All-Access Party :: Reports

EXer · Post by **EXer** » Thu May 12, 2011 6:26 pm

Thanks for the vids!

I like the comment about CX3: 'and drawbars are actually drawbars, not only small buttons'; he didn't say 'like on the Nords' but I could hear it clearly

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:23 am

That's awesome we saw some new videos. THANK YOU.

But here's the thing I've noticed:

Does anyone NOT follow a script demoing the Kronos? It's ALWAYS the same demo! It's always the same sounds! Didgeridoo? WHO says "Hey you need to check out the Didgeridoo!"??? Yet it always seems to make the cut.

Are these the only sounds in the Kronos worth showing? Some of us would REALLY like to hear some sounds not ALREADY in 15 OTHER videos!

Come on Korg! While your at it, release the Manual already!

MidnightPackage · Post by **MidnightPackage** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:33 am

It surprises you that a company that is launching a new product has trained it's sales team demonstrate all of the features it feels distinguishes it's product from others? I think that what is weird, in this age of the internet and YouTube, is not that sales people are following a script, but rather, that we are watching each and every presentation, over and over again, and feel cheated that they aren't all improvising every presentational

Lou · Post by **Lou** » Fri May 13, 2011 4:24 am

NuSkoolTone wrote: Come on Korg! While your at it, release the Manual already!

Really! You would think by now..
I realize a lot of work must go into putting the new Bible together, but the Kronos is do for release in just a few short weeks.

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Fri May 13, 2011 4:33 am

MidnightPackage wrote:It surprises you that a company that is launching a new product has trained it's sales team demonstrate all of the features it feels distinguishes it's product from others? I think that what is weird, in this age of the internet and YouTube, is not that sales people are following a script, but rather, that we are watching each and every presentation, over and over again, and feel cheated that they aren't all improvising every presentational

Dude come on. Are you serious? It's obvious they would keep the talking points of what's interesting, but on paper an instrument like the KRONOS should have enough great sounds to demo ALL DAY. So far we've heard the same 10 over and over. A couple sounds were a little different, if only due to the playing, but some of us are curious to what ELSE it can do. Ya know?

Some of it is just BAD, and has been since they started the demos. The "Weird and crazy" String sound using STR-1 for example: WTH is THAT? You don't need a modeling engine to make weird sounds suitable only for soundtracks. Show off what the engine can do! Let's hear the "string" sounds. How about PRACTICAL examples of sounds most people would actually USE! Well at least more than once.

If I could play one, I would but it's looking like July from what I read. So until then it's just the same demo over and over.

Akos Janca · Post by **Akos Janca** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:55 am

NuSkoolTone wrote:So until then it's just the same demo over and over.

There are many strengths in Kronos that must be included in a demo. The material is huge, the time is short. The demonstrator probably can't say "see the other demos on YouTube", right?

I think improvisation is good at demos. It can be like a special mini performance - you introduce the instrument but also a part of yourself. It's personal and unique therefore even more interesting for the audience. And it's LIVE.

NavidSyed · Post by **NavidSyed** » Fri May 13, 2011 10:26 am

I think that setlist mode is preloaded on these demo models and everyone seems to be using the setlist mode hence similar demos

EnjoyRC · Post by **EnjoyRC** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:18 am

NavidSyed wrote:I think that setlist mode is preloaded on these demo models and everyone seems to be using the setlist mode hence similar demos

Since I was at the music store early, I saw the setup. I would imagine each demonstrator is required to cover certain topics. Sort of a script you might say. Evident by seeing each demonstration so far. Yet, they each may have their own Set Lists to cover each required area. When the Kronos 73 #000006 was put on the stand, Aaron had to insert his flash drive and copy in his Set List.

The flash drive management is exactly like the M3 file management with the addition of having Set List files.

MidnightPackage · Post by **MidnightPackage** » Fri May 13, 2011 11:58 am

NuSkoolTone wrote:Dude come on. Are you serious? It's obvious they would keep the talking points of what's interesting, but on paper an instrument like the KRONOS should have enough great sounds to demo ALL DAY.

The Kronos is about so much more than just the sounds. The presenters have a lot to cover in less than an hour, so it doesn't suprise me that they don't just cascade through all of the available sounds. I would be disappointed if they did. That the Kronos has great sounds, many of which it has inherited from pervious generations of Korg products, is a given. I want to see exactly what they have been showing. I thought this presentation was particularly good. The fact that we are watching essentially the same presentation multiple times on YouTube is not the fault of Korg or these presenters. If you just want to hear hundreds of sounds, why not just Google for Oasys and M3 demos? That is what I did.

sparkie · Post by **sparkie** » Fri May 13, 2011 12:58 pm

NavidSyed wrote:I think that setlist mode is preloaded on these demo models and everyone seems to be using the setlist mode hence similar demos

Yes I agree, all the presenters are very talented and should use their own setlist for the last half of the show. I am tired of hearing 15 mins of the same piano with lid up.. lid down..lid half open.. German..US..etc..then they go into the CX3 organ.

I have yet to hear a good PIPE..I would like to hear more of the Pads, Chorus, Mod 7, World Sounds, the arpeggiator being used.

Did anyone notice in the second video towrds the end he says ....the Kronos also has twice as many programs as the OASYS?? Hmmm..

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Fri May 13, 2011 1:24 pm

MidnightPackage wrote:If you just want to hear hundreds of sounds, why not just Google for Oasys and M3 demos? That is what I did.

It's obvious you don't really get what I' m saying, and that's OK.

M3 doens't sound ANYTHING like the OASYS or Kronos IMO, neither does the M50 I OWN which is an M3 without sampling expansion.

