Korg KR mini User Manual

Preparation
Installing batteries
Turn o the power before replacing the baeries.
If the baeries have run down or you do not ex-
pect to use the unit for an extended period of time,
remove the baeries from the unit.
Don’t mix partially-used baeries with new bat-
teries, and don’t mix baeries of diering types.
If the baery capacity has decreased, sucient
volume may not be achieved or noise may occur.
Tip When the baeries begin to run down, the Tempo
LED will become dark.
1. Detach the battery cover from the rear panel.
2. Insert three AA batteries, making sure that their
correct polarities (+ and –) are observed. Be sure to
use alkaline batteries.
3. Reattach the battery cover.
Using the AC adapter (optional)
Connect the AC adapter to the DC9V jack.
You must turn o the power before connecting the
AC adapter.
You must only use the specied AC adapter. Us-
ing any AC adapter other than the specied model
will cause malfunctions.
Making connections
Refer to the connection diagram in this manual.
Before connecting anything turn o all devices rst.
Turning on the power
Aer turning o all external output devices, such as
monitors and speakers, turn on this unit.
1. Fully turn the KR mini’s Level knob to the left.
2. Hold down the KR mini’s Power button to turn
it on.
3. Turn the KR mini’s Level knob to the right to an
appropriate position.
Turning off the power
1. After fully turning the KR mini’s Level knob to the
left, hold down the Power button until the lit LED
turns off.
Never turn o the KR mini while data is being
wrien.
Auto power-off function
The KR mini has an auto power-o function.
If no buons or knobs are used or nothing is played
back for approximately 1 hour, the KR mini automati-
cally turns o.
Tip The auto power-o function is enabled as the fac-
tory default.
Tip The seing to enable or disable the auto power-o
function is saved even when the power is turned
o.
Enabling the auto power off function
While holding down the Chain playback buon, turn
on the KR mini. The Chain playback buon will blink
several times.
Disabling the auto power off function
While holding down the Paern playback buon, turn
on the KR mini. The Paern playback buon will blink
several times.
Playing rhythms (Play mode)
About patterns
Six dierent rhythm paerns can be used with each
genre (except “Songs”).
Select a rhythm paern with the genre selector and
Paerns buons, and then play back or stop the pat-
tern with the Paern playback buon.
Two ll-in paerns, which are selected with the Fill1/2
buons, can be used with each rhythm paern.
Simply turning the genre selector will not switch
the paern. When a Paern buon is pressed to
select a paern, the genre and paern can be se-
lected.
About chains
Chain is a function for recording one paern with
each Chain buon, then sequentially connecting them
to play them back.
Press a Chain buon to select a playback location, and
then play back or stop the chain with the Chain play-
back buon.
Tip For details on recording a paern to a Chain but-
ton, refer to “Editing chains.”
About songs
With songs, a few bars of the drum part from a song
will be recorded.
Turn the genre selector to “Songs,” and then press a
Paern or Fill buon to select the song. Play back or
stop the song with the Paern playback buon.
The genre cannot be changed during playback.
Songs cannot be edited or recorded in a chain.
Switching the rhythm during playback
If a Paern buon or a Chain buon is pressed dur-
ing playback of a paern or chain, the paern being
played back switches to the newly selected paern or
chain. Until playback switches, the buon for the next
paern or chain to be played back will blink.
Pressing a Paern buon or Chain buon while it is
blinking cancels it.
Fill-in patterns
Press a Fill buon during playback to play the ll-in
paern once, then return to playing the original paern.
Tip The ll-in paern is played to end at the same
time that the original paern would have ended.
If the Fill buon is pressed with less than half a
beat remaining on the original paern, the ll-in
paern will be played aer the next paern (or
chain).
Editing chains (Chain Edit mode)
While playback is stopped in Play mode, hold down
a Chain buon to enter Chain Edit mode. The pressed
Chain buon will blink, and the other Chain buons
will light up.
Recording a pattern
1. Press the Chain button for the chain number
where a pattern is to be recorded.
The pressed Chain buon will blink and if the
genre is already set for the currently recorded pat-
tern, the corresponding Paern buon will light
up.
2. Using the genre selector and Pattern buttons,
select the pattern to be recorded.
Tip A ll-in paern can be played during play-
back of a recorded chain. To switch to a ll-in
paern, press the Fill buon. The pressed Fill
buon will light up.
Pressing the Paern playback buon repeatedly plays
back the paern recorded to the selected Chain buon.
Pressing the Chain playback buon begins playback
of the chain starting with the selected chain number.
Setting the endpoint of the chain
The endpoint for the playback of the loop can be speci-
ed.
