Korg Forums

ok so i picked up a new rig and i know this has to work, in essence it totally should. what i use is a yamaha mg82cx mixer, a korg kp3, an akai miniak, and for guitar i play a fender telecaster through a vox tonelab and that into a boss rc-20xl loop station pedal. i have one mic going into channel one. i have the guitar rig all set up and going into channel two. i have the miniak going into channel three. eventually i want to get a technics turntable, just one, so i can dj some real records. this is all not a problem.

what i want to do, ideally, is be able to run the whole mixer into the kp3, so that i can sample anything that i do directly into it, and mess with the effects and everything before sending it directly into my speakers, which right now are m-audio bx5a studio monitors but they wont be my official speakers forever.

my problem has been that with every method ive taken to run it all into it, be it through the effects loop, or standalone as it going out from the monitor outputs to the line in and from the line outs to each speaker, there has been a compromise in volume and overall quality. the kp3 seems to not really be able to handle much as far as the input volume, which is kinda messing me up because as soon as it records it into the sampler it gets very quiet, and it simply wont record when its too loud, and too loud in this case is like above 2, because it starts feeding back with a horrendous fuzz sound.

i know i can make this work. do i need a noise gate? will that even get rid of the distortion though and fix the volume problem? the music i play does not require great volume, but when there is a change from my originally playing it and then it going into the kp3 and it not being played by me anymore, thats a problem. the effects loop makes it fuzzy and theres a delay between the signal being sent and received and when it is actually happening or the button is being pressed, and i have had minimal success with actually plugging the output lines into a channel on the mixer, however that means the signal keeps getting sent back into itself which over time really decreases the quality of the already low sound.

let me know if im just an idiot or if anyone else has found a way to do this properly.

coel.

Plugging the KP3's output back into the mixer will just give you a feedback loop, so, unless that's the sound you're going for, don't do it.

Try the following:

- instruments (guitar, synth and mic) into the mixer (as you stated)
- mixer output to KP3 input
- KP3 output to your speakers (NOT to the mixer)
- record a loop to your RC-20XL, hold a key down on your Miniak and sing soundcheck melodies while sorting the levels of your instruments on the mixer and the input level on the KP3 (as high as it will go before it clips i.e. goes orange and then red)
- see if the sound quality is still terrible and try sampling

The level slider of the KP3 might be down, which is why you're getting low sample volumes too.

I have used this set-up before and very often use it and it works fine.

CoelBliss wrote: the effects loop makes it fuzzy and theres a delay between the signal being sent and received and when it is actually happening or the button is being pressed, and i have had minimal success with actually plugging the output lines into a channel on the mixer, however that means the signal keeps getting sent back into itself which over time really decreases the quality of the already low sound.

what goes out on the Aux Send should come back on the Return, not just back into a normal channel

since you have a mixer with an effects loop you should be able to use that - as long as you do it correctly

I suggested what I suggested to confirm that the simplest way to do it works and therefore that it can work and there's nothing wrong with his KP3.

FX send/return would be best to use though because you probably won't always want everything going through to the KP3. Like your guitar loops when you're trying to sample a vocal or whatever.

Yep, Mr36's suggestions would rule out hardware problems and worth doing

Forgot to say that I do have my kp3 on an effects loop on my mixer, an Ecler nuo 3.0, without problems. The overall output is a little lower than I'd like but I think that's the mixer. The kp3 works fine in send mode

ive tried it in the effects loop. maybe i hooked it up wrong, but ill try it again. i had a feeling the best way is to essentially treat the mixer like an instrument and the kp3 like an effects processor and just run it between the mixer and the speakers, but wasnt sure. when i have had it in the effects loop, thats when it sounds remarkably fuzzy. i may just be doing it wrong though. i dont send it from the effects loop and then have it going back into an input though.

didnt think there was anything wrong with it. just didnt know if anyone else had tried this or not. i really appreciate the input.

coel.

CoelBliss wrote:i had a feeling the best way is to essentially treat the mixer like an instrument and the kp3 like an effects processor and just run it between the mixer and the speakers, but wasnt sure.,

That should work but the benefit of putting it on a send/return loop is you can apply effects to a single channel, or whatever mix of channels you want