Korg Kronos - what next?

kronoSphere · Post by **kronoSphere** » Thu Apr 25, 2024 10:16 pm

Even if this seems like heresy for a large part of you girls and boys :
I think that the next real works station from Korg should be a big Cube without keyboard and with a big screen.
Everyone could add a master keyboard for controling theis big new beast !

A little as Steve Jobs many years ago made with Next but immensely powerful and above all easily transportable

Hope! Hope Hope !
Yes for me it will be grat.

ITguy54 · Post by **ITguy54** » Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:59 am

aron wrote:The Astrolab may point to the future, but it's a toy compared to the Kronos.
Only 2 parts, 10 presets, limited effects, 61 keys only etc..

One feature I use all the time is is muting and unmuting of up to 9 parts (layered or split), persevering polyphony when not using parts, FAST changes due to the awesome set lists feature.

No other keyboard (that I know of) can do this quickly and easily.

How about the new Roland Fantom EX? It can be added to the list with the Kurzweil and Arturia.

Derek Cook · Post by **Derek Cook** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 5:39 pm

I am praying they will come out with a VST version of the Kronos, either as a package or the individual sound engines. Poly61 and MS20 are already there but I rarely use those. AL-1 is pretty critical to me as is HD-1 with Wavesequencing and Karma.

All the other engines I could probably replace with other plugins these days, but it would be a lot of work, so if there was a VST Kronos which allowed me to get up and running with my PLG files, I would grab it in an instant!

In terms of failures on stage, I like to do a "what if" exercise and say of a bit of kit failed, what could I do? E.g. I gig with a Montage and Kronos as my main rig, and if one went down I could probably get by with just the other, so I have a set of emergency patches programmed on both (Hammond, EP, Piano, String pad, a few leads of different types.

And always have your backups with you! I learnt the hardware about ten years ago, that a backup of your board or computer (in this case the computer, is no use when it is an hour's round trip away!

aron · Post by **aron** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:00 pm

I used to use a Kurzweil and I liked it. Unfortunately it was very unreliable and after a while I couldn't justify using it. As for Roland - I just don't get along with their overall sounds. I have an RD-88 and the sounds are better - but I guess I am so used to Yamaha and Korg sounds - which I like.

I always try the "cube"; in my case - Mac mini running MainStage. But I don't think it could handle one of my gigs that require fast patch changes like the Kronos. I haven't pushed it to its limits. I also have the first M1 version - which is capped at 16GB.

yeskeys · Post by **yeskeys** » Mon Jun 17, 2024 2:56 pm

Hi Aron, Eric from VA here, hope all is well.
No one talks about just using an M3. For gig work, I think it'd suffice....

CliveJ · Post by **CliveJ** » Mon Jun 17, 2024 3:39 pm

A “cube with a big screen” - isn’t that a laptop? which is what I now use live.

With the multitude of VST’s now available and many ways of running them I don’t see the point now in carting heavy, and possibly unreliable, keyboards to gigs. My back thanks me.

My K still has pride of place in my home studio where I use it to lay down backing tracks into CuBase which then get transferred to VST Live for gigs. I can sample the K if needed.

That said I would pay good money for a Kronos VST with Karma - Mr Kay: when your new version is out (and hopefully it won’t be bound to any particular manufacturer) you can count me in!

leland_iko_music · Post by **leland_iko_music** » Tue Jun 18, 2024 11:53 am

If the Kronos2 hadn't already been discontinued I would have gone for one instead of my PA5X (with which I'm not eccstatically happy -- but it was either that or the Nautilus whcih when trying out in a shop I found just too fiddly to try to navigate for "real-time" live stuff, and the lack of AT at the time was another negative point -- then again the AT on the PA5X isn't all that great either... The RH3 keyboard action on the Kronos was a major bonus ... neither the PA5X nor the Nautilus comes close to the feel of it.

Leland

Able · Post by **Able** » Thu Jun 20, 2024 10:42 am

Derek Cook wrote:I am praying they will come out with a VST version of the Kronos, either as a package or the individual sound engines. Poly61 and MS20 are already there but I rarely use those. AL-1 is pretty critical to me as is HD-1 with Wavesequencing and Karma.

All the other engines I could probably replace with other plugins these days, but it would be a lot of work, so if there was a VST Kronos which allowed me to get up and running with my PLG files, I would grab it in an instant!

Just noticed that in the upcoming Korg Collection 5, the Vox Continental and EP-1 engines are included. I doubt Korg will port over the SGX-2 or the HD-1 (mainly due to sample size and content), but who knows?

Sweat · Post by **Sweat** » Fri Jun 21, 2024 3:39 pm

With all of the amazing engines and features, the greatest is its ability to immediately select a setlist slot and steam huge multisample libraries from the SSD. I think many don't understand how powerful this is compared to the competition. Ram size is the only limit, so the next flagship would surely increase this.
Are there others that can do this without loading to ram? Roland, Yamaha, MainStage? I don't know. Please let me know.