Turn the genre selector to “Songs/Chain End.” The
buon for the currently set endpoint will blink rapidly.
For example, to play back a loop of paerns saved to
Chain buons 1 through 4, press Chain buon [4].
Turn the genre selector to any seing other than
“Songs.”
Chain 4 is set as the endpoint, and a loop of the pat-
terns saved to Chain buons 1 through 4 will be
played back.
Tip If Chain buons 5 to 8 are selected for play-
back in the above example, the paerns will
be played back sequentially up to Chain
buon 8, and then a loop of the paerns
saved to Chain buons 1 through 4 will be
played back.
Setting the number of times the chain is
looped
The number of times the chain is looped can be
set between 1 and 8 or to an unlimited number.
While playback is stopped, hold down the Chain
playback buon. The buon for the set number of
times the chain is looped will light up (all buons
are turned o if an unlimited number of times is
set).
While holding down the Chain playback buon,
press an unlit Chain buon to set the number
of times the chain will be looped. If a lit Chain
buon is pressed, all buons will turn o and an
unlimited number of times will be set.
Playback will stop aer a loop of the chain is
played back the set number of times.
Saving chain patterns
Holding down any Chain buon saves all chang-
es to the chains.
To return to Play mode without saving the
changes, simultaneously press the Paern play-
back buon and the Chain playback buon.
Playing the pads (Pad mode)
Aer entering Pad mode, the Paerns and Chain
buons become pads, allowing you to play what-
ever you wish. The sound of a percussion instru-
ment, such as drums, will be recorded with each
of the 16 pads.
While playback is stopped in Play mode, simul-
taneously hold down the Paern playback buon
and the Chain playback buon for approximately
one second to enter Pad mode. The two buons
will light up in yellow.
The pad will light up briey when it is tapped.
If the Paern playback buon or the Chain play-
back buon is pressed, the Tempo LED starts
to blink at a tempo set by the Tempo knob. The
Tempo LED stops blinking when either buon is
pressed again.
In Pad mode, paerns and chains cannot be
played back.
To exit Pad mode, simultaneously press the Pat-
tern playback buon and the Chain playback
buon.
Changing the pad sound
1. Turn the genre selector to “Songs.”
2. Hold down the pad that you want to edit.
The pressed pad will blink, and a pad will light up
to indicate the sound that is assigned to it.
Tip If the pad you want to edit is the same as the
pad indicating the assigned sound, the pad
will blink slowly.
3. Tap the pad for the sound to be assigned.
In addition to assigning the sound, the maximum
volume for each pad is set according to how hard
it is tapped. To set the minimum volume, hold
down the Chain playback buon and tap the pad.
Tip If the velocity function is disabled, the sound
is produced at the maximum volume set as a
default.
4. Simultaneously press the Pattern playback button
and the Chain playback button. The settings are
saved, and the KR mini returns to Pad mode.
Pad sounds that can be assigned
Pattern [1] button
High Tom
Pattern [2] button
Low Tom
Pattern [3] button
Floor Tom
Pattern [4] button
Crash Cymbal
Pattern [5] button
Ride Cymbal
Pattern [6] button
High Conga
Fill1 button Low Conga
Fill2 button Agogo
Chain [1] button Bass Drum
Chain [2] button Snare Drum
Chain [3] button Side Stick
Chain [4] button Closed Hi-Hat
Chain [5] button Open Hi-Hat
Chain [6] button Hand Clap
Chain [7] button Tambourine
Chain [8] button Cowbell
Using foot switches
Buon functions can be assigned to a foot switch (sold
separately) that’s connected to the FOOT SW 1 or 2
jack.
1. Enter Pad mode.
2. Turn the genre selector to “Songs.”
3. To set the foot switch that’s connected to the
FOOT SW 1 jack, hold down the Pattern playback
button until it blinks. To set the foot switch that’s
connected to the FOOT SW 2 jack, hold down the
Chain playback button until it blinks.
4. Press the button for the function to be assigned
to the foot switch. The function is assigned to the
foot switch, and the button will light up.
Tip If the function of the Paern playback but-
ton is assigned to the FOOT SW 1 jack (or the
function of the Chain playback buon to the
FOOT SW 2 jack), the buon will blink slowly.
Tip If a Paerns or Chain buon is assigned to a
foot switch, the strength used to tap the buon
when it was assigned will be saved. If the foot
switch will function as a pad, the sound will
be played at that volume.
5. Simultaneously press the Pattern playback button
and the Chain playback button to save the settings
and return to Pad mode.
Creating user patterns (Pattern Edit mode)
Paern Edit mode is the mode for creating and editing
user paerns.
