The Korg Kaoss devices are designed to be played via their touch pads. Accordingly, the MIDI implementation is tailored around corresponding commands. In practice: MIDI controllers send a note on command to play a tone, while the Kaoss devices expect a control change # 74 (to signal that the touch pad was pressed), and then control changes # 12 and # 13 (to define the X and Y coordinates on the pad) to make a sound. This is a very consequent design choice, however, I frequently struggle to hit exact notes which would be very beneficial at times.

Here we make a small device that translates all note on/off messages accordingly, and works with MIDI over USB (out of the box, soldering-free), MIDI DIN (requires the assembly of a beginner-friendly circuit) or any combination of both.