Backing tracks/Kaoss pad help

Hi, I'm new to sampling and such, so I'm not even sure that a sampler is what I need. I want to have a few backing tracks for my live solo performances. I was wondering what the best way to do this would be. Also I was thinking about getting a Kaoss pad because they seem like a lot of fun. I noticed the higher end one has some sampling capabilites and was wondering if that would help me out? Thanks a lot.

Yes, but. The Kaoss is best for messing things up and morphing them. A sequencer or an SP404 might be better for backing tracks.

Jerry

The Kaoss pad allows 4 samples of up to 16 measures (just long enough to be useful ... but nothing you do something long or complete with ... )

And in case you need that translating - at 120bpm - that equate to 8 seconds of sampling, less at higher bpms.

Sounds to me like a minimal digital multi-track is probably the kind of thing you are after - those that only suport a small number of tracks can be very cheap - cheaper than a kaoss pad.

I have no idea if Akai MPC series and Roland SPSx0x series devices could be good for continuous audio streams.

Most samplers are aimed at either or both of one-shot/phrase and loop sampling where the length of a phrase or loop is quite short - ie a few bars.

The Kaoss pad is really targetted as a Live DJ fx device - so its sampling and looping is very much focussed on what a DJ may need on the fly - for grab a few bars from a record he/she is about to transition whihc on cue to fx listen, loops them for say 16 bars with some changing fx (filter+delay for eg) to do a transition while another track plays out etc.

Hey Yacko585, I'm thinking about trying the same thing but haven't had time to really check it out. Yes, like Khazul said, the device is targeted at DJ's but the KP3 features offer a lot that I might find very useful in a live situation where like you I'd like to be able to "play" multiple parts and dump off some of the more repetitive stuff to the KP3. It's got auto bpm, tap tempo, and such which should allow it to sync up pretty easily. Then there's the midi cc's that the pad sends out, along with some effects, sample reverse, sample rearrange, oversampling, etc. If it works out, I'll post some results.

You can also feed it with a MIDI beat clock from a synth, multi-track or whatever whihc qwill solve the sync problem.

It can also extract BPM from its audio input as well, but it does need an audio source with a very obvious steady beat in it - 4/4 dance stuff - doesnt like breaks too much, nor stuff that is so compressed and brick wall limited that there arnt any peaks left in the resulting audio to pick out as beats.