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I have tried to figure out the difference between the 2 of these and due to the fact I am a synth noob Im a bit lost.

Heres what Ill be using it for:
95% of the use will be as a midi controller. Trigger samples on my pc, or controlling effects in realtime, stuff like that. Live use will probably be nonexistant. This will be a piece of studio equipment and nothing more.

The genre I will be working on is indie rock/alternative type stuff. Some electronics - synths, drum machines, etc, but I am not going to be doing dj type stuff.

Any suggestions you may have ... Im all ears - thanks a lot

If you just want a midi controller why get a kaoss pad or kaossilator at all, rarther than a dedicated midi controller?

If you're set on a kaoss product, the kaossuilator is a synth, the kp3 is not. It's an effects unit, for adding effects to external audio sources. It has a few builtin "synth" and drum sounds of its own but they're just token gestures.

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote:If you just want a midi controller why get a kaoss pad or kaossilator at all, rarther than a dedicated midi controller?

If you're set on a kaoss product, the kaossuilator is a synth, the kp3 is not. It's an effects unit, for adding effects to external audio sources. It has a few builtin "synth" and drum sounds of its own but they're just token gestures.

Well, mainly ecause I dont know of a midi controller with a touch screen. If I am mistaken please let me know.

Can the Kp3 trigger external samples etc? Thats all I care about (meaning, i dont care if the buiilt in sounds are lame). I would probably put the effects on the Kp3 to use, depending on how they sound relative to my plugins.

Why the touchpad so important? You could get a very capable controller for much less than either Kaoss. Just an thought.

black mirror wrote:Can the Kp3 trigger external samples etc?

as in samples in your computer? I don't think so

it can trigger its own samples (in the four sample banks) though possibly not when its in Ext mode (i.e. acting as a controller)

(Edit: I think you can assign any midi message to the buttons, so you could trigger a sample, though you might not be able to scroll through samples and select which sample to trigger)

black mirror wrote:Well, mainly ecause I dont know of a midi controller with a touch screen. If I am mistaken please let me know.

if you have a couple of grand there's the JazzMutant lemur
that's been discontinuted because an iPad with a controller app provides similar functionality for a far lower price

I know there are some iPad apps for controlling Ableton Live. obviously the iPad is more expensive than a KP3, but it's a lot more flexible and there are a choice of controller apps which will integrate better than a KP3

I haven't used it as a controller myself, but there are lots of posts on this forum from people who are disappointed with the kaoss products as midi controllers (I only use my KP3 for FX and sampling, which it's great at)

Aciphecs wrote:Why the touchpad so important? You could get a very capable controller for much less than either Kaoss. Just an thought.

Well I think the touchpad looks like it could be pretty awesome for automating fx (my daw is sonar, btw), and also for punching in samples for stuff like drumbeats that wouldnt just be the same sample hit over and over - i mean, with the x/y grid on the kaoss, with the x axis being pitch and the y being modulation, it could be pretty useful for putting in synth, drum samples, etc - unless it cant do this at all. am i totally off on this?

I havent actually used a kaoss for this before (which is probably obvious), so if they cant do this type of stuff i am definitely interested in a "very capable controller for much less" - please throw some names at me and i will check them out. i was hoping to go more flexible than simply using a midi controller with keys and assignable knobs, thus the touchscreen grid on the kaoss.

I haven't used it as a controller myself, but there are lots of posts on this forum from people who are disappointed with the kaoss products as midi controllers

i am quite sorry to hear that, but very glad i came here before making my purchase...

The APC40 and the new Nano2 series will be better for controlling DAW software.

If you're looking for a controller, then I'd say that the KOPro is better because it has the ability to send out MIDI notes from its pad in External mode - whilst using the key and scales to keep your performance musical.
KP3 can also send notes but has no such key/scale locking feature.

While we're on the subject of KP3/K-Pro as midi controllers, is there any reason why they couldn't be mapped to do what Black Mirror wants?

Surely in external mode, any of the buttons/knobs can be assigned to control whatever software you're using?

I say 'surely' because I haven't done it myself, plus I've been toying with the idea of using the K-Pro as a controller for Traktor. Has anyone done this? I haven't been able to find anything about it here or elsewhere ont'net. The principle should be the same for Sonar though, shouldn't it?

xmlguy wrote:The APC40 and the new Nano2 series will be better for controlling DAW software.

I am going to take a look at some learning videos on Ableton Live so I can decide if I want to take the time to learn a new daw suite. The APC40 looks that awesome. I like the nano2 series a lot too, but the faders etc and the fact that the apc40 is good to go out of the box is pretty badass. Might get the one controller from the nano2 set that has the drumpads on it though. I like the bigger drumpads compared to the ones on the apc40.

also watched some demo videos of the kop, that thing looks awesome, and i am tempted to pick one up just as a loop creation tool. although it is hard to guess how much i will like it or use it.

It's my understanding that the NanoPad 2 will work like the KoPro by allowing you to send note data that is set to the scale and key you want.

Well, it has been about a year, and due to the fact I have been taking time off from recording...

I still haven't bought a new controller.

I'm about to go out and buy at least one of the Nano2 series. Please tell me if there is something new that I should consider before buying the Nano2 in terms of midi controllers in the last year since this thread .

I will almost certainly be using Ableton Live as my primary DAW. I might use sonar x1 or whatever it's called a little bit.
the NI suite like Kontakt etc will be used A LOT.
BFD will probably be used some for "live" drums as well.

Thanks a lot everybody. Got great advice here a year ago.

After having a bit of a look around, the MicroKey looks quite nice. I think a Microkey + Nanopad2 + APC40 combo for me would be ideal, assuming there arent any better versions of these controllers out.

Just got the nanoPad2 & nanoKontrol2 to compliment my nanoKey and I have to say I am very happy with them. The nanoPad2 does some pretty cool stuff with the x/y pad like gate arp and outputing notes. The default sends the note value via x and velocity via y when used to play notes. I believe you can change all this up with the software.

Do the Nano 2 series controllers have any of the build quality problems that the series 1 controllers had?