Korg announced today a brand new addition to the Kaoss family, the Kaossilator. According to Korg, anyone can play perfect musical phrases by tapping or dragging the touchpad. It's the same size as the KP Mini and runs on AA batteries. Here's the highlights of it's specs:
Synth, Sound Effects and Drum Sounds with 100 sound programs
31 scale patterns to let you play a variety of phrases
50 types of gate arpeggios
Loop Recording with 'complex' overdubbing
It includes some of the effects from the Kaoss Pad range along with Korgs synth engine
The horizontal axis is assigned to pitch, while the vertical axis deals with modulation intensity, cutoff frequency, etc, depending on the program.
It seems Korg are giving Yamaha a run for their money for the portable intuitive music making tool, no doubt at a lot cheaper price (the Kaossilator's price is TBA -
Update: RRP is £117
). With a 5-hour battery life, 24-bit DAC and an RCA phono out for headphones (as well as a main stereo Aux out), it seems pretty ideal for pocket-sized synthesis. It'll be interesting to get hands-on with the unit, which is available in November. Keep your eye on FM for a review and a more in-depth summary.
