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Hi folks! I've thinking of the future of Kronos, which I have since 2011 and never had a problem, only the lack of some sounds.

I've purchased some 3rd party sound libraries from the Korg page for covering prog rock vintage synth sounds, and that sounded almost fine for me, but you can't compare that with a complete VST with dedicated gigabytes of samples to emulate an entire synth perfectly sampled.

I also have purchased Korg software products for iPad/iPhone/Mac/PC: the iM1, the Triton Extreme, the Korg Collection, etc and many from other brands to get a decent CP70 for example.

The problem (for me) is that Korg doesn't have the complete closed circle speaking of their software synths and their flagship workstation. For me, the present/future of the gigging musician is a good workstation and some VSTs, in terms of portability and sound palettes.

They have to open the architecture more in next model to get the Korg VST software synths inside the Kronos as new engines, only the Korg branded for full compatibility, and in the future let other brands make the transition so they have the VST and the Kronos VST versions. 3rd party samples are one thing, but complete recreations of synth are another, so they have to be "engines". Is this possible?

What do you think?

PD: In terms of physical changes, I'll love to see the joystick/SW/ribbon in the upper left, so the width of the keyboard will be the same of the keybed, that means more portability like the Nord Stage, Yamaha CP73/88, etc. and less buttons/knobs/sliders and a screen like the Oasys or bigger.

I totally agree. This was discussed back in 2016.

I think the community sees this as an exciting direction, but unless Korg can find a way to make it a profitable business, we won't see it.
Korg seems to be satisfied to develop cost-reduced versions of the Kronos and offer new color schemes, rather than advancing the platform and architecture.

I totally agree. This was discussed back in 2016.

I think the community sees this as an exciting direction, but unless Korg can find a way to make it a profitable business, we won't see it.
Korg seems to be satisfied to develop cost-reduced versions of the Kronos and offer new color schemes, rather than advancing the platform and architecture.

I totally agree. This was discussed back in 2016.

I think the community sees this as an exciting direction, but unless Korg can find a way to make it a profitable business, we won't see it.
Korg seems to be satisfied to develop cost-reduced versions of the Kronos and offer new color schemes, rather than advancing the platform and architecture.

Apologies for the multiple posts. I kept getting "Could not connect to smtp host : 0 : php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known.

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so I tried posting again.

timg11 wrote:Apologies for the multiple posts.

JFYI: you can delete your own posts if no one has replied after them. Just click edit and check the "delete" checkbox. With four of them, you would likely have to work backwards from the last one. Of course, now that I replied, no longer possible. And yes, I also get the Debug message.

romanoviedo wrote:Hi folks! I've thinking of the future of Kronos, which I have since 2011 and never had a problem, only the lack of some sounds.

I've purchased some 3rd party sound libraries from the Korg page for covering prog rock vintage synth sounds, and that sounded almost fine for me, but you can't compare that with a complete VST with dedicated gigabytes of samples to emulate an entire synth perfectly sampled.

I also have purchased Korg software products for iPad/iPhone/Mac/PC: the iM1, the Triton Extreme, the Korg Collection, etc and many from other brands to get a decent CP70 for example.

The problem (for me) is that Korg doesn't have the complete closed circle speaking of their software synths and their flagship workstation. For me, the present/future of the gigging musician is a good workstation and some VSTs, in terms of portability and sound palettes.

They have to open the architecture more in next model to get the Korg VST software synths inside the Kronos as new engines, only the Korg branded for full compatibility, and in the future let other brands make the transition so they have the VST and the Kronos VST versions. 3rd party samples are one thing, but complete recreations of synth are another, so they have to be "engines". Is this possible?

What do you think?

PD: In terms of physical changes, I'll love to see the joystick/SW/ribbon in the upper left, so the width of the keyboard will be the same of the keybed, that means more portability like the Nord Stage, Yamaha CP73/88, etc. and less buttons/knobs/sliders and a screen like the Oasys or bigger.

3rd party synth engines I believe is possible. Wasn't the Oasys at one time promised to have more synth engines? My only concern would be stability. Anytime you start including another company there's a risk of stability issues. Other then that. 3rd party engines is a awesome idea

biggrime wrote:
3rd party synth engines I believe is possible. Wasn't the Oasys at one time promised to have more synth engines?

The prototype OASYS that was shown many years ago at NAMM was an open architecture synth. Getting new synth engines was a matter of loading in new software. That’s why I was very disappointed when Korg didn’t come out with that, but slapped the name OASYS on a fixed multi-engine synth. The closest Korg has come to that is the digital oscillator in the Prologue.

I don’t see Korg as being interested in advancing the state of the art anymore. And with the chip shortage, it’s even less likely that Korg will come out with a successor to the Kronos or the OASYS.

ITguy54 wrote:The prototype OASYS that was shown many years ago at NAMM was an open architecture synth.

OASYS = Open Architecture SYnthesizer System

KRONOS = Korg Repackages Oasys as Non-Open System

That is a hilarious bacronym. KRONOS, hehehe.

I know from looking through the disassembled machine code for the Kronos that there were certainly provisions for new effects to be added, as there are routines for checking the license keys for additional effects. However I’m not sure if these effects could be dynamically loaded, or whether they’d be built into the Kronos and then activated through additional purchases.

timg11 wrote:

ITguy54 wrote:The prototype OASYS that was shown many years ago at NAMM was an open architecture synth.

OASYS = Open Architecture SYnthesizer System

KRONOS = Korg Repackages Oasys as Non-Open System

Yeah Korg called it the OASYS, even though it wasn’t an open architecture system like the prototype at NAMM.

The architecture was open for Korg to add new elements to the system over time, which they did. It was not open for third parties to add to. This seems to be a common misconception about the OASYS. Perhaps Korg could have used different language to describe it to avoid the confusion.

hackjo wrote:The architecture was open for Korg to add new elements to the system over time, which they did. It was not open for third parties to add to. This seems to be a common misconception about the OASYS. Perhaps Korg could have used different language to describe it to avoid the confusion.

The use of a Linux-based operating system may have given the impression that the software could be user-extensible. Linux provided an off-the-shelf multitasking OS for the benefit of Korg software developers but not for end-users. Ultimately no open source software or public APIs were provided, though there might have been some early indications that there could be.

The OASYS was also novel in the sense that it made use of a PC-like design using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) hardware components, not that it provided an open architecture for users. OA in the name was mostly marketing. A better name that doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well, unless you're Sheena Easton, could have been:

Synthesizer using Commercial Off The Shelf Hardware

SCOTSH

The COTS/Linux approach must have worked out pretty well for Korg in the long term, given that the ModWave, WaveState and OpSix are all based on cheap raspberry Pis and Linux.

I recently learned that there is a "Roland Cloud", something like the Korg Collection. Hopefully all brands continue down this path of recreating classic synthesizers and having them available as software. If they could only be loaded on the Kronos (or its Roland equivalent for the Roland Cloud), it would be PERFECT! And if the brands do not want to make it compatible, for example, the JD-800 for the Kronos, we will always have the option of having them on a Mac / PC / iPad to accompany the Kronos, it would also be very portable and convenient for the gigging musician.