Hi, I'm thinking of buying a KP3, but before I do, I have a a few questions.
1. Can you mute loops but still have them playing? Like if I were to play scary monsters and nice sprites at the drop I would mute all the tracks apart from the drums, and play the wubwubwub live on my launchpad then at a few points you have the melody cut back in for a bar then go back for wubwubwub and then have the melody would come back in after the drop.
2. Can you record over loops, or do you over-right them?
3. Is the KP3 worth it? Seriously, I just want it for looping and filtering.
KP3 Looping Questions
Moderators: Sharp, X-Trade, Pepperpotty, karmathanever
By default, loops on the KP3 are playing all the time in sync with each other and you just are muting and unmuting them. The problem is that they are only synced internally, and not synced with external music, even when connected via midi with timing events. So the problem with the scenario you propose is knowing when to unmute a loop at the point you want - like at the beginning of a measure. If you update to the latest flash version, you'll get some additional loop times that do let the loops stop when muted, so that you will start at the beginning of the loop when hitting the loop button (and allowing the internal loops to go out of sync with each other). There is also a function to realign the internal loops with this loop type (type 3).
You can't overdub loops on the KP3, but you can do this on the Kaossilator Pro. On the KP3 you can get an overdub effect by playing a loop then resampling it on another loop, which will include whatever audio input that is mixed at the same time.
The KP3 was very innovative product when it was released, but time has gone on and the state of looping has progressed. There are inherent limitations to audio looping for syncing, and the KP3 must work within these limitations. Midi looping is very different than audio looping, since it has much more flexibility for syncing by speeding up or slowing down the midi BPM and triggering the samples more quickly or slowly, without having to compress or stretch the audio itself. In other words, midi loopers can compress or expand time in a way that audio loopers can't. If you really want to keep everything in sync and bring in a loop so that it starts and stops only at the beginning and end of a measure. Audio loopers really have no concept of a measure or even a beat. They have a stream of audio and the looper is blind to the beats and measures inside the audio signal. Midi loopers essentially have the "score" with beats and measures defined.
The upshot is that midi looping is the most powerful and flexible form of looping. You can have one loop phrase playing and then trigger another loop to not start right away but instead to wait to bring in the new loop at the measure break. An audio looper can't do that. You can keep midi loops in perfect sync all the time because time itself is just a variable that can be sped up or slowed without compressing or stretching the audio that's being triggered. The midi looper is triggering individual notes that are usually very short. Audio loops are long audio streams where the timing is embedded in the audio (the space between notes is actually part of the signal). Midi loops have timing independent of the audio itself. I might not be explaining this very well, but that's the best I can do. The KP3 is designed to only keep its own loops in sync, and it doesn't sync to any external loops. Midi loopers like Maschine, Ableton Live, and arranger patterns can be synced via midi timing, and they have much more powerful looping than 4 audio loops can give you. They have as many phrases/loops as you want with features like scenes. Therefore, I recommend midi loopers for the most capability.
You can't overdub loops on the KP3, but you can do this on the Kaossilator Pro. On the KP3 you can get an overdub effect by playing a loop then resampling it on another loop, which will include whatever audio input that is mixed at the same time.
The KP3 was very innovative product when it was released, but time has gone on and the state of looping has progressed. There are inherent limitations to audio looping for syncing, and the KP3 must work within these limitations. Midi looping is very different than audio looping, since it has much more flexibility for syncing by speeding up or slowing down the midi BPM and triggering the samples more quickly or slowly, without having to compress or stretch the audio itself. In other words, midi loopers can compress or expand time in a way that audio loopers can't. If you really want to keep everything in sync and bring in a loop so that it starts and stops only at the beginning and end of a measure. Audio loopers really have no concept of a measure or even a beat. They have a stream of audio and the looper is blind to the beats and measures inside the audio signal. Midi loopers essentially have the "score" with beats and measures defined.
The upshot is that midi looping is the most powerful and flexible form of looping. You can have one loop phrase playing and then trigger another loop to not start right away but instead to wait to bring in the new loop at the measure break. An audio looper can't do that. You can keep midi loops in perfect sync all the time because time itself is just a variable that can be sped up or slowed without compressing or stretching the audio that's being triggered. The midi looper is triggering individual notes that are usually very short. Audio loops are long audio streams where the timing is embedded in the audio (the space between notes is actually part of the signal). Midi loops have timing independent of the audio itself. I might not be explaining this very well, but that's the best I can do. The KP3 is designed to only keep its own loops in sync, and it doesn't sync to any external loops. Midi loopers like Maschine, Ableton Live, and arranger patterns can be synced via midi timing, and they have much more powerful looping than 4 audio loops can give you. They have as many phrases/loops as you want with features like scenes. Therefore, I recommend midi loopers for the most capability.
Wow, that was a great reply, thanks for all of the info!
I think the best looping system would be a local one, as in a plugin for FL Studio, then it will have all of the syncing capabilities, it would he much cheaper to buy a USB soundcard for each input than buy a KP3 and only have it do a fraction of what can be done with a plugin setup!
Now, do you know if there are any plugins that can do this? If not, do you know any websites that offer a decent VST programming guide?
Thanks.
I think the best looping system would be a local one, as in a plugin for FL Studio, then it will have all of the syncing capabilities, it would he much cheaper to buy a USB soundcard for each input than buy a KP3 and only have it do a fraction of what can be done with a plugin setup!
Now, do you know if there are any plugins that can do this? If not, do you know any websites that offer a decent VST programming guide?
Thanks.