New Kross 2

arc1953 · Post by **arc1953** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 3:58 am

I got my new Kross 2 today. At first I was not that impressed, but now that I have played with it a bit, I think we are going to get along just fine. I knew that there would be a bit of a learning curve to it. It is going to take the place of my M50 while it goes into the shop. I think I am going to like it, but we first have to get to know each other. I recorded most of the gigs that I have played and we played along with it, me experimenting with different programs. It's definitely not the same as the M50. Over the past 7 years I have played 83 gigs with the M50. It has always been stable until I played some outdoor gigs where the dew was so heavy that moisture was almost dripping off of it. Not good. I don't know how the pros deal with that kind of issue. Lately I have started to question the stability of the M50, so that is why it is going to the shop. I am looking forward to trying out the sampler function of the Kross. There is a song where it starts out with some awesome sound effects that I have recorded. Once I figure out how to do it , it should be great. One thing that I did take note of, is that the Kross does not have a sound category of 'voices' . I think I can make one of the strings program work. So far, I like it

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:32 am

One good tip for voices, or at least choral sounds:

Consider picking up a Waldorf Streichfett. If you set it up right, it does surprisingly good choral sounds. It also plays pretty nicely with MIDI, so it's a good bet for controlling from your Kross.

arc1953 · Post by **arc1953** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:05 pm

At the risk of sounding ignorant(maybe I am), what is a Waldorf Streichfett?

arc1953 · Post by **arc1953** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:10 pm

Never mind, I looked it up. It's odd that I didn't know about this device. It sounds like a 'must-have'.

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Sat Nov 25, 2017 6:43 pm

For the price, the Streichfett is fantastic. Its only gripe, in my world, is that it doesn't have velocity control of volume, but has sweepable volume control between the strings side and the synth side, and has overall volume control. The balance is MIDI controllable anyway, so it's not as bad as it sounds.

In my book, the Streichfett does one thing extremely well, that nothing else does quite as well, if at all. Does it have its limitations? Well, so does a vocoder. I think that you will find that direct MIDI control of the Streichfett gives you delicious options that you didn't have before.