ive been looking to invest in an FX unit for sometime now and recently went to a music store here in Tokyo. They had the choice of Kaos Pads, the grey pioneer one used in most clubs, the new line of KORG samplers, and some others.. so I talked with the store keeper n he didnt seem to know much so id really appreciate your help on this. I am a vinyl DJ(Techno, NuNRG) and occasionally will use FS or CDJs when I play at clubs.
I eventually intend to buy a CDJ1000 so I was thinking the pioneer one would be best as it would be most compatible. however the KAOS pad also looks pretty interesting but maybe just alot of eye candy and not really functional. The store keeper told me that to use the pioneer you need to have a CDJ... is this true? im really interested in the pioneer cus it was most clubs are equiped with over here.
can you also reccomend me some others that you think may be better.
Thanks.

you are right, the store guy has no clue. the efx500 will effect a bloody radio signal so long as the radio has a line out! so no, you don't need a cdj at all.

as far as the comparison between the kaoss pad 2 + efx500, i had a similar dilema when purchasing my effects unit. my conclusion was to get the efx500, simply because once you learn to do it on that, you will be able to use pretty much any other effects unit/mixer just as well. the kaoss pad is very good, don't get me wrong here, but the efx500 makes it easier to recreate a sound you have done. the kaoss pad has so many effects and parameters its often hard to recreate a sound again, which would piss me right off.

to be honest, the efx500 suits what you play (techno) a lot better. most of the kaoss pad effects are variations on the same basic filter/flanger/phaser with the curve being controlled on the xy thingy. the efx500 has a bit more of a broader spectrum of basic effects, but not any variations of these effects. the beat effects are fantastic, and although it only looks like it has 8 effects, it actually has 16, in 4 x 4 configuration. with the efx500 you essentially get 2 effects units. one is beat efffects; echo, delay, LFO flanger etc etc, which then runs in series to the jog effects section, which has more of the curve based effects like another flanger, zip etc etc. this means you get an entirely new effect when combining 2 different effects.

another thing going for the efx500 if the controllability. once you know where everything is, its a piece of piss to use, and its layout is extremely user friendly.

if you are rich, look at the efx1000, but you need to have about $999 in the bank first! on the face of it it might not look like its worth the extra $'s, but believe me from looking hard at the specs, it is!

to be honest, there isn't really any other effects units that compare to the efx500/1000 or kaoss pad. the alesis airfx look cool, and sound cool, but they are very limited in their uses. most of the other effects units on the market are single effect boxes, for example a stand alone filter, or flanger.

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MUGGETS

thanks man. that helps alot. do you know the differences between the efx 500 and the efx 1000? im considering waiting for the efx 1000 to come out here. Dj equipment is also alot cheaper in Japan so I can probably afford it.

being the lazy bastard that i am, i will paste a post i made a while ago

quote:

Originally posted by Me there is a lot more on it thats updated/extra stuff on top of the efx500: *bypass mode for easier cutting of effects (no more running out of hands!) *signal flow switch so you can route the effects how you like (remember this is actually 2 effects units, on the efx500 they are in serial, beat effects go through jog effects, then out. now you can chop and change this as you like) *extra beat effects: phaser, filter, pitch echo *extra jog effects: phase shifter, humaniser, vocoder!! *looks like a new touch sensetive jog wheel *added controllability, wet/dry knobs on both sides (efx500 only has this on beat effects), new character knobs also on both sides. *custom memory presets for your own rhythms on beat effects *loop function on the jogwheel memory *2 extra timing buttons for 1/8 and 8/1 on beat effects *much improved level meters for both input & output (they are a lot more useful) *24 bit digital output *32 bit digital processing a direct price tag for the UK, going on the RRP is £556, which is £300 more than the 500. the sound quality will be magnificent on this, and i should think a lot of clubs and studios will snap it up straight away. i would sincerely love to have a play on one of these to see how the mofo works

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MUGGETS

isn't the koass pad the one with the light thing that you put ur finger on & it changes color?

i went through the same decision a few weeks ago and decided on the kaoss padd. I have a djm3000, so have most of the effects that the efx500 can offer already, though not anywhere near the control, but also no sampler. The kp2 has two samplers. Part of the problem the kp has is there's no button or markings to tell you what the effects are, just a number. With 100 effects, and the x-y position on the touch pad doing different things on all of those, you end up with a few favourite effects, and don't use the others much.
you have 8 buttons to jump to set effects, and a dial to move to the others. If you use your own kp everywhere, that makes things simple, if you're on someone else's kp, you'll have to remember which number you want to use.
the biggest upgrade the efx1000 offers is a much higher audio quality over the 500, and an extra parameter to effect the sound, they call if character. Worth the money if you produce or want to take it to a big sound system.
I'm not likely to produce or play in a big club, the fx unit was mostly cos I wanted a new toy after a decent tax return, and the kp offered more silly fun for me than the efx500. because i didn't check the back of my mixer before buying cables, i dodn't know that the only thing you can't run on RCA cables from the djm3000 is the send/return loop, i have the kp setup on the master out. this means I can't effect a single channel, or sample something that hasn't gone out the master, but it means i can use the on-board effects over the top of the kp effects. It's that kind of stupid fun that makes this a nice toy.

you can have just as much stupid fun with an efx500

re your send/return loop on the djm3000, all you need is 4 of these, they are cheap as chips! over here they are £1 each..

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MUGGETS

Oh, this is gonna be a tough one. Im in the same spot, i dont know
if i should get a EFX-500 or a KP2.
How much can you "edit tracks" with the EFX-500 compared to the KP2?
Can you sample with both and virtually create a new song or are they
just over layering soundeffects?

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- webbie