Upgrading from X50: Kross2 or Krome 61?

cherenzig · Post by **cherenzig** » Thu Jan 05, 2023 5:26 am

Hello everyone,
My beloved X50 is showing its age (failing display) and I need to replace it. I use it 100% as a live performance instrument (lightweight & easy to carry to gigs). I mostly use the factory sounds, but enjoy the synthesis workflow, antiquated as it is.

What's a better candidate to replace it with, in your opinion? Kross 2 61, or Krome EX 61?

Weight & ease of performance control (selecting sounds, dialing real-time effects with knobs e.g. for LFO) are the main concerns. Reliability is also important in a gig situation (never really loved X50's AC adapter for this). I quite trust the onboard sounds from Korg so anything a generation or 2 up from the X50, I expect will be pretty great.

Thanks in advance for your input.

cherenzig · Post by **cherenzig** » Thu Jan 05, 2023 5:32 am

I realize too that the Krome at 16 lbs is a bit heavier than Kross 2 (9 lbs) or X50 (10 lbs), but that's not really a big deal. I'm more concerned with ease of use onstage and the relative quality of their onboard sounds.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Thu Jan 05, 2023 1:46 pm

cherenzig wrote:Weight & ease of performance control (selecting sounds, dialing real-time effects with knobs e.g. for LFO) are the main concerns. Reliability is also important in a gig situation (never really loved X50's AC adapter for this). I quite trust the onboard sounds from Korg so anything a generation or 2 up from the X50, I expect will be pretty great.

cherenzig wrote:I realize too that the Krome at 16 lbs is a bit heavier than Kross 2 (9 lbs) or X50 (10 lbs), but that's not really a big deal. I'm more concerned with ease of use onstage and the relative quality of their onboard sounds.

Although I've never played the Krome, I'd say it wins on your criteria.

Ease of use would favor the touchscreen. Hard buttons do have their own advantage for live patch selection, I understand why some people like them, but overall, unless you only care about a handful of sounds, the touchscreen ability for each sound to be visually labeled with what it is is great for ease of use.

Ease of dialing in real-time sound manipulations is greater with four knobs than with two.

While sounds are subjective (someone can prefer a technically inferior sound), the Krome sounds are generally technically of higher quality. There is much more sample data available in total, and a given sound can be eight multisamples deep instead of four. (I think the X50 was two, but I'm not sure.) Krome's EDS-x engine has some more available sound parameters than the Kross' EDS-i engine.

Kross does does have some things Krome does not, though they aren't things you asked about, e.g. sample trigger pads, step sequencer, audio recorder, line inputs, vocoder, battery operation.

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Thu Jan 05, 2023 3:13 pm

I've used both Kross and Krome on stage.

They have slightly different niches. If Krome is on your radar, then either you don't care about samples or you have an external sampler because Krome doesn't do that.

To me, the big different in reliability is battery operation. With the Kross, turn-on is under 10 seconds, with Krome it's about a minute. The Kross will run on batteries even if the power gets stomped on by an overenthusiastic bassist, while the Krome just goes silent.

Quality of sound: Krome wins, every time. Not that the Kross sounds bad, but Krome has more effects, more parameters, more rompler layers.

Controllers ... well, if I need many, I grab my Behringer box-o-knobs, but otherwise the Krome wins.