Korg Forums

Kevin Nolan

Out of curiosity -

can anyone tell the Kronos fan noise is louder than the fan noise of OASYS?

Cheers,
Kevin

Hedegaard · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 5:41 pm Post subject:

By powers of deduction, we could almost conclude "yes".

Why?
Because there is not one single thread of 10 pages long, about the subject and pictures of people taking their Oasys apart to do custom mods on their fans.

Why?
Because the Oasys fan is larger, and general rule of thumb is, the larger the fan, the quieter it is. Also there is no wind shear in the direction of movement of the flow of air.

Why?
Because the Oasys has side panels that are meshed, allowing free flowing air to pass right through 'almost' unobstructed.
When wind flows into and hits a barricade, it has to traverse its direction, this leads to faint "whooshing" sounds.
The Oasys's fan sits at about 30 degree angle, not perpendicular (90 degrees) to the travel of air flow.
Therefore the blades cut the air at an angle and not head-on or as directly.

The Kronos's fan, I believe (judging from the few pictures) is:
1) Mounted on a plate, reducing direct air flow.
2) Mounted at 90 degrees to the travel of air.
3) No free flow from the grates/openings in the Kronos, therefore the fan has to struggle more to both push and suck the air.
4) Smaller fan size.
5) The plate is directly linked to the chassis of the whole keyboard, thus susceptible to vibrations when playing, these vibrations magnify/amplify the rotating torque of the fan, thus creating more "whoosh" sound.

The biggest differences are however, the size of fan and the mesh side panels that make most of the difference. (In my opinion)
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.....Still waiting for the allusive, missing EXf for Oasys.....

curvebender

Sharp · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 5:58 pm Post subject:

curvebender · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:16 pm Post subject:

maphill · Full Member Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 217

michelkeijzers · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:59 pm Post subject:

I only noticed my Kronos 61 had a fan after reading the topics about it. However I have to be honest and say my computer which is next to it really makes a lot of noise (which disturbs me once and a while). Probably with a silent computer I would hear it better. But so far, I really don't mind about it and even with a silent computer I probably will not mind.
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Developer of the free PCG file managing application for most Korg workstations: PCG Tools, see https://www.kronoshaven.com/pcgtools/

Sharp · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:38 pm Post subject:

donjuancarlos · Full Member Joined: 21 May 2011 Posts: 105

Either way, we know that for those who find the Kronos too loud for their tastes, it is possible to decrease the noise to acceptable levels with a fan mod.

QuiRobinez · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:24 pm Post subject:

madbeatzyo111 · Guest Joined: 13 Jun 2011 Posts: 379

aron · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:42 pm Post subject:

> 10 meters away

30 feet away? Then yes, something is wrong with your unit.

There is no way you can hear the fan on mine from 30 feet away. AFAIK, no is denying that there are units that the fans are loud, but please don't say that all Kronos are like this. Mine is certainly not. Not even close.
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Korg Kronos, RD-88, Yamaha VL1, Deep Mind 6, Korg Kross, author of unrealBook for iPad.

NavidSyed · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:55 pm Post subject:

to be honest I never had an OASYS so I didn't know what to expect, I had several workstations in the past, including the M3, Motif XS, and I was expecting a silent workstation to be used in my home studio, to my surprise the noise level was around 39-40 dBa double the noise of my desktop PC, now maybe that is acceptable to some but I personally after spending $3000 was expecting a less NOISY workstation, not to mention the over all built quality which is definitely worse than my M3, and I believe genuine complains should not be overlooked, as it give companies false reassurance that their products QC is optimal, which in case of KRONOS is not.. Embarassed

maphill · Full Member Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 217

I could hear the Kronos stock fan about 15 feet away assuming a quiet room. Maybe more. My OASYS was loud enough that I turned it off when I was recording acoustic guitar 4 feet from the exhaust area (so that bothered me as well).

My studio listening position is 2 feet from the Kronos (in other words the listening position and the playing position are basically the same). The stock fan was loud enough that I could hear it with my (full-ear-covering) headphones on.

And for me (granted, sensitive to this sort of thing), it kept me from critical listening (mixing) with the KRONOS on. It was interfering with my music-making process. Therefore I had to do something about it. And did.

I don't consider this a "problem with my expectations". A result of my expectations, or more precisely, desires? Sure. But saying it is a "problem with my expectations" implies that everybody should have the same expectations. Now granted, some people do have dumb expectations ("I want Korg to do exactly what I want right this instant", "I want infinite polyphony, etc."). But, I didn't even call Korg. I fixed it so it couldn't have been that unreasonable of a desire. You can't say that I'm "wrong" for letting it bother me any more than I can say you are wrong for letting these threads bother you.

Mark

P.S. For the record, I REALLY appreciate this forum, and given the option, I would support it with my money. Thanks Sharp.

P.P.S. I'm not an audiophile and I don't believe in the associated snake-oil. I'm a DSP audio engineer that used to work for Creative/E-Mu.
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Korg KRONOS 73, Trinity Pro, Monotron,
Roland FA-06 and Fantom 6, Roland TDK-15
Big Knob, Sonar (Previously, OASYS 76)

Sharp · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:26 pm Post subject: