Mid-to-late April just can't come soon enough :)

[WorknMan]

Man, are you guys as excited as I am about the Kronos launch? Probably not, but that's only because I am synth-less at the moment, and having withdrawals I bought a Motif XF8 at a Guitar Center sale over Labor Day weekend (the only board I had), but decided to sell it in late Dec. to get the 76-key version, as the 88 was just too big for me.

But since NAMM was right around the corner by the time I had somebody on Craigslist wanting to buy the Motif, I decided to wait and see if anything was announced before picking up the XF7. Only thing I was expecting from Korg was an updated M3 with some new bells and whistles, which I really wasn't interested in. For all of the M3's style and pizazz, it still got spanked by the Motif in the only area that matters, the sounds. (Personal opinion only, so please don't flame). But then the bastards at Korg had to roll out the Kronos, so now I'm stuck in limbo until the Kronos comes out and I have a chance to test drive it

The thing that really appealed to me about the Motif is the flash ram and its massive 3rd party sound library, because I don't know jack sh*t about programming synths, so if I needed some very specific sounds, like from the 80's, I could just get this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6d0SEthWdI

But those libraries get expensive, especially when you consider the cost of the flash ram, plus the Motif has the user-friendliness of a coiled rattlesnake. And with all of the custom GUIs for the various synth engines on the Kronos, looks like it'll be a lot easier to make your own sounds, so can't wait to give it a try. Plus, I assume it's backwards compatible with all of the Oasys libraries out there. Still though, if I end up going with the Kronos, I'm going to dearly miss those 80's libraries Some of those sounds are not going to be easily replicated just by twiddling a few knobs.

[Ksynth]

I understand your frustration but at least its of the positive type.

You will be rewarded for your patience I'm sure.

Meanwhile exploit all those VSTs you have?

[Melodialworks Music]

Meanwhile exploit all those VSTs you have?

However, you need a keyboard to do any actual exploiting!

[EnjoyRC]

Here ya go....

http://www.korg.com/Product.aspx?pd=595

[WorknMan]

Didn't have any VSTs... it was just the Motif sitting in the living room. There is a PC right beside it, but that thing is 10 years old, so.... I dunno lol

Maybe I'll just get one of those little Yamaha PSRs and play that for a few months ...

[Melodialworks Music]

I too sold my Yamaha (XF8). In the meantime, piano, piano, piano. (Not a bad thing).

[robinkle]

I'm going to dearly miss those 80's libraries Some of those sounds are not going to be easily replicated just by twiddling a few knobs.

If you learn to use the Polysix engine in Kronos, you can make tons of 80s sounds easilly and I bet there are already many factory patches for polysix that comes with the Kronos. You also have the MOD-7 engine that can do all the sounds from the Yamaha DX range and which was the most selling synths in the 80s, and I would think it got some factory sounds as well.

If you don't know how to program, I would think using the Polysix engine would be the easiest way to learn how to program an analogue synth.

MOD-7 on the other hand. FM synthesis is quite a task when learning how to program a certain sound. It needs experience. If you download or manage to get a DX7 IIFD manual, it will take you steb by step through basic FM programing. The easiest thing to program in FM synthesis is a gigantic church organ.