The Kaoss Pad is an audio sampling instrument and multi-effects processor originally launched by
Korg in 1999.
It allows users to record and process audio samples and apply various effects using an X-Y
touchscreen.
Features
Kaoss Pads allow users to
sample
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...
and
loop audio and apply effects such as
pitch-bending,
flange,
distortion, and
delay
Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can
* ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film
People
* B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...
using an X/Y
touchscreen.
According to the ''
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
,'' while its effects technology was not new, the Kaoss Pad was distinguished by its intuitive design: "Anyone can pick one up and in a matter of seconds get the hang of it."
The British producer and musician
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...
described it as "a way of taking sounds into the domain of muscular control" as opposed to working with computers: "It takes you into a completely different place, because when working with computers you normally don't use your muscles in that way. You're focused on your head, and the three million years of evolution that resulted in incredible muscular skill doesn't get a look in."
Users
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
use a Kaoss Pad on performances of their 2000 song "
Everything In Its Right Place", manipulating singer
Thom Yorke's vocals into a "glitching, stuttering collage".
Other users include Brian Eno, the
Muse guitarist
Matt Bellamy (who has Kaoss Pads built into his guitars),
John Linnell of
They Might Be Giants,
Bryan Ferry,
Beardyman, Kevin Martin, and New York based electronic musician Ian Cook, who often uses the device for live resampling in a jazz/improvisation context, notably with ''Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra,'' violinist Lucia Micarelli, and Jason Miles’ ''Global Noise''.
See also
*
Kaossilator, a Korg synthesizer with a Kaoss Pad interface
References
External links
Korg.com
{{Portal bar, Electronics, Music, border=yes
Samplers (musical instrument)
Grooveboxes