Its not a Kronos 2

[Bachus]

Its still the same Kronos with basically the same functionallity, its official marketing name is the new Kronos.

Got my hands on a 73 key today, and i must say it looks and size have improved considerably, the keybed feels even better then the orriginla 88 key felt..

Sadly the touchscreen is to small and many of the ellements are just to small, its obvious the touchscreen interface was developed in the era before apple showed the world how to make efficient touchscreen interfaces..


Strange that in this world where electronics are old less then a year after release, that the instrument we saw first as the Oasys is still the best workstation ten years after the Oasys released. The dated touchinterface cant hide the fact that the Kronos in any of its 3 forms is still a beast, as is their spirituall father the Oasys..

[GregC]

Sadly the touchscreen is to small and many of the ellements are just to small, its obvious the touchscreen interface was developed in the era before apple showed the world how to make efficient touchscreen interfaces..


Strange that in this world where electronics are old less then a year after release, that the instrument we saw first as the Oasys is still the best workstation ten years after the Oasys released. The dated touchinterface cant hide the fact that the Kronos in any of its 3 forms is still a beast, as is their spirituall father the Oasys..

its all about $$$

and more $$$$$$ to make it like that

[NuSkoolTone]

Sadly the touchscreen is to small and many of the ellements are just to small, its obvious the touchscreen interface was developed in the era before apple showed the world how to make efficient touchscreen interfaces..

Please go on....what exactly is an "efficient touchscreen interface"?

I'm with you they could have increased the screen size though...

[Bachus]

Sadly the touchscreen is to small and many of the ellements are just to small, its obvious the touchscreen interface was developed in the era before apple showed the world how to make efficient touchscreen interfaces..

Please go on....what exactly is an "efficient touchscreen interface"?

I'm with you they could have increased the screen size though...

I tought that was obvious, just compare working on windows 7 with a touch interface to windows 8 with apps designed for windows 8... In general the trick is having less ellements on the screen and those elements being of bigger size... No more small checkmarks to enable/disable but sliders like IoS uses..

The trick is having those elements bigger, no more windows xp like edit and selection boxes, but the bigger popups we see on ipads..

I tought it was obvious... How touch interfaces improved tremendiusly over the last 10 years

[Bachus]

Sadly the touchscreen is to small and many of the ellements are just to small, its obvious the touchscreen interface was developed in the era before apple showed the world how to make efficient touchscreen interfaces..


Strange that in this world where electronics are old less then a year after release, that the instrument we saw first as the Oasys is still the best workstation ten years after the Oasys released. The dated touchinterface cant hide the fact that the Kronos in any of its 3 forms is still a beast, as is their spirituall father the Oasys..

its all about $$$

and more $$$$$$ to make it like that

Offcourse it is.... But the base of the interface is ten years old.. It hasnt changed much since Oasys released 10 years ago..... I know for one that Korg has a much much smaller development team since then.... For just one reason to maximise proffits from the current range of products.. I dont see them investing much in the future, just in the now...


In the end companies that stop innovating will die.. Same goes for electronic products that fail to innovate any further... There is just on thing that keeps Korg alive... Thats the fact that the whole hardware instrumenst keyboard branche also stopped innovating at the moment that Korg was ahead..

The Oasys was probably ten years ahead of its time... Well.. Thats where we are now... And the danger doesnt come from traditional hardware companies, but from software companies creating specific hardware interfaces for their DAW(ableton/akai/novation) or NI with maschine and kontroll... Give it 2 more years and someone will have created a max for live tool comparable to Karma...




But then maybe i am wrong... Maybe we dont need anymore instrumenst, as the Kronos certainly is a wonderfull instrument. It really is, yet i wish they would have invested more research in it since its release... Small things.... Like an overhaul of the interface.... 2 or 3 more engines.... Modular effects allowing people to add more effects, just like they are adding more sounds.... A full overhaul of the sequencer, allowing for cliplaunching... Karma 3.5 or better... Amd i can think of a few more. Not all of them at once.. But just one major upgrade a year... I think people would be willing to pay for most of them...

[jeebustrain]

I guess if your main concern is a whiz-bang interface and eye candy, yes, the Oasys is still king and the Kronos can be seen as kind of bla in this day and age of new iPhone models every 9 months. I bought my Kronos for the synth engines on board, the features for gigging musicians (like SST and selist mode), and the ease of programming (without the need for an editor). It has all the important sonic features of the Oasys (you know, the "sound" part), plus more. People have programmed many more complicated and antiquated synthesizers over the years and gotten by just fine.

