EXS12, SGX-1 Austrian Piano released!

PianoManChuck · Post by **PianoManChuck** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:17 am

Just saw on www.korg.com/kronos under "sound libraries" that the new Austrian Piano is now released for sale.

They list it at $299, but they've slashed the price to $249.

Thoughts?

PS: I'd have posted in the other thread "Austrian Piano DEMO" but that thread was about an Austrian Piano DEMO prior to its release and I'm not sure anyone interested in purchasing would check that thread again...

billysynth1 · Post by **billysynth1** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:24 am

hah, i almost just bought it...these libraries are too expensive at 250 a hit, if they release four of these EXs's thats a thousand bucks, a third the cost of a Kronos

Billy

rob314159 · Post by **rob314159** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:40 am

billysynth1 wrote:hah, i almost just bought it...these libraries are too expensive at 250 a hit, if they release four of these EXs's thats a thousand bucks, a third the cost of a Kronos

Billy

Another way to look at it is that the Kronos is really a steal for all it includes at its price point.

billysynth1 · Post by **billysynth1** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:45 am

Does that include all the defects?

Vas

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:47 am

Not to complain, but I would have rather seen the other expansions first. The Kronos already has awesome pianos. The announced Strings (Along with some R&B/Latin horns and new guitars....PLEASE?) would have been much more welcome in my eyes.

PianoManChuck · Post by **PianoManChuck** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:21 am

I agree the price is hefty at $299... even at the slashed price of $249. On the other hand, a real Bosendorfer Imperial 290 is over $200,000. Granted no sound library can sound like a real Bosendorfer.

I also have a Nord Stage 2 which has the Bosendorfer built in. Everyone else who also has that stage piano rants about how fantastic it sounds... but believe me, it doesn't come close to a real Bosendorfer... everyone whom I've questioned who stated how fabulous it sounds, never actually heard a real Bosendorfer. I've had the luxury of playing a real Bosendorfer Imperial 290. Current technology comes nowhere close. But then again, I'm speaking as a pianist with highly trained ears. To the majority of people, Nord's Bosendorfer, and I'm sure Korg's Bosendorfer will both be fabulous.

I may moan and groan about the price, but as a pianist, getting something that's "close" to a Bosendorfer on the Kronos will eventually get the best of me and I may end up springing for it.

JuneauUnderground · Post by **JuneauUnderground** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:25 am

I totally understand the need to cushion the bottom line, however it would be nice if Korg would adopt the Nord philosophy regarding sound sets -- FREE!! Forever. Talk about building good will and expanding the Kronos customer base. A marketing gem --- "Kronos, the game changer! The best workstation ever, and free future sound sets forever, to boot! Buy one now!"

I paid $2,300 for my Nord Piano 88. It's comforting to know that I will never have to pay for a piano sound set ever, and the Nord pianos are pretty darn good. Not better than the Kronos but as good IMHO and different. Those Nord Stage and Electro owners enjoy the same thing, free sound sets, and lots of them too.

Finally, the $250.00 price point for the new sound sets, yikes! They should slash the price for the 1st 30 days to an introductory $49.95. Now at that price Korg would probably get a little more action.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:39 am

JuneauUnderground wrote:I totally understand the need to cushion the bottom line, however it would be nice if Korg would adopt the Nord philosophy regarding sound sets -- FREE!! Forever. Talk about building good will and expanding the Kronos customer base. A marketing gem --- "Kronos, the game changer! The best workstation ever, and free future sound sets forever, to boot! Buy one now!"
I paid $2,300 for my Nord Piano 88. It's comforting to know that I will never have to pay for a piano sound set ever, and the Nord pianos are pretty darn good. Not better than the Kronos but as good IMHO and different. Those Nord Stage and Electro owners enjoy the same thing, free sound sets, and lots of them too.
Finally, the $250.00 price point for the new sound sets, yikes! They should slash the price for the 1st 30 days to an introductory $49.95. Now at that price Korg would probably get a little more action.

I would not compare the kronos to those Nords.

In addition, I still think $3k is a great price for a kronos 88.

Thus, I have no problem with $249 for the Bosie Exs. I doubt korg is making much on these. The big 3 have consistently reported that they make very little on expansions.

You can always wait 6 months or more to see if the price drops.

BillW · Post by **BillW** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:59 am

Yeah, that price is ridiculous.

