Korg Forums

[zefi]

Hey I'm a newbie to electronic instuments (I play bass and guitar) but I loved the idea of something so portable and self-sufficient so I got one a few weeks ago.
So these are my Kaossilator recordings.
No edits, no cuts, no additional effects (except for fade in/fade out).
Straight out of the kaossilator, recorded with quicktime.

http://www.myspace.com/zefimusic

Tell me what you guys think.

[zefi]

no comments AT ALL? is it that bad?

[zefi]

I posted this in the wrong section, didn't I?

[xmlguy]

It appears your post just slipped through the cracks. Don't take it personally. Sometimes if you don't ask a question, people might not have much reason to respond.

I listened to all your tracks. My first impression on the first song, was: is there something wrong with my volume control? The fade in was way too slow. My second impression was that I liked the bass line. With the SciFi effects it sounded like and uptempo ambient track. But it didn't really go anywhere from there.

The remaining tracks did a lot of repetition of the same bass line pattern and song structure. One of the problems I've found with the Kaossilator is that the looper tends to limit the overall song structure because you can only overdub to build a track, but you can't remove/save layers without stopping the music. This leads to only two ways to end a song, fade out or abrupt cut. Now if you pair that with a slow fade-in, I think the result reduces the overall impact. I think the intro is one of the most important elements to get people into the song - because we tend to want to hear it clearly enough to decide if it's worth listening to rather quickly.

Some of the drum patterns on the Kaossilator also have some problems with the mix level when looped, causing them to get lost in the mix.

Nearly all of these problems can be addressed by pairing the Kaossilator with the KP3 to handle the looping and drum patterns. The four sample pads give the layers needed to build and teardown a track. It lets you control the individual sample mix levels. The drum patterns are cleaner and more powerful, with a lot of dynamic punch. So I use the Kaossilator as a synth source, then the KP3 to handle the sampling, looping, and mashup effects. I use the SP-404 for longer tracks and loops where I can set them up in advance to loop cleanly, because then I can record different keys/chord progressions from the Kaossilator and have multiple layers. Staying in one key/scale for a whole song starts to get old very quickly.

I really like the Kaossilator, so I only mention these problems because they tend to limit the song structure, so I use the built-in looper mostly to explore different beats, which I quickly redo to save and edit permanently on other gear. In fact, I think the biggest problem with the Kaossilator is the inability to save the loops permanently. It's supposed to be a sketchpad, but what artist would want a sketchpad that erased itself when you close it? Even though it's great for exploring musical concepts, it's essential to be able to save the good results permanently before they get forgotten and lost.

[elevated]

Great post XMLguy, agree on all points!

[xmlguy]

Thanks for the nice comment, elevated! I can't say how much time it took me to get comfortable with using the Kaossilator and KP3 together, but it has been hundreds of hours, if not more. It's been a lot of fun building up a full set of songs that I do with live sampling of the Kaossilator. I like to see the jaws drop when people realize that all the music is entirely improvisational from the little yellow pad, not a backing track.

[zefi]

I'd given up on that thread, so I just saw this really great response, xmlguy

I've actually already started to record layers on my PC and mix them in Live
so hopefully I'll have a real track to upload soon.

Thanks, man

[xmlguy]

Using Ableton Live to layer the tracks is even better. I look forward to hearing the results when you're ready to post them!

[elevated]

XMLguy, do you have a recording I can check out? That's awesome how you're doing live sets. Really above and beyond 99% of DJ's/artists.

On a side note, I've started a pretty cool program for myself w/ my kaossilator. For 15 minutes per day, I use it just by itself to get the coolest/most usable 4 bar phrase possible. I tend to delete and start over a lot, and stay away from using the drum sounds. When I'm happy with my phrase, I sample it into my MPC and save it by date. It's AWESOME to see the progression.

[xmlguy]

http://www.myspace.com/sonicbitstream

Kaossijam and Major Imperfections are done on the Kaossilator. The rest are done on the DS-10.