As in Pad mode, the Paern buons and Chain but-
tons function like pads.
User paerns are created by recording the rhythm
played by using the pads.
The created paerns are saved to Paern buons 1
through 6 with the genre selector set to “USER.”
Entering Pattern Edit mode
In Play mode, select the paern to be used as the base.
If the paern will be recorded with no base paern,
any paern can be selected.
To edit a paern, while playback is stopped, hold
down the buon for the paern you want to edit.
To edit a ll-in that is assigned to a paern, while
playback is stopped, hold down the buon for the se-
lected paern and the buon for the ll-in that you
want to edit.
Aer entering Paern Edit mode, the paern play but-
ton will light-up in red.
Setting the beat count and clearing the pat-
tern
To record with no base paern or to change the beat
count, hold down the Paern playback buon. The
Paern and Fill1/2 buons will light up to indicate
the beat count (1 to 6 beats: Paern buons 1 to 6; 7
and 8 beats: Fill1/2 buons). While holding down the
Paern playback buon, press a Paern buon or Fill
buon to set a beat count between 1 and 8 and erase
the rhythm paern.
Recording
Press the Paern playback buon to begin recording
aer a count of the paern beats.
Approximately 64 sounds can be recorded for a pat-
tern, and approximately 16 sounds for a ll-in.
Aer the beat count has reached the set number, it
starts over with the rst beat while recording continues.
You can play while listening to the sounds that have
already been recorded.
To stop recording, press the Paern playback buon.
During the count, sound is not produced, even if a
pad is tapped.
Aer the recording capacity has been reached,
sound is no longer produced, even if a pad is
tapped. Erase unnecessary sounds to continue.
If there are too many simultaneous sounds or if
the tempo is too fast, some sounds may not be pro-
duced.
Partial erasing
Hold down the Chain playback buon while a pad
is pressed to erase the sound played when the pad is
pressed.
Saving
To save the changes, turn the genre selector to
“USER”, and then hold down the Paern buon
where it will be saved.
To return to Play mode without saving the changes,
simultaneously press the Paern playback buon and
the Chain playback buon.
Each paern is treated as a set with Fill 1 and 2.
When a paern is saved, the corresponding ll-in
is saved together with it (in the same way as when
a ll-in is edited).
Velocity function
The KR mini is equipped with a velocity function that
changes the volume according to how hard the pad is
tapped in Pad mode and Paern Edit mode.
As the factory default seing, the velocity function is
disabled.
Enabling the velocity function
While holding down Chain buon [1], turn on the KR
mini. Chain buon [1] will blink several times.
Disabling the velocity function
While holding down Paerns buon [1], turn on the
KR mini. Paern buon [1] will blink several times.
Tip The seing for enabling or disabling the veloc-
ity function is saved, even when the KR mini is
turned o.
Returning to the factory defaults
All seings, such as those for chains and user pat-
terns, can be returned to the factory defaults.
When this operation is done, all data, such as
user paerns, saved in the KR mini will be
erased, and the seings will be reset to the
factory defaults.
Never turn o the KR mini during the reset
process.
1. While holding down the Pattern playback
button and the Chain playback button, turn
on the KR mini.
2. When the Pattern playback button and the
Chain playback button blink, release the
pressed buttons.
To stop reseing the machine, press the Pat-
tern playback buon.
3. Press the Chain playback button to reset the
machine.
When the reset process is complete, the Pat-
tern playback buon and the Chain playback
buon will blink rapidly, and the KR mini
will automatically restart.
Specifications
Connectors: Output/headphones jack, FOOT
SW 1/2 jack
Power supply: AA alkaline baeries × 3, or sepa-
rately sold AC adapter (DC 9V:
)
Baery life: approximately 7.5 hours (Battery
life will vary depending on
the batteries used and on the
conditions of use.)
Dimensions (W x D x H):
165 x 117 x 59 mm/6.50 x 6.83 x
2.32 inches
Weight: 372 g/13.12 oz. (excluding baer-
ies)
Included items:
Owner’s manual, AA alkaline
baeries × 3
Options (sold separately):
AC adapter
PS-1, PS-3 (Pedal switches)
* Specications and appearance are subject to
change without notice for improvement.

Korg KR mini Specifications

General

Type	Rhythm Machine
Tempo	40 - 240 BPM
Chain Function	Yes
Power Supply	AA batteries x 3 or optional AC adapter
Dimensions	165 x 117 x 59 mm / 6.50 x 4.61 x 2.32 inches
Weight	372 g / 13.1 oz. (without batteries)
Audio Output	Headphones (stereo mini jack)
Connectivity	Footswitch