Kronos/Krome strange marketing policy

[afr]

I'm an happy KRONOS and KROME' user, in their range they like me very much, I'm just a little bit surprised to see how for the Krome ( less than 1000 euro) Korg USA released 2 free library, Triton and M1, instead for Kronos nothing for free has been done yet

Is too much to ask why?

[JeffB63]

Good question.

[SeedyLee]

We got some free firmware updates that introduced some new features, such as user streaming samples.

Oh, and an editor.

[Shakil]

I'm an happy KRONOS and KROME' user, in their range they like me very much, I'm just a little bit surprised to see how for the Krome ( less than 1000 euro) Korg USA released 2 free library, Triton and M1, instead for Kronos nothing for free has been done yet

Is too much to ask why?

Think about how many total sounds are included as factory data for each? You will get your answer...

[QuiRobinez]

I'm an happy KRONOS and KROME' user, in their range they like me very much, I'm just a little bit surprised to see how for the Krome ( less than 1000 euro) Korg USA released 2 free library, Triton and M1, instead for Kronos nothing for free has been done yet

Is too much to ask why?

There are so many sounds already available for the kronos that my guess is that Korg is focussing on the Firmware instead of a couple of free soundsets.

Personally i think the amount of free stuff is huge for the Kronos, we got the editor (ok, nobody uses it due to the 32 bits limit, but that probably has cost them a lot to make this available).

But more importantly, they listen to the community and give us enhancements on the Kronos Firmware. Of course we always want more and more and not everything we want is realized, but especially the Streaming samples functionality was an incredible enhancement that they could easely have asked money for.

And don't forget, if you want to extend your kronos with new sounds it's really easy to do by searching on the internet for free soundfonts. There are 1000's of good sounding soundfonts available and it's just a simple matter of importing them and creating new streaming soundsets from them. The Korg Krome doesn't have these kind of functionality so there you are limited to the few sounds available.

[afr]

I fully agree with all your opinions, I'm not complaining, just observing a different marketing strategy

I would be happy to have wavestation preset on Kronos, or Trinity program ... that's it!

If I was not happy about korg I would never buy a Krome after Kronos, so please do not confuse a simple and innocent question, with complaints to korg

Cheers

[Ojustaboo]

Oh, and an editor.

Apart from the quality and usability of the editor, we were promised it before the Kronos was released if memory serves me correct

[SeedyLee]

I'm an happy KRONOS and KROME' user, in their range they like me very much, I'm just a little bit surprised to see how for the Krome ( less than 1000 euro) Korg USA released 2 free library, Triton and M1, instead for Kronos nothing for free has been done yet

Is too much to ask why?

There are so many sounds already available for the kronos that my guess is that Korg is focussing on the Firmware instead of a couple of free soundsets.

Personally i think the amount of free stuff is huge for the Kronos, we got the editor (ok, nobody uses it due to the 32 bits limit, but that probably has cost them a lot to make this available).

But more importantly, they listen to the community and give us enhancements on the Kronos Firmware. Of course we always want more and more and not everything we want is realized, but especially the Streaming samples functionality was an incredible enhancement that they could easely have asked money for.

And don't forget, if you want to extend your kronos with new sounds it's really easy to do by searching on the internet for free soundfonts. There are 1000's of good sounding soundfonts available and it's just a simple matter of importing them and creating new streaming soundsets from them. The Korg Krome doesn't have these kind of functionality so there you are limited to the few sounds available.

I use the editor and was quite happy when it was released. I even have it running alongside my 64 bit daw. The extra firmware features felt like a free gift and I hope there's more to come. I wouldn't say no to some free sounds though!

[danatkorg]

As Qui and SeedyLee noted, there have been a number of free updates to the KRONOS so far:

User Sample Banks
User Sample Banks bring the benefits of EXs to your own custom sample libraries. You can load and play gigabytes of your custom or converted samples at once, using Virtual Memory. Disk and memory management is improved: you can create subsets of User Sample Banks, and mix and match parts of different banks, without duplicating samples on disk. It’s also easy to share sounds with friends and collaborators, since Programs maintain links to User Sample Banks even when samples are moved on disk or loaded onto different systems.
7 additional User Banks
KRONOS version 1.5 adds 7 more User Banks each of Programs, Wave Sequences and Drum Kits, numbered USER-AA through USER-GG. These banks are initialized by default, free for storing either your own sounds or libraries from Korg and third party sound developers.
4x increase to Sampling Mode Multisamples, Samples and Multisample Indexes
The maximum number of Multisamples in Sampling Mode has been increased from 1,000 to 4,000, and the maximum numbers of Samples and Multisample Indexes have each been increased from 4,000 to 16,000. These 4x increases will be especially helpful when loading libraries with large numbers of relatively short samples, such as drums. Note that EXs and User Sample Bank data does not count towards these maximums; they apply to the Sampling Mode data only.
USB Ethernet and FTP support
The KRONOS now supports USB Ethernet adaptors and includes a built-in FTP server for fast, easy file transfer with personal computers. You can back up files to your computer, transfer samples to the KRONOS, and organize and re-name files and directories on the KRONOS internal disks.
Support for USB MIDI and Korg USB pad controllers
Version 1.5 adds support for connecting USB MIDI class-compliant controllers directly to the KRONOS. For instance, you can use a Korg microKEY as an auxiliary synth-action keyboard for a KRONOS 73 or 88. Korg USB MIDI controllers with pads–including the nanoPAD, nanoPAD2, padKONTROL, microKONTROL, and KONTROL49–are automatically mapped to the KRONOS chord pads, for playing and programming drums, triggering chords, and selecting and assigning chords for Chord Mode.
Improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import
Version 2.0 features significantly improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import functionality. Most notably, up to 16 stereo velocity zones are now supported within a single HD-1 Program, by using stereo Multisamples and both OSC1 and OSC2.
Support for second internal SSD
The KRONOS now supports installation of a second internal SSD, for more storage of samples, audio tracks, and program data. Installation must be done by an authorized service center; user installation is not supported and may void your warranty. Contact your Korg Distributor for details on purchase and installation.
Support for additional RAM
Installation of an additional 1GB of RAM is now supported, and can be performed at any authorized Korg service center. This approximately doubles the maximum available sample RAM, up to about 2 GB. Of course, when loading EXs using Virtual Memory, the total size of the loaded sample data can be much greater.

[musicsound]

As Qui and SeedyLee noted, there have been a number of free updates to the KRONOS so far:

User Sample Banks
User Sample Banks bring the benefits of EXs to your own custom sample libraries. You can load and play gigabytes of your custom or converted samples at once, using Virtual Memory. Disk and memory management is improved: you can create subsets of User Sample Banks, and mix and match parts of different banks, without duplicating samples on disk. It’s also easy to share sounds with friends and collaborators, since Programs maintain links to User Sample Banks even when samples are moved on disk or loaded onto different systems.
7 additional User Banks
KRONOS version 1.5 adds 7 more User Banks each of Programs, Wave Sequences and Drum Kits, numbered USER-AA through USER-GG. These banks are initialized by default, free for storing either your own sounds or libraries from Korg and third party sound developers.
4x increase to Sampling Mode Multisamples, Samples and Multisample Indexes
The maximum number of Multisamples in Sampling Mode has been increased from 1,000 to 4,000, and the maximum numbers of Samples and Multisample Indexes have each been increased from 4,000 to 16,000. These 4x increases will be especially helpful when loading libraries with large numbers of relatively short samples, such as drums. Note that EXs and User Sample Bank data does not count towards these maximums; they apply to the Sampling Mode data only.
USB Ethernet and FTP support
The KRONOS now supports USB Ethernet adaptors and includes a built-in FTP server for fast, easy file transfer with personal computers. You can back up files to your computer, transfer samples to the KRONOS, and organize and re-name files and directories on the KRONOS internal disks.
Support for USB MIDI and Korg USB pad controllers
Version 1.5 adds support for connecting USB MIDI class-compliant controllers directly to the KRONOS. For instance, you can use a Korg microKEY as an auxiliary synth-action keyboard for a KRONOS 73 or 88. Korg USB MIDI controllers with pads–including the nanoPAD, nanoPAD2, padKONTROL, microKONTROL, and KONTROL49–are automatically mapped to the KRONOS chord pads, for playing and programming drums, triggering chords, and selecting and assigning chords for Chord Mode.
Improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import
Version 2.0 features significantly improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import functionality. Most notably, up to 16 stereo velocity zones are now supported within a single HD-1 Program, by using stereo Multisamples and both OSC1 and OSC2.
Support for second internal SSD
The KRONOS now supports installation of a second internal SSD, for more storage of samples, audio tracks, and program data. Installation must be done by an authorized service center; user installation is not supported and may void your warranty. Contact your Korg Distributor for details on purchase and installation.
Support for additional RAM
Installation of an additional 1GB of RAM is now supported, and can be performed at any authorized Korg service center. This approximately doubles the maximum available sample RAM, up to about 2 GB. Of course, when loading EXs using Virtual Memory, the total size of the loaded sample data can be much greater.

what´s next ???

