Korg Forums

[Almeen]

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new to the kronos (switched from a Nord Stage+variety of synths). It has been the best purchase I've made in years. However, as a beginner to the kronos and workstations in general, I hit many roadblocks! My question is this:

When I'm in Combi mode (using a midi controller for other sounds in the Combi), I'm putting in a program that is an arpeggiated synth patch with a bunch of delay on it, and another program that is just a lead patch. My problem is that the delay and arpeggiation of the first program doesn't engage when I add it to the combi. I'm sure this has been answered somewhere, but I can't find anything directly answering this question. Your help is much appreciated!

[SanderXpander]

The Kronos has a limited number of fx processors, similar to the Nord. For instance, if you'll recall, the Nord Stage has two modulation fx and one distortion/amp effect (per page/layer). If you were to combine a synth sound with chorus and an electric piano with chorus (on one page), you will have to choose which sound uses the single chorus processor.

It's somewhat similar on the Kronos, although you have way more fx slots and each can do a great variety of things. Basically, every program OR combi has 12 Insert FX slots (IFX), 2 Master FX (MFX) and 2 Total FX (TFX). FX routing is very flexible on Kronos, but that means you will often need to do some manual setup. If you simply browse programs and select them from the combi main page to add them, no FX are copied at all. If you want to include FX from a program, you need to use the top-right drop-down context menu and select "copy from program". This will then give you the option to "copy IFX".

Be aware that every combi still only has those 12 IFX, 2 MFX and 2 TFX. If you add your first program with all the FX, and then you add a second program and also include the MFX, the MFX slots will be overwritten with those of the second program. Because there's still only those two slots. You get a lot more flexibility with IFX slots because there are twelve of them - if you choose the option "copy all used" instead of "all IFX" it will intelligently copy only the slots that are used by the program and add them to any IFX slots you might have already set up. Of course 12 slots is still not "unlimited" so you might still have to reorganize or rethink your IFX routing/setup if you add a bunch of programs to a single combi. If you go the IFX setup screens, you can also use the drop-down menu to selectively copy fx from a program into your combi.

This was not the very simplest "follow these steps" type of explanation but hopefully as someone familiar with modern synths it will help you understand why it works the way it does.

As for the arpeggiation, there are a bunch of ways a sound could have an arpeggiator-like effect going on, it could be KARMA, an actual arpeggiator (like in the Polysix engine) or the step sequencer. I think the Polysix one should work without any setup, but KARMA is similar to the IFX in the sense that you will need to copy it from the program. You can use the drop-down menu for this, it's also an option in "copy from program". I believe you will need to adjust the key range not just for the timbre but also for the KARMA module, in the KARMA main page.

[Almeen]

Thanks for the tip! Easily resolved.