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The last thing I wanna do (as I am very loyal User/Buyer of Korg classic old+essential new equipment for studio) is to upset Korg fans here.
However my Brother was gonna buy us both KP3's this week after being turned by the Kaossilator+MiniKP combo at our place but after some much needed tech news from others outside+in these forums about certain niggles in the KP3 I find myself on the fence about either to buy the RedSound Soundbite Pro or the KP3, for the ability to be 'convenient tools for both Live and Studio sampling use' in terms of practical quickness and sample loading times, etc.

We originally wanted something to quickly save off loops from the freakin' excellent Kaossilator (as it sadly loses all saves on power down) and some of those Electro bass+drum and theremin type stuff in it is so electro-tastic and a shame to waste (hell, with its analog modelling engine it even knocks 10 pounds 'o' shite outta my VA ESX occasionally, in terms of multiple pitch+filter+effects+loop remix parameters changed in a tootsie finger stroke).

The MIDI sync in the KP3 would have been nearly a KO - if it only worked properly - from what I have heard.

Can some saved souls around this idea pot forum please chip in on comparison opinions (KP3 and Soundbite Pro users preffered as they are the ones who actually know the score about the quirks both negative and positive about the 2 machines).
"Talk to me!...thank you + goodnight"

SAMPLE BATTLE - ONE ON ONE PUNCH UP


VERSUS

I haven't used the Soundbite, but here's my tuppenceworth on the KP3.

There's no point buying a KP3 if you're only going to use it as a sampler.

I have the Kaossilator and KP3. The dynamic effects section of the KP3 is mindblowing, and for applying live, off-the-cuff effects it's unrivalled at the price.

The sampling is good, and using an SD card you can store a lot of Kaossilator loops...BUT you cannot load them on the fly. So if you were using the KP3 live to play loops, you would need to plan in advance what loops you need and when, and also plan to have gaps with no KP3 when loading new loops into the banks.

If you play a loop from the KP3's sample banks and play live on the Kaossilator at the same time, you cannot individually apply KP3 effects. For me, that's my biggest gripe about the KP3, there should be a way of selecting whether the effect is applied to the internal KP3 sounds/samples, or external input, or both. It would be great to have drum loops playing from the KP3 and then be able to apply mad filters to the Kaossilator input. You have the MiniKP so you would at least be able to apply the filters in the signal chain before the KP3, but it's annoying that the KP3 has all of those great effects yet they cannot be selectively applied.

You stated 'convenient tools for both Live and Studio sampling use' - I would say sampling is the KP3's secondary use, and therefore buy something that is a dedicated sampler.

As I said, just my tuppenceworth!

Randy|Kaoss wrote: BUT you cannot load them on the fly. So if you were using the KP3 live to play loops, you would need to plan in advance what loops you need and when, and also plan to have gaps with no KP3 when loading new loops into the banks.

This is my main beef

I think we need to be a bit clear about sampling here. There are 2 very different approaches:

1) there is the popular variation of being able to trigger any type of sample that you have stored and the pre-set-up is basically having those sample programed in to be triggered at your live set...in most cases a sampler like ES1 (my fave) or ESX (everyone else's fave) allows you to sample to your hearts content, store, and trigger at the touch of button. But one thing these devices don't do is live sampling, which brings me to...

2) live looping/sampling which is what the KP3 was truly designed for. There are those performers (like yours truly) who prefer to sample live, elements of their instrument/noise/beats/vocals.

Now in some cases you can get everything in one...expensive, but completely doable.

One way of getting everything (and out beats everything here on the table) is a macbook pro with ablton live. Oh but wait, the KP3 can control the Live software as well...wow what do you know.

So it seems that the biggest need I'm reading here is for quick live looping of sounds off of the Kaossolator...the KP3 would be your best bet, but again for live looping.

i have both

for looping without effects, the redsound is really good

less sampling lenght than the kp3(kp3 can do 4 16 beats loops, while the redsound has a total of 42 beats over the 6 pads (weird decision)

the redsound pro saves sample as 24 biit 96 khz stereo wav files with 1 GB of internal memory, the kp3 uses 16/44 but can use IIRC 2 GB cards

redsound does reverse pretty tightly, kp3 doesn't at all(except in looper/sampe mode

Check the SP series from Roland. Good alternatives, offering sample streaming from CF-Card (up to 2 GB on the SP555), no loading-time. Also some nice effects. They can do much more than the Redsound, which can only sample, that's all. The SPs are in the same price range, but with a whole bunch of features in good quality and much more capacity.

Pirx

Thanks to you all - for all your advice folks.

I agree Pirx, that the Roland SP555 has great potential.

I had a Roland SP-404 but very sadly got rid of it, as, although great in every way, it had this unbelievably senseless way of sample Start/End point trimming, where you had to play the sample - then guess where the start point began - then hit 'trim start point button' - hoping to get it exactly right - on the first sound fragment (obviously the end point was easier to do but the technique was overly time consuming and frustrating all the same and unlike the normal way of easily+repeatedly triggering whilst scrolling/trimming, like on all other samplers I have used or owned).

If the SP555/404 had scrollable+precise editing of the sounds Start/End points like most others, I would have been so very happy. Perhaps Roland will fix this for future versions.

19 wrote:Thanks to you all - for all your advice folks.

I agree Pirx, that the Roland SP555 has great potential.

I had a Roland SP-404 but very sadly got rid of it, as, although great in every way, it had this unbelievably senseless way of sample Start/End point trimming, where you had to play the sample - then guess where the start point began - then hit 'trim start point button' - hoping to get it exactly right - on the first sound fragment (obviously the end point was easier to do but the technique was overly time consuming and frustrating all the same and unlike the normal way of easily+repeatedly triggering whilst scrolling/trimming, like on all other samplers I have used or owned).

If the SP555/404 had scrollable+precise editing of the sounds Start/End points like most others, I would have been so very happy. Perhaps Roland will fix this for future versions.

The SP-606 has an LCD display that lets you see the signal when trimming it. It also has velocity pads and step sequencing. It only supports CompactFlash up to 512MB, however. I got my 606 for $200. I still use my 404 for battery operation and it's 1GB CompactFlash capability. I prefer the 606 over the 555, because the main feature of the 555-the looper-is crippled for live looping because the music stops when saving the loop.

Yeah, I agree with this. I've owned the SP555 for some time now and actually gave it back because of the above mentioned reasons, although it has without doubt some very useful capabilities, and I had a hard time to decide what to do, because advantages and disadvantages were evenly present on the SP555.

I've also owned the KP3, sold it, because it was too crippled on the sample section, although the effects are great. On my unit some annoying pops and clicks occured when playing/stopping samples. Also not beeing able to seperately send samples/ external signals to the effects killed the show for me. I'm still considering to get the KP Mini for the effects though, but it lacks the Drum section of the KP3 as far as I know, and that was one of the highlights on the KP3. Also the 'effect looper' isn't part of the Mini.

I'm still searching for THE sampler, think, the market doesn't offer it yet. I wouldn't like to go software, 'cause PC stuff stops my creativity (apart from post production which I do in Cubase).