I couldn't care less about the Kronos 2 - I'm more than happy with my original (s/n 512). I recognize that Korg is going to revamp and evolve it though and I have no problem with them doing a "2." If you already own a Kronos, you aren't the target market - they're trying to bring new users in. If that wasn't the goal, they wouldn't have made the OS updates free for existing Kronos owners. It kills every other workstation on the market. Nothing else comes close with how powerful it is. the only way to get more powerful is to go to a PC based system - and then you have to contend with additional software, additional hardware, OS updates, etc...

[Bachus]

I guess if your main concern is a whiz-bang interface and eye candy, yes, the Oasys is still king and the Kronos can be seen as kind of bla in this day and age of new iPhone models every 9 months. I bought my Kronos for the synth engines on board, the features for gigging musicians (like SST and selist mode), and the ease of programming (without the need for an editor). It has all the important sonic features of the Oasys (you know, the "sound" part), plus more. People have programmed many more complicated and antiquated synthesizers over the years and gotten by just fine.

I couldn't care less about the Kronos 2 - I'm more than happy with my original (s/n 512). I recognize that Korg is going to revamp and evolve it though and I have no problem with them doing a "2." If you already own a Kronos, you aren't the target market - they're trying to bring new users in. If that wasn't the goal, they wouldn't have made the OS updates free for existing Kronos owners. It kills every other workstation on the market. Nothing else comes close with how powerful it is. the only way to get more powerful is to go to a PC based system - and then you have to contend with additional software, additional hardware, OS updates, etc...

Well, thats my point.... There is no Korg Kronos 2... And offcourse you are happy with your very own Kronos, as its thes best keyboard workstation out there.. And with the new Kronos it only looks and feels better and shinier..


My only point is that ThevKronos Software should have kept growing, making it impossible in the for others to catch up

[ephemere]

(post by mistake; actual post follows...)

[ephemere]

The Oasys was probably ten years ahead of its time... Well.. Thats where we are now...

As I understand it, the Oasys/Kronos architecture is actually 20 years old. See the Sound On Sound review of the Oasys, which gives a history of the project.

It must be incredibly satisfying for the original development team to see their vision productized and standing strong 20 years later. I just got a K2 88, and I couldn't find anything better on the market if I didn't want to be tethered to a computer.

[GregC]

Sadly the touchscreen is to small and many of the ellements are just to small, its obvious the touchscreen interface was developed in the era before apple showed the world how to make efficient touchscreen interfaces..


Strange that in this world where electronics are old less then a year after release, that the instrument we saw first as the Oasys is still the best workstation ten years after the Oasys released. The dated touchinterface cant hide the fact that the Kronos in any of its 3 forms is still a beast, as is their spirituall father the Oasys..

its all about $$$

and more $$$$$$ to make it like that

Offcourse it is.... But the base of the interface is ten years old.. It hasnt changed much since Oasys released 10 years ago..... I know for one that Korg has a much much smaller development team since then.... For just one reason to maximise proffits from the current range of products.. I dont see them investing much in the future, just in the now...


In the end companies that stop innovating will die.. Same goes for electronic products that fail to innovate any further... There is just on thing that keeps Korg alive... Thats the fact that the whole hardware instrumenst keyboard branche also stopped innovating at the moment that Korg was ahead..

The Oasys was probably ten years ahead of its time... Well.. Thats where we are now... And the danger doesnt come from traditional hardware companies, but from software companies creating specific hardware interfaces for their DAW(ableton/akai/novation) or NI with maschine and kontroll... Give it 2 more years and someone will have created a max for live tool comparable to Karma...

But then maybe i am wrong... Maybe we dont need anymore instrumenst, as the Kronos certainly is a wonderfull instrument. It really is, yet i wish they would have invested more research in it since its release... Small things.... Like an overhaul of the interface.... 2 or 3 more engines.... Modular effects allowing people to add more effects, just like they are adding more sounds.... A full overhaul of the sequencer, allowing for cliplaunching... Karma 3.5 or better... Amd i can think of a few more. Not all of them at once.. But just one major upgrade a year... I think people would be willing to pay for most of them...

you are making a lot of points, not sure how to reply…

but this ' why isn't the tech absolutely killer in 2011/15 Kronos ' topic has been kicked around thoroughly for several years.

some of your statements read gloomy for us that enjoy Korg workstations ( it should be called .. ' a master keyboard ' ).