[Luk84PL]

what´s next ???

I think Dan wants to say: "Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-... That's all, folks!" in a gentle way...
Of course I think that all free updates are GREAT however... Human wants are unlimited

[danatkorg]

I think Dan wants to say: "Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-... That's all, folks!" in a gentle way...

No subtext intended.

[Luk84PL]

No subtext intended.

That's what I wanted to hear...

[Ned]

As Qui and SeedyLee noted, there have been a number of free updates to the KRONOS so far:

User Sample Banks
User Sample Banks bring the benefits of EXs to your own custom sample libraries. You can load and play gigabytes of your custom or converted samples at once, using Virtual Memory. Disk and memory management is improved: you can create subsets of User Sample Banks, and mix and match parts of different banks, without duplicating samples on disk. It’s also easy to share sounds with friends and collaborators, since Programs maintain links to User Sample Banks even when samples are moved on disk or loaded onto different systems.
7 additional User Banks
KRONOS version 1.5 adds 7 more User Banks each of Programs, Wave Sequences and Drum Kits, numbered USER-AA through USER-GG. These banks are initialized by default, free for storing either your own sounds or libraries from Korg and third party sound developers.
4x increase to Sampling Mode Multisamples, Samples and Multisample Indexes
The maximum number of Multisamples in Sampling Mode has been increased from 1,000 to 4,000, and the maximum numbers of Samples and Multisample Indexes have each been increased from 4,000 to 16,000. These 4x increases will be especially helpful when loading libraries with large numbers of relatively short samples, such as drums. Note that EXs and User Sample Bank data does not count towards these maximums; they apply to the Sampling Mode data only.
USB Ethernet and FTP support
The KRONOS now supports USB Ethernet adaptors and includes a built-in FTP server for fast, easy file transfer with personal computers. You can back up files to your computer, transfer samples to the KRONOS, and organize and re-name files and directories on the KRONOS internal disks.
Support for USB MIDI and Korg USB pad controllers
Version 1.5 adds support for connecting USB MIDI class-compliant controllers directly to the KRONOS. For instance, you can use a Korg microKEY as an auxiliary synth-action keyboard for a KRONOS 73 or 88. Korg USB MIDI controllers with pads–including the nanoPAD, nanoPAD2, padKONTROL, microKONTROL, and KONTROL49–are automatically mapped to the KRONOS chord pads, for playing and programming drums, triggering chords, and selecting and assigning chords for Chord Mode.
Improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import
Version 2.0 features significantly improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import functionality. Most notably, up to 16 stereo velocity zones are now supported within a single HD-1 Program, by using stereo Multisamples and both OSC1 and OSC2.
Support for second internal SSD
The KRONOS now supports installation of a second internal SSD, for more storage of samples, audio tracks, and program data. Installation must be done by an authorized service center; user installation is not supported and may void your warranty. Contact your Korg Distributor for details on purchase and installation.
Support for additional RAM
Installation of an additional 1GB of RAM is now supported, and can be performed at any authorized Korg service center. This approximately doubles the maximum available sample RAM, up to about 2 GB. Of course, when loading EXs using Virtual Memory, the total size of the loaded sample data can be much greater.

Hang on a minute , wasn't all this developed for the " X " version that Korg released about a year after i bought the original Kronos. If there were no " X " version then would any of this have been done ? Since the " X " version has been released what has been developed since then ? i am sincere in this question as i honestly do not know.
Editor surely cannot be counted as i remember having to wait quite a while before the first version came out which i still view as not acceptable when i have bought a "top of the range " , " workstation " . ( that i can't even input my own arpeggiator patterns into ? but thats a different topic altogether )

[Bald Eagle]

Hang on a minute , wasn't all this developed for the " X " version that Korg released about a year after i bought the original Kronos. If there were no " X " version then would any of this have been done ? Since the " X " version has been released what has been developed since then ? i am sincere in this question as i honestly do not know.
Editor surely cannot be counted as i remember having to wait quite a while before the first version came out which i still view as not acceptable when i have bought a "top of the range " , " workstation " . ( that i can't even input my own arpeggiator patterns into ? but thats a different topic altogether )

You can call it "X", version 2, or anything else you want. It was going to happen and it is all part of the marketing strategy. It's common practice to hold back features from the initial release of a product. Either they are not ready or they are just held back so there is something left for another version.

In any case Kronos has two versions. As far as names or numbers I look at the original as the beta test version and the "X" as the final production release. It is unlikely that there will be any additional major enhancements.