Sampling: "Kronos is also a sampling powerhouse"

[jahrome]

Hello fellow Forum members. I am so excited about the Korg Kronos. I have been looking for the ultimate keyboard workstation with powerful sampling and sample editing tools. However, it seems actual sampling has been an after thought in the development of most keyboard workstations such as my very own Fantom G. I am hoping that Kronos is the answer to my dreams straight out the box or down the line when it receives any OS updates.

Advertised sampling capabilities:
Open Sampling system
*1 GB of onboard RAM (Video says 1 GB Ram)
16-bit/48 kHz sampling, *512 MB memory(spec sheets says 512 MB max)
Direct sampling (ripping) from audio CD
16 or 24 bit recording
4,000 samples/1,000 multisample locations
16 effect processors
Save/load sounds on internal 30 GB SSD, USB thumb drive, USB hard drives
Resample to USB drive
Audio/MIDI over USB
Supports Korg, Akai S1000/3000, Sound Font 2.0, Wav, Aiff formats
Export Wav and Aiff
Editing: truncate, normalize, time stretch, time slice, crossfade loop
6 inputs, 10 outputs


Questions:
1. What is the maximum user installable sampling RAM? RAM type?
2. How much factory installed samples on 30 GB SSD does it ship with?
3. Can you save or edit user created samples to SSD?
4. Are samples on SSD ready for immediate use (no loading)?



Adam Blackstone "It's gona change the game yo!"
Musical Director (Eminem, Janet Jackson, Drake, Maroon 5, Kanye West"

[ozy]

Adam Blackstone "It's gona change the game yo!"

it's possible, but when a guy ends his sentences with "yo" I usually check that I have an escape route ready, or a weapon available. If he is talking business.

In every other domain I just can't break in a hearty laugh.

Yo!

[SpIdErWeB]

1.) Apparently, it's 1Gb only

2.) 12 Gb are installed and installed on the 30 Gb SSD, from Factory

3.) Apparently the Sampling does save on the SSD, but there's no idea on copying, importing large bank in Wav, Aiff or other formats

4.) From what they did announced: Yep, there's no loading time in memory or RAM. There's immediate streaming from the SSD for any of the 12 Gb of sounds. From what I understand, they do use the RAM as a Virtual Memory Buffer between the SSD and the system (VMT). So, it's completely transparent for the user and you just select any sound on the SSD and you can immediately play with... pretty smart

[AnthonyB]

1.) 3.) Apparently the Sampling does save on the SSD, but there's no idea on copying, importing large bank in Wav, Aiff or other formats

I wonder though, can you create samples in ram, save them to the 30Gig SSD, an THEN access then from streaming like the 12 gig presets?. I have lots of akai sample CD's that need loading in the oasys (or hard drive), being able to select these in the same way as the 12 gig sounds wwould be very good (or something similar to the way LIONSTRACS work

[SpIdErWeB]

Apparently... yes.

But I say "apparently" because I'm not 100% sure. From what I understood:
- You can import Akai CD in memory
- You can have up to 1Gb of Sampling (enough to cover the whole CD)
- Samples in memory can be saved in the SSD
- You can play anything from SSD with streaming and VMT

So, if we do combine all that, we should be able to do it... but in reality, I don't know... yet!

Stay tuned?
Phil

[LiqMat]

Then, of course, is the SSD user upgradeable? If so, maximum format space? I know on my MV-8800 I could upgrade the 40GB to a maximum of 128GB (160GB which would format to a maximum of 127.99GB, MV's internal storage limit) which Roland did not officially endorse, but it worked like a charm.

[SpIdErWeB]

I don't think Korg will allow anything like that, but technically, any motherboard today do support 1 or 2 Tb drive.

I would need to see the board inside the Kronos, but I'm quiet sure they use the SATA port for the SSD. So you could install a larger SSD such 512 Gb (if you do have the budget).

But, then you will need to restore all data on the drive (OS, sounds, and so on). Having a faster SSD should also virtually increase the polyphony, but it will be limited in the OS for sure.

