Korg iKaossilator For iPhone (Sneak Preview)

Korg has announced another app for iOS, iKaossilator for iPhone, which is available now in the App Store.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

Korg has revolutionized the musical instrument world with their dynamic line of Kaoss products, using an intuitive X-Y pad to provide expressive musical control.

The palm-sized KAOSSILATOR synthesizer placed modern music-making in the hands of thousands of musicians and non-musicians alike. Now that same excitement has been captured in the iKaossilator app for iPhone!

iKaossilator for iPhone Highlights:

  • Play sounds by simply stroking, tapping, or rubbing the screen with your finger
  • Bold Visual Effects move along with your performance and add excitement
  • 150 diverse built-in sounds cover any style of dance music
  • Scale/Key settings allow anyone to perform with musical precision
  • Easily create tracks with the loop sequencer using up to five parts
  • Control loops in real time for DJ-Style live performances
  • WIST capability allows wireless sync-start with other apps such as the iElectribe

iKaossilator is currently available for $9.99, half off the regular price.

If you try out iKaossilator, let us know what you think of it!.

About iKaossilator

iKaossilator uses the unique X-Y interface made famous by Korg’s Kaoss Line, including the original hand-held KAOSSILATOR. Create melodies and phrases simply by stroking, tapping, or rubbing the touch screen with your finger.

You can use the 150 built-in sounds for a broad range of dance music styles including hip-hop, house, techno, dubstep, nu-disco, and electro.

The built-in loop sequencer lets you layer up to five musical parts. To create a track, assign a loop such as synth, bass, chords, sound effects, or drums to each part. Fifty loops are built-in to help you get started quickly. In addition to its track-making capabilities, this loop sequencer is designed for live performance. The Mix Play feature makes it easy to switch seamlessly to another loop or extract a specific part from another loop while the playback continues.

28 thoughts on “Korg iKaossilator For iPhone (Sneak Preview)

  1. i think korg may be planning something more pro for the ipad. this has some nice features like the loop track editor. but its very limited compare to the kaossillator. its like a remix tool.

    this is really set up to jam with pre-existing techno loops. i already erase all of mine. i will try to build more from scratch. but the supplied sounds aren’t close to the quality of the kaossillator imo. and no arpeggiator. boo.

  2. Normally I would complain “it’s not for iPad?” (I know you can use it on iPad) but I feel this is perfect for iPhone’s screen size and don’t feel the iPad stretch is nessesary. Ok, so, it’s not quite the true kaossilltor but it’s only $10 and I spent 30x that on my KP3, I like Korgs apps esp. the iMS20

    Thanks for posting,

  3. The more time I spend with the lamer it seems.

    It’s not multitouch. You can’t import samples. In play mode you can tap out beats using a drum sound, like on a drum pad but once you try to record a loop their loop plays and records as well. You can only manipulate their prepackaged loops. No original beats. This is feeling like a remix toy.

  4. Thanks for the comments above. As a dedicated Kaossilator fan, you’ve just saved me ten bucks (or possibly ten quid as I am a limey).

  5. I ain’t buying no more iPhone apps. Nano Studio BM2 and MOOg Filtatron is enough, although I got all the good apps already like XENON and BS-16i. I’m waiting for that MOOG iPad synth Synthtopia broke the news on. Can’t wait to get my hands on that.

  6. The program iKaossilator IS multitouch, not sure why you would say it isn’t. Maybe download and try it first? Or are merely speaking about the pad area itself, which behaves exactly like the hardware?

  7. @Gregg

    I meant the pad area is not multi touch. Sorry for the confusion. When I was using my Kaossilator, which I don’t have it anymore, I used to use two fingers to get the sound to morph. Put two fingers down and the sound is different than either one finger. At least that is my memory.

    The iKaossilator feels much less expressive IMO.

    1. Its actually placing the touch point in the center of the line between both fingers, when you use 2 fingers at the same time. it’s just a sum of the difference, not a change in sound…. This is how my KP3 works, and it’s how the kaossilltor reacts as well

      1. The net effect is more control. I remember morphing the sound back and forth. IKaossilator feels less responsive to me. This spot on that spot off.

