Great Kronos Piano Sounds ruined by using MSP7's

[splinters]

Thanks Dan. Pending payment I have sold my Kronos...was good while it lasted.

[danatkorg]

Danatkorg,

I've tried all the curve settings on my 73 but still get a lousy piano sound with Yams connected. Currently it's set at 9.

Regards,

MC

Sounds as if you don't like your speakers. Sound On Sound didn't either, at least from my interpretation of their review:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may07/a ... hamsp7.htm

Based on the above, I'd suggest looking into different speakers. Not sure why we're discussing this here, however; it seems pretty far removed from the KRONOS itself.

[Ronl]

Have an x73 and through my Mackie studio monitors or my pair of QSC K8 the pianos just don't sound that great, through head phones they sound fantastic.

Ps +1 on the Dream Pianos

[GregC]

Have an x73 and through my Mackie studio monitors or my pair of QSC K8 the pianos just don't sound that great, through head phones they sound fantastic.

Ps +1 on the Dream Pianos

no surprise with the QSC's.

and are you using a mixer ?

[Bertotti]

Funny through my QSC K10 I think the pianos sound pretty darn good.

[SanderXpander]

Taste, taste, taste.
Can't like the description "lousy" though, that kinda implies something is terribly low quality about them which is definitely not the case.

[QuiRobinez]

i don't think there's anything wrong with the kronos piano's. I also don't think using a nord stage would solve your problem, you probably will experience again that the headphone sounds better then your monitors when using other workstations / pianos. The reply burningbush gave on page one is also my opinion. Using Nearfield monitors needs some practice. Every nearfield monitor has it's own frequency response and sweetspot (most of the time the sweet spot is the endpoint of a triangle setup). If you step out of that sweetspot then you will hear a large influence of the room on your sound. The room boost or cuts specific frequencies which you can solve through acoustic treatment (rather expensive).

Also keep in mind that most headphones are hifi headphones, which basically mean that they have a frequence response which is recognisable as pleasant. Nearfield monitors are used for mixing purposes, that means that they have flat frequence response as much as possible. Every nearfield monitor has it's own flat frequency behavior. The MSP7 for instance have a 3 db fallof in the low end (below 60 hz) and some emphasis on the mid and high end. Normally you select a nearfield monitor setup based on what you are going to use it for. For instance, i create a lot of dance music and i wanted a nearfield monitor that has an extra emphasis on the lower end, so i choose the KRK VXT8's for that, which don't have a total flat frequency response but gives me more listening information on the low end.

This is just some basic information about this topic, so the more important part is, what to do? I think you can do a few things:
- experiment with the sweet spot. Search on the internet on possible monitor positions (triangle based) and try a few of them by sitting in the sweet spot and listen to the sound, never adjust the sound when you are not in the sweet spot, if you want to have a good sound out of the sweet spot then you don't want to select near field monitors or you have to invest a lot in acoustic room treatmend..
- if you have your monitors standing on a wooden desk, lift the monitors by putting a piece of foam beneath them. This is important in some cases to reduce the resonance of the wood and the falloff of the sound on your wood which boosts the transients of the sound through reflection.
- try to EQ the unwanted sounds (only use cut) to make it more pleasant.
- look at the back of your monitors, there are some switches in most cases to add some extra DB's to the HPF filter behavior
- always keep in mind that nearfield are for mixing purposes, so they will try to give you a flat sound response as much as possible so that you can hear all quirks in your mix and you can correct it, so that it will sound good on all hi fi systems
- If everything fails, then contact your musicstore, and try to return them for different kind of monitors that have a frequency response more to your liking. Also try to make an agreement to try them out in your own studio. It's almost impossible to select monitors in a store, because they will sound so much different in your own environment.

Hope this helps you a little bit, there is a lot of information on this topic on the internet, so i can really suggest to read more on it. It will help you a lot to understand this topic much better.

[levioter]

As Qui resumed really well the near field monitors are pretty hard to tune and particularly in a non acoustically treated room !
In my opinion the best way to check how your monitors are sounding on real pianos in your room is to try with a HD classic piano track (from a DVD or Blueray) sent directly to your monitors and listen to the result.
If the record is sounding also as rubbish then you will know that this is coming from the monitors in your particular room.

