Circuit benders are at it again
There are a total of 26 new knobs and two new switches on the front panel. The standard KPR77 has no control over any sound parameters and as a result is a rather lifeless machine but these new knobs take it into a whole new world of analogue percussion. We have also adjusted the trigger pulse of the bass drum to give it a more 808’ish clicking punch instead of the standard weak tick.
More background info:
The Korg KPR77 is one of those analogue beatboxes from the early 80’s that should probably be seen as Korgs answer to the Roland TR606. They were released in the same year but Korg made the huge mistake of not having ‘Roland TR’ written on the front, which is plainly a criminal error when it comes to analogue percussion. At least the absurd price of the TR606 these days would suggest as much. What didn’t help the Korg was that despite the fact that it had an LCD display (with a orange backlight!), the programming interface was initially somewhat counter intuitive despite being far superior to the TR606, and after a few years the front panel buttons usually only operated under steam hammer pressure. The other drawback was that the KPR77’s stock soundset seemed to have a complete lack of magic about it. The bassdrum is lightweight and weak with a poor attack and apart from the halfway decent toms, every other sound could be found better elsewhere. Having said that, the KPR77 is a lot more fun to use than the TR606 and can probably be picked up for less than a third of the price.
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