The New Kronos!!!

[PCFREE]

I don't think a digital instrument will ever replace sitting down at an actual grand. I play various grands throughout the week as well as digital instruments and software pianos. It's just not the same thing and it has nothing to do with velocity range. A grand is a 9 foot long 6 foot wide wooden contraption vibrating in a room and under my fingers. No studio monitor or reference level headphone or "true graded hammer touch" keyboard is going to replace that. The rest is preference. A good player can figure out the dynamic range of a keyboard pretty quickly and adapt.

True!

[lonelagranger]

Of course you are correct you cannot get the same sensation playing a digital instrument as you do an acoustic one. The vibration from the soundboard throughout the instrument is as much a part of playing as is striking the keys. I do see a lot of debate about High Resolution MIDI. I believe that similar debates took place when polyphony started to increase in workstations. For many years 16 note polyphony was the norm. I realize it is not exactly the same thing, but for some reason it has been included by a number of major manufacturers. They must feel it has some bearing on the playability of their instrument. Maybe it will fade away or be transformed into something more profound. I mean MIDI is over 20 years old. There is room for improved response of todays digital keyboards. Depending on the type of music you play this may or may not be a factor.

[jimknopf]

What Busch perhaps tried to signal to you is that you are hunting ghosts and could instead just get lots of useful things from getting step by step more acquainted to your Kronos.

If we have problems (and I see 100 times more wonderful occasions than problems over the last years developments), they are certainly not midi velocity.

[lonelagranger]

What Busch perhaps tried to signal to you is that you are hunting ghosts and could instead just get lots of useful things from getting step by step more acquainted to your Kronos. Smile

Thank you for your kind suggstions. I am very well acquinted with the Kronos. I use a Roland G8 to play any classical music because it can take the beating that is required by the master composers of music of he 17th and 18th century. The keybed is deep, well made and doesn't have to be babied. I use only the keyboard and the midi out to my computer. From there the signal goes to my i7 quad core computer and on to the software piano Ivory. This gives me the ability to dig into the keys and play this type of music as it should be. If I did this on the Kronos the keybed would be destroyed in less than a year. I have tried to. You can actually feel the entire keyboard move and bend when you play dense musically passages that require speed, high dynamics and precise articulation. It is just not built to take this kind of punishment. The Roland G8 can. It is built much more solidly. I love the Kronos and the feel of the keyboard but it just is not a good match for heavy handed piano playing. It is fine for electronica or whatever it is they do today because the demands on the instrument are not that great. This is how I feel. You certainly have the right to feel they way you want.

[danatkorg]

This gives me the ability to dig into the keys and play this type of music as it should be. If I did this on the Kronos the keybed would be destroyed in less than a year.

Do you honestly think that you give the keyboard more of a workout than, say, Jordan Rudess?

[danmusician]

This gives me the ability to dig into the keys and play this type of music as it should be. If I did this on the Kronos the keybed would be destroyed in less than a year.

Do you honestly think that you give the keyboard more of a workout than, say, Jordan Rudess?

As a heavy handed player, I've never felt the Kronos give in the manner lonelagranger described.

[GregC]

What Busch perhaps tried to signal to you is that you are hunting ghosts and could instead just get lots of useful things from getting step by step more acquainted to your Kronos. Smile

If I did this on the Kronos the keybed would be destroyed in less than a year. I have tried to. You can actually feel the entire keyboard move and bend when you play dense musically passages that require speed, high dynamics and precise articulation. It is just not built to take this kind of punishment. The Roland G8 can. It is built much more solidly. I love the Kronos and the feel of the keyboard but it just is not a good match for heavy handed piano playing. It is fine for electronica or whatever it is they do today because the demands on the instrument are not that great. This is how I feel. You certainly have the right to feel they way you want.

Heavy handed. Many years of playing a U3, prior to the kronos

Thus, the post above is a red herring, from my experience

[Dniss]

I think if they had a way to move licenses between instruments easily, they could sell more units.

This is a fact. I have never bought a library because of this issue.

Geo

I never bought a library for 2 main reasons, first I love to spend time and program my own sound, 2 for exactly that reason...i was interested in the orchestral sounds but never bought it because it's just ridiculous that if you change keyboard for whatever reason, you need to buy them again.

