Korg Forums

[kbrkr]

How are the Brass, Strings, woodwind, flute, Sax sounds?

Traditionally a Korg weak spot.
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Pa5x, Yamaha Genos, ForeScore

[Shakil]

[NuSkoolTone]

[Gargamel314]

i would imagine you could check out the demos of EXs3 from the OASYS page on the Korg site and hear for yourself. The french horn sounds are among the best of all the brass sounds. The solo strings sound incredibly realistic and beautiful, and the ensemble strings... errrm... they're okay, but i've heard better. The EX3s clarinet sound is great if you do a lot of jazz, but in any other musical setting, it's pretty terrible. I can tell the sample source was a sax player playing a clarinet. All of the double reeds and sax sounds are very decent, and very playable.

I'm curious about the 3rd ens. strings multisample in EXs1... it's not featured in any demos, I wonder if it's any better than the ROM sounds. I would love if someone would do some kind of demo with the EXs1 and EXs5 expansions.

The EXs3 sounds are not used by many of the factory presets, they are used all throughout the 2 extra PCGs that come with the Kronos (you would have to manually load them in). If you go to demo a Kronos, bring your own USB with these two PCGs on it, because you won't be able to load them from the store.
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Korg Kronos-61, 01/Wfd, SONAR Pro

[kbrkr]

[Gargamel314]

I liked the M3 strings a lot better than the Trinity and Triton strings, but they still didn't quite cut it for me. So I actually sampled two of the string multisamples from the 01/Wfd that comprise the 01/W program "A07 TheStrings," which in my opinion is the best sounding string ensemble patch out of all the Korg workstations. it takes up about 4 1/2 MB of RAM. You're welcome to it, but the other files in the ZIP are M3 PCGs, but the sample data is compatible with the OASYS and the Kronos. You'd have to build your own string programs using those two multisamples until i get my own Kronos. Or better yet, since you have an M3, you can just load up the M3 PCG and then manually copy them over to the Kronos when you get one.

I actually used these string sounds in the video in my signature below. help yourself to the ZIP file:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/qlvsqs78jn82pq7/01W_PACK.zip
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Korg Kronos-61, 01/Wfd, SONAR Pro

[Chriskk]

[CfNorENa]

[JPWC]

Thanks for the download, Gargamel314

I used to own an 01/W fd, I traded it for a guitar & AKG 414. I miss it. Never sell anything.



I'll load this one up when I get the Kronos (it's just a few days away).

I do perfer the Motif XF acoustic sounds, but I am sure the Kronos will change my mind.
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[rrricky rrrecordo]

I only spent about 45 minutes playing Kronos, but since I also have a Motif XS I can give you my impressions on how the two compare.

Kronos' acoustic pianos are very nice, and sound much better than the stock Motif pianos. I have K-Sounds excellent Virtual C7 loaded into the Motif, and it is a joy to play, but it will cost you an extra 100 dollars for the package. Even though it's only about 0.5GB, I find that it compares favourably with Kronos' pianos.

The Rhodes type EPs in Kronos are vastly superior those in the Motif XS; the Wurlies don't impress me as much, but for whatever reason, a "genuine" Wurlitzer piano is a difficult sound to nail. I have two Wurlie 206As and play them almost daily, and there's nothing I have heard in any workstation that can capture the punch and cabinet resonance of the real thing. Oddly enough, early Korgs such as the M1 and X5 made a pretty good stab at the sound by using a clarinet waveform as the sound source.

Kronos' acoustic and electric guitar sounds are easily overshadowed by its Motif counterparts. Yamaha builds some beautiful acoustic guitars. I have a steel string and two nylon string Yamaha guitars in the house. Yamaha knows how to meticulously sample and render fine emulations of the instruments that they build.

Perhaps that's the point here. Yamaha was first and foremost an acoustic musical instrument manufacturer before diversifying into other areas, and have amassed a wealth of experience in the field. They seem to know what to listen for in their samples.

Anyway, onward. I agree that earlier Korg instruments have some fine string ensemble sounds. These waveforms are rich and full sounding without using a lot of bandwidth. Korg has had excellent effects onboard since the M1 first appeared on the scene, and they are used very "effectively" to this day in the Kronos. Some of the string ensembles in the Kronos are absolutely gorgeous, and when played idiomatically (i.e. properly arranged and orchestrated as opposed to playing triads) they simply shine. Motif has some sweet string ensembles as well, but Kronos is the winner here in my opinion.

I didn't spend much time with Kronos' solo acoustic orchestral instruments, so I cannot make a fair comparison between Kronos and Motif in this regard. Motif XS has some beautiful oboes, clarinets and flutes, and some decent horns, but the solo string instruments such as violin, viola and cello scrape me the wrong way - I don't care much for them and never use them. I don't see how Kronos could do worse.

So there you go, just my opinion based on living with a Motif XS and a short visit with Kronos.

[mjames4208]

i think the motif compliments the kronos perfectly. as a matter of fact, my XS8 and K61 blends perfect.
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