A chance to get a Triton Extreme 88, some questions...

[seanL]

I can get this keyboard for $800. It's in very nice shape. It has additional 80mb of ram.

Strictly speaking SOUNDWISE, how would it compare to the Korg Krome? Do the piano's sound as good?

This would be my first venture into any type of a workstation. I've played a bit on the Krome in a music store and although the large touch screen is wonderful, I must say the build quality of the whole unit did not leave me too impressed.

From reading these forums I understand the sequencer on the Krome is even better than the Kronos. How would the sequencer on the TE compare to the Krome? Is it "usable" by todays standards?

Are there any glaringly "bad" things about the TE that the Krome would outshine the TE?

Thank you in advance,

Sean

[billbaker]

Apples and Oranges.

The TEx88 is a really sturdy build, and has a big backlog of triton sounds to draw on. It has some really good samples in a number of genres including orchestral sounds. Its piano is OK and is quite tweakable into an ~8.5 of 10 for gigging in a band. That's compared to a 10 of 10 against the Krome, which uses the Kronos' much larger piano sample. Solo piano or in a studio setting the Krome's piano wins. The TEx has writable banks A-E+H-M (11?) additional banks each of programs and combis and is expandable with MOSS to add another synth engine - all told that gives you close to 1500 programs and nearly as many combis to work with instantly - no wait time for loading. AFAIK both have GM voices.

The extreme can also save to, load and organize voices using a USB key - so no floppies required for pretty much universal interface with a computer and you can keep an emergency back-up really easily. A 2-4 GB key is more than enough to hold the entire Korg Forums Library for Triton (including Extreme).

Krome has one great acoustic studio kit as well along with the usual korg processed pop kits, TEx has a bunch of very good pop-dance oriented kits including most of those found on the EXB expansions. The Extreme's arp-based pattern play is somewhat limited from a style standpoint. It falls solidly into the dance-pop camp for the most part - it feels very limited for anything outside that such as straight forward rock, jazz, latin, etc. The Krome beats it by having arps plus a more varied drum track (pattern) function that can be played in conjunction with the arpeggios. For a one man act or for songwriting that feature alone might be enough to sway you.


Extreme's architecture is pretty straightforward, so programming and tweaking sounds is fairly easy, even on the fly. Krome is not much more difficult but there are more screens to navigate through.

The Triton doesn't have an outboard power supply, just a computer-type cord. I also boots up very quickly and is a stable time-tested synth engine. Krome uses an inline PS and the connection is not (anecdotally here) quite as robust.

I bought my Triton Extreme 88 used about 5 or 6 years ago and have gigged it pretty hard ever since, moving it and playing 2 to 4 times a week between band and church with zero problems during all that time.

FOR ME the added features of the Krome have not been enough to make me ditch my long-standing relationship with the Triton Classic and Extreme (bought the classic new 13 years ago and t is still going strong) -- though if I were buying today, with no other prejudices, I think I'd bite the bullet and get a Kronos unless budget was a major point at which point I'd probably settle quite happily for a Krome.

TRITON + : Build, wide variety of sounds, Ease of use
TRITON - : Over-focused arp genres, 8 tracks

KROME + : 1 great Piano, one Great kit & the rest OK-VG, Drum Patterns, 16 Track sequencer, light weight
KROME - : Build/road concerns

BTW - RAM is only an issue if you plan to load samples. I've never felt the need, but if that is a big part of your work flow then the Extreme has it -- I don't think the Krome does, though there were a couple of threads about the possibility of loading additional sounds (Latin) as part of the onboard ROM.


BB

[Synthoid]

If I was in the market for a workstation and could buy a Triton Extreme 88 for $800 in pristine condition... I'd go for it. Even though I've played the Krome and like its piano and other features, the Extreme has a much better build quality as well as the "best of the Triton" soundset.

[johnxyz]

Extreme is built much better, and range of synth sounds is superb, especially if you purchase the Moss board.

The Krome though will have better pianos on board, due to advances in technology in the 5 or 6 years since the last Extremes were built.

[mrpanoff]

RH2 on the Triton 88 is much too heavy. As someone here put it, heavy little bricks are there to impede your playing.

I wonder if the RH2 (Fatar TP-31)can be substituted for an RH3 (Technics). Seems unlikely.