For Kronos OWNERS: Are you genuinely happy?

[iixorbiusii]

Hi,

Really aiming this one at people who have purchased (and already have) the Kronos, and therefore they are getting to know it by now.

Please be honest with your vote !!!

Please feel free to add any comments, or vote anonymously !

[Synthvalley]

I am a first time Korg and therefore Kronos owner. I am amazed by this board!

SV

[RonF]

Kronos is more than an amazing, fully mature, cutting edge "workstation"....it is a fantastic and diverse synthesizer in every sense of the word. It exceeds my expectations.

[Subpar]

Fully exceeds my expectations!!! Love mine...

[Broadwave]

At first, when I heard about it I'll admit that I was sceptical. Of course I'd known about the Oasys, but as it was well beyond what I could afford, I never bothered to look at the specs and barely knew what it was capable of (shame on me!).

I needed a new Workstation to replace my ageing X6 and there was no option but to go for the Kronos (I saw no point in getting the Fantom G, as there's very little difference from the X, and I wasn't interested in any of Yamaha's Motif series).

For me, the Kronos came at just the right time, and It's perfect for my needs, it does all I want it to, and more... I've only had it a week and I'm only a quarter of the way through the Parameter Manual, so still a lot to learn

[KapnKrunch]

I would have given top honors, except that the GUI text and elements are so freaking teeny. I am otherwise overjoyed, and I'm hopeful Korg engineering will consider the GUI a top priority and remedy this issue soon.

[Vlad_77]

This is the first Korg I have owned since the Wavestation EX - which I still have so it is still a process of getting used to "Korg-speak" but, as to the instrument itself, I am simply blown away. I love the fact that Korg have packed this beauty with the ability to tweak and play in all kinds of engines - something Kurzweil has always done.

To my ears, the Kronos was also worth the price for the acoustic pianos alone. Yes, there are many who who argue that VSTs have better pianos. That MIGHT be the case. But I play live gigs and I refuse to have a PC in a pub. My rig is complete and as far as portability goes, for auditions, I can take just the Kronos and be confident that it has all the sounds I need.

For home use I have 5 of my 8 synths plugged in and I am working on doing monster multisamples and plugging them into Kronos. It's a blast working with a JP-8000 and SH-32 for instance, creating a FAT layer with the two and then bring them into Kronos for some extreme processing and mangling.

Some have complained about the sequencer being inferior to the M3. I cannot comment on that as I have never messed with the sequencer on the M3. I am quite happy with the sequencer in the Kronos so I suppose detractors could tell me that ignorance is bliss

The ONLY things I wish Korg would have done is to shatter the hardware 128 voice polyphony limit. Yes, 180 are possible with PolySixEX , but, imagine HD-1 with 400 voices! However, the polyphony ceiling is not a complaint - just a wish. A feature that I did like about the Fantom G was mouse control. Kronos could really use this as the touchscreen is sometimes a bit fiddly even after calibrating. Still, not a game breaker though.

I am unabashedly blown away by Kronos and in this day and age of jaded consumerism I have no problem stating that I have finally found the synth I have ALWAYS wanted.

Thank you Korg!!

[jroujinsky]

I love the Kronos.
It has replaced my M3, and the most important advantage for me is the quality of the sound.
M3 had the same Karma and drum track... but did not have the sound capabilities of Kronos.
I am ok with screen size, vector joystick , data wheel as well as other mechanical things that seem to bother other users.

The downside I have found so far are:
1. Lack of pads.
2. Oasys sounds better...

On the other, hand, because of the lack of pads on the keyboard, I am going to buy pad controller (thinking about Alesis) that will allow me using real drum sticks when recording drums - thing that I wanted for a long time but never had enough reasons to go for.

Thanks to entire Korg team for the inspiring instrument.

[AnthonyB]

2. Oasys sounds better...

Hi,

Can you elaborate on this?. Better in what way?, the sound combis/programs from "factory" or some other sound element (Aliasing/Filters/DA/clarity etc etc)


Anthony

[RonF]

On the other, hand, because of the lack of pads on the keyboard, I am going to buy pad controller (thinking about Alesis) that will allow me using real drum sticks when recording drums -

I experimented with this exact same thing over this weekend using my Roland SPD30, which has midi DIN outputs, and 8 pads suitable for sticks (plus settings to use with your hands too).

I must say...this works outstanding! Its VERY expressive, not only with drums samples/sounds....but with Kronos chord triggers too. And here is the beauty of it....the SPD-30 has a Phrase Recorder build into it.....where you can midi sync the SPD-30 to the Kronos, and record your "performance", onto 3 separate layers (multi track, multi channel).

All in all....this is a level of functionality, expressiveness, and immediacy that I have never even thought of....works like an absolute charm. Granted, the SPD-30 is full of excellent Roland drum sounds which are HIGHLY editable and layer-able, and you pay extra for this, which may be "more" than you were thinking when you contemplated a PAD controller for Kronos. But, these excellent sounds aside, its the phrase recorder that sets this thing apart, and makes it worth a serious look, even at a somewhat higher price (for what you get compared to a basic controller).

