Korg Forums

uncle G 118 · Joined: 17 Jun 2018 Posts: 9

I have a Korg m3 88 and love it but is not easy to work...for example...It is not compatible with playing midi files or Mp3 playable files w/o tons of hard crap to get it to work .My Yamaha keys are plug and play when it comes to playing midi files ect .I have to go deep into settings of my M 3... (GM2) and it still will not play the file properly w/o a bunch of setting it all up .It is really frustrating .
My concern is ...has the Kronos finally made it easier to play a midi file with all of the sounds not having to be resetup it all again ?
Is the Karma as good as the M3 ?
I will die if it is not .I do not understand why Yamaha is so easy for this but my Korg m3 is murder for easy plug and play with simple midi files ect .

GregC · Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 9:44 pm Post subject:

since you are not comfortable with m3, Kronos is not going to be more comfortable.

I don't believe you will die.

Some midi files have tried my patience . But the extra work is actually the midi file itself with all its extraneous cc messages.

There are a few folks that have de-mystified midi file handling. Maybe they will have some advice.
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Lightbringer · Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2018 Posts: 356 Location: USA

Have you watched the video Qui Robinez made about using MIDI files in the Kronos? I don't really use MIDI files, but it looks pretty painless to me?

https://youtu.be/HxtdJ3vYSpU

macluit · Joined: 24 Sep 2011 Posts: 22

Hi

Have a look at the Pa4X
The sounds are impressive (imho as a Kronos owner)
and the board is xtremely flexibel with mp3

Ben

uncle G 118 · Joined: 17 Jun 2018 Posts: 9

GregC · Posted: Fri May 17, 2019 4:33 pm Post subject:

uncle G 118 · Joined: 17 Jun 2018 Posts: 9

Lightbringer · Senior Member Joined: 07 Jan 2018 Posts: 356 Location: USA

You are welcome. The real thanks goes to Qui, of course, for making all the excellent tutorials. I'd recommend watching all of them if you're potentially in the market for a Kronos. He does a nice job of showing some of the more sophisticated things you can do with the Kronos.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx607dnAaOs72x7CuUgn-q1I2XUbnB9-r

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx607dnAaOs49f89TNyGjM_KyJAiEgewM

I don't think Kronos supports mp3 format.

I am pretty sure Karma was upgraded to Karma2 sometime between the M3 and Kronos, so theoretically, Karma should be even more advanced than on the M3.

As for general user friendliness, Kronos was my first Korg brand workstation. I've watched a fair number of videos on their older models - mostly because Korg tends to talk most about a feature when it's first released, so sometimes there's more info there.

Based on that, I think the Kronos has some refinements in terms of ease of use compared to older workstation models. E.g. the set list feature doesn't exist on the M3, does it? That makes it really easy to keep track of and get instant access to sounds you care about. Pretty sure the Easy split/layer function is only in the Kronos. That's a nice quick, intuitive way to do this. I'm sure there are other UI refinements over the years.

To me, the top layer stuff is very user friendly. As you start digging down a couple of layers into really programming it, it becomes an "expert" workstation. By that I mean it's fast to navigate for someone who understands it. But there is a deep learning curve to fully master the mindboggling amount of things in it. I'm sure the M3 is the same way, and there's just even more of it in the K.