Korg Forums

tkarlmann · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 4:52 am Post subject: Piano voices for Kross88?

How good is the Grand Piano voice on the Kross88? I need it to be good enough to learn on & work with for quite a while. I have also researched some PC-based piano voices. Does anyone have experience with them; and how much better will they be than the Korg Grand Piano? How much does one need to spend to get a piano sound better than Kross?:

The ones I know about are:
1) ~$70: Pianissimo (standalone or part of Mixcraft Pro Studio 6)
2) $174.50: East West Quantum Leap Pianos Gold
3) $189: Synthogy Ivory II American Concert D
4) $245: East West Quantum Leap Pianos Platinum
5) $329: Synthogy Ivory II Grand Pianos
I'm quite sure there are many more to choose from. What are your opinions? Cost is a concern. I need a keyboard that has a good enough piano voice to keep me motivated to learn & grow. I think the piano voices on either the Krome or the Kronos would be more than adequate but they are not in my price range.

I viewed a recent YT faceoff between the Casio PX5s and the Kross, and the guy chose the Casio (pianomanchuck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VfQw2LbI24 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK_L5cEKTcA). The Casio is on sale for $799, but I do not like the keybed action at all. Do I need a better piano voice than the Kross Grand?

wadeal · Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Posts: 18

The Kross has loads of really useable piano sounds (and a lot more) and the option of a weighted 88 key keyboard if you go for the 88 rather than the 61 key version. I added a sustain pedal and it's good enough for my piano lessons and recording.

The pianos (along with everything else) is a bit dry to my ears, but with a bit of manipulation of the reverbs you can get a really nice, realistic grand sound.

If you are after a VST piano sound, look at Alicia's Keys with Kontakt or Kontakt player. I use the Korg to trigger the piano sounds on that and it's piano sounds are absolutely second to none.

The East West stuff is fantastic (the strings especially) but take a deep breath, cos they are stupidly expensive and eat PC memory.

I'd get the Korg just for the 88 weighted keys and the rest of the facilities . You can always add the software sampling stuff later if you aren't happy with the stock sounds (which I'm sure you will be).

If you Search for the Korg Kross on Youtube there is a guy playing all of the Kross piano sounds. That's a good starting point.

SanderXpander · Platinum Member Joined: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 7860

The Krome pianos are far closer to VST quality than the Kross ones. You could also consider putting that extra money towards a Krome instead of a Kross, if pianos are very important to you.

Honestly I think most third party piano plugins would top the Kross in realism, although some in the Kross are surely charming and playable.

My personal favorite is Ivory, but I also like some of the NI offerings (Alicia's Keys is good for a "character" piano for instance).

tkarlmann · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 11:47 pm Post subject:

tkarlmann · Last edited by tkarlmann on Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:22 pm; edited 1 time in total

SanderXpander · Platinum Member Joined: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 7860

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/alicias-keys/

tkarlmann · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 10:44 pm Post subject: What are "NI Offerings"?

tkarlmann · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:18 pm Post subject: Alicia's Keys FOUND!

tkarlmann · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:29 pm Post subject: My anticipated Korg Kross --

tkarlmann · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:38 pm Post subject:

SanderXpander · Platinum Member Joined: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 7860

castorex · Full Member Joined: 06 Jun 2014 Posts: 134

If you need many third-party piano sounds (or other extra-sounds) the MOXF from Yamaha is a better choice... with 2GB extended board... and many many banks.

Both Krome and Kross have an unofficially supported embedded RAM:
- 16Mo for the krome
- 8Mo for the kross

Kromatool allows to load some new sample banks but not yet fort the kross. But the size of this dedicated space is too sparse for piano samples... and if i have understood well these kind of samples are limited to 8 bits resolution Laughing

tkarlmann · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 3:03 am Post subject: 11msec?

I spoke with my Sweetwater guy again, and we were talking about keyboard sounds vs. VST's. Since he was a MAC-person, I was attempting to explain about latency -- using Wave vs. WaveRT. He said "11msec" was the magic number -- longer than that and you hear the delay, less than that you don't.

Is this true, and can you get to < 11msec with Mixcraft 6?

castorex · Full Member Joined: 06 Jun 2014 Posts: 134

Audio latency has noting to do with software... it is related to the audio hardware used on your computer/laptop + the audio driver of the hardware:
- you have a crappy embedded audio chipset... nothing to do except ASIO4ALL driver (bas results for a Pro environment).
- you have an audio extension board (Pro or semi-pro as some creative lab or asus board) using ASIO driver... very good latency.
- you have an external Pro audio module (via USB or Firewire) and you are the winner !

Naturally the software has to use ASIO driver to ensure a good latency, but it is always the case.

Sometime a workstation provides an embedded low latency sound module as Yamaha (MOX, MOXF, MX) and Roland (FA serie).

But I see in your first post you want to learn... to learn piano/keyboard. Why do you want a workstation to learn piano ? This is not the right tool for that, there are many very good digital piano, plug&play, with far better piano feel, excellent piano sounds.

SanderXpander · Platinum Member Joined: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 7860

If you don't have a dedicated soundcard/interface yet, I wouldn't recommend adding VST instruments to your setup. It's a first requirement. If you need a beginner card, you should count on spending between 100 and 200 bucks depending on the extra features and the quality you might want.

I would NOT recommend ASIO4ALL or any Creative Labs soundcard.

The 11ms is not a bad guideline by the way, though personally I'm a little more sensitive than that. What's also important is the "jitter" in latency, meaning if it is always the exact same amount of latency (easier to adjust to and not notice) or if it is sometimes a little longer or shorter. A pro soundcard should do well in both regards.