Kronos, I'm tired of your problems!

keymaster · Post by **keymaster** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 11:41 am

I bought my Kronos 73 in February 29, 2012. Its serial number is 1778.

At first the keybed was problem. I had it fixed, which was a real trouble for me.

After a few months the "tap tempo" button (which I do not use so often) and the main output was problem. I had it fixed again (cost me lots of money and time!)

Yet again, the ribbon is problem! I do not use it very often, how come is it defective???

And finally yesterday, i see "samples not loaded" warning on my screen, when I am in Grand piano programs. (but meanwhile I can play and hear the piano, which is weird...)

I paid $2850 for this beast in zero condition. I have carried it in a custom build $150 case all the time. And this is the 4th time it makes me upset and desperate...

I had been using the Yamaha Motif ES before the K73 for over 6 years; and guess what, it is still young, tough and beautiful!

I accept the truth that there is a lot of technology inside the Kronos. But the outfit and stability? Nah! It's like a fragile baby, or an old man who falls most of the time...

What a pity, what a shame!!!

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:54 pm

How come the second problem costed you much money, it seems it was still in warranty period right?

What is the problem with the ribbon? Have you let it fixed or is it still a problem?

Samples not loaded means that not all of the samples are loaded. When you see it in a program and you hear the piano, that is quite strange. Did you check if the EXS files are correct in the autoload sample sets at start? Or did you change somethign recently?

The other seem hardware problems, the first of course was already known and fixed for free, the other two might probably be hardware problems, might be bad luck or some other reason why the defects occur.

apex · Post by **apex** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:41 pm

Drum samples for the associated drum track to the program/combi can make the samples not loaded message come up.

What error are you experiencing with the ribbon?

Please change your title. Makes no sense to rant...

gesucca · Post by **gesucca** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 7:48 am

Complaining is not the solutions.

s**t happens, stop moaning and try to understand what is wrong.

I don't want to seem rude, but Kronos is more similar to a computer than a standard keyboard... often the main problem of a computer is between the monitor and the seat: are you sure you are not doing something wrong?

keymaster · Post by **keymaster** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 8:47 am

Guys, please do consider that I am an experienced keyboardist, who is using this machine for 2 years, and I am not easily furied by small issues. You are right, s**t happens! But I cannot accept the fact that it happens every 6 months to this $2800 baby, who is treated very well.

Warranty is just not everything. Every time there is a problem, I have to cancel a gig, or use other gear. Then I have to travel and carry the keyboard to another city, where the local distributer in my country is. This just doesn't cost money. Time, energy and stress are unpriced.

I am not moaning. I believe that serious guys from Korg are reading this forum from time to time, and I have right to complain and share my situation with people like me. There is a new topic, which is opened yesterday, telling the same situation with the ribbon! Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway. The problem with the ribbon is that it doesn't work properly. I am not cancelling any gigs nowadays, so I had to switch the ribbon off in the Combi mode, yet I can't do it in Prog mode or globally, which is also annoying.

I know this problem is going to be fixed in time, as well. But I cannot accept the idea of facing another problem 6 months later! As I mentioned before, I did never have so many problems so frequent through the time when I was using the Motif series.

Laste7 · Post by **Laste7** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 10:57 am

Regarding the Ribbon, you say it is not working how it should. Of course, this can be a hardware problem. But many people changed the original SSD to a bigger one and just installed the System from the DVD's. That way you loose the factory calibration datas which where written on the original SSD, this may occurs to problems with the Ribbon Control. So, if you did something like that, you need to do the calibration again.

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 11:17 am

keymaster wrote:Guys, please do consider that I am an experienced keyboardist, who is using this machine for 2 years, and I am not easily furied by small issues. You are right, s**t happens! But I cannot accept the fact that it happens every 6 months to this $2800 baby, who is treated very well.

Warranty is just not everything. Every time there is a problem, I have to cancel a gig, or use other gear. Then I have to travel and carry the keyboard to another city, where the local distributer in my country is. This just doesn't cost money. Time, energy and stress are unpriced.

I am not moaning. I believe that serious guys from Korg are reading this forum from time to time, and I have right to complain and share my situation with people like me. There is a new topic, which is opened yesterday, telling the same situation with the ribbon! Coincidence? I think not.

