Kronos or Montage ?

[GregC]

Kronos 2 ssd install speed compare
https://youtu.be/rX-ehEGdw2Y

Kronos 2 SSD install
https://youtu.be/srTk6FVRzTI

As for your other questions I definitely feel the Kronos 1 had a lot of issues. Users Reported crashing issues which was from overheating issues. Item=9SIAADY4B02543

that was 5 or 6 years ago. Not yesterday. Maybe you had some bad luck .

And making disparaging remarks about Korg based on your history from 2011/2012 is not entertaining today. I think its a mistake to insult Krome/Kross owners by saying its garbage.

If you like to swap out components, Thats fine. Many know about better SSD's. That a good SSD saves 10/15 seconds in boot time

By now, if an owner had the 1st gen Kronos, with a few problems, got it fixed.

Its easy to dig up 2011 - 2012 posts via google search

Make sense ? There is plenty to discuss currently.

Greg, these comments were in reply to my question as to whether the hardware changed significantly between the Kronos 1 & 2, not a disparagement of the Kronos itself. I thought the upgrades were mostly software, but was apparently mistaken.

Hi Fred, I appreciate your post. I did read it and got the hist of it.

But to have a poster throw in and state "Plus realizing the low end quality parts as an embarrassment." is disparaging. Its opinion, I realize.

I don't agree that the parts in my Kronos 88 , after 5 years are ' low end, an embarrassment ".

The negative remarks about the Krome, Kross are unnecessary here. They are price point type boards.

and to state that adding a 500 Meg SSD to the Kronos would halve the boot up time is untrue. It shaves 15 seconds.

I think its unfortunate to see remarks like this here. Fortunately, many of us seasoned Kronos owners have good knowledge and experience.

[Charlievv]

I think this went way off track to this original post { Montage/ Kronos }. I have an original Kronos {2011 +/-} Never had one single issue with this board. I added a second SSD and works great. The boot up time difference I think most would agree is minimal and not a big deal. Why not drop the pissing match and agree to disagree where needed and get on with it. Kronos is a great board with many great features and time tested in maintaining itself as still a current board 6 years later. That in itself is remarkable to me. You guys all have a vast amount of knowledge about this product but sometimes take it alittle too far and off track. Remember..... Kronos / Montage right?

[theshinenz]

I just think Kronos2ison has a classic case of "I own it so its definately the best model that ever existed, much better than anything else by far" LOL

Its understandable you can get excited about having a new toy, but some people can go a little overboard.

[enigmahack]

I wasn't going to jump in and offer any comments, but what the hell.

I own both the original Kronos 1 and the Kronos 2.

Boot times are slightly faster on the K2 yes. About 15 seconds or so, until you install the EXs 17/18 addon. Then it's about 4-5 seconds faster.

Then, I put in a significantly faster SSD in the K1, and when I load the exact same libraries in both, they take the exact same amount of time to boot up.

I'm pretty sure the SSD in my K1 is faster throughput-wise compared to my K2, but I'm happy to do a boot-up video to show that my K1 isn't a piece of disparaging garbage that I should probably be embarrassed of.

Oh, and for reference, with the exception of the beta/testing models, my serial number suggests to me that I have one of the 150 first models of the production K1 ever made. I haven't had build issues, keybed issues, boot issues or any other issue mentioned in this thread. (With the exception of the occasional double-triggering which was resolved with a software update and some very minor polyphony differences which is due purely to raw cpu processing power increase in the K2)

So for what that's worth... I have thousands of hours worth of experience on both boards. Subjective opinion aside, the differences are so minute, they're not worth wasting energy/time/opinions on.

[Kronos2ison]

Yeah a Montage vs Kronos thread turns into Kronos 1 vs Kronos 2 debate. Lol Trust me I never think what I own is the best. I am usually the first to disparage what I own and trash the manufacture for any short comings. Imagine you are a pro keyboard manufacture. Wouldn't you add a little extra cost to put best of the best parts inside? In a $3000 keyboard don't you feel it should have at least an Ipad 1st gen quality display? Lol When I do anything I strive to do my best and when I opened my Kronos1 I was kinda upset with the quality of stock ram, ssd and fan. Like the K1 stock ssd is junk. Lol I'm serious. It's like soooooooo thin light like a pop can. The stock fan in the K1 was terrible also. You can't add a 2nd drive and experience performance. You must remove the cheap parts and replace them with a new fresh install.