I'm suprised that Korg hasn't come out with a solution to transfer these librairies to another unit. Something like a fix $99 fee at an authorized dealer.

I doubt anyone will buy these libraries a second time. I didn't get too many the 1st time neither. Strange business model.

In essence it's a show stopper. To get library in the 1st place or to get the new Kronos.

[Mike Conway]

Does anyone know whether EXs instruments purchased for the Kronos are transferrable to the Kronos 2? I'd love to get a Kronos 2 to augment my original Kronos 61, but probably not if I can't transfer my EXs purchases.

Nope - this is why I've never bought a single one of them and never will.

I haven't bought any, for the same reason. I hope Korg realize how important it is to change the policy to being able to transfer between same owner boards. As soon as they do, they'll get some more money out of me and a lot of other people.

When KARO sold CD-ROM libraries, for the OASYS, I bought quite a few. Fortunately, I can play all of them on the Kronos and if my Kronos dies, I can play them on a new unit - that's how it should be.

[kronoSphere]

The precious thing that ever miss a virtual piano instrument is... ... air
the sounds spreading of loudspeaker will never be the same as the sounds of a real piano dissolving into the air. But there are so much sounds miracles that all of us can get out of such marvellous instruments such as The Kronos. The ways of musical creation are infinite and it is just a narrow way to try to reproduce natural instruments. There are so many better other musical forms to imagine

[kronoSphere]

The precious thing that ever miss a virtual piano instrument is... ... air
the sounds spreading of loudspeaker will never be the same as the sounds of a real piano dissolving into the air. But there are so much sounds miracles that all of us can get out of such marvellous instruments such as The Kronos. The ways of musical creation are infinite and it is just a narrow way to try to reproduce natural instruments. There are so many better other musical forms to imagine

[ashboe]

I think it could be easily done with an OS update.

Remove a license from the instrument to a USB stick. The samples on that instrument go back to demo mode. Add the license on another instrument. Just like Waves does it.

One license on one instrument...no conflict with the library owners. Flexibility to own two or more instruments and move licenses between them,
and flexibility to move libraries to a new compatible instrument at resale time.

exactly - what a good and easy solution.....make it so!!

[lonelagranger]

Do you honestly think that you give the keyboard more of a workout than, say, Jordan Rudess?

I was going to carry on a long discussion, but it would be senseless. We all have our own opinion about this keyboard. I would say, however, how do you know that I can't give the keyboard more of a workout than Jordan Rudess. I have not made the piano my profession, but I have been asked by Van Cliburn to play for him after a dinner party. He thought I played quite well. I am familiar with the works of Stravinsky, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, etc. I'll take his opinion of my playing over yours any day.

[SanderXpander]

If you really feel this way about the Kronos then it is either your keyboard or simply your perception. I don't believe for a second that you could "destroy" the Kronos within a year with any kind of even very heavy handed playing. I play harder than most folks at the music school I work at and that includes six classically trained Masters of Music, one pop/jazz Master of Music and two pop/jazz Bachelors of Music (myself included). Not to mention about two hundred students. At no point have I ever felt any fear of damaging the Kronos keybed from my playing level. Nor have two of my colleagues who own weighted keybed Kroni and who are also Bachelors of Music.

Build quality aside, I would argue that the Kronos actually deals with harder playing better than most boards, judging from many comments about requiring extreme effort to reach midi velocity 127.

That said, the way any keyboard "translates" into volume is a very personal thing and I completely respect that some keyboards "click" better with one person than another.

[danatkorg]

Do you honestly think that you give the keyboard more of a workout than, say, Jordan Rudess?

I was going to carry on a long discussion, but it would be senseless. We all have our own opinion about this keyboard. I would say, however, how do you know that I can't give the keyboard more of a workout than Jordan Rudess. I have not made the piano my profession, but I have been asked by Van Cliburn to play for him after a dinner party. He thought I played quite well. I am familiar with the works of Stravinsky, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, etc. I'll take his opinion of my playing over yours any day.

It should be obvious to anyone that I was not expressing an opinion of your playing. My question still stands.