Korg Forums

Kevin Nolan

Hi –

A few thoughts I thought I’d post and would welcome your opinion:

If you look at this thread on www.vintagesynth.com , you ‘ll see a quite healthy de-facto respect for Kronos (nothing too special - but just scroll down through the thread and you'll see a default position of respect for Kronos):
http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61316

This forum know their synthesizers and don’t take prisoners; so to see Kronos discussed in quite accepted ‘quality’ terms suggests that its reputation is very solid even among the general synthesizer user community and not just fans of Korg synthesizers.

That said, if the thread is correct and Roland are planning a release of a new workstation that merges Fantom and V-Synth technologies, this would, in my opinion, be serious competition to the Kronos. I own a V-Synth GT and it’s a very earnest synthesizer. Merged with Fantom and potentially other technologies would make it highly desirable. And, what with Kronos release delayed till May/June, such a release might substantially kill off the seemingly dominant role Kronos is supposed to assume in keyboard sales. Certainly this puts the cat among the pigeons. As an OASYS owner, I’ll certainly place on hold my immediate intent to purchase a Kronos-88 until Musicmesse.

And – with discussions on pondering what Roland and Yamaha might do next – if they are to release multi-synth-engine workstations (with Vitrual Acoustic Pianos) as seems like becoming the norm – might we be on the threshold of a new golden era from ‘the big three’? In my book, both Clavia and Kurzweil have blown a golden opportunity to dominate the stage-keyboard market (by not releasing instruments of significant enough capability and quality). And if Roland (and Yamaha) so raise the bar to OASYS (and hence Kronos), then it will be that Korg/OASYS fulfilled a significant remit of sustaining life in serious synthesizers/workstations for the foreseeable future.

Actually, thinking about the long term and comparing OASYS and Kronos; I’ve come to the conclusion that, in the long term (as in over the next 10 years or so), the 2nd hand price of the OASYS will assume far greater heights than Kronos. By then, the main difference between their engines (two piano models) will be irrelevant because they will have been greatly superseded; while the comparative rarity and significantly superior physical chassis / control of OASYS will make it desirable (all other engines being the same). Of course this depends on what updates Kronos receives. Which brings me back to the original point – if Roland and Yamaha release competitors to Kronos, we can surely look forward to some serious updates into the medium term. It’s certainly going to be a very interesting year or two w.r.t synthesizer / workstation / stage piano instruments – it looks like they are all merging into total dream-machines for us.

Welcome your thoughts on any and all of these points.

Kevin.

McHale · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:58 pm Post subject:

that's a "wishful thinking" thread. Nobody knows what the countdown isfor but the last few times they had a countdown, it was a huge let down.
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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).

SpIdErWeB · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:19 pm Post subject:

Roland's coming with a new Synth for MusikMesse (the Jupiter name's floating around). The new Synth does sound good but doesn't have sequencer, so it won't replace neither the VSynth-GT nor the Fantom-G, that will still be available. That's all I can say Smile

Synthoid · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:32 pm Post subject:

GregC

SpIdErWeB · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:42 pm Post subject:

Let's just say I know it from very good source... (however don't get too excited, remember Roland used the Juno's name for the Juno-G, and it wasn't really a "new Juno"). That's really all I can say...

keego · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:44 pm Post subject:

Kurzweil are rumoured to be unveiling their successor to the K series at next years NAMM. That came from therir stall at this years so is a reliable source. Colour touch screen has been mentioned and they are already in the process so hopefully Kronos will give them something ti aim for.

