc. That way they'd still trigger your other synth but hopefully the note would be so low you wouldn't hear it (or else do it the highest notes possible). Then set your KP3 to trigger on those notes instead.

http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~mpc1000/

[wallstreet]

I really like the idea of using the banks->sample pads and using just one switch to control all the sampling. (It's cool the MPC has two switches, I use the other one for a OVERDUB+PLAY)

I'll have to try your method. My problem might have been that my KP3 "track" on the MPC was a midi one (not "drum"), so it soft thrus all midi data by track.