Consider, that you can trigger and record, with sticks or hands, Kronos chord triggers on one layer, then trigger and record a Kronos drum kit on a second layer, and then trigger and record some Roland drums, samples, and effects on a third layer, even using an (optional) Kick or Hat pedal (for 2 extra "pads" that will trigger any sound, internal or external), all in perfect sync with Kronos, where you are then free to layer on top of all that any additional Kronos tracks using its onboard facilities. Its really the ultimate pad controller...way beyond anything you would have contemplated with just the M3 or Oasys "pads", or a basic Akai or padKontrol.

And by the way...you don't have to have any real skill with sticks for this to work great. You can use your hands, just like the M3 pads, but since the pads are bigger, its even more playable. But the sticks just give you a much more expressive control over velocity....even just one stick! You can also set an "input quantize" when recording to create awesome polyrhythmic performances, as you cycle record these phrases.

Its fully midi editable, and routable, so you can set up all kinds of scenarios on Kronos, and other gear in your rig, with basic CC messages or note numbers. Certainly its bigger than a finger pad controller....but man is it PLAYABLE, and makes "playing" the Kronos combis (for example) a whole new experience. I always kind of felt like triggering combis or programs with the M3 or Oasys pads was a bit of a "cheat" (just a little), and a bit one dimensional. This way, however, is truly playing, and much more dynamic.

These two together just blew my mind with new possibilities. At the end of this chain, BTW, I hooked up a Korg KP3, so I can sample loops of these phrases, and free up the phrase recorder, to add even more layers, with different combis and programs on Kronos. You can create entire songs and polyrhythmic compositions in this way. Its a fantastic "idea generator". Yea...Kronos is awesome!

[drchris]

I've had my 88 for just under a week now, so these are still early thoughts.

I am extremely happy with it and with my purchase. The keybed feels great - better than I had hoped for. I have never regularly played on a fully weighted board and the adjustment was very quick. It's amazing how the keys truly feel different in different progs or combis! Obviously they are not actually different, but this board has such a experiential feel that the sound that you're hearing when you play really seems to affect how the physical keys feel! Very cool.

I've worked through all of the combis marking those I really like as favorites. I've been through some of the programs in a similar way as well. I haven't started working on any custom programs or combis but that's what's on tap for this week. I play in a worship band and I am hoping that this coming Sunday will be the first time I use the Kronos there.

From a sound standpoint, I can only say WOW! I didn't have a case by last weekend, and so instead of risking damage, I didn't play with the new board on Sunday. I did quickly sample 4 chords from the Kronos into Ableton and used them as one sound in one song. When I hit those samples in sound check, the whole band looked over and said, "wow"!

I have an MPK49 and yesterday connected it via MIDI to control the pads on the Kronos with the MPK49's pads. This works great. Interestingly the MPK49 will let you set the pad to either be a momentary switch (push - on, release - off) or a toggle (push - on, push again - off).

People have talked about fan noise. My Kronos sits on a slide out shelf in a custom built desk. In this position, even with the shelf fully extended I hear no fan noise. My MacBook Pro's fan is audible, however.

In regards to the screen readability, I have no problems. I'm 44 years old, and wear contacts that really don't correct my vision perfectly in the near vision range. (I really should have glasses or even bifocals, but that's a different story.) I don't have any problem seeing even the smaller fonts on the Kronos screen. I do think I will steal a DS stylus from my daughter for more accurate touching on the screen. Some of the little boxes are just a bit difficult to hit accurately with a finger. I think it's a bit less accurate than my iPad in that regard.

I'm very happy with the controls as they are. No concern here over the data wheel or the vector joystick.

Chris

[BasariStudios]

Hell Yes ! It exceeds my expectations !

[sparkie]

Sounds are nice with some added extras, although I dont believe they are the same sound quality or equal to OASYS since I owned one. Karma is a plus...and is a good looking keyboard with end caps and brushed silver.

The small screen text, no pad buttons or category button and unslanted touchscreen along with the diffculty working around the "not enough ram" makes it a pain in the ass , ALso the GM Files are always in the way when searching through sounds. Also loading and saving files seem as though the software on this is 1990s technology. Sequencer is worthless.

[MartinHines]

2. Oasys sounds better...

I think this is in your mind. The Kronos uses the same software as the OASYS and has the same D/A converters. For any given sound (Program) they should sound identical.

[Vlad_77]

I am somewhat confused. Two people have mentioned that they thought OASYS sounds better but neither have elaborated. Kronos and OASYS share the same architecture and D/A converters, etc., so that being the case, I am really interested in how such a conclusion was drawn. I am not asking this to be a pain, just for curiosity's sake as I never owned an OASYS.

I am also going to make the assumption that the two people in this thread are not including SGX-1 which was not on OASYS, but rather what is common to both workstations.

Ahimsa,
Vlad