I do try to make the best decision but it doesn't make it right. I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feeling because they are still playing an old Kronos. I just gave "my" opinions of my K1 and K2 experience. I may still replace a faster SSD, better fan and lower latency ram to my K2 to squeeze every little ounce of speed.

[YamahaForums]

So I thought I would jump in on this thread and bring it back to the original topic as I have had the Montage 7 on loan from Yamaha since the end of January.

First I have to say there is NO comparison between Kronos and Montage. The only similarities are in the price and "think" Montage is actually the more expensive of the two?

Kronos is a monster of a workstation synth and I say that in the best possible way. It dwarfs everything else on the market and right now there is nothing comparable out there.

There is no point at all complaining about Montage and the way it works...or doesn't. You choose a keyboard to suit YOU, which is why many here own the Kronos. You don't "have" to buy a Montage. You only buy one if it does what you want it to do and if it doesn't then you look elsewhere.

Comparisons between Montage and Kronos are meaningless because these keyboards are aimed at very different people. Yamaha would argue that Kronos is a "workstation" in the traditional sense whereas Montage is a "performance synth" however for me this is where it all falls apart, not because Montage doesn't live up to that billing but because there are other, much cheaper "performance synths" out there. How does Yamaha justify the huge price tag of Montage? Is the "super knob" really that big a deal? Fun yes but technically groundbreaking?

So for me, even though I do like Montage, I really do not see any justification for it costing almost 3 grand for the Montage 7 and £3412 for the Montage 8. It's "almost" like they have taken the MOXF, stuck a bunch of performance controllers and a touch screen on it..plus of course the FM engine and somehow that is worth an extra two grand?

Personally I would buy a Montage....if it were half the price!

[benny ray]

So I thought I would jump in on this thread and bring it back to the original topic as I have had the Montage 7 on loan from Yamaha since the end of January.

First I have to say there is NO comparison between Kronos and Montage. The only similarities are in the price and "think" Montage is actually the more expensive of the two?

Kronos is a monster of a workstation synth and I say that in the best possible way. It dwarfs everything else on the market and right now there is nothing comparable out there.

There is no point at all complaining about Montage and the way it works...or doesn't. You choose a keyboard to suit YOU, which is why many here own the Kronos. You don't "have" to buy a Montage. You only buy one if it does what you want it to do and if it doesn't then you look elsewhere.

Comparisons between Montage and Kronos are meaningless because these keyboards are aimed at very different people. Yamaha would argue that Kronos is a "workstation" in the traditional sense whereas Montage is a "performance synth" however for me this is where it all falls apart, not because Montage doesn't live up to that billing but because there are other, much cheaper "performance synths" out there. How does Yamaha justify the huge price tag of Montage? Is the "super knob" really that big a deal? Fun yes but technically groundbreaking?

So for me, even though I do like Montage, I really do not see any justification for it costing almost 3 grand for the Montage 7 and £3412 for the Montage 8. It's "almost" like they have taken the MOXF, stuck a bunch of performance controllers and a touch screen on it..plus of course the FM engine and somehow that is worth an extra two grand?

Personally I would buy a Montage....if it were half the price!

Agree with everything you said but I like the AP and the keybed feels really good to me. I played one but have not spent as much time on one as you but I agree it is over priced for what it is. I will keep the Kronos for now and I still learn new tricks after 3 years of use.

[YamahaForums]

That's the thing about Kronos. It has great longevity. There is so much packed in there that I doubt you could ever really "need" another keyboard. Of course "wanting" another keyboard is an entirely different thing

I know Yamaha have software updates planned for Montage which will bring in extra features but that doesn't include any more synth engines. They would need to change hardware for that. I think this limits it's appeal. It's expensive and you know that perhaps within a couple of years they may bring out another Montage, perhaps with an extra synth engine or two.

[benny ray]

As much a I love the Kronos the AP's are the thing I cannot dial in to my liking. Any suggestions please post. I installed the Epic Grand for a friend of mine and really liked it. But I bought a Nord E5D 73 SW mostly for pianos and organ. But I assume the Epic Grand is the only piano that seems to do it for me although the German Grand is good.

[Derek Cook]

Ah, piano sounds are so subjective.

I quite like the SGX-2 sounds when I want a nice dreamy piano with loads of reverb - the sympathetic string resonance really helps bring it to life as well.

