Korg Forums

Hey I've been messing around with my Kaossilator since getting one for Christmas and I reckon its damn good fun for something so portable (almost as much fun as Bhajis Loops!). There's a whole load of things it would of been nice if Korg had added, but hey, maybe that will be coming in the next model....

I have put a 9 X 5 square grid over the touchpad on mine, which sort of corresponds with the 45 symbols that display on the LED screen depending on what part of the touch pad you touch. I find that this makes it a lot easier to find notes that you have played previously. Basically its just a handy visual reference guide. Please note though that there are a lot more available notes on the pad than just 45, and this varies dependant on the scale you are using.

In order to fit one of these you have to open up your Kaossilator, and naturally I understand that not everyone is going to want to do that, but if you do want to give it a try, here is a picture of what my design looks like while fitted. (My Kaossilator is missing its ugly silver cover, but you can see what it will look like):

http://tinyurl.com/kgridmod2

And here is a link to a Youtube video where I go on about it for ages and take my Kaossilator apart. The grid design in this video is an earlier version, but it fits just the same.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4d5QrCCxc_Y

If you want to give it a try you can print one out from my blog, and you will need to get hold of some transparency film. I have just used inkjet transparency film with an old inkjet printer. A link to my blog:

http://kgridmod.blogspot.com/

I might continue to develop the design, but at the moment I'm quite happy with it.

Cheers, KGridMod

looks nice.
unfortunately the kaossilator has more than 9 potential x-axis spots on certain scales but cool anyway.

Hi salamanderanagram, um... thanks for your input.

Yeah as my original post says:

Please note though that there are a lot more available notes on the pad than just 45, and this varies dependant on the scale you are using.

The grid is based on the 45 symbols that the LED display shows. The design is supposed to give you visual reference points to help you remember where notes are, whether in the middle of a square, or a corner or wherever.

ya, i saw that you wrote that.
what i should have written is "it's unfortunate that" instead of "unfortunately". nonetheless, a good idea and surprising that korg didn't think of this when they were making it. it certainly was surprising to me that there was no display of any kind just a black touch pad.

that better?

Hey yeah, sorry for the slightly tetchy reply!

Its always good to get constructive criticism, but its annoying when it reads like someone hasn't actually to read what you have posted! Ah well, its funny how I can read something very differently to how it was intended by the person who wrote it.

Anyway, it is strange that Korg did not do something like this themselves, but having made a couple of designs and played about with them for quite a while I think I can see why:

The squares on my grid are quite small, and I use a stylus a lot of the time when I play it. I think that Korg probably realised that putting a grid over the touchpad would just demonstrate to people how a lot of notes are packed into such a ridiculously tiny area.

Also there is something odd about the vertical, or Y axis, in that the note variations are more spread apart in the middle of the axis than they are at the top and the bottom. This is also true of the symbols that show in the display (which my grid is based on). If I made my grid a bit more accurate it would have really short squares at the top and bottom and taller ones in the middle.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if Korg do have another one planned, and if there will be improvements, like some sort of visual interface on the touchpad, and maybe some MIDI would be good.

I'm totally in love with my Kaossilator though, and yeah it is severely limited, but I've spent a lot of time making downtempo experimental hip-hop-ish music on either Ableton or Bhajis Loops purely by step sequencing sounds, but with the Kaossilator everything has to be played into the loop, there is no step sequencing, and so you can end of with some nice slightly offbeat timing that sounds a lot less machine like and more human sounding than step sequencing everything. I'ts all a learning process I guess... I keep staying up late making little loops all night!