Korg Kronos, Motif XF or M3

[phil55]

Hi Phil. Where in Canada do you live? I'm in Toronto. I might know someone who could be interested in your Kronos. I presume it's a 61 key?

I live in Nova Scotia. It's a 73 key KRONOS.

If you're interested, or your friend is, perhaps continuing via private message would be appropriate rather than go off topic, too much, on this thread.

[bookemT]

I had the privilege of going to Sweetwater Sound in Ft Wayne, IN where they had almost every electric piano in the world & workstations hooked up ready to listen. It was my mission to find which was the best sounding grand piano sample out of the Motif, Kronos or Jupiter. I kept coming back to the Kronos as having the best sampled grand. I heard Yamaha's best Avant grand..can't remember the model name...anyway, I felt the Kronos still sounded better. The other instrument samples were very good and so it was my pick. Got a great deal for visiting their place which was pretty amazing and meeting Brendan, my sales dude.

[NuSkoolTone]

As Both an XS and Kronos owner, with some careful sample importing to the Kronos, there's really nothing the Kronos can't replace that the XS does.

[Venatt2]

If you enjoy programming your own sounds, and using dedicated engines for different sounds (organ, synth, sample based) it's hard to beat the Kronos. I don't think there is any workstation out there right now that hits all these areas as well as the Kronos. I use mine only live, and it means I have a CX3 organ clone with me, a PolySix, an MS20, a DX7 on steroids, VST-quality sampled pianos, an almost Kontakt-like sampler, a modern sounding VA synth, and a bunch more besides. Yet it all comes in one box with one interface and it's easy to mix and match sounds and build a setlist.

Then again the HD1 engine has some limits compared to the Motif sample based engine, e.g. you can only use two stereo oscillators (with velocity switches obviously) at the same time, whereas on the Motif you have eight (I think) and more options for activating them. I think the Motif lets you layer only four parts in a combination on the other hand, where you get sixteen in the Kronos. Polyphony admitting, of course. The Motif also has a nice pattern based sequencer for songwriting, as well as extensive arpeggiators. The Kronos has Karma which is incredibly powerful and does a host of other duties in addition to arpeggiating, but it is hard to master and you need to buy extra software to add your own patterns (although the on-board ones are numerous and are very adaptable).

The Kronos touch screen, even though the resolution is a little too high for its size, is a huge help for navigation compared to the Motif. I always find myself poking at the screen when I use other synths.

Overall, I would always try a synth in this price category before buying it.

What do you mean when you say the HD1 engine has some limits compared to the Motif sample based engine ? excuse my ignorance but is that the engine for sampling or the rom sampled sounds ?

[SanderXpander]

It's the same engine for sampling and ROM, there is no discernable difference in using either source. I don't have a Motif and only play one occasionally so my knowledge is limited and partly based on other people from this site. As far as I understand it, a Motif version of a Korg "program" can have eight "parts" which consist of velocity switched multisamples, each with their own filters, amps, envelopes, etc. You also get to set some conditions for when they play (e.g. only on pedal down). This allows for more variation and articulation options especially in the acoustic sounds (assuming the programmers actually used it). Since there are only two stereo oscillators with velocity switches per program on the Kronos in HD1, this is a little limited in comparison. You could approach this better on the Kronos by using a combi and combining different programs, but that doesn't give you the exact same amount of control.

It's a relatively small and very technical point, I'm only addressing it because you're about to spend a lot of money and sometimes what's small to one person is important to another.

Of course, this is only one of the nine engines. The others don't even have competition on the Motif.