Re: KP3

[mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 8:45 PM -0800 12/29/06, mark sottilaro wrote:
>Is the pad really quantized, or does it just work more
>like the kp2 does when you're using a MIDI synced
>effect?

Well, I got one over the holidays, so here's the "horse's mouth" 
speaking, as it were.

I can tell you that rather than being truly quantized, there's 
interpolation going on in there that prevents you from actually 
hearing it on most of the patches.  In fact, the main place that I've 
actually noticed any quantization of the pad is in the synth & drum 
patches (the tones available are discrete notes, rather than 
theremin-like glides), or the EQ type patches where you have the pad 
divided into 4 or 8 bands that can be individually controlled.  Those 
patches intentionally depend upon dividing the pad up into discrete 
units.  They'd be radically different if you didn't.

Things like the filter patches don't exhibit any sort of stepping, if 
that's what you're worried about.  It behaves just like the KP1 and 
(I'm assuming) the KP2.

I've also noticed some of what could be referred to as quantization 
on some of the loop sampler patches, but it's not a bad thing.  The 
Auto-BPM function on this thing rocks; it's very good.  Then, the 
loop sampler grabs a slice based on a beat value depending upon where 
you manipulate the pad.  Depending upon where you slide, you can 
manipulate the size of the slice between, say, a half-note and a 
quarter-note.  This is done as a jump between those values.  It would 
be a slightly different effect if there were a smooth transition in 
the slice size after it had been grabbed, but I can imagine it being 
a nightmare if you accidentally get your finger a sixteenth of an 
inch off in the initial sampling and grab one and .87625th of a beat. 
As it is now, the effect is more musical.

I've been having the most fun with the granular and loop-sampler 
stuff.  You can almost think of it as the hardware equivalent of some 
VST's like NI's FastFX or Bram's (SmartElectronix) SupaTrigga.  Okay, 
you really can't do the random slice re-ordering of those programs, 
but for some nice granular glitchiness and "Max Headroom" type 
stutter effects, this thing is really cool.  The FX Release delay is 
also nice for adding a few extra synced-beats to an effect, 
especially if you're tapping the pad morse-code style.

The effect I'm the most disappointed in is the reverb, but then again 
I'm a bit of a reverb-snob.  It sounds too metallic/tin-canny for my 
tastes; reminds me of some of the early Zoom's.  Then again, I knew 
plenty of people who really dug those same Zoom's, so YMM definitely 
V.

Oh, and the manual sucks, BTW.  You don't get much sense of what it 
can do without playing with it -- simple trial and error.

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with it, and with the new 
illuminated pad it's definitely got the stage-presence thing down.

        --m.
-- 
_______
"No more building up; it is time to dissolve..."