Purchase another Korg Kross???

[Musicwithharry]

Good morning, all

I have a Korg Kross 61 (along with lots of other keyboards, many of them Korg), and am considering getting another Kross; the Kross 88.

I have viewed just about every video I could find of substance on YouTube and otherwise on the Kross with regard to the hammer action and such.

The reason I am considering the Kross 88 is because I really want another weighted action board and am also considering the Yamaha MM8. I used to have one of these too and liked the action on it. In my collection, I have a Yamaha P95 that I use in my band and I love the action and sound of it.

With the above said, I think that the Kross 88 would be for my studio and solo live use rather than with the band. If I got the Kross 88, I could theoretically get rid of the Kross 61 since they are identical in function.

My solo stuff used to take 8 boards to recreate live, but now, with the Kross 61, I have created WAV files of my soundbeds, created a 'Favorite' for each song, play the song back from the Kross, and simply play over the top of the songs with the lead sounds I made on my Korg M50. It makes my rig substantially less complicated (when factoring in the PA system transport, etc...) to have just two boards. I also like the idea of having an 88 note keyboard to play piano on live during my live shows.

Any thoughts regarding the Kross 88 that I might have not considered?

Grace,
Harry

[OpAmp]

Hi,

No real extra's between the Kross 61 and 88.
Before you swap them, note that for the 88:
* there is still no aftertouch, velocity sensitivity is still there
* it has a natural weighted hammer action, but it is according to me not really like a piano action.

So if you swap them for the piano action I definitely would advice you try out such a board, before swapping.

Have fun

[Musicwithharry]

I suppose it all boils down to actually playing one

Unfortunately, I do not have access to a Kross 88 that I can play. The local music store does not have them in stock and will only order one if you buy it first. We do not live in a big city where the extra stock is readily available.

I know that we ask for a lot in a keyboard but with today's tech, getting a really good quality board for not much $$ is certainly possible.

I was fortunate when I got the Yamaha MM8 before because the local music store had one in stock. My only real issue with the MM8 was that it only had 32-note polyphony and I could drop notes pretty easily when doing runs on the keyboard.

I also used to have a Kawai MP5 and that had the best action of any board I had.

I was hoping that the action on the Kross 88 would be fairly close and be reliable. I'm not worried about the aftertouch, as I usually assign any modulation to the mod wheel anyway and I really do not need aftertouch for a piano sound.

Thank you for your input

Grace,
Harry

[Dragan]

Kross 88 has a very nice key action, it's a compromise between synth action and real piano hammer action. Your mileage may vary, it's important you try it in reality before you buy it.

I use it as master keyboard for other synths and also for sequencing other instruments.

[blorgsnarfer]

Hi, I have a Korg Kross 88 and I really like the sounds and the touch. Like a lot of multi-, "synthy" players who started on piano, I don't mind that the Korg is a bit different from real pianos. As long as it's weighted, I get used to it and my playing doesn't suffer; in some respects, it's better. I believe the Kross 88 is a great stage instrument because getting sounds up and running quickly is pretty easily. That said, the lack of aftertouch is sometimes a problem, but remember, if you own another keyboard with aftertouch, the Korg will respond to it via MIDI (at least according to the manual; I haven't tested this personally). By the way, it seems like it's not polyphonic aftertouch, but the channel based flavor, which isn't quite as flexible. Rock on, dude; the Kross 88 will serve ya. I, too, am considering getting a Yamaha MM8, but it only has 32-note polyphony, which can be a problem if you are playing dense MIDI arrangements, which I tend to do. Yet the arpeggiator is cool. So there is my $.02