But if I want a cutting rock piano, then I still prefer my adapted "Stereo Piano" patch in my EX5!

I would be interested to know how well the Montage is doing compared to the Kronos, and still need to try a Montage to form my own opinion.

Workstation or something else. I am not really interested in a workstation as a workstation per se, I want a synth which is also a good master keyboard, but that may become less important with the way I plan to redo my live rig.

I will hopefully be in the market later in the year to look at a bottom tier replacement for my Yamaha EX5 (will be getting an EX5R for studio use to keep the EX5 sound) to complement my Kronos X 61 on the top tier. I will try the Montage then, but will probably also have a good look at the options as well.

[spaceman3]

So I thought I would jump in on this thread and bring it back to the original topic as I have had the Montage 7 on loan from Yamaha since the end of January.

First I have to say there is NO comparison between Kronos and Montage. The only similarities are in the price and "think" Montage is actually the more expensive of the two?

Kronos is a monster of a workstation synth and I say that in the best possible way. It dwarfs everything else on the market and right now there is nothing comparable out there.

There is no point at all complaining about Montage and the way it works...or doesn't. You choose a keyboard to suit YOU, which is why many here own the Kronos. You don't "have" to buy a Montage. You only buy one if it does what you want it to do and if it doesn't then you look elsewhere.

Comparisons between Montage and Kronos are meaningless because these keyboards are aimed at very different people. Yamaha would argue that Kronos is a "workstation" in the traditional sense whereas Montage is a "performance synth" however for me this is where it all falls apart, not because Montage doesn't live up to that billing but because there are other, much cheaper "performance synths" out there. How does Yamaha justify the huge price tag of Montage? Is the "super knob" really that big a deal? Fun yes but technically groundbreaking?

So for me, even though I do like Montage, I really do not see any justification for it costing almost 3 grand for the Montage 7 and £3412 for the Montage 8. It's "almost" like they have taken the MOXF, stuck a bunch of performance controllers and a touch screen on it..plus of course the FM engine and somehow that is worth an extra two grand?

Personally I would buy a Montage....if it were half the price!

I agree, MONTAGE should only be half the price.
Everything i love about YAMAHA synths (great romplers) i was able to get with an MX49.
MX49 was only $400 bucks.
It plays very good with my KRONOS.
When you look at all the routing of controller options you get with KRONOS, the MONTAGE super knob seems kind of limited.
If the MONTAGE would have added a 16 track audio recorder.
A full sampler.
A virtual analogue engine.
A real sequencer.
An SSD drive that streams.
Then it would be worth the price.
But thats just my opinion.

[GregC]

So I thought I would jump in on this thread and bring it ,

the MONTAGE super knob seems kind of limited.
If the MONTAGE would have added a 16 track audio recorder.
A full sampler.
A virtual analogue engine.
A real sequencer.
An SSD drive that streams.
Then it would be worth the price.
But thats just my opinion.

sounds like you want something like a Kronos

or a 2nd Kronos

[Bald Eagle]

So I thought I would jump in on this thread and bring it ,

the MONTAGE super knob seems kind of limited.
If the MONTAGE would have added a 16 track audio recorder.
A full sampler.
A virtual analogue engine.
A real sequencer.
An SSD drive that streams.
Then it would be worth the price.
But thats just my opinion.

sounds like you want something like a Kronos

or a 2nd Kronos

I think it was simply a marketing decision (albeit a bad one) to omit those features from the Montage. If it's a performance synth it doesn't have to directly compete with the Kronos. If the Montage was a workstation it would have a lot of catching up to do before it wins over Kronos.

[kronoSphere]

Derek Cook rightly says : "Ah, piano sounds are so subjective. Smile"
Suffice to listen to the compressed sound of the "HeyJude" song. No one before that song would have been happy with a piano like that
but then now...

[spaceman3]

So I thought I would jump in on this thread and bring it ,

the MONTAGE super knob seems kind of limited.
If the MONTAGE would have added a 16 track audio recorder.
A full sampler.
A virtual analogue engine.
A real sequencer.
An SSD drive that streams.
Then it would be worth the price.
But thats just my opinion.

sounds like you want something like a Kronos

or a 2nd Kronos

If i was able at this time to plunk down 3 grand for another instrument.
I would buy another KRONOS.
It would be awesome to have 2 KRONOS's.
Of course, you know, i am obsessed with KRONOS.