Korg Forums

[Dannyboy]

Ok, so on Sat I was in a music store near Verona (Italy) and assisted to the demo of the Kronos.

The version demoed was the 61 keys, that was connected to a pair of Focal (Twin 6). After the demo I got my chance to try it for myself though the headphones were not really unforgettable plus Mirabella was demoing the PA3 and one of the Focal was right on my back (not exactly the best way of testing a key, and by far not THIS key). 

Anyway these are my impressions. 

The first impression I got when I SAW the keyboard was to stand in front of a M1 on steroids (and this is not bad in principle). I still remember when I first sought the OASYS though: the impression of staying in front on something outstanding. Did not receive the same vibrations here, but that might be me. In any case I think it will also be evident to everybody that it is in the Kronos physical UI that most of the budget cut was concentrated: the UI looks in general thinner when compared to the one of the OASYS, and sliders and knobs do not look the same quality, though they look and feel quite fit to the purpose. 
On the other hand I doubt that in dim light conditions you can see all the sliders and knobs, that's where the LEDs in the OASYS were really outstanding.

Though the touch screen is gorgeous I have to admit that the resolution is probably too high, and some of the tabs look really pretty small. I have no problem whatsoever in using it (I have small fingers and I am typing this post from my iPhone so...) but one guy trying the Kronos before me did not succeeded three times in a row in selecting a particular tab. Now I know that you need calibration etc. but this might turn out to be a problem for more than a few users.

In addition, however, it looks also like that only people with an excellent stereoscopic vision can own a Kronos, for the writings under the buttons are in a very very small font as well. Again not a problem for me, just pointing this out...

Last but not least the end caps in shiny black plastic, look aesthetically horrible and very fragile as well; though that is not my problem, since  my Kronos will seat in my studio never to be moved, for many of you this might become a serious issue (if not a deal breaker).

Things however starts to feel right when you HEAR the different engines under the Kronos hood. There the Kronos becomes really the monster machine it is supposed to be. Sound quality is the one of the OASYS: forget the rest including obviously the M3.

The grands are excellent: both the German (probably an Hamburg Steenway) and the Japanese (probably a Kaway).

EPs are also spectacular, very very accurate and the tweaking depth seem inexhaustible. 

Cx3 sounds very good as well. We started from a bare sinusoidal wave and constructed a dark rock organ in a couple of minutes in what seemed a very intuitive workflow.

Was blown away by the analog engines: the three of them are complementary and each has its own character. The filters were impressive with no granularity audible, and unison mode allowed some very thick sounds with 6 osc stacked.

STR1 is a little gem. It was the first time I had the chance to hear it and was really impressed by the sounds you can get out of it (the harpsichord I have heard was much better than any sampled one I heard before, IMHO)

Mod 7 was only touched upon; looked powerful but I cannot say anything more than that.

Finally HD1: I liked this since the time of the OASYS though also there the quality of the samples varied between "very good" and "barely acceptable". As already said quality is OASYS like and not M3 though two times Mirabella explicitly said that the Kronos 'has an M3 inside' not sure still what he meant by that, and thanks God whatever he meant does not imply that the sound quality of the HD1 engine is similar to the M3.

I was a bit disappointed by the number of preset combis: there were only 5 banks though I am not sure what was the reason for that. In particular I missed some of the excellent OASYS combis and in particular a combi called "At the gates of Mordor" though even if they are finally not shipped with the Kronos you can always load them directly from the OASYS (read below).

Bottom line: the Kronos rocks and IMHO there is nothing in the market at the moment that can compete. It is not perfect and construction wise I find it a bit cheap (but IS NOT Roland if you know what I mean).

Let me end with a weird bit: there was a question about user samples. First of all full compatibility OASYS ---> Kronos ha been confirmed; second full compatibility with sf2 format is also there though not Mirabella said has not been thoroughly tested.
And now the grand finale: he said that there are two ways of working with user samples, namely to load them in RAM or to use the VMT technology and stream them... He repeated this twice so to tell you the truth I don't know what to think now about this issue anymore.

Ah finally: price between 3 and 4 thousand (I have almost killed the guy when he said the KORG is trying hard to build an EU price policy) and shipping is late April early May so 50 days more of speculations on this forum...

-----
Dan

[McHale]

You wrote that whole thing on your iPhone? You probably need a nap after writing all that!

Thanks for the quick review...
_________________
Current Korg Gear: KRONOS 88 (4GB), M50-73 (PS mod), RADIAS-73, Electribe MX, Triton Pro (MOSS, SCSI, CF, 64MB RAM), SQ-64, DVP-1, MEX-8000, MR-1, KAOSSilator, nanoKey, nanoKontrol, 3x nanoPad 2, 3x DS1H, 7x PS1, FC7 (yes Korg, NOT Yamaha).

[ozy]

[McHale]

he doth protest too much...
_________________
Current Korg Gear: KRONOS 88 (4GB), M50-73 (PS mod), RADIAS-73, Electribe MX, Triton Pro (MOSS, SCSI, CF, 64MB RAM), SQ-64, DVP-1, MEX-8000, MR-1, KAOSSilator, nanoKey, nanoKontrol, 3x nanoPad 2, 3x DS1H, 7x PS1, FC7 (yes Korg, NOT Yamaha).

[EvilDragon]

[danatkorg]

[danatkorg]

[Rosen Sound]

Im gonna assume "gates of mordor" is probably the most epic, mind-blowing preset ever created?
_________________


Current gear: Korg Kronos 61, Oberheim OB-8, Alesis Vortex
Past Gear: Triton Extreme w/moss & ram, Korg Radias, Kurzweil Micropiano, Triton classic, & Karma
Come visit my Burbank California repair shop/recording studio! Rosensound.com
And my band: Sirion.us.com

[Mike Conway]

[Synthoid]

So this means the Kronos has hit stores there?

Oops....never mind. I didn't read the whole post.
_________________
M3, Triton Classic, Radias, Motif XS, Alesis Ion

[Unicorn]

Thank you for confirming the issues with the quality of HD1. When Rich repeatedly said 'The game has been changed' and kept on referring to the 12GB samples (and that "Megabytes" are now the history), that created a doubt in my mind. From that perspective even a size in "Gigabytes" doesn't necessarily assure the quality of sounds if you guys know that M1 libraries as big as 20GB are being sold on eBay.

KORG, please hear me - you guys still have an opportunity of building up a game changer if you get the Third Party partnerships right. Think of KARO, NI, OWD and so many good firms around who know how to record and program sample based instruments.
_________________
Cheers,
Unicorn

[Citizen Klaus]

[Unicorn]

[Unicorn]

[Citizen Klaus]