Korg Forums

[blazerunner]

Hello,

I'm back again from my adventures with Kronos. We are becoming much better friends now that I have got over the hair pulling hump in the learning curve. This week I'm learning how to us Midi. Before I was using my drum machine/Sampler and just recording into Audio now I'm learning how to use the Kronos to lay down my drum tracks with its midi sequencer.

I made mistakes of course and my track is slightly off and it's beyond a problem quantize can fix. How do I edit my midi sequencer tracks to view the notes and see where the "off" part is so I can correct it?

I notice while playing around this keyboard has a midi step sequencer. Looks pretty friendly to use. Does the Kronos have an editor in a view like on the step sequencer where you can see all your notes and edit them?

Thanks... still patient... still learning.

[KingKronos]

I'm starting to use the sequencer more and more now also. You can see your MIDI notes and velocities using the Event editor found in the dropdown on the Track Edit page. But that's more like working with a spreadsheet, slow and technical.

It might be easier to loop the measures you want to fix and redo the parts you need. The Preferences page is where you set which measures to loop. You'll see the Remove Data is grayed out until you press record. When you enable remove data, you can press and hold the keyboard note for the bad parts to erase them. Keep in mind that's one way to erase notes, there are more ways than that.

You said you were using a drum machine before, so you might prefer making loops instead of writing a whole track at once. I found it fun making a few patterns first, then later pasting or putting them onto the drum track in the order I wanted. This is done on the Pattern Edit page. Most of what you need is the dropdown menu. So many things hidden in that dropdown. If you find yourself using the same thing over and over, don't forget the keyboard shortcut using the Enter key + the number of the dropdown item you want.

Anyway, these videos can show you better than I can put in words. Once everything "clicks" you'll be amazed again at what the Kronos can do. The sequencer is linear, but it's also got pattern or loop making built in. After you make your own pattern and arrange them, you can export the whole thing as your own custom drum pattern, which is another bank separate from the song patterns you make. That way you can use your own patterns in combi or program mode. I thought the drum track could only play a 4 bar loop from the presets they gave you. But no, you're not limited to that. You could make an entire drum track for a whole song and play along in program mode! Have fun.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=korg+kronos+create+drum+pattern

[blazerunner]

Hello King Kronos,

Thanks for the reply. Yep the sequencer on the Kronos seems to offer a lot. I was looking at it all wrong before. Gotta approach this Keyboard the same way I did boards in the 90's. Once you spend some seat time learning the system no matter how awkward it is you can start doing some amazing stuff. I appreciate you pointing me in the direction of the Midi Event Editor. I try to understand the manual it's tough so bouncing on forums for Q&A's is very helpful. I thank you guys for that!

I've never worked with midi like this so I'm a complete novice to it. I've always been so accustomed to just going full Liam Howlett on stuff and playing it all out by hand. That kind of renegade guerilla style of making music really gave me some technical sounding beats. When I try to convert that recording style into "midi" it's a bit difficult to get that same feel because now everything is structured and more organized.

What I used to do on my old Triton is I mostly used it like an ASR10. I would play the drum patterns from my mpc into the Triton sampler and then make a loop and lay it on the keys. I guess that was some classic DnB type producing approach. Really I just feel like people end up with those types of methods because programming sequencers on 90's gear was cumbersome and annoying.

I guess I haven't exactly gotten out that habbit but this isn't ye olde times and that Kronos Sequencer has got some power in it. What brought me into it is the SAMPLER! now I can sample all my cool drum sounds and just make a beat in midi. No audio loops anymore. It's almost lazy but it's so genius. I guess this must be what all the cool kids do these days?

My drum machine I have are the Roland TR8S,MPC2000XL, and an Akai Force I got last year. The TR8S and Akai Force are power houses in their own right but my Kronos is the center piece of my computerless poor man's studio. So I run all my stuff into it. Perhaps one day I can afford one of them nice shiney boxes that you can run Protools on or the Live stuff the kids yapper about but I blew all my money on this Kronos and it's all inputs in or nothing.

hehehe

but really there's not much difference between manning the Kronos Sequencer and what people do on the MPC Live,One, and X. It's just that those guys have the option of plugging into a computer and using the MPC Software which is like Protools mixed with CakeWalk. I hope the next gen Korg Workstation has a plugout software like that where you can turn the sequencer into a full blownout DAW.

[KingKronos]

So much to explore on the Kronos for sure. The sampler can time slice and time stretch audio or drum loops you record into it, but I imagine the grooveboxes probably have a couple workflow tricks up their sleeve. Automatically mapping slices to pads for example. The Kronos does this as well but to keys instead.

Playing a drum kit live and recording it into a MIDI loop is probably the same whether you're on a groovebox or the Kronos. But step sequencing looks to be a lot easier on the grooveboxes, especially with those dedicated buttons or pads. On the Kronos you step sequence like you're entering data into a spreadsheet, lol. Well, it looks like that anyway, I don't generally step sequence much.

Once you figure out the flow, share your beats, I'd like to hear what you're doing. Seems most people on the Kronos are the cover band or worship type, not many videos on EDM on the Kronos, other than Qui's ambient tutorial videos.

[blazerunner]

ha yeah, I think people just run to software for that stuff because it makes the whole process easier. I fooled around with the midi editor. I feel like I got the hang of it enough. Seems very "programmy" but not very "Musicy" hehe I made those words up. I must of fooled around for a good half hour trying to get a measure right. When I realized it would of just been best to re-record the whole track.

You are right about groove boxes as you called them. They're designed for making patterns and drum sequences. They're very good at correcting simple mistakes and quantizing. The Kronos seems to have all the tools but is more complex on simple task I find. I also kind of feel like the Quantizer isn't as powerful as the quantizers on other gear. It ignores mistakes that other equipment would catch and correct but that's what happens when it's a 10yo system.

But just like you I'm still willing to put up with it and learn the system. I'm one of those people that blames myself more than the equipment. Just wish I had the attention span to understand the manual but man bouncing between the parameter guide and the operation guide will make you go bonkers. . I have a feeling the Kronos is like the early 2000's MPC's where they came packed with features some users just avoided using altogether because either they didn't know how to use it or found it too complex/time consuming to bother with. I hope Korg is as wise as Akai with their sequencer and take notes to simply the process and make it more user friendly next time around.

[KingKronos]

As far as quantizing goes, I'm assuming you've changed it to the subdivision you're recording in? I mean, at the top of the sequencer or pattern pages the REC Resolution defaults to Hi. If you're entering in an 8th note high hat pattern, then you'll want to change the REC resolution to 8ths.

Another thing that might be affecting things is how you have your drum machine and Kronos clocks sync'd up. Don't know how you'd set it up on your external gear, but probably best to change the Kronos to Auto Midi or Auto Usb. It's done in global on the MIDI tab, MIDI page, in the clock area.

Yeah, half an hour to edit a measure is a bit much. I had a similar issue with a midi file I imported. Have you managed to suss out how to erase notes while recording live? The different ways of recording are all on the preferences page. If setting measures to loop and using Remove Data isn't working, maybe you can try Overwrite instead. Might want to break out the kick, snare, and hh to their own tracks first, and work on them one at a time. Then later you can combine the perfected loop all into one pattern and save that.

Too bad not many Kronos beat making videos are on yt. I'm still trying to figure out how to make choke groups. Using RPPR I have different patterns on different keys. They sync up nice and stay in time when playing multiple beats at a time. Problem is, I haven't found a way to make any other beat shut off when you go to a new beat. I have to do it in 2 motions, tap old key to get ready to stop the beat + tap new key for the next beat. A choke group would be handy.

[KingKronos]

Oh one more thing. If you make a mistake while recording, you can use the Compare button sort of like an Undo.

[KingKronos]

Another discovery! You don't have to go to the preferences page to select that Remove Data option. It shows up on the pattern page when you hit record. That makes things a lot easier to re-do parts.