Kaptivator

Sometimes dreams can come true.
Korg have built part of the X-four and part of the Kaos Pad Entrancer in to one box and have added a superb 2 monitor video sampler as well.
The Kaptivator works on the same principles as an audio sampler and Korg have borrowed heavily from their experience in the music business in the design of this product.
Kaptivator comes ready stocked with 16 banks of 8 clips which are standard VJ eyecandy-hot out of Japan, but they will probably look a little dated very soon. But the Kaptivator really takes off once you put your own footage in because its all just a button push away, and it all comes out as native TV. No more DVD menus to deal with, no more scan converters, just instant playback on demand.
Clips are laid out in 2 banks of 8 on a second monitor-out as thumbnails. You just dial in the bank you want and hit the button. You can then crossfade between two samples and also apply 14 effects and the usual wipes. It also allows scratching of clips and with a bit of fiddling you can program clips to respond to the BPM counter so they play in time to the beat - handy if you want those dancers to fit the music.
it also takes a live video in, that you can either cross fade to, effect or sample and play back. It will even play back two clips at the same time and send them to different outputs or mix both of them with the live input. It can also sample its own output.
Getting the most out of the Kaptivator will involve reading the manual which can be a bit ponderous, but basic playing and sampling is almost too easy.
The sampler captures video in 8 second segments, You just dial in how many seconds of video you want to grab, pick a playback button, hit record and that's it. It is then very easy to go in and tweak the in, out and loop points, handy if your clips are shorter than the sample duration.
It even does time-lapse capture so you can hook it up to the TV for a few hours, pop to the shops, have a coffee and come back to some frantic, ready mixed footage.
Once you have your show loaded, things are almost too easy. Everything is available instantly. For backup, The Kaptivator will dump its entire contents to DV in a format that it can suck back in later and retain all the settings.
Video is input via composite, Y/C or from the firewire out on a camera/computer. You only have to load the machine once and its done. Then you have your whole repertoire in one box and available at the touch of a button - and of course it takes MIDI.
niggles.
What it can't do, is copy your movies over as files from a hard drive, which in one sense is a real drag, but of course, if you really wanted to do that you can guarantee that there would be all sorts of PC/Mac & PAL/NTSC hurdles to get over. So in a sense this method avoids all that.
The playback push buttons are slightly clunky - I prefer the pads on the CG8, and there is a tiny, maybe a 5th second delay between hitting the button and playback, but apart from that this thing flies.
From now on, I'm ditching my two playback macs for a Kaptivator.
It small and easy to carry around, although there is a warning not to bump the unit and also not to kill the power while it is playing. That said, it didn't dump the memory when I tried it, but anything with a hard drive needs loving care so it makes sense to treat it kindly.
The Kaptivator does a hell of a lot- of course you can do all this already if you have two computers running Grid, a Kaos Pad and a V4, but that works out a whole lot more expensive than one Kaptivator. Maybe Resolume comes close in performance and with much better effects, but the Kaptivator is much easier to use by comparison.
As usual with music-industry hybrid VJ tools, there are no BNCs and no external sync which is a shame , but you can't have everything in a pro-sumer unit.
So to summarise.
The Korg Kaptivator is easy to use, does a lot more than you would expect from a sampler, is well worth the price tag and takes up less space than a laptop. A must for the serious VJ
Buy it.

korg website


	Korg Kaptivator.
Sometimes dreams can come true. Korg have built part of the X-four and part of the Kaos Pad Entrancer in to one box and have added a superb 2 monitor video sampler as well. The Kaptivator works on the same principles as an audio sampler and Korg have borrowed heavily from their experience in the music business in the design of this product. Kaptivator comes ready stocked with 16 banks of 8 clips which are standard VJ eyecandy-hot out of Japan, but they will probably look a little dated very soon. But the Kaptivator really takes off once you put your own footage in because its all just a button push away, and it all comes out as native TV. No more DVD menus to deal with, no more scan converters, just instant playback on demand. Clips are laid out in 2 banks of 8 on a second monitor-out as thumbnails. You just dial in the bank you want and hit the button. You can then crossfade between two samples and also apply 14 effects and the usual wipes. It also allows scratching of clips and with a bit of fiddling you can program clips to respond to the BPM counter so they play in time to the beat - handy if you want those dancers to fit the music. it also takes a live video in, that you can either cross fade to, effect or sample and play back. It will even play back two clips at the same time and send them to different outputs or mix both of them with the live input. It can also sample its own output. Getting the most out of the Kaptivator will involve reading the manual which can be a bit ponderous, but basic playing and sampling is almost too easy. The sampler captures video in 8 second segments, You just dial in how many seconds of video you want to grab, pick a playback button, hit record and that's it. It is then very easy to go in and tweak the in, out and loop points, handy if your clips are shorter than the sample duration. It even does time-lapse capture so you can hook it up to the TV for a few hours, pop to the shops, have a coffee and come back to some frantic, ready mixed footage. Once you have your show loaded, things are almost too easy. Everything is available instantly. For backup, The Kaptivator will dump its entire contents to DV in a format that it can suck back in later and retain all the settings. Video is input via composite, Y/C or from the firewire out on a camera/computer. You only have to load the machine once and its done. Then you have your whole repertoire in one box and available at the touch of a button - and of course it takes MIDI. niggles. What it can't do, is copy your movies over as files from a hard drive, which in one sense is a real drag, but of course, if you really wanted to do that you can guarantee that there would be all sorts of PC/Mac & PAL/NTSC hurdles to get over. So in a sense this method avoids all that. The playback push buttons are slightly clunky - I prefer the pads on the CG8, and there is a tiny, maybe a 5th second delay between hitting the button and playback, but apart from that this thing flies. From now on, I'm ditching my two playback macs for a Kaptivator. It small and easy to carry around, although there is a warning not to bump the unit and also not to kill the power while it is playing. That said, it didn't dump the memory when I tried it, but anything with a hard drive needs loving care so it makes sense to treat it kindly. The Kaptivator does a hell of a lot- of course you can do all this already if you have two computers running Grid, a Kaos Pad and a V4, but that works out a whole lot more expensive than one Kaptivator. Maybe Resolume comes close in performance and with much better effects, but the Kaptivator is much easier to use by comparison. As usual with music-industry hybrid VJ tools, there are no BNCs and no external sync which is a shame , but you can't have everything in a pro-sumer unit. So to summarise. The Korg Kaptivator is easy to use, does a lot more than you would expect from a sampler, is well worth the price tag and takes up less space than a laptop. A must for the serious VJ Buy it. korg website