Korg Forums

[Ojustaboo]

My opinion is that people are somewhat valid in their concerns and their whining.

Over the years I've owned many different synths, first synth ever was a Korg M500 Micropreset, next Korg was the Trident Mk II

First Roland was the Juno 106, followed by D50 then D70 (I loved the D70, a lot of people didn't seem to)

And my favourite synth over the years was probably my Ensoniq sq80

My point being, I have a lot of respect for all of them including Yamaha (and I've never even owned one). I don't rate one company over another, they all seem to have a good track record over the years with their pro synth/workstation ranges.

I recently sold my 73 note M3 with Radias and ended up with a 88 note Triton extreme with Moss instead (couldn't afford 88 note M3 at the time else would have gone that route instead).

I think I'm correct in saying that almost without exception the build quality has always been extremely good and I've always felt like I've got a solid beast sitting on my stand/table.

The only exception to this was my M3. Yes I understand it was built to be modular but due to this, it never really felt that solid to me. That's not a complaint, just an observation.

Sometimes when things come out there are teething problems. Sometimes things materialise much later in a products life (such as the glue coming off D70 key weights around 15 years down the line).

It happens to all companies.

But reading between the lines, this isn't a whine about the Kronos (that I am still hoping to end up with this year) I have concerns that something isn't right within the Korg organisation. It seems like too many corners were cut with regards to quality control and future thinking with the Kronos.

Yes they have fixed some of them, but it should never have gone out the factory with the original data wheel.

It should never had needed cardboard inserts when transporting.

The keybed problem, well stuff happens, I can understand how that was missed, would have liked a bit more feedback although I realise most companies are silent on these sorts of issues.

The editor, it may well be functional but I cant understand how anyone can stick up for Korg over this. I've downloaded it and had a play, and even without owning a Kronos, I can see instantly how dated and clumsy it feels, and supplying that to your flagship product, does make me have slightly raised eyebrows.

Then there's other little things that most of us could think of in 5 mins. Why on my Triton or my M3 could I easily upgrade the memory myself (even if M3 memory is extortionate) yet there's no simple slot to remove to do this on the Kronos.

Every laptop manufacture can manage it on dirt cheap products, even a desktop where you have to remove the cover, I've yet to see one personally where if we contact them, it will invalidate the warranty if we remove the case to put in our own memory. Sure I can understand why Korg don't want people removing the Kronos case, but we shouldn't have needed to if a little more thought was put into it.

Same for the SSD, most laptops have a simple plate, you remove and slide out the harddrive, it's obvious that within a few months to a year, many owners owners of the Kronos will want to have bigger and bigger SSD's in it.

The Kronos being effectively a Custom PC with it's own op system. all this should be even easier (and cheaper) to accommodate than for a product using a custom designed motherboard etc.

Now I'm not meaning to knock the Kronos with what I've said, I'm simply saying that with things like that, it worries me that things have deteriorated somewhat at Korg with say a different management having different priorities and I do worry about the future and where Korgs management is trying to take the company.

I think that my opinion is valid based on what I've witnessed over the months and while I understand some people happy with their Kronos getting sick of people complaining, personally I think Korg management need to know how unhappy many long time owners are at the way things seem to have gone with this particular product release.

Sure you have die hard fans of brands, whether it's apple, korg, Roland, Sony or whatever, who don't like to see a word said against their beloved brand.

But for most people we pay our money and we expect good quality, well thought out products and it can sometimes just take one major screw up by a company to loose a lot of customers faith in that company.

Someone like Apple can absorb it, has the media hype and the money to get over it, someone like Korg probably don't. A lot of people are now weary about Korg, I personally, while still intend getting a Kronos, am watching carefully with regards to the direction they are heading. if I'm 100% honest, if the competition released something similar, at present, I would probably pick the competition due to the above. Which is sad. But if I feel a bit like that, then rest assured, many others will too. And simply telling them to stop whining, will only distance them still further.


I was in the process of writing the above when I read in another tab, the currently stickied "Petition Korg Poll for Karma 3 for the Kronos" thread and read what Stephen Kay says.

[Dany]

[Ojustaboo]

[NuSkoolTone]

[Zeroesque]

[robkeith]

[jeebustrain]

[SoundQuest]

I am sorry to hear that you had problems but I think there are a couple of facts that you need to know.

The editor does not have its own USB driver. It uses the same USB driver that all other applications use to talk to the Kronos.

The editor doesn't have any background processes that reside in memory when the application is not running. If the editor isn't running, it isn't running.

I'm not sure what your problem was but if the informormation in this thread is correct, the source of the problem was not the editor.
_________________
Michael Lambie
Sound Quest Inc.

[robkeith]

[jeebustrain]

[Shakil]

Is your DJ App set to detect new VSTi automatically at startup? If yes, I would turn that off first.

I suspect the DJ App was trying to load the VST editor, while the MIDI ports were not set up in the that DJ App.
_________________
Roland Fantom-G6 ARX1, Korg M3-m exb-Radias, Korg Z1-18v, Roland MC-808, Roland MC-909, Korg microKontrol.

[SoundQuest]

[AMR]

[zengomi]

Those who cannot find their way to create (music), complain about the tools. Thus will it ever be. Humans are really that predictable.

[AMR]