Comparison: Kronos Pianos + Nords

burningbusch · Post by **burningbusch** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 10:17 pm

A simple compare I put together with all the Kronos pianos and a couple of Nords thrown in. So the first four are DARK versions of the various Kronos pianos and shouldn't be viewed as the single way these pianos sound by any measure. Anyone who has worked with the Kronos pianos knows there's a huge amount of tonal variation possible. The Nord's are pretty much straight up and the last Berlin Grand is closer to the standard version. For the first four Kronos pianos, I set up the Berlin to my liking and then switched piano types so the next three would have pretty much identical settings.

In order they are:
1. Berlin Dark Grand (velocity bias -065, velocity intensity +050)
2. Austrian Grand: Piano Type: Dark 3 s other settings same as Berlin above.
3. Japanese Grand: Piano Type: Dark 3 s other settings same as Berlin above.
4. German Grand: Piano Type: Dark 3 s other settings same as Berlin above.
5. Nord Italian Grand Lrg. Long Release ON; string resonance ON
6. Nord Grand Imperial Lrg. Long Release ON; string resonance ON
7. Berlin Grand SW2 U.C. (velocity bias -065, velocity intensity +050)

Simple phrase
Example #1

Una Corda example. Because only the Berlin Grand supports true una corda, you will only hear it on the first and last example. The others are there for reference.
Example #2 - una corda

Low range chords. Notice in the first example that even though the Berlin Grand is set to a Dark piano type, it offer very full range sound--the Japanese Grand in comparison remains dark. Note the pumping heard in the Nord examples.
Example #3

Forte
Example #4

Busch.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sat Feb 07, 2015 11:13 pm

Thanks Busch. I'm not equally enthused about all Kronos pianos, but even this brief listen helped me remember why I can't stand the Nord ones anymore

DennyC · Post by **DennyC** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 5:18 pm

Thanks for posting. It was very enjoyable and enlightening.

levioter · Post by **levioter** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 6:20 pm

Thanks for posting Busch !
It seems each Piano has its distinct sound even if I found the Nords brighter !
The Kronos ones sound pretty full !
However I noticed the Berlin Grand has a really strange noise when the notes are released !

Thanks again for your effort !

Cheers

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 6:33 pm

@Levioter: Don't know for sure what you refer to, but I recently got rid of strange release noise problems by checking the damper noise section, and kicking some seriously wrong factory patch settings out there.

Thanks for the comparison, Busch!
I still heavily dislike the Japanes grand EXs.

And since the Berlin the Nords are no longer a match even in band context IMHO.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 8:32 pm

My Nord always seemed a lot more 100Hz heavy than the Kronos, although I have to admit monitoring in stereo made an even bigger difference than switching pianos.

psionic311 · Post by **psionic311** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 8:46 pm

Thanks for the comparison, Busch. I found this enlightening... I really like the Austrian.

PCFREE · Post by **PCFREE** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 9:11 pm

Thanks for an interesting comparison
I actually quite like the Japanese grand in the chord examples. I think there's good clarity in the bass notes
It goes to show how it's very much down to taste/personal opinion

PCFREE · Post by **PCFREE** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 9:24 pm

Playing the Berlin demos, I find it doesn't appear to be as smooth at legato playing as the stock kronos pianos. Has anyone else found this? I can also hear it in the comparisons in the triplet sections.

Dave Ferris · Post by **Dave Ferris** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 6:58 am

Hi Busch. Yes, all the Kronos pianos sound good here. Always very thorough on your tests. Nice reharm on Nowhere Man btw.

I've definitely moved on from the Nord pianos after using them for over 3 years straight. When I played them at NAMM after an 8 month break, they sounded harsh and too bright.

However always thought the Nord Fazioli sounds best on chordal stuff, like on your example of "Turn Out the Stars". However trying to play single note lines for Jazz, coupled with the not so responsive Fatar action, was a study in frustration for this jazz guy.

When I *have* to use an electronic keyboard for piano, the CP4 is working out nicely - or as nice has things can be for not being an acoustic.

But would like to check out the new Berlin Grand on the Kronos 2. Problem is -I have a huge aversion going into a GC.

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 8:16 pm

PCFREE wrote:Playing the Berlin demos, I find it doesn't appear to be as smooth at legato playing as the stock kronos pianos. Has anyone else found this? I can also hear it in the comparisons in the triplet sections.

I think that smoothness in legato playing is related not only to the Berlin samples and envelopes and to the EXi settings, but also to basic keyboard technique...Busch's Velocity Bias and Velocity Intensity settings were way different that what I had been using for my German Grand programs - I had both Bias and Intensity set to single-digit + values, and Release Time set to +15, which seemed to work well for my live playing...so it was hard to play smoothly (both volume- and note release-wise) with his settings on the Berlin, but I realized my settings didn't have anywhere near the dynamic range of a "real" piano...so I spent some time with it yesterday, and ended up with values in the -20s for Bias and +20s for Intensity for the German, and like -23 Bias, +18 Intensity, and +8 Release for the Berlin...and tried to control how long I held the keys down a little better, and that all made a big difference...of course, YMMV - you need to experiment with settings to see what works for you...I think the Berlin Grand (and Busch's posting) is going to make me a better piano player...

The other striking thing to me about Busch's examples was how good and "piano like" they all sounded, I could see using any of these (even the Nords!) in various situations...

df

benny ray · Post by **benny ray** » Wed Feb 11, 2015 8:47 pm

Thanks for taking time to make the comparison and the Berlin Dark Grand has a nice jazz sound to my ears as I love trying to play jazz. Nice sounding piano and looking forward to playing some of these new Berlin Piano sounds. Best regards, Benny

thiagotgc · Post by **thiagotgc** » Sun Apr 07, 2019 1:46 pm

Does anyone have good PCG editions of pianos to share?