Korg Forums

jemkeys25 · Full Member Joined: 15 Jan 2011 Posts: 243

the pc3 has some incredible orchestral sounds, the best i've heard in a hardware synth, the sounds i heard from the kronos don't seem to match up. Is there a better example on the kronos ,or is that just where kronos is lacking?

operaman · Full Member Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Posts: 100

We all need to wait to hear the Kronos. Still, if in doubt just do like me and own both. Hell I got the PC3X, the Alesis Fusion 8HD, and have preodered the Kronos 61 (becuase I cannot fit another 88 key controller on my Jaspers stand Very Happy

). This way all bases are covered. If I had to hazard a guess, I am assuming there will be some seriously awesome orchestral sounds, and there will still be the ability to load third party material so I imagine it will be fine in that regard.
_________________
Korg Kronos 61::Kurzweil PC3X::Alesis Fusion 8HD::Korg Microstation::DSI Prophet 08:::Korg Polysix::2X Oberheim Matrix 1000

muziksculp · Junior Member Joined: 11 Aug 2002 Posts: 75

Good question/observation.

If the KRONOS strings are not excellent sounding, I see no reason why KORG, or possibly other 3rd-party soundware developers offering first-class, super realistic Orchestral Strings libraries for the KRONOS !

Given the amount of sample data it can stream from the built-in SSD .

So far it has been hard to evaluate the on-board (Stock) string samples/programs that are in the KRONOS from the initial audio demos I heard.

Dr. Who · Junior Member Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 64

Greetz guys! I agree the orchestral portion of the Kronos demo was the weakest part. Some of the music played during the demo was just typical ho hum workstation stuff. There were pieces that showed some really good sonic bliss though… I really hope that Korg doesn’t market this thing with some weak orchestral demo’s and Karma combis playing presets. That will not spell game changer to most.

Please clarify, do you guys do orchestral work but don’t use software? Please don’t take offense at that statement, I am truly curious as to the sound quality of orchestral work (strings, brass woodwinds etc.) on a hardware synth. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that convincingly with hardware. I have been doing much orchestral work this past year or so and made the reluctant ugh.. leap into software to do so. I couldn’t be happier with the results (amazed really) but If I could travel around with a 61 key and still make convincing orchestral scores that would be a godsend to not be a slave to the PC! But I have never come across anything at all that comes close to Vienna or EWSO Platinum. Do you guys have any sound bites (no need for complete works) that shows what is possible with a synth? I heard some older Kurz demos and wasn’t convinced it was a real orchestra at all. Please again don’t take this as being arrogant etc. I am honestly very curious and very willing to buy another board if it gets me away from a computer. To me that’s what makes this leap into disk streaming such a big deal by Korg. The amazing orchestral bundles out there that the Zimmers and Elfmans use are disk streams from a computer and have much more than 5 or 6 velocity triggered samples (i.e. round robin sampling etc.) and open the door to all kinds of articulations and realism. If Korg has tapped into streaming with a workstation, it is only a matter of time before we get a crazy portable sampling workstation with a 100’s of GB of orchestral and votox choir samples that will blow the doors off of anything that has ever been seen in a workstation.

muziksculp · Junior Member Joined: 11 Aug 2002 Posts: 75

@ Dr. Who

Software samplers are the choice of many composers, I don’t think anyone doing serious orchestral work for (i.e scoring for film, or other serious orchestral project) is using a hardware keyboard/workstation. The primary reason, in my humble opinion, is that most HW workstations have been very limited in the amount of sample data they can have access to.

With the dawn of the KRONOS, which KORG mentions can stream large amounts of sample sounds directly from SSD, the game is beginning to change, with a 30 GB (SSD) drive built into the KRONOS, there is a lot of room to add some very high-quality orchestral sounds. (Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, and Percussion), Plus much more. But, this is still dependent on the quality of the samples, and programming of the patches (i.e. number of articulations, number of velocity layers, …etc.)

HW-Workstations have a bright future with this new breakthrough technology, but so far, the KRONOS is not marketed as a workstation that focuses on Orchestral Instruments, but rather, a multi-synth engine workstation, with a large amount of samples on board (I think it comes with 12 GB, where 4.5 of that is already dedicated to Piano !).

Interestingly enough, some of the arranger keyboard workstations, such as the Korg Pa series, and YAMAHA Tyros, offer some great sounding orchestral sounds, (better sounding than their traditional workstations), I never understood their philosophy with this detail, but never the less, Arranger-Workstations, still can't compete with software based sample libraries.

My wish is to see a HW-Workstation that is dedicated to Orchestral sounds, with a large SSD drive with streaming from SSD feature, and is designed from the bottom up to do this perfectly well, and compete with Software based sample libraries head-to-head. Well… Maybe this will happen in the future, but for the moment, it has not yet materialized. Possibly due to the narrow marketplace, and the Price point/competitiveness that software offers when compared to hardware.

I would love to have a hardware workstation that I can carry with me when I’m not in my studio, or traveling, and just enjoy creating some great orchestral music that is as good, or very close in quality to many sample libraries out there, Mabe this is still a far out dream at this point in time. But I continue to dream about this becoming a reality one of these days.

Cheers,
Muziksculp.

Dr. Who · Junior Member Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 64

danatkorg · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:30 am Post subject: Re: orchestral string section

McHale · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:38 am Post subject: Re: orchestral string section

Gargamel314 · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:41 am Post subject:

Didn't Karo release a set of New Orchestral Sounds? wouldn't they be totally compatible with KRONOS?
_________________
Korg Kronos-61, 01/Wfd, SONAR Pro

NuSkoolTone · Approved Merchant Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 1069

danatkorg · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:39 am Post subject: Re: orchestral string section

Hi McHale!

McHale · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 8:55 am Post subject: Re: orchestral string section

drama1 · Platinum Member Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 662

McHale, you're asking practically every question I would ask since I'm an M3 owner also. I saw somewhere in these threads that you ordered the Kronos 88 from Sweetwater for $3600? I sure would like to know the details. By the way, I notice you're from Illinois. So am I. What's the name of the band you work with? I'd like to come and see you play when you have the Kronos.

danatkorg · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:56 pm Post subject: Re: orchestral string section

Hi McHale!

jemkeys25 · Full Member Joined: 15 Jan 2011 Posts: 243

I notice you guys mention loading samples to the ssd and streaming them,but in another thread marked"30 GB SSD" I asked if this was possible and was told it was possible to save samples to the ssd but not possible to play the samples directly from the ssd, so can i get some clarification on this feature, cause if you could, then this would help with large orchestral samples by allowing you to load different sections of an orchestra, record them, load the next section,record etc...,which would solve the orchestral sound argument.
pretty cool Cool