The New Kronos!!!

lonelagranger · Post by **lonelagranger** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 6:24 pm

Thank you for the clarification. I didn't mean to come off as high minded or respond in an inappropriate way. After posting I did feel as though I may have gone over the top. I love my Kronos very much. I appreciate what some of the other people have said on this thread just before your post. Maybe I am being to concerned about something that is just a feeling and not a reality. The Kronos is the most expensive keyboard that I have purchased so I wanted to be sure not to break it. I normally played the Roland G8 for classical music. It's keybed seems heavier to me and able to with stand some pounding. I have broken three keyboards in the past when I got carried away playing. The key weights seem to break off. This happened to me when I was playing the last page of the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C# miner. It is as passage that requires double fisted chords played very loud. That is when the keyboard gave out. The boards that broke were a Roland A90, Oberheim MC3000, which is supposed to be the king of controllers. I had to repair it three times. The other was my Korg Triton Studio. Maybe I am just a clutz at the keyboard. Anyway, I will try and not be so concerned with the Kronos and hope for the best. I do appreciate all of the help that I have received over the years on this forum.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 6:36 pm

FWIW, the A90 is kinda notorious for broken hammers. I don't know about the Oberheim. Was it very old?

lonelagranger · Post by **lonelagranger** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 7:38 pm

No, the Oberheim was not old. It was really a great master controller. 8 midi in 8 midi out 1,024 presets. It weighed about 70 lbs. I think is was a production problem. It was always the key weights that would break. I learned later about the A90. Good controller, bad keybed.

JohnDonovan · Post by **JohnDonovan** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:56 pm

To back up other people's opinions of the Kronos action: I'm also a heavier player than some; to the point that I've selected a slightly lower velocity curve from the default to match the way I play and get dynamic range I want.

I specified three Kronos 88 for a show I was working on coming up for two years ago now: one had the double trigger problem and Korg swiftly replaced the action for me; but beyond that the boards did 8 shows a week plus rehearsals, and one has then carried on to be my main studio board at home & on tours. I have no concerns that the action may be 'destroyed' any time soon!

Having said that I was depping on someone else's gig/gear the last week and the new Kurzweil they're using had a problem where whenever I hit the keys with any force the screen would flicker like it was about to die! Very worrying on a big gig that the keyboard may die any minute!

Shambler · Post by **Shambler** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:33 pm

I've pre-ordered a 73 key K2, roll on January!

Tschury · Post by **Tschury** » Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:57 pm

lonelagranger wrote:No, the Oberheim was not old. It was really a great master controller. 8 midi in 8 midi out 1,024 presets. It weighed about 70 lbs. I think is was a production problem. It was always the key weights that would break. I learned later about the A90. Good controller, bad keybed.

The early produced A-90s had a metarial fault of the hammer's metal weight sourrounding plastic and some other minor design errors. When the first hammer lost its metal weight, Roland sent me a full replacement hammer set for free, with an improved and changed design, which they also used in later produced A-90s. Since then (more than a decade ago), I never had any issues with the A-90. It has an almost indestructible design.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Fri Nov 21, 2014 1:24 am

Shambler wrote:I've pre-ordered a 73 key K2, roll on January!

Great ! You are the first

Let's see a complete review after the first day.

No pressure !

Shambler · Post by **Shambler** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 5:31 pm

GregC wrote:
Shambler wrote:I've pre-ordered a 73 key K2, roll on January!
Great ! You are the first

Let's see a complete review after the first day.

No pressure !

Probably won't see me for weeks let alone a day

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 5:36 pm

Shambler wrote:
GregC wrote:
Shambler wrote:I've pre-ordered a 73 key K2, roll on January!
Great ! You are the first

Let's see a complete review after the first day.

No pressure !
Probably won't see me for weeks let alone a day

ok, weeks become months in Kronos land

we will settle for a youtube

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sat Nov 22, 2014 7:55 pm

GregC wrote:
Shambler wrote:
GregC wrote: Great ! You are the first

Let's see a complete review after the first day.

No pressure !
Probably won't see me for weeks let alone a day
ok, weeks become months in Kronos land
we will settle for a youtube

Are we back again to: Don't forget to eat, hydrate, sleep, breathe, etc?

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:24 am

Regarding the durability of the Kronos' keyboard, I've never had a problem and I also tend to be a bit heavy handed. Although not as much as I used to be when I used to break Fender Rhodes' tines. So far I haven't managed to accidentally damage my Kronos and I have a very early one.
I don't think anybody needs to worry about this at all.

jeremykeys · Post by **jeremykeys** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:33 am

I should have added this in my previous post: If you are finding that you need to hit the keys so hard that you are worried that you might damage your Kronos, perhaps you have the wrong keyboard. I am in no way belittling a persons playing technique but I think that the chances are you are playing with a piano sound. If this is the case, perhaps a dedicated high end electric piano would be better suited to your needs.

I am a classically trained pianist From the Royal Conservatory of Music here in Toronto so I kind of do have an idea about just how hard somebody can hit the keys, especially during a svarzsando segment. Forgive my bad spelling!

How about we just let the music live!

lonelagranger · Post by **lonelagranger** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:13 pm

jeremykeys, thank you for your kind post. Thank you for giving me your opinion on my concerns. I normally play the Roland G8 with Ivory for classical playing. The G8 is built much heavier than the Kronos. I think the feeling of playing the G8 with its sold chassis gave me the feeling of a solid keybed comparable to an acoustic piano. When playing the Kronos the light weight makes for a response through the entire structure when striking notes with much force. I think it is a matter of the entire keyboard absorbing all the energy. As you say the keys will not break and go ahead and don't worry. I won't argue with all the people who have had no problem with heavy handed playing of their Kronos.

I guess to make a long story short what I am trying to say is that when you sit down to a grand piano, you can play as you like and the instrument will not move other than strings, soundboard and mechanical key parts. When I play on the Kronos in the same style it will move or jump, these are very small increments, which makes me feel as though I should not risk hitting the keys any harder. I hope this makes sense. Anyway, I do believe all of these posters and will not worry about my Kronos. Thank you all for straightening me out in this matter. I appreciate all the time in addressing this issues for me.

JohnDonovan · Post by **JohnDonovan** » Sun Nov 23, 2014 11:24 pm

lonelagranger wrote: I guess to make a long story short what I am trying to say is that when you sit down to a grand piano, you can play as you like and the instrument will not move other than strings, soundboard and mechanical key parts. When I play on the Kronos in the same style it will move or jump, these are very small increments, which makes me feel as though I should not risk hitting the keys any harder.

I may be getting the wrong idea from what you've said, but perhaps you need to think about whether it's a problem with the stand you're using for the Kronos rather than an issue with the Kronos itself? For years I used X-frame style stands for various keyboards and put up with the wobbling that they do have when playing. Now generally I use one of the more solid stands which has four legs going straight down & that makes for a much more solid base to play on.

BobTheDog · Post by **BobTheDog** » Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:25 pm

jeremykeys wrote:I should have added this in my previous post: If you are finding that you need to hit the keys so hard that you are worried that you might damage your Kronos, perhaps you have the wrong keyboard. I am in no way belittling a persons playing technique but I think that the chances are you are playing with a piano sound. If this is the case, perhaps a dedicated high end electric piano would be better suited to your needs.

I am a classically trained pianist From the Royal Conservatory of Music here in Toronto so I kind of do have an idea about just how hard somebody can hit the keys, especially during a svarzsando segment. Forgive my bad spelling!

How about we just let the music live!

I think also it depends on what version of the keyed you have, on mine you have to really smash the keys to get over 100 velocity to reach some of the higher velocity layers.