I'm waiting for the Karo Pro Soloist and bass pedals.

MartinHines · Post by **MartinHines** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:10 am

I would point out that Roland SRX expansions (each 64MB of samples) are priced at $249 also:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/search.php?s=roland+srx

The Roland ARX expansions were $400 each (before they were discontinued).

Also realize the potential customer base for a product like a Kronos expansion is very small -- a few thousand potential customers. This potential customer base is significantly smaller than a computer-based piano software product.

If you want to go the PC/Mac route and not have the piano integrated into the Kronos you could always buy Ivory Grand Pianos (3 of them) for $319:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Ivory2Grand/

I am sure Korg wants to make a profit off these expansions.

If the demo sounds good, I will definitely buy.

Zeroesque · Post by **Zeroesque** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:28 am

I agree with MartinHines. I don't see how these prices are out of line historically with other expansions, sample libraries, or many software instruments.

Play the demo. If you dig it, you'll buy it. You have a 3000+ USD synth sitting in front of you, probably surrounded by other high-end electronics, audio gear and instruments, with a computer or two turned on right now. Will you really not spend $250 to be even happier with your piano experience? I find that hard to believe.

SeedyLee · Post by **SeedyLee** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:47 am

At $49.00, I'd buy it on impulse.
At $99.00, I'd consider buying it if it was decent enough.
At $149.00, I'd consider buying it if I really liked it.
At $199.00, I'd consider buying it if I really loved it.
At $249.00, I'd only buy it if it was absolutely essential to my music making.

Nice work Korg on getting this released!

The stock pianos in the Kronos are already excellent, and suit my style. I wonder how the marketing boffins at Korg determined that the $299.00 pricepoint was the optimal point for maximising total revenue?

Anyway, I'm downloading the demo now - at a gruelling 45kB/sec. At this rate, it will be finished in 17 hours

I'll report back my thoughts after that.

For me, I have more use for the String libraries I think, so will probably save my money for them.

popmann · Post by **popmann** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:47 am

Agreed-this was an awful choice in terms of release order. They've now augmented great drum sounds with slightly cleaner variations of drum samples...and great pianos with a third variation.

Strings, horns, and I guess guitars (I think all guitar samples suck) are the weak links here, IMO. Why start with variations on what's already great? Kinda odd, IMO.

I haven't even bothered to go through the registration and OS upgrade necessary for these libraries...because it just isn't compelling and everything's 100% rock solid on 1.04 or whatever it is mine shipped with.

The price is insult to injury. Most of the aforementioned expansion cards are just that--the manufacture of 64mb ROM cards all those years ago? And most (not all) had far more content than a couple drum kits or a single piano. I'm willing to pay the $250 or more for say an entire horn collections with Karma riffs...or a string library with enough articulations mapped to the vector stick to actually "play" good string mock ups. No problem paying a premium for expansion sounds...but, they need to be more significant than a piano or a few drum kits. Those are in the relmn of $99 "what the hell-maybe they'll come in handy one day" purchases to me.

sani · Post by **sani** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:23 am

popmann wrote: The price is insult to injury. Most of the aforementioned expansion cards are just that--the manufacture of 64mb ROM cards all those years ago? And most (not all) had far more content than a couple drum kits or a single piano.

The aforementioned expansion cards (srx cards particularly) also had single instruments. You can still check their content on Rolands page. Piano cards, Drum cards (first in the line), Orchestral strings, Brass Combo. Not much variety at all in those cards. And the cards with a lot of content were actually a collection of older samples which were released previously on those 16Mb SR-JV cards. It means, if you buy such a card these days, you are spending 250 bucks for 15 years old samples! The age doesn't mean that they are sounding bad, but it gives a perspective. And as a mater of fact, the first two srx cards released by Roland were a Drum and a Piano expansion card.

When it comes to the rest, it always depends what people need. Some will rather pay for their final "perfect" piano and that's all they need. Others are looking for more variations on a couple of instruments or in a certain instrument category. Nobody is forced to buy the expansion just because it's there. I'm sure that Korg will also release other instrument categories too.

SeedyLee · Post by **SeedyLee** » Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:07 am

8 hours, 20 minutes until I get my Bosendorfer on!

(You'd think that for $249.00, Korg would provide a dedicated, gold plated server for each customer to download from

I shouldn't mock the price until I've tried it - I'm sure, if it's up to Korg's usual standards, it will be worth every cent.