The KAOSS PAD entrancer brings together effects processing with audio and video sources, and puts a remarkable amount of power at your fingertips with a very gentle learning curve. It has three basic modes. In Audio mode it works identically to the original KAOSS Pad, with over 100 effects ranging from mild to radical that can be applied and varied simply by moving your finger around the X/Y touch pad or by tapping it. In Video mode the same concept can now be used to enhance video, which comes into the enhancer via either composite (RCA coaxial) or S-Video inputs (the same connections are available for output.) Finally, in Audio/Video mode, changes are superimposed on both signals simultaneously, marrying audio and video in a compelling presentation.

100 video effect programs range from basic and subtle to dramatic and mind-blowing. The basics include (among others) nega-posi, fade, mono color, wipe, color change, freeze, flip left/right, flip up/down, rotate, and expand/shrink. More dramatic treatments include noise, stretch, split-screen, invert image components, sand storm, monochrome, delay, strobe, mirroring, emboss, and even unusual effects like spinning while shrinking! All this is selected via a knob, with eight of your favorites readily available on program memory buttons. If you're moving around on the pad and hit something you particularly like, press Hold to keep it going. Now when you want to manipulate audio and video together, tap into the 100 additional Combination effects and go to town.

Additional dimensions are added by sync options; you can set BPM manually, use Auto BPM to detect the beat of an incoming source, get BPM from MIDI Clock or tap it in; twnty types of BPM effects can be sync'ed with control of parameters like delay time or LFO for pan, phase or flange. Eight patterns let you play a bass or rhythm pattern and play them from the pad. Then there's sampling; up to six seconds of video can be sampled, and effects like time-stretch, reverse, scratch and stutter can be applied from the pad. Or use each of the two sample keys to record a still image and up to six seconds of audio. Pad Motion records your finger movements. Mute/Freeze lets you freeze the output video, and play the still images registered in the [SAMPLE 1] and [SAMPLE 2] keys, magnify or invert them, or cut the input sound to leave only the reverb or delay effect sound. You can also use this to rapidly switch Mute on/off in time with the rhythm for a “tranceformer” technique used by DJs. A video representation of audio waveforms can be output, oscilloscope-style. And in the faint possibility you are becoming visually bored while working with the entrancer, the touch pad changes color as you move around on it!

Words are only so effective at describing how dramatic the results of using the KAOSS PAD entrancer are. If you'd like to see a RealPlayer or Windows Media presentation prepared by Korg, click here.