Anyway. The problem with the ribbon is that it doesn't work properly. I am not cancelling any gigs nowadays, so I had to switch the ribbon off in the Combi mode, yet I can't do it in Prog mode or globally, which is also annoying.

I know this problem is going to be fixed in time, as well. But I cannot accept the idea of facing another problem 6 months later! As I mentioned before, I did never have so many problems so frequent through the time when I was using the Motif series.

This is why gigging musicians allways should buy at their local dealer that offers a replacement when a storebought instrument breaks down.

Sure it costs a little more money, but its the only sollution (except for having a spare instrument of the same type yourself)

A friend of mine recently broke his Instrument during a gig on saturday evening, he could reach his local dealer and less then an hour later he got a replacement instrument.. Now thats the service you get at a local dealer...

Thats why you dont get the same deals however that you get on the internet.

phil55 · Post by **phil55** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:15 pm

As stated before, I wouldn't pay more than $1500 for a Kronos - i paid $1000. My stress level would go through the roof if I had paid $4K and had these little issues. As it is, I can deal with the bugs and have done some mods including a quieter fan but I wouldn't use it live for many different reasons including the fear it would bug up in performance. To err is human to completely fxxk up is a computer.

I think it's okay to buy 2nd hand, but reasearch the hell out of the Kronos to know what kind of bugs to look out for. Check the key bed, the sustain, the fan noise, the build quality (around the edges). The keybed being the most expensive. If the keybed is fine, the other problems can be dealt with, just not in a live situation yet, wait for more OS updates I guess..

Fortunatly, I had no keybed issues.

For the record my sn is 148.

danatkorg · Post by **danatkorg** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:20 pm

Laste7 wrote:Regarding the Ribbon, you say it is not working how it should. Of course, this can be a hardware problem. But many people changed the original SSD to a bigger one and just installed the System from the DVD's. That way you loose the factory calibration datas which where written on the original SSD, this may occurs to problems with the Ribbon Control. So, if you did something like that, you need to do the calibration again.

Yes.

JPROBERTLA · Post by **JPROBERTLA** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 5:23 pm

I have a 2 year old Kronos and the ribbon controller just crashed. Fortunately I never use it, so disabling it in midi filters from all sequences solved the immediate problem, but I still have to change the hardware.

phil55 · Post by **phil55** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:32 pm

I don't understand how a ribbon can crash. Is it a physical thing i.e. disconnected wire or something or a software bug or …?

Stephen Garside · Post by **Stephen Garside** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:10 am

Well I havn't added any new SSD and I've had a problem with the ribbon since i bought my k88 from new. I noticed that there was a sudden dsicontinuity at the very right hand side of the ribbon, at first i thought it was me not pressing down hard enough but after a little playing around and monitoring midi messages i realised the ribbon cc messages ran from 0 to 127 and then jumped back to 0 at the right hand side. My solution was to put a little strip of velcro at the right hand side so that my finger could never touch the affected area, but this is a fix to a problem that should never have existed. If there was factory calibration data on the SSD, then why wasn't my ribbon calibrated correctly? And can I calibrate it myslef?

Laste7 · Post by **Laste7** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 7:26 am

Stephen Garside wrote:Well I havn't added any new SSD and I've had a problem with the ribbon since i bought my k88 from new. I noticed that there was a sudden dsicontinuity at the very right hand side of the ribbon, at first i thought it was me not pressing down hard enough but after a little playing around and monitoring midi messages i realised the ribbon cc messages ran from 0 to 127 and then jumped back to 0 at the right hand side. My solution was to put a little strip of velcro at the right hand side so that my finger could never touch the affected area, but this is a fix to a problem that should never have existed. If there was factory calibration data on the SSD, then why wasn't my ribbon calibrated correctly? And can I calibrate it myslef?

Hi, officially, you have to bring it to a Service Center, they can do it.
I am pretty sure, that there is a combination of Knobs you have to press when you power on the Kronos to get into that menu. But I did not find it yet.

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Kronos, I'm tired of your problems!

Kronos, I'm tired of your problems!

Ribbon controller