So technically, there's surely some room for modification, but in fact, Korg won't let us do it

I'm also interested to swap the SSD for a bigger one... Pretty soon, even a 512 Go will be affordable!!

[kday]

Questions:
1. What is the maximum user installable sampling RAM? RAM type?
2. How much factory installed samples on 30 GB SSD does it ship with?
3. Can you save or edit user created samples to SSD?
4. Are samples on SSD ready for immediate use (no loading)?

Answers:

1. 273mb that get ate up by addition of more synth engines being used.

" The memory available for RAM samples will change based on the use of Expansion PCM libraries. About 273MB is available when shipped from the factory (when loading the file named “PRELOAD.KSC”)."

2. 12GB factory preset. User sampled sounds=None

3. So far no, it notes samples are intended for load/save to external usb devices only.

4. Onboard ROM samples only that are stored on SSD I would assume would take a few seconds to load.


I don't think you can save user samples to the SSD drive. I'm sure they could implement this in a future update if they wanted to though.

And if you could store the sample to SSD you would still need seconds to load for larger instruments. But once loaded they would instantly playable until you cut the machine off again.

[Dr. Who]

Questions:
1. What is the maximum user installable sampling RAM? RAM type?
2. How much factory installed samples on 30 GB SSD does it ship with?
3. Can you save or edit user created samples to SSD?
4. Are samples on SSD ready for immediate use (no loading)?

Answers:

1. 273mb that get ate up by addition of more synth engines being used.

" The memory available for RAM samples will change based on the use of Expansion PCM libraries. About 273MB is available when shipped from the factory (when loading the file named “PRELOAD.KSC”)."

2. 12GB factory preset. User sampled sounds=None

3. So far no, it notes samples are intended for load/save to external usb devices only.

4. Onboard ROM samples only that are stored on SSD I would assume would take a few seconds to load.


I don't think you can save user samples to the SSD drive. I'm sure they could implement this in a future update if they wanted to though.

And if you could store the sample to SSD you would still need seconds to load for larger instruments. But once loaded they would instantly playable until you cut the machine off again.

So are you speaking from experience or inside knowledge here or speculation? It would be a huge downer if what you say is true. I'm not sure if you've used SSD drives before but they are lightning quick with little to no load time. I had thought (total speculation) by using the SSD that Korg was employing disk streaming similar to the larger softwre sample engines (i.e. Kontakt), there is some load time for patches but disk streaming allows for round robin and all sort of great sample manipulation to achive some incredible results. One of the biggest flaws in the OASYS aside from the sequnecer IMHO was the limitation of 2GB of sample ram. I ran out of sample ram very very quickly and had to pick and choose what sounds from each library that I wanted to use and then load them into ram, plus I had to deactivate the piano EX. Making everything a huge pain. I was hoping Korg learned from that and would allow samples for use in patches to be stored on the SSD. I hope this is the case. If not... I can't see myself wanting to own a Kronos. Oh yeah... and please let it have more patch storage than the OASYS. So many synth engines and so little patch storage, with no librarian... you run out of pacth locations very quickly with all of those wonderful engines; the OASYS was made to create sound the Kronos will be no different!

[SpIdErWeB]

I might be wrong, but on one of the Youtube video, the guy said the sampling could be stored on the drive (pointing the keyboard) and then add as well as USB drive, etc...

I can't remember which video, but I'm quite sure!

[WorknMan]

Questions:
1. What is the maximum user installable sampling RAM? RAM type?
2. How much factory installed samples on 30 GB SSD does it ship with?
3. Can you save or edit user created samples to SSD?
4. Are samples on SSD ready for immediate use (no loading)?

Answers:

1. 273mb that get ate up by addition of more synth engines being used.

" The memory available for RAM samples will change based on the use of Expansion PCM libraries. About 273MB is available when shipped from the factory (when loading the file named “PRELOAD.KSC”)."

2. 12GB factory preset. User sampled sounds=None

3. So far no, it notes samples are intended for load/save to external usb devices only.

4. Onboard ROM samples only that are stored on SSD I would assume would take a few seconds to load.


I don't think you can save user samples to the SSD drive. I'm sure they could implement this in a future update if they wanted