Korg Forums

zahush76 · Junior Member Joined: 09 Mar 2011 Posts: 98

If i understand right, a combi is comprised of several programs\presets. Each sound has its own configuration of controls: the knobs on each sound are assigned to different parameters, the joystick might do one thing on one sound and another on a different sound, and so on.

What happens in a combi? Do you have to decide which of the sounds gets the controls? Can you assign different knobs for different sounds at the same time?

For example, if i have a combi of al-1, ep-1, str-1 and cx-3 - can i assign knob 1 to control the al-1 cutoff, while knob 2 controls the amount of reverb on a rhodes, knob 3 assigned for changing a clav from open to mute, and knob 4 to increase overdrive on the cx-3? Simultaniously?

EvilDragon · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:58 pm Post subject:

Yep - it's pretty flexible. You can decide what will each knob, slider or button or joystick or pedal do for each timbre in a combi. Separately. Simultaneously. Whatever you want.

Kevin Nolan · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:55 am Post subject:

Combi mode offers the following:

- Ability to control each program volume and pan in groups of 8
- Ability to turn any fader plus all knobs into a channel strip for the currently chosen channel (each channel gets EQ by default, effects sends, level and pan)
- Significant control of dozens of default and user definable program parameters for the currently selected program (and the entire control panel reconfigurable for each individual program)

What you do not get are:

- The ability to edit programs in combi mode
- The ability to mix controllers for various programs on the control panel all at once as you suggest. That said, it's always only a button press (or two if jumping from channels 1-8 to 9-16) to select the channel you want to affect a plethora of program specific tone-adjust parameters for that program.

So it's a fantastic realtime control system for combi's - very comprehensive and logical.

Two other things to remember:

- You can assign the controllers to a range of Karma control functions. Karma has not been discussed much on this forum but it's a massive aspect of Kronos. And - you get to run up to 4 Karma Generated Effects in Combi mode, and you can assign the controllers to control any one of the four engines or all four at once.

Finally, a huge advance on any previous workstation including OASYS is the new Kronos performance / queue capability (whatever it is called) - you might even view that as a new layer above Combi and Program modes. So - with seamless transition, you can move from combi to combi and combi to program - and with that all the new controller assignments instanteously made available - so I suspect this is going to be a real performers dream, with many new and innovative ideas springing up on how to optimise performances, enhance traditional performace possibilities and so on.

Overall, you'll have at your disposal a performers dream instrument whatever mode you're in.

Kevin.

cello · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:16 am Post subject:

peter_schwartz · Full Member Joined: 14 Jan 2011 Posts: 206

Yes, Kronos has Tone Adjust.

Kevin Nolan · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:54 am Post subject:

Cello - yes - of course Combi mode has tone adjust - that's what I meant when saying that each program has a range of program paramteres assigned to the controllers in Combi mode. Sorry for any confusion caused. But program-edit mode is not tone-adjust - and it's Program-edit mode I flagged as not available, not tone-adjust capability. Tone-adjust is a subset of the program's parameters assigned to the controllers, but you can't get to the programs actual individual edit pages from Combi mode.

On a separate note, and I'd need to check on this so don't quote me on it - but I also think that any changes made to programs in combi mode through tone adjust cannot be saved to the original program position or to a new one - instead you'd need to exit Combi mode and do the same tone adjust on the actual program, and then save that as a new program. And again don't quote me on this so perhaps someone can verify this - I believe if you edit tone adjust for a program in Combi mode and save the Combi, the tone adjust changes to the program will be saves as part of the Combi (but again I haven't tried this on my OASYS so this needs to be verified).

cello · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:01 am Post subject:

peter_schwartz · Full Member Joined: 14 Jan 2011 Posts: 206

There are several layers of sound adjustment available:

1) the hard-core programming of the sound itself, which can include control assignments (knobs, switches, VJS, JS, etc.) to control various aspects of the sound. Let's just call this the "original programming of the sound". Control assignments are as much a part of the programming as the various sound parameters themselves. This is no different from any other synth or rompler where, say JS+ (modwheel) is used to add vibrato to a sound. The fact that it does vibrato as opposed to, say, creating tremolo or a filter sweep are all part of the original programming. Now, it's not like you can't go in there and change what JS+ does (making it do, say, tremolo instead of vibrto) and re-save the sound, altering the original programming. But of course, if you used that program in a Combi, moving JS+ in the combi will now add tremolo to the sound just like it does if you play the sound alone in Program mode.

This behavior is no different from any other synth/rompler that offers Program and Combi modes.

2) Tone Adjust --- this is a separate layer of control that lets you alter various sound parameters without affecting the original programming. T/A is available in Program Mode and Combi mode (and SEQ mode if I'm not mistaken). The T/A settings can be different for the same sound in all three modes if you want. T/A can be used to totally alter the character (even the sample selection) of sounds. Again, T/A adjustments do not alter the original programming of the sound. These changes can be saved with a Program or a Combi.

3) Realtime controls -- the aforementioned knobs, VJS, JS, switches, etc. are performance controls. Movements of these controls can of course be recorded in the sequencer, but changes to them are not saved with the program or the Combi.

And finally, there's an additional level of programming in terms of how a sound in a Combi (or Seq) will respond to various performance controls: the MIDI Filters. So, for example, if in a Combi you have two sounds layered (both on the same MIDI channel, say, the G.Channel) and pressing SW1 did something you liked to Timbre #1 but not Timbre #2, you could disable SW1 to Timbre #2 just for that Combi.