The only thing you can hear from OASYS is AL-1, MOD-7, LAC-1, and CX3. Everything else is different really (I hope!). I guess what I'm most interested in is the HD-1 demo wise. We haven't really heard much of it at all. A soundtrack orchestra layer, and a bitchin clav. I TRULY pray korg didn't leave the soundset from 2005 unchanged. I played an OASYS, the sampled sounds then were VERY good for 2005. 2011? Not so much! I'm expecting Kronos to sound better than my Motif XS which IMO has set the bar for sampled sounds.

Even if OASYS were identical, there's not THAT much You tube stuff out there, well at least that are recorded properly and aren't camcorder stuff. Even so, it's all weird sounds or synth solos which we already know the synth can do!

synthguy · Post by **synthguy** » Fri May 13, 2011 2:41 pm

NuSkoolTone wrote:I TRULY pray korg didn't leave the soundset from 2005 unchanged. I played an OASYS, the sampled sounds then were VERY good for 2005. 2011? Not so much! I'm expecting Kronos to sound better than my Motif XS which IMO has set the bar for sampled sounds.

I've been listening to trumpet patches for decades now. They haven't changed much at all, no matter what the instrument.

Since you own a Motif, it's hard to say what you'll think of the Kronos. Higher fidelity of The K might grab your ear, or the articulations of The M might make you think Kronos' strings aren't as expressive.

In cases like this, I think it's time you guys began thinking... I dunno, of... dare I say it, programming your OWN SOUNDS!

This is what I'm doing now. I have an album project I've been meaning to get back to for way too long. I was hoping that Kronos would be here by now. When that damned disaster hit Japan, I realized there was going to be a delay and bought a Kurzweil PC3 to tide me over.

Well... the onboard patches disappointed me. Even more, many of the acoustic sounds suffer from some ungodly dreadful compression in the first second or so! The pianos do as well. Regardless, I didn't send it back and decided to start programming it. When that became an ordeal thanks to poor documentation, I bought a sound library, the first time I've done that in ages. It helped a bit, seeing what someone else had done with the VAST engine. But it's still too much of a workload, so I went back to my M3 and have been having a blast with it. And yes, programming sounds from scratch or edits.

Guys, I hope we all haven't been reduced to a bunch of preset button pushers. I know everyone can't be a world class programmer. These synths are crazy deep. But it's not hard to either poke around and see what all those parameters do, or get help from some of the nice folk here to help with a new sound here and there. Heck, Kronos is going to have... what, well over a thousand? Thousands of patches?? And then Combis on top of that? And then you know that patch libraries will be for sale in no time. There will quickly be a pile of shared sounds to distribute here. If any conversion of OASYS sounds is required, I'm sure someone will do that with those patches here too.

If all this still leaves you guys wanting more... well, I guess complain here until someone helps you out.

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Fri May 13, 2011 7:25 pm

synthguy wrote: In cases like this, I think it's time you guys began thinking... I dunno, of... dare I say it, programming your OWN SOUNDS!

*SNIP*

Guys, I hope we all haven't been reduced to a bunch of preset button pushers. I know everyone can't be a world class programmer. These synths are crazy deep. But it's not hard to either poke around and see what all those parameters do, or get help from some of the nice folk here to help with a new sound here and there. Heck, Kronos is going to have... what, well over a thousand? Thousands of patches?? And then Combis on top of that? And then you know that patch libraries will be for sale in no time. There will quickly be a pile of shared sounds to distribute here. If any conversion of OASYS sounds is required, I'm sure someone will do that with those patches here too.

If all this still leaves you guys wanting more... well, I guess complain here until someone helps you out.

Actually, I'm quite excited about the idea of programming the Kronos. It appears to be one of the few synths to come out in a long time that'd be WORTH the effort! I've been programming my own synths for 20+ years, so no worries there. On top of that, I have an MS in comp sci so just playing with parameters isn't a fearful event for me. If you were to search my post history here, I was one of the people lobbing for a full parameter book available to even buy for the M50 as the documentation was pretty sparse from a technical perspective. I've also been SHOUTING for a Kronos Manual! So can't get an idea with that either.

That said, since there isn't a "horns" engine so to speak, we're left with samples. No matter how much you twist it, it's only going to sound as good as the quality of the raw samples. So programming won't save you there. It can help and maximize, but only so far. That's why I'm so interested in hearing more from HD-1. The engines I feel pretty confident I can bend to my will. Of course, the litmus test is to play it though.

About the Motif. I agree, it's a preset monster. The way the data stores are organized kinda lends itself to that. Fortunately, the presets are VERY GOOD and you can tweak them non-destructively in performance mode which is nice! Would I RATHER have user writable memory instead of ROM banks? You betcha! But it is what it is, and for what's been available IMO it was the best sounding board around.

aron · Post by **aron** » Fri May 13, 2011 8:12 pm

The Motif XS is a great keyboard. I could probably do everything I need with a Motif - but not just one. The dynamic allocation is just not good enough. The PC3 runs circles around it, but doesn't sound as good. That's why I want the Kronos. Hopefully it lives up to what I want:

Polyphony with great dynamic allocation
Great sounds
Familiar (to me) interface
oh and lighter than my PC361

Sounds like a winner to me.

Negatives:
No wheels, no breath controller.

Zeroesque · Post by **Zeroesque** » Fri May 13, 2011 8:29 pm

Dear Korg,

Please do not acquiesce to a bunch of silly requests to make 500 demo videos covering every possible patch on the Kronos. Don't waste your time doing anything but releasing the most kick-a** keyboard ever devised.

Thanks,

Tim

PS: Also, nobody needs the manual until they've played their own Kronos at home for a few hours.