I think you know its all about $$. Its also about keeping the Kronos price within reach. ( please read that as in the US)

and it seems obvious to me that Roland, Yamaha, can't touch the Kronos. Have you seen the ' touch screens ' on them ?

IMO, we should try to enjoy the ' tech ' we have in front of us every day. I am also confident that we will see the next evolution in 2016/17. Then that will change the conversation about ' where's the tech '

[burningbusch]

But then maybe i am wrong... Maybe we dont need anymore instrumenst, as the Kronos certainly is a wonderfull instrument. It really is, yet i wish they would have invested more research in it since its release... Small things.... Like an overhaul of the interface.... 2 or 3 more engines.... Modular effects allowing people to add more effects, just like they are adding more sounds.... A full overhaul of the sequencer, allowing for cliplaunching... Karma 3.5 or better... Amd i can think of a few more. Not all of them at once. But just one major upgrade a year... I think people would be willing to pay for most of them...

Yes "small things" like a complete overhaul of the interface and the sequencer, new engines and a completely different way the FXs work.

What's the point of listing a bunch of wish list features and then criticizing the instrument because it lacks those specific features. Anyone can do this and it's completely pointless. The fact is the Kronos OS has gone through significant (free) upgrades over the last four years and there's no indication that has ended.

The list of feature and sound improvements from the OASYS to the Kronos 2 is actually quite amazing if you stop to analyze it. I'm not going to go through them all as it's been covered many times in the past, but here are a few general areas:

The Kronos is a much better live instrument than the OASYS having Setlist mode, SST and being more portable.

The sampling capabilities, including streaming of samples from the SSD, import from SF2, unique ID tied to each KSC allowing portability of libraries, true stereo, twice the number of multisample layers all make the Kronos vastly better at sample playback than the OASYS. I mean the OASYS is a basic old school RAM sampler. There's no hardware sampler that can touch the Kronos. And this is not a minor point. There are ~100 libraries at the Korg Web Store plus many others outside the store for $$$ or free. You want to add new sounds to your Kronos? Go ahead, there's nothing stopping you. This is HUGE.

I laugh when someone asks for new engines (which ones?) and updated KARMA when there are in fact probably a handful of people who've fully explored STR-1, MOD-7 and KARMA.

Busch.

[Bachus]

i realise there has been some progression since the Oasys released... but is it enough?

My burden is that i allways look at hardware/software trough the glasses of an engineer (which is what i do in daily life) which means that i am allways evaluating stuff and trying to figure out how to improve it..

Thats just the nature of this old man, and the way i look at things.

a) Does it function correct
b) Can i make it do the things i want it to do
c) Can i improve it


And yes, in general i end up with a different opinion then most musicians,but then as long as everyone just keeps in mind that its just an opinion, no harm is done..

[GregC]

i realise there has been some progression since the Oasys released... but is it enough?

My burden is that i allways look at hardware/software trough the glasses of an engineer (which is what i do in daily life) which means that i am allways evaluating stuff and trying to figure out how to improve it..

Thats just the nature of this old man, and the way i look at things.

a) Does it function correct
b) Can i make it do the things i want it to do
c) Can i improve it


And yes, in general i end up with a different opinion then most musicians,but then as long as everyone just keeps in mind that its just an opinion, no harm is done..

and I understand you don't own the Kronos. Might be relevant to the discussion

[dfahrner]

In addition to the "list of feature and sound improvements from the OASYS to the Kronos 2" that busch noted, let's not forget the rather significant decrease in price: unlike the OASYS, many musicians can actually afford to buy the Kronos...

And engineers and added features: a director of engineering that I worked for used to say that to get the product out the door, at some point you have to shoot the engineer...

df

[GregC]

In addition to the "list of feature and sound improvements from the OASYS to the Kronos 2" that busch noted, let's not forget the rather significant decrease in price: unlike the OASYS, many musicians can actually afford to buy the Kronos...

And engineers and added features: a director of engineering that I worked for used to say that to get the product out the door, at some point you have to shoot the engineer...

df

Yeah, that's a good perspective. The OASYS was never on my radar due to its price. So I was thrilled by the kronos price.

We can't always be idealistic. Most everything has an economic undercurrent.