The Korg Kaossilator was a simple machine with a profound philosophy. By removing the keyboard and replacing it with an X/Y pad, the Kaossilator encouraged the users to make music with (shock horror) their ears, rather than conventional theory or advanced technical prowess. This simple premise, coupled with a surprisingly rich sound engine, made the Kaossilator a surprise hit; truly the easiest way to add extra texture or riffage to a production and a great way to ‘change the gear’ of your thought process while composing.

Riding on the back of this successful ‘gadget’, Korg has used the Winter NAMM seminar to announce the upcoming release of the Kaossilator Pro. The Kaossilator Pro is a serious refinement on the foundation set by its bite-sized predecessor, adding a range of features borrowed from the long standing Kaoss Pad 3 to open the door to better integration of the Kaossilator’s features with other studio and live gear.

The upgrades that come with the Kaossilator Pro cover a wide palette of technical desires. The sound bank has been doubled to include 200 programs; the addition of PCM samples mean that the drum sounds in this unit should be more realistic and varied than the synthesizer-based drums in the original. Up to eight of your favourite patterns can be stored to hot keys on the Kaossilator Pro’s faceplate and called up/swapped between instantly.

In addition to its program library, the Kaossilator Pro is able to record live audio samples from external audio sources as real-time overdubs or original gated takes (those familiar with the Kaoss Pad 3 will recognize this system). Sample-length and gating functionality allow quick edits to recorded samples to fit your composition quickly and in line with standard sampling practice. Microphone ¼ TRS and RCA inputs allow the Kaossilator’s programs to be used as a vocoder effect on the input audio source.

The program and sampled sounds can be combined within the Kaossilator Pro, real-time, in four pattern banks (up to four bars). The addition of these pattern banks is a serious tick on my personal wish-list from the original Kaossilator, making it possible to step forward/backwards, adjust volume and mute/un-mute sections of your patterns in real time, making long varied performances based on managing your loops easy and intuitive.

Connectivity has obviously been a serious area of attention for Korg when designing the Kaossilator Pro. While the original Kaossilator has a fairly workable arp/tap tempo feature, it really existed on something of an island, unable to communicate with other gear. The opposite can be said about the Kaossilator Pro. The addition of conventional MIDI in/out connectors, MIDI over USB, SD card sample storage and its own dedicated editor software means that not only does the Kaossilator Pro talk to pretty much every other piece of gear you could desire; it does so easily and intelligently. Huzzah.

In summation, the Kaossilator Pro has all the goodness of the original with double the sounds, better storage, MIDI in/outs, sampling, improved arp/gate and a vocoder. My ultimate dream aspiration for this product probably had the Kaoss Pad 3’s effects unit combined with all of these features, but I can acknowledge when I am existing in a land of pure fantasy. With the Kaoss Pad Mini readily available, I’m sure this is an addition I can take care of myself if I find it truly necessary. The real world Kaossilator Pro that Korg have served up is certainly a tasty enough morsel by itself.

A videos of the NAMM demonstration can be viewed below:

This article was originally posted on the Spank Records blog, which you can check out here. They are currently taking pre-orders with a $100 deposit online or in store and expect the first units to arrive late March, retailing for around $749 (TBC). You can find out more at their website; www.spankrecords.com.au.