Wednesday 31 December 2008

Designs For Printing:

Kaossilator 9x5 Design: (right click on picture and save to your desktop)


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Mini-KP 8x8 Design: (right click on picture and save to your desktop)


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Both of the designs above can fit in either the Korg Kaossilator, or the Korg Mini-KP, but the 9x5 grid is designed for the Kaossilator because of the 45 possible symbols that show in the Kaossilators display, and the 8x8 grid is based on the display of the Mini-KP.

As someone has commented on this blog, there is a diagnostic mode that you can enter on the Kaossilator which shows a display like the Mini-KP, displaying 8x8. So some people might want to try out the 8x8 grid in their Kaossilator. There is a video that 3amsleep has done on Youtube showing how you can get into this diagnostic mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifOaKs7GIiI


Here is how to make your own grid in picture instructions! What fun...

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(4)

Watch my video about taking it all apart:



Why have I done this?

Well although I found that I could play nice little melodies on the touch pad, when I tried to reproduce them it was very difficult because the touch pad is just a blank black shape with no reference points on it to tell you where the notes you selected were.

So I have designed a grid that I have printed onto clear plastic, which can fitted over the touch pad. With this fitted you can still play the Kaossilator in the same way as normal, but now you have points of reference on the touch pad, making it easier to recreate melodies and remember locations of particular notes.

The 9 by 5 grid I have used is based upon the fact that the Kaossilator display shows 9 different symbols when you move across the touch pad horizontally, and 5 different symbols when you move down the touch pad vertically, giving 45 possible symbols in the display. Within each square and between squares there are note variations, and this variation is dependant on the scale that you have selected withing the Kaossilator, so the grid should be seen as a way of remembering where notes you are playing are located, as opposed to a specific square for each note.

In order to fit one of these properly you will need to open up your Kaossilator and therefore invalidate the warranty. Alternatively if you do not want to open up your Kaossilator you can just cut your grid to fit the touch pad and sit it on top, but obviously it will not stay put and will slide about.

Properly fitting it is quite simple, but care should be taken not to damage the electronics inside the device. Below is a video showing how to fit it.

This modification can also be made to the Korg Mini-KP Kaoss Pad, and fitting it to the Mini-KP is exactly the same as fitting it to the Kaossilator.

All you need to do is save one of the designs above to your desktop, print it out, drag the image into an open word processing text document (I use OpenOffice), and print it onto a bit of transparency film. I use an old inkjet printer, and you can buy transparency film for inkjets and it works fine. If you make sure the printed side is faced down on the touch pad when you fit it this will also ensure that you don't rub off the design.

You will also have to trim a tiny bit off the bottom left hand corner (nearest the K) so that it does not get in the way of the Gate/Arp Type LED.

That's it basically. Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions or requests.

As you can probably tell I'm not a natural blogger, and I'm not sure I have the patience to get into this whole area of blog design, so this will have to do for now. I might add some stuff at another time.

Cheers, TJ

14 comments:

  1. Very very cool idea, I look forward to buying one.

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  2. good mod, its kinda hard to remember the notes are on the trackpad, i'll give it a try on mine once it gets fixed. i broke mine coz it felll and there's a dent on the trackpad, it still works but its like its always being pressed, do you know how to get those trackpads or do you know where i can get help aside from sending it back to the retailer? thanks

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  3. Hey Enrico, no I don't know where you'd get another touch pad I'm afraid. I saw a post similar to this on the Korg forum, check this out:
    http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=40521

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  4. Thank you so much for your research and general bold going! I did this mod tonight and it worked brilliantly. I was worried about taking the Kaossilator apart but just watched your vid a few times and had no serious dramas. The addition of a grid really adds to the device for me and allows me to really use it as an instrument.

    Thanks again. Matt
    www.reverbnation.com/laughingdeath

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  5. Hey Matt, its cool to hear that you have made use of my grid design and are enjoying using it. Its always cool to get some nice feedback! Cheers, Tim

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  6. Wow, I just stumbled across this and definitely want to give it a try. Could you re-upload the 9x5 image? I've re-loaded the page a few times and that image seems to be down. Thanks!

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  7. Hey, have fixed it now. That is the second time it has happened in the last couple of weeks! Something weird going on...

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  8. Thanks for the grid mod....I am even feeling comfortable in taking the machine apart....I am not great at mechanical stuff....looking forward to using it....I am new to the whole Kaossilator scene and am so excited.Thanks a million!

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  9. Oops, posted this comment in the wrong place, so here goes again:


    I ran across this mod on a YouTube video. FANTASTIC!

    I've had my Kaossilator a little over 2 years now, and my biggest problem with it has been being able to accurately bang out a tune on it without hitting wrong notes. Now I'm in business!

    I didn't have a transparency sheet handy, so I just printed out on some regular printer paper, and then taped over the printer paper with some clear packing tape and cut it out. Works pretty well.

    One tip for anyone doing this mod: Make SURE you clean all dirt and dust off the pad and the transparency before re-assembling the KO. I had a tiny speck of dirt sandwiched in there the first time around, and it caused the KO to play a continuous note all the time. Had to re-do the whole thing over, but now works great!

    Russ

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  10. Finally decided it was time to take my Kaossilator to bits today (I've had it since Christmas, but didn't want to invalidate the guarantee *too* quickly) - wow, what an improvement the grid makes! - thanks for putting this guide together :)

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  11. A very nice thing you just did here for Kaoss users. Just opened a whole new use for my Kaossilator. Thank you.

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  12. how do you get the image to be the right size in the word processor?

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  13. how do I buy them from you?

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  14. Hey there. Thank you! I find this mod to be quite helpful. However, I was in the mood for a different color scheme... So I traced the above images in illustrator and made a different grid color with a single subdivision for each "square."
    I can't promise it will reside here forever, but below are links to a PDF and .AI version in the public folder of my dropbox if anyone wants to check them out or tweak them... feel free to do whatever you want with them.

    Thanks again for the work that went into developing these grids initially and for sharing them with us all...

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10884040/K_GRID_MOD/K_Grid_Mod.pdf
    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10884040/K_GRID_MOD/K_Grid_Mod.ai

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

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