After 13 years of silence, Korg is finally giving its iconic Kaoss Pad the upgrade performers have been waiting for. The new Kaoss Pad V doesn't completely reinvent the wheel - it respects the original's core DNA of an X/Y touchpad for intuitive effect control. But it adds multitouch recognition, a dedicated voice effects engine, and MIDI-from-voice conversion that lets you control synths by beatboxing. The catch? The price has nearly doubled since the KP3+ launched in 2013.
After more than a decade without touching the product line, Korg just announced what longtime users have been asking for - a serious refresh to the Kaoss Pad. The V model, revealed at NAMM 2026, finally moves beyond the KP3+ that's been holding down the fort since 2013.
The big story here isn't that Korg threw everything out and started over. Instead, the company kept what made the original special - that performance-first X/Y touchpad that lets you manipulate effects in real time like you're playing an instrument. But it layered on features that producers and DJs have been craving for years.
The headline upgrade is multitouch support. For the first time, the Kaoss Pad recognizes two fingers at once, letting you control two independent effect parameters simultaneously or even load entirely different effects and control them separately. This fundamentally changes how you can sculpt sound in real time. Instead of choosing between controlling one effect or another, you're operating on two fronts at once.
But the real wild card is the new voice effects engine. Korg built in dedicated vocoding and harmonizing tools that let you process vocal input live. More interestingly, it can convert what you're singing or beatboxing directly into MIDI, meaning you can suddenly control a drum machine by beatboxing or trigger synth sequences by humming melodies. It's the kind of feature that sounds gimmicky until you try it - then it becomes weirdly essential for experimental production.
The sampling and looping capabilities got attention too. You can now record up to eight bars, layer overdubs on top of each other, and chop or rearrange your loops on the fly. More importantly, Korg finally added a balanced input on the front panel, which means you can capture cleaner audio from microphones, synthesizers, and other instruments without worrying as much about noise. The back still rocks traditional unbalanced RCA inputs and outputs - practical for DJ setups if less ideal for studio work, but an understandable compromise for an effects unit.
Here's where the enthusiasm gets tempered: the pricing. The KP3+ launched at $349.99 in 2013. Accounting for inflation over the past 13 years, that's roughly $493 in 2026 money. The Kaoss Pad V is arriving at $649.99 for preorders. That's not just a cost-of-living bump - it's a significant jump that reflects both genuine new hardware costs and Korg's assessment of what the market will bear for this kind of tool.