Cheers

[JPROBERTLA]

I transitioned form a Triton Studio88 to a Kronos61 and added a PX-5S for weighted feel. I play in a trio that uses sequences for every song. I use all of my outboard gear and mixer with KRK Rokit 8 monitors in my home studio to mix and balance sequences, substituting them for the Mackie sound system which we use for performances. I can find nothing wrong with the Kronos pianos. Acoustic pianos all sound different; even from model to model. The like or dislike is purely subjective. For live performances I play the acoustic piano about 30% of the time and have found it to be versatile enough for everything that I need.

I sometimes play it directly thru the Rockit 8s and would agree that it does sound better with as little between the Kronos outputs and the monitors as possible. My outboard gear includes four BBE sonic maximizers. I have found that these set up as the last thing before the mixer can really improve sound definition (if not overused). They are also inexpensive and easy to use.

[GregC]

I sometimes play it directly thru the Rockit 8s and would agree that it does sound better with as little between the Kronos outputs and the monitors as possible.

I made this point to. No mixer in the path.

My $1200 Event Studio ( 8") monitors sound great, a great match for my Kronos.

My remark about the QSC k10's was out of context. For traditional loudspeakers, playing in bands, they do sound good.

But loudspeakers are apples/oranges to quality studio monitors. For a smallish studio sized space, 10' x 12' , quality studio monitors give the best sound. So I am quite spoiled by my Events.

[MusicLive]

Hi all,

Well, I never expected such a fantastic response as this - what a great forum this is. But I've always known that anyway!
You've all been very professional with your remarks / answers and I really do appreciate all of your help and advice.

Danatkorg,

OK, so I should have posted this elsewhere under a different heading but I really doubt whether anyone would have read a thread about Yamaha Speakers...apologies to you for that.

SanderXpander,

Honestly- the piano sounds being emitted from my Kronos through those MSP7's is quite frankly - appalling.
Lousy was a word I knew may bring some form of 'questioning'!
Sorry if it offends.


Qui,

Your coverage of the subject is obviously one of great experience and knowledge and I value greatly every word you've posted. I shall of course carry out various trials to try to overcome this problem but at the end of the day I think I shall have to invest in a different set of monitors.
The MSP7's may be great in other applications but in my experience they fail to do justice to Kronos pianos.

Having moaned about the piano sounds from the speakers, I have to make it quite clear that I love the Kronos and have done since it arrived at my door.
No, it's not going up for sale either. I've heard some fabulous piano sounds that are demonstrated online and feel this problem can be sorted out.

Once more, thank you all for your help and advice....greatly appreciated.

Regards,

MC

[SanderXpander]

The only issue I take with using "lousy" is in reference to the Kronos piano samples. I think the implication is a little unfair. I have no doubt you don't like what you're hearing. If you want to call your speakers lousy, I won't stop you

We're usually concerned here with what prospective buyers may think when they come on here. I don't think most people mind some criticism but a thread title like this one seems pretty harsh.

Not offended though, I'm not a Kronos

[topkeys]

For what it is worth, just wanted to let you guys know that the Kronos sounds awesome on my Genelec 8030 pair (in my studio)... The pair of Genelec 8030 is one of the best investment I have ever made

Kronos sounds very good through my Yamaha Stagepass 400i pair as well, for those who are looking for stage monitoring.

All keyboards sound rubbish through a keyboard amp. I have tried Traynor K4, Roland KC 150, Laney AH and many other amps in the past. The very fact that a stereo sound stage is being forced to Mono image, will deteriorate the sound than anything else.

[MusicLive]

SanderXpander,

There you go!

I've altered the thread title, so as not to mislead anyone.

I should have worded it that way at the start. Sorry.

Hope I'm forgiven

Kind Regards,

MC

[SanderXpander]

Haha I think that is definitely more fair and instantly warns any potential buyers not to pair the two
There's nothing to forgive! Hope you find a satisfactory solution.