A couple years back I wrote up a little review of the Korg Kaossilator. More recently I caught myself thinking about this little piece of gear and the Korg Mini-KP that I’ve since added on to go with it and I thought I’d provide a retrospective on the purchase.

First, let me say up front that I haven’t regretted the purchase at all. It’s a fun piece of kit that I’ve enjoyed goofing around with quite a bit. However, I never did really get around to getting it really integrated into my setup. It has remained more of a sound toy than a real instrument than I use.

I’m not really surprised; it basically is a sound toy at the end of the day. It certainly could be used for various leads, basses or other parts but every time I consider doing that I decide not to bother. Why? Massive.

I picked up Native Instruments Komplete 5 last year primarily for Reaktor, Kontakt and Battery but I’ve used Massive more than all three of those combined. And if you want to buy Massive by itself? $200, maybe less if you find a good deal. That’s a bit more than what Kaossilators are going for on eBay but who cares? It costs an addtional 60 bucks but does a hundred thousand times more than what the Kaossilator does and is much easier to integrate into any DAW that supports VSTs. (And if you’re not using a DAW that supports VSTs you might consider an affordable upgrade.)

Over all the little physical devices with their touch pads and clicky knobs are a lot of fun for goofing around or making music collaboratively with some friends. But as a serious tool? More and more I keep shying away from my physical synths and turning toward software solutions which provide just-as-good or better quality, vastly improved workflow and better cost effectiveness. Controllers are a different story though, and have become an indispensable part of my setup. More on that later.