xmlguy wrote:Sharp wrote:My challenge: Show an example of Korg's best uilleann pipes, compared to the Tyros 4. Line them up and start the joust to see who ends up with their ass in the mud in defeat. I'm backing Yamaha SA2 all the way on this challenge.
Ok...Suck on this...
Uilleann Pipe
lol... Ok, to be fair I did play this on a Triton Extreme, but the point I'd be making here is that with a good keyboard and it's sampler, you can make it what you want. You can also ....FAR..... exceed anything a Tyros 4 can throw out with minimal investment into a few sample CD's and your Kronos.
Regards
Sharp.
Nice try, but no vibrato on aftertouch, no falls at the end of notes, no glissandos, etc. It's also not what the TrEx or Kronos has out of the box. I'm not saying that you can't improve what they have by adding samples and some programming. There will be the issue of how to invoke these articulations like falls dynamically (not a mere pitchbend - an actual sampled fall) by adding them to the end of notes that are already playing. Maybe you know how to do that, since I don't see a way to do a glissando, for example, without having to play all the notes on the TrEx. With SA!, it does the glissando between the notes for you(see 4:57 on the following).
Forward to 3:30 on the following for the pipes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMqdYWneLM
You can load samples on the Tyros too, by the way. But you can't create SuperArticulation voices because Yamaha hasn't exposed any way to do the programming for the articulation behavior for custom voices with samples. Obviously, I'm not saying that Yamaha is the be all and end all of sample articulation, they're just more progressed than most workstations and arrangers I've seen. Softsynths are quite a bit more powerful for articulation programming than any of the workstations.
Let's make a list of all the articulated voices that come with the Kronos, out of the box.
The issue is - do you want the instrument to hand all of these articulations on a plate, or do you want to explore a synthesizer and create your own sound and performances. Both are valid; though I have to say that having it handed on a plate has never satisfied me. Even on the VL1 - there's plenty of articulation possibilities - but it took me about a year (on and off) to learn how to use the breadth controller to use them and in that practice I learnt a lot, discovered a lot and created a lot of original music.
I also remember desperately trying to create a choral sound like 'Tomita' from my Juno 106 years ago and never getting there; but my Juno is packed to the rafters with excellent, personal sounds that have served me fabulously ever since.
So while the Tyros offers all this superarticulation capability which is genuinely impressive - the question is - what are you going to do with it? If you have real intentions of generating original music / sound, I suspect you'll run out of options very quickly with a few dozen instruments that sound so sweet but frankly bland when heard over and over.
By contrast, the synthesizer engines in the OASYS / Kronos are gargantuan in their programmability - far beyond every thing but _the_ most sophisticated NI / Reactor possibilities - the offer you the opportunity to be highly personalised and original - if you take it. It's hard work, it's tough, but it's totally yours. And - art and genuine audiences always engage that.
It sounds truly fantastic, but at the end of the day, the Tyros is a home organ to play Burt Bacharach tunes (nothing wrong with that by the way - only today I took delivery of a sheet music song book and double CD of Bur Bacharach to study his style, chords, song structure...). But - this is what Tyros is for - it is not a synthesizer. Kronos is deep but comes with thousands of excellently programmed programs so you do not need to be able to program it to use it out of the box. But - if Tyros 4 is what you're after - get it. Kronos is not designed to be like that - it's catering for an entirely differen cohot - live musicians, bands, composers, media work... - but not really the home accompaniment playing
Bye the way - there are seriously deep articulation possibilities in Karma. Through programming your own Generated Effects and loading them onto Kronos, you have the most sophisticated capability in existence to effect any synthesized, wavesequence or sampled instrument in any conceivably performance / articulation way. Stephen Kay and his colleagues at Korg have programmed literally thousands of Generated Effects - including stunningly natural orchestral Harp Glissandos, Guitar Strumming using what's called 'Manual Advance' where you hold the chord with you left hand and simply tap any key in a higher octave and it strums the chord exactly correctly according to the rate you tap - or - want to dampen all 6 strings like dampening an acoustic guitar - that's assigned to the top octave on the Kronos. Or - want an Eddie Van Halen mad guitar sequence with exactly the right kind of string bending - it's in there. Any articulation, to jaw-dropping detail, can be programmed into Karma Generated Effects and loaded onto Kronos - it puts Tryos into the bargain basement of articulation - this is all coming to you soon!!
Kronos is an open book. It is so open, that I promise you people will be realising extremely impressive and entirely new possibilities in years from now.
This will not suit all - these synthesizer engines are deep - really DEEP - and Kamra is incredibly sophisticated - but it's all in there. You're about to climb Everest - sonically - so do not dare to judge Kronos - instead, get ready to sharpen your wits - you're going to need them - this instrument is very, VERY serious.
Kevin.