I love my PC3 and everyother Kurz I've had just the sheer flexibility of VAST make me choose above all others. That said the Kronos looks the business just hope it dosen't dissappoint.
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Current Arsenal:
Kronos 61, Kurzweil PC3K6, Nord Stage 3, Yamaha MOXF8, Muse Receptor 2+, Mainstage

Previous:
Korg:X5D,Wavestation, N364, Trinity,Triton Classic,Triton Studio, Korg M3 61 w/ EXB-Radias
Ensoniq:TS12, SD1, ASR10
Roland:XP10, JD-800, Roland XV88, A90ex
Kurzweil:K2500RS, K2661, PC3
Nord: Electro 3

DaveBoulden · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:52 pm Post subject:

Shame about the new Roland. I'm currently intending to replace my M3-88 with a Kronos 73 and if Roland were to released a Fantom/V-Synth hybrid, it would have been the perfect replacement for my 2nd board which is now a "road weary" Fantom X7.

SpIdErWeB · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:56 pm Post subject:

VSynth-GT will be replaced (for sure), and even if the release date isn't known yet, from what I know, it shouldn't be until Winter NAMM...

Like many of us, I heard about rumors of VSynth and Fantom merging, but I don't have any confirmation about that so, I wouldn't speculate about it or expecting it in any way...

Synthoid · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:59 pm Post subject:

Kevin Nolan · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:04 pm Post subject:

Oh-oh. If the Jupiter name is going to be used as they've used the Juno name recently, lets brace ourselves.

I find Roland curious. They are unique in that virtually everything they made from their very first synth up to the JD800/JD990 have become absolute classics. That's a _serious_ number of stunning, classic synths/drum machines/string machine, effects, vocoders...

...yet, they are currently capable of producing so much rubbish; and are hell-bent on NOT paying deep, sincere homage to their rich legacy by producing truly capable emulations of those classics (updated to the 21st century). They have a massive archive of pointers to true modern classics; and then they go and release the new Juno series. It beggars belief.

They are, however, still capable of true modern gems. The V-Synth GT is magnificent. I'm sure the V-Piano is equally so. Similarly the VP770 is a very interesting instrument and I'm sure some of their groove boxes hit the mark for those interested in those.

But I have to say, the prospect of them using the Jupiter name give be the werby-jerbies; while a new workstation combining fantom, super-articulation, articulation synthesis, V-piano and Vocal design - not to mention the extremely capable virtual analogue engine in the V synth series - would be a truly mouth-watering prospect.

I had hoped Kronos had kicked Roland’s butt into gear, but perhaps not. Am intrigued to see how this pans out.

Spiderweb - isn't the V Synth GT cancelled for quite some time already despite being on their website still (as with other cancelled synths like the VP550 and SH-201)?

Keego - Kurzweil will have to do a lot of work to convince me that they are not the tacky company they've become. I own a K2500XS and the PC3 series chassis is considerably cheaper and tacky by comparison, while its keyboard action is a pale shadow of the magnificent K2500 action (one of the best keyboard actions there is). I do not hold out much hope for what they can bring to the table these days.

SpIdErWeB · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:15 pm Post subject:

Well, I'm not aware about cancelled units... so maybe. What I mean is that the VSynth-GT is planned to be replaced, but it shouldn't happen before Winter NAMM, even thought it's just an approximative date...

burningbusch · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:27 pm Post subject:

Yamaha just introduced the Motif XF so it's going to be a while (3+ years) before they come out with a sequel or something completely new. In the mean time, assuming the Kronos is a hit, I expect Yamaha to respond by lowering the price, including flash cards or both. If there's a large enough price delta between the Kronos and Motif XF, the Motif will be viewed as a reasonable alternative.

You have to assume Roland has been working on a Fantom replacement for a some time. They don't just go to the winter NAMM show, see the Kronos and and say "oh my we need to do Korg one better." Whatever they have planned in the workstation space is likely well along in the development phase.

These companies have very long term plans and visions. Korg has been working on the OASYS vision since 1995 (at least). Roland claimed the piano modeling technology in the V-Piano was 10 years in development.

IMO, Korg got SO many things right with the Kronos. It's very tough competition and it's going to take a while for the others to respond, if they ever do.

Busch.

SpIdErWeB · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 11:57 pm Post subject:

rrricky rrrecordo · Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 448