Davd C. Polich wrote:I would suggest a simple solution - don't play and hold notes while
switching combis.
Really, is this so hard? Back in the day when synths had 8 notes of polyphony, or even just 5 notes, that's what us "old school" guys did -
picked a point during a performance where we could talk our hands off the
keys and switch to another program. In fact I still do this. To me,
switching programs or combis while holding down keys and pressing the sustain pedal is iike changing a tire while the car is moving.
Also, it really helps to have at least two keyboards in your live rig. I can't
imagine doing any gig with just one. Old Rick Wakeman had a reason for
all those keyboards onstage.
With all respect what you suggest here is an alternative method for those patch changing from the Kronos itself although it completely defeats the entire object of SST ! Moreover what you suggest is not at all relevant to the way I patch change nor does it have any influence on a way round the problems discussed here!
However, in view of your comment, perhaps I can offer an explanation that may be of interest to you and other live players here as the way I patch change actually has 2 major advantages over patch changing from the Kronos SetList panel...
Firstly it avoids the possibility of ever having hanging notes and second, by its unique trick, the Roland A-50 master keyboard I use to relay patch changes to the Kronos on stage allows for much more natural sounding patch changes. Yes! the Kronos has SST but with the A-50 you can help things further by precisely timing that patch change in a completely natural, musical way that will also patch change your external synths that don't possess SST in a far more pleasing manner!...
My current rig actually consists of 3 keyboards on stage: the Kronos, an Andromeda and a Roland A-50 4 zone master keyboard that sits above the Kronos. I use the A-50 for master patch changing my whole rig (including the Kronos) and yielding extra keyboard zones to trigger lead sounds and whatever other things I need to trigger. The A-50 (and A-80) are also the only keyboards I have ever come across that have 4 fully assignable foot switch/expression pedal inputs: modern controllers rarely have more than 2! All 4 pedal inputs are in constant use here to trigger all manner of things throughout my rig including momentary switching of harmonies or combinations of effects from my VoiceLive 2/VoiceLive Touch boxes, PCM80 delay hold parameters etc - really all kinds of things! It's sad that modern controllers are not built for the musician but more for the programmer these days!
I have been using the Roland A-80/A50 keyboards since 1990 as at the time I bought them I discovered they were the only keyboards that enabled patch changes to be stalled until all keys/damper pedal are released allowing much more natural and easier patch changing. As I described above when I either hold the keys down or sustain pedal and hit patch change on the A-50 that patch change is the last bit of information the Kronos or any other synth/effect unit in my rig receives i.e. it will first receive an all notes off message when I lift my hands off the keys while keeping my foot on the sustain pedal followed finally by the release of the sustain CC64 (value= 0 "sustain off") that finally unleashes that patch change that has been "held in the wings".
Imagine yourself playing through a song that involves changing say from the verse to the chorus live on stage. When you play the last chord at the end of the verse and place your foot on the sustain pedal it allows you to take your hands off the keys and hit the patch change. If you do this on the Kronos any External sound modules will receive the patch change the moment you hit the SetList slot regardless of if you have your sustain pedal down. This could also potentially create hanging notes of external synths if you happen to have your foot on the sustain pedal or hand on some keys when you hit the patch change! The huge advantage of the A-50 is that I can stall the patch change until I release the sustain pedal or the keys in any order I like. The patch change is released far more naturally as I continue to play normally then release the sustain pedal and hit the keys again as one naturally lifts ones hands from the keyboard on the off beat to place the hands back on the first chord of the chorus with the newly relayed combie.. Sometimes I will use the sustain pedal to relieve one hand to hit the patch changing Roland DP-2 switch I have blue-tacked to the Kronos front panel! then release the sustain pedal before I finally raise my hands off the keyboard at the end of the last chord on the off beat that releases the patch change to then naturally continue into the chorus with the next chord on the down beat playing the newly relayed combie. To be honest this is all much more difficult to describe that it would be to simply demonstrate! What I am trying to describe here all happens very quickly and in a totally natural "keyboard players" way!
I find it amazing that this simple keyboard function has only ever been implemented in these Roland keyboards (as far as I know).
KORG response: I have just got off the phone with Korg and they are now well aware of the problems discussed in this thread which thankfully are merely down to some extra implementation stuck into OS3 from our friends in Japan apparently! Dan did hint that this could be the case!
I have been assured there will be a solution very soon that should dispel the seemingly poorer performance in the Kronos regarding polyphonySST cutting out and the CC120 message that has been added in relation to EXT timbres (please read back through the thread a few posts to recap yourselves!)
Korg did tell me that this is not a bug but a slight quirk in the OS3 implementation that should be relatively painless to fix. I imagine this will arrive in the form of a small update.
My thanks to all posters here!