  8. Wait, so you can’t use any of your own sounds, midi control any of your own instruments, and it’s not native for the iPad? Think I’ll wait. Interesting that a 5$ app like imaschine that gets so much flack for some of it’s shortcomings, can do so much more for so much less.
    My 2¢

    1. I think imaschine is really well done. It’s a real instrument. But NI have an in app purchase strategy so it’s hard to compare price.

  9. I don’t think its useless or anything, but it’s been close to 9 months since Korg released the ‘Gorillaz Electribe’ app, how long will the musicians and audiophiles have to patiently shuffle our feet until Korg releases something on par with the iMS-20? Korg as a venerable history of synthesizers going back 35 years! Time to make use of it and give us a bloody Polysix emulation! lol

    People don’t buy Kaossilators anymore, that was cool and interesting 5+ years ago…doi!

  10. Does the world really need more mind-numbing disco? These aps are nice toys but I think they’re just making it too easy for wanna-be musicians to crank out bleeps and bloops and pretend it’s music. Save your money for a real synthesizer.

    1. The Kaossilator is cool because it’s flexible enough to really twist up. You can really make some crazy sounding stuff. Down right experimental even. The iKaossilator on the other hand puts the techno straight jacket on pretty tight.

      Another lame aspect. You can’t control track volume. Of course there are no effects either. Well the original had none either but it didn’t matter.

  11. “everything is amazing and nobody is happy” (Louis ck).
    personally, my mind = blown.

    vast amount of sounds
    easy to play for everyone
    offers much more than the original for a fraction of the price
    song mode with quantize
    beautiful visual feedback

  12. You know the iOS devices has become real musical instruments, when even application like this, feels like its priced a bit too high compared to other apps.

  13. How about including a link to the app? I’ve noticed that you often leave the link out of these articles and even when it’s there, the link style is really hard to see, leaving me, like an idiot, combing the text with my mouse cursor and this time coming up short. Yes, I’m probably lazy.

    Other than that, love the site, thanks!

    1. helvetac –

      Thanks for the feedback. I updated the post to put the link in the first sentence.

      Fixing the link styling to make them more readable is on my to do list. Getting the site stable and reliably fast has been top of my list for the last month, though, because the old server just couldn’t handle the level of traffic we get anymore. I switched over earlier this week, though, and the site has been performing much better. I’m going to try to do some style updates this weekend.

      Keep the feedback coming!

  14. This is fantastic – I’ve been waiting a long time for a Kaossilator style app from Korg and they did good. This type of app makes way more functional sense on a touchscreen device like an iPhone than one with a virtual piano keyboard. I usually have my hardware Kaossilator in my bag or somewhere close by but having something to bust out a phrase in my pocket and the ability to save is too cool. Some arp functions and maybe Soundcloud integration would be neat to see in the future. Don’t forget WIST (Wireless sync start). Played with that last night and it rocked. Awesome app for a Kaossilator fan for $10. Link to app – http://www.korg.com/ikaossilator

  15. Just from an interface design, I think this app looks great. So many apps for the iphone cram too much in the limited visual space. This is one of the first that I’ve seen that has functionality and layout appropriate to the available screen real estate. Musically, I don’t really do the looping thing in my compositions, so I can’t really be the judge of that end of things, but visually and functionally it seems like a win.

  16. like it a lot
    its not as good as kaossilator but it has some +
    like the mixer, so you can mix all saved patterns as you wish
    to little sounds though
    wishes for a bigger one to my ipad with a little kp3 etc mix
    that would be lovely

  17. really great app, 2 bad points tho
    the synckontrol app receives wist on wifi from coreMIDI, allowing you to sync live and a monotribe

    the newer ikaossilator doesnt want to receive it from coreMIDI, only from other bluetooth phones(which i obviously dont have)

    anyone found a way to sync it to a computer, i really want to use this live in place of my kaossilator+miniKP combo which i stopped using because of the no sync issue(and a ro was just too damn big to fit in my setup)

  18. You can make your own drums you just use one of the single hit drum sounds and it plays kick, snare, hh, crash etc at different parts of the pad!

  19. I’ve got the original Kaossilator, and this is better. Maybe not as good as a Kaossilator Pro hardware version, but a hell of a lot cheaper, and easier to work with on the move. Agreed, its missing some features and clearly an iPad version should make up the gaps, but for a handy ‘musical scratch pad’ this is perfect. Keep it up Korg, and am looking forward to a ‘Pro’ version that incorporates all the features of a hardware Kaossilator and a Kaoss pad 3. The days of hardware are drawing to a close…

    Malcolm Davis,
    Canberra, Australia

  20. Lead
    01 SweepLead
    02 UnisonLead
    03 RezAcidSaw
    04 SawLead
    05 RezSquare
    06 EpleLead
    07 4octSine
    08 8bitReverse
    09 DecayPulse
    10 FatSaw
    11 HPF-Lead
    12 80sTechLead
    13 ElectroSqu
    14 BleepSync
    15 DgitalTalk
    16 BitterBeep
    17 HPF5thStab
    18 HPF-Strings
    19 NoizForest
    20 AiryBell

    Acoustic
    21 FilterPiano
    22 rayEP
    23 WahClav
    24 OrganLead
    25 StereoBell
    26 60ELKShock
    27 DistGuitar
    28 Sitar
    29 StringEns
    30 FlyingChoir
    31 Flute
    32 MoodySax
    33 70sMovieSFX
    34 BrassEns
    35 WaveStream

    Bass
    36 BigSawBass
    37 AnalogBass
    38 MGBass
    39 OperatorBass
    40 LowBoostBass
    41 FallBass
    42 SquareBass
    43 DistSquBass
    44 DistSawBass
    45 8bitBass
    46 YaiYoiBass
    47 WireBass
    48 ElectroBass
    49 OctaBass
    50 PunchBass
    51 HooverBass
    52 Side_C_Bass
    53 SubBass
    54 EvilBass
    55 SeqBass
    56 SyncSync
    57 EHouseSeq
    58 DuckBass
    59 3StepBass
    60 OrganBass
    61 JazzBass
    62 PickBass
    63 ElecBass
    64 DynaSlapBass
    65 AutoWahBass

    Chord
    66 FilterStab
    67 PhaserChord
    68 UnisonChord
    69 SquarePad
    70 DetuneDecay
    71 ChordShot
    72 SunnyShot
    73 KordMemory
    74 MistyChoir
    75 EGModPad
    76 CurbCode
    77 ChordTrigger
    78 GATEcomplex
    79 HPF-Motion
    80 MotionSaw
    81 PumpPad
    82 DuckingWoo
    83 GatedStrings
    84 Inspiration
    85 MotionPad
    86 PianoChord
    87 TremoloEP
    88 EPChord
    89 OrganChord
    90 TremoloVibe
    91 ModBell
    92 ChorusGuitar
    93 ReverseGtr
    94 GuitarChord
    95 PowerChord

    Sound
    96 SirenUp
    97 LoFi UFO
    98 NoizSeQ
    99 BackInForest
    100 NoiseShot
    101 DropStick
    102 SampleSweep
    103 Gumball
    104 BellTree
    105 Industry
    106 Bit_IT
    107 OrchHits
    108 BrokenDrums
    109 4Kick4U
    110 Clap
    111 HiHat
    112 Crash
    113 SynTom1
    114 SynTom2
    115 Zap

    Rhythm
    116 ElecHaouse
    117 DeepHouse
    118 HouseQ
    119 House
    120 TripletHouse
    121 BendElec
    122 Techno
    123 Minimal1
    124 Minimal2
    125 HipHop1
    126 HipHop2
    127 RetroVox
    128 Moombahton
    129 BreakBeat1
    130 BreakBeat2
    131 Breaks
    132 DnB1
    133 DnB2
    134 Dubstep1
    135 Dubstep2
    136 Rock1
    137 Rock2
    138 Disco1
    139 Disco2
    140 Bossa
    141 Latin
    142 Conga
    143 Doncamatic
    144 BeatVox
    145 DistBeat
    146 ZapBeat
    147 TeKnO_A
    148Retroboxxx
    149 HiHatLoop1
    150 HiHatLoop2

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