Kronos pianos - I wouldn't have thought it possible

DeltaJockey · Post by **DeltaJockey** » Sun Sep 29, 2019 10:57 am

I've always considered the RH3 keybed to my my favourite digital weighted action for playing the Kronos pianos, or any digital pianos actually.

Now I know I'm talking subjectively here, but I've come to the conclusion that when using my Kawai MP11SE keyboard as a controller for the Kronos pianos, I'm able to articulate their nuances in a much more realistic way than on the RH3. I can discern many more intermediate sample layers and it gives me expression, which I had previously never noticeably brought out in the Kronos samples.

In the past I've compared a few 3 sensor keybeds with the the Kronos and the RH3, though it is 2 sensor, has always stacked up favourably, so either those 3 sensor keybeds I tried were not implemented very well or there's more to it than that.

This is not critique thread, just my surprise that there's more to the Kronos pianos than I previously had experienced playing them on the Kronos!

I do wish however, that Korg had a user velocity setting with a few points along the curve. Maybe I could emulate the ultra fine balance in my Grand Feel wooden keys in software.
Being subjective, it may be down to my playing style which is not applicable to another person?

lonelagranger · Post by **lonelagranger** » Sun Sep 29, 2019 11:14 am

I have the Kawai VPC1 and it does indeed offer a much more sophisticated approach to sample control. It is made basically for control of piano samples. In that area it is pretty much in a class of its own. It is a niche product and not for everyone. I love it.

DeltaJockey · Post by **DeltaJockey** » Sun Sep 29, 2019 11:47 am

lonelagranger wrote:I have the Kawai VPC1 and it does indeed offer a much more sophisticated approach to sample control. It is made basically for control of piano samples. In that area it is pretty much in a class of its own. It is a niche product and not for everyone. I love it.

yes, Kawai do certainly know how to build keybeds to play piano. I bought the MP11SE as it gave me the closest feel to my Kawai Acoustic Grand.

It's more my surprise that piano samples on the Kronos wouldn't be optimised to be played on the Kronos best?

Hector Space · Post by **Hector Space** » Sun Sep 29, 2019 12:23 pm

DeltaJockey wrote:
lonelagranger wrote:I have the Kawai VPC1 and it does indeed offer a much more sophisticated approach to sample control. It is made basically for control of piano samples. In that area it is pretty much in a class of its own. It is a niche product and not for everyone. I love it.
yes, Kawai do certainly know how to build keybeds to play piano. I bought the MP11SE as it gave me the closest feel to my Kawai Acoustic Grand.

It's more my surprise that piano samples on the Kronos wouldn't be optimised to be played on the Kronos best?

For my main stage rig I use a Casio Privia PX5s stage piano as a controller for my Kronos. It’s full piano scale triple sensor keybed is very good at adding realism to the Kronos piano experience And its weight at 10kg is magic for my back! It is also surprisingly good for playing clavinet parts ( I have the Purgatory Creek Clav loaded) The only thing I miss is after touch for the more synthy stuff.

Liviou2004 · Post by **Liviou2004** » Mon Sep 30, 2019 7:02 am

In the begining I've got my Kronos 2 73, I considered that the RH3 keyboard was the weakiest point just or one reason : it's impossible to keep a soft play and reach the top velocity.
(I've been playing on Korg T1 for several years and I didn't got this issue)

In fact the problem doesn't rest on sensors but rather on bad velocity curves. You could get 5 or 10 sensors, if the velocity curves (so the software response) do not suit them, you won't get any good result.

If you get the best piano multisample (88 notes sampled on 12 velocity levels each) but the input software is unable to transmit this all range, this rich sound source is useless.

Roughly, the RH3 keyboard is able to transmit soft velocity (curves from 1 to 3) or high velocity (5 or 6) but not the both with the same curve ! On velocity 6, its possible to play samples up to velocity of 127 but impossible to play very first velocity.

So, its not a mechanical matter but software matter. The possibility of creating user velocity curves would have solved this problem.
One guy here (sorry, I don't remember who !) has done a try with an external Midi velocity converter, MIDI OX where its possible to create user curve. But unfortunately, its impossible to save it into Kronos.

As a piano player, I consider it would be one of the greatiest enhancement Korg engineers could offer us : the possibility to set user velocity curves.