
Upon the first glance, nobody would think this is actually a musical instrument, until they see the name "KORG" at the top. This is KORG Kaossilator, yet another digital music synthesizer form KORG. You may have heard the name 'Kaoss' in the form of 'Kaoss pad' before right? FYI, Kaoss Pad and Kaosilator are both KORG products. The Kaossilator are indeed the much smaller siblings of its big brother, the Kaoss Pad. While Kaoss Pad was designed as a tabletop instrument, Kaossilator fits perfectly in your arm, if not in your palm. It is powered by 4xAA dry cell or 4.5V DC, which means you can 'play' it anywhere provided there are adequate sound system to complement it. Consisting of a boxy-shaped yellowish chassis, a knob, a volume dial, a 3-digit display, an indicator LED and a few buttons as well as a track pad slightly bigger than the size of your average notebook trackpad, the device is very simple with the RCA-out and a 3.5mm earphone jack being the only output options. The concept of this baby is very simple. It is as easy as playing the game "Electroplankton" on Nintendo-DS (I you've ever played that game you'll get the drift). Let a tone-deaf person practice for a few hours and he will be able to perform some good music in no time. There are a selection of 100 sounds to meddle with and you can start creating music right away by moving your fingers around the trackpad. It is unclear though whether it support multi-touch or not but that would be cool if it is. You are also able to record a loop and then layering them to create a multi-piece performance but don't expect it to match even a simple 8-piece classical orchestra, since it is intended more towards Rave, Acid and the likes. Being the true performance instrument, the only bad thing about this stuff would be the unavailability of digital interface (USB, optical, etc.) to either connect to a PC or just to record your generated music. That means once you turn it off things you created with "sweat, blood and tears" will gone. Well, just like the game "Electroplankton" as mentioned earlier, there is no way to digitally save the music once you finished performed, although there is a rumor that the next generation of Kaossilator (as well as the Electroplankton game, although that game has nothing to do with the device) will allow music saving on memory card (let's cross our fingers on that). Sad, it is but that is what to be expected from the so-called 'beginner' instrument. At approximately RM600, it may be overpriced for a 'simple' instrument but for for a tech geek or anybody who can't play any instrument but want to have a piece of cake of live musical performance, it is recommended.