KPro - First Impressions

[JJP]

(k0va5, I quote your First Impression here before mine, hope thats okay)

so i thought id post here with some of my thoughts

first the good

the drum patterns / sounds are excellent (especially coupled with the effects on the mini kp) and the gate arp works well for making beats
the overall sound quality seems alot beefier compared to the Ko1
there are some excellent new noises, chords, stabs etc



now the not so good

no arpeggiator patterns.. this is a serious drag..
the gate arp slider is hit and miss... it doesnt work very well with some of the bass noises for example


some suggestions

BRING BACK THE PATTERNS
introduce some quantizing options when recording

[JJP]

I played arround for ~1h, so it's just the first glimpse

The GOOD:

- Many new great sounds, overall the sound feel MUCH better (just a feeling?)
- Drumkits!
- vocoders and effects (not only for voice, of course)
- The loopbank control - you can adjust not only the level for every bank on the fly, but also the looplenght
- still possible to "overduberase" when pressing erase + loopbank + playing new tune over the old
-pitchbend if you change the bpm -> creative tool! (e.g. record line in on 300bpm and go down to 120 afterwards)
- input volume,
- the 8 favourite buttons - create your own set, nice!

The BAD:
- pitchbend if you change the bpm means no more 3/4 loops possible
- the gate arp is a joke: the speed mode is just like the first few old patterns, only with a few more ( 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, 1/1, 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16) - 11 patterns. the time mode is okay, for these 11 patterns you can choose how long the note will be pressed in percent. from 0 to 100 - so why not hundred patterns? AND WHY IS THE SWITCH ON THE BACK OF THE KAOSSILATOR?
- no mute all, would be great sometimes
- no mute input (line/mic)
- a record one pass would be nice for not accidentally overdubbing (you can prevent this with "eraserecord", but not with normal/external record)
( - deleting a bank with shift+delete results in a total stop (WHY??), but you can delete on the fly with erase+bank (but doing so, you need to wait a whole loop before everything is empty) )

The really UGLY:
- 16beats Korg? -> 8 beats below 108,5 -> 4 beats below ? -> with 20bpm (okay, thats useless anyway) it's TWO beats. 16 beats would have been enough, 32 would have been great. but 8 beats on 100bpm?
- vocoders and effects would be a multiplier for the synths. IF it would be possible to resample and use the effects on the Kaosspro-sounds
- to expensive to have these flaws

-------------------------
to be continued (midi e.g.).....
will I keep it? At the moment I guess not, reason is the really UGLY

[k0va5]

I played arround for ~1h, so it's just the first glimpse

The GOOD:

- Many new great sounds, overall the sound feel MUCH better (just a feeling?)
- Drumkits!
- vocoders and effects (not only for voice, of course)
- The loopbank control - you can adjust not only the level for every bank on the fly, but also the looplenght
- still possible to "overduberase" when pressing erase + loopbank + playing new tune over the old
-pitchbend if you change the bpm -> creative tool! (e.g. record line in on 300bpm and go down to 120 afterwards)
- input volume,
- the 8 favourite buttons - create your own set, nice!

The BAD:
- deleting a bank with shift+delete results in a total stop (WHY??), but you can delete on the fly with erase+bank (but doing so, you need to wait a whole loop before everything is empty)
- pitchbend if you change the bpm means no more 3/4 loops possible
- the gate arp is a joke: the speed mode is just like the first few old patterns, only with a few more ( 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, 1/1, 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16) - 11 patterns. the time mode is okay, for these 11 patterns you can choose how long the note will be pressed in percent. from 0 to 100 - so why not hundred patterns? AND WHY IS THE SWITCH ON THE BACK OF THE KAOSSILATOR?
- no mute all, would be great sometimes
- no mute input (line/mic)

The really UGLY:
- 16beats Korg? -> 8 beats below 108,5 -> 4 beats below ? -> with 20bpm (okay, thats useless anyway) it's TWO beats. 16 beats would have been enough, 32 would have been great. but 8 beats on 100bpm?
- vocoders and effects would be a multiplier for the synths. IF it would be possible to resample and use the effects on the Kaosspro-sounds
- to expensive to have these flaws

-------------------------
to be continued (midi e.g.).....
will I keep it? At the moment I guess not, reason is the really UGLY

In fairness, ive been playing with mine now for a week.. and im starting to really love it. its definitly a major improvement on the KO1..

losing the arp patterns is definitly a shame, but.. im starting to learn how to work it now.. and yyou can get some really good patterns.. esp if used in conjuntion with changing the gate length at the back..

[JJP]

losing the arp patterns is definitly a shame, but.. im starting to learn how to work it now.. and yyou can get some really good patterns.. esp if used in conjuntion with changing the gate length at the back..

Losing the arp is so unnecessary. But I don't really care.
What makes me sad is the missing feature of resampling. The KPro is wonderfull - but it could have been so much better with only adding resampling/bouncing and more memory for constant 16beats or more. At the moment I think I will NOT pay 350€ for a device which makes me think "WHY?" all the time... but let's talk about that again in a week or two, I have 30days to test..

[k0va5]

losing the arp patterns is definitly a shame, but.. im starting to learn how to work it now.. and yyou can get some really good patterns.. esp if used in conjuntion with changing the gate length at the back..

Losing the arp is so unnecessary. But I don't really care.
What makes me sad is the missing feature of resampling. The KPro is wonderfull - but it could have been so much better with only adding resampling/bouncing and more memory for constant 16beats or more. At the moment I think I will NOT pay 350€ for a device which makes me think "WHY?" all the time... but let's talk about that again in a week or two, I have 30days to test..

you are lucky.. the place i bought it from only gave me 7 days to return no questions asked.

why dont you sample the output into your KP3? that would allow you to free up your kPro

[JJP]

you are lucky.. the place i bought it from only gave me 7 days to return no questions asked.

In Germany you allways have 14 days if you buy online - amazon.de and others (in my case thomann.de) give you 30days.

why dont you sample the output into your KP3? that would allow you to free up your kPro

Well..... my KP3. Thats the Problem. I just don't have one


First soundcheck:
The KPro has a lot of bass and sub-bass. Great for all you guys who want to make Dubstep DnB and so on (57/143 are great).

(Haha, but you can only use 8beats below 108,5bpm.... not so funny)

[k0va5]

(Haha, but you can only use 8beats below 108,5bpm.... not so funny)[/quote]

yes. thats annoying

[JJP]

yes. thats annoying

maybe a solution
I would sugest to play the sub-basses after changing to 90bpm otherwises they might get pitched down to much

[JJP]

I'm still not really sure what to think of the KPro.

- the arp is not like the old one, but it is not totally useless. the time function is very usefull, it's only sad that we can't use it with the old patterns + create new patterns in the editor and load them to the Kpro.

- saving and loading works fine, a little slow but fast enough to work as a good consolation for the old fix (and of course better in many ways)

- I miss a clock

- It's cool, but it has it's faults.... I will go on testing.

my first kpro song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI1W7x8Eovk

second - I killed scatman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvJbuulXyCo

[JJP]

The ability to tap bpm to match external source is great. you can loop a sample from a song, take a different song, match the bpm again, the old sample will be pitched and everything is fine - great.

Working with external source is one of the most important features in my judgement and I really miss it when playing the K1. On the other hand the K1 forces you to let go of your plans, as you can not plan everything. I hope for a mini KPro aka K2 with the features of the K1 + a second bank & progvolume. aaaaand line-in.

[iD4rK]

JPP are you angry with me if I say that your are quite bad :lol:

[salamanderanagram]

no need to be a jackass....

[iD4rK]

no need to be a jackass....

Hahaha, well criticism is necesary for somone to improve ^^ what did he expect releasing songs of that quality to the public?

Don't take it to serious =)

[JJP]

JPP are you angry with me if I say that your are quite bad :lol:

fine with me - I'm not a professional and got the KPro on saturday, so I don't claim to be good. (btw: I think I'm okay, not bad)

I hope you are not angry with me saying that you "criticism" is no critisism but a (at least for me) useless statement. criticism should include a little more then just "bad"/"good", you should at least point at something or be more precise.

But this thread is about first impressions of the kpro, so let's keep the focus on the kpro and not on my ability/disability to use it.

[iD4rK]

Haha, you are right, sorry for not giving an adecuate solution/answer to it. You will get some practice soon to be able to follow the beat

Back to topic, I was about to get one too, but I'm getting other stuff first. I hope you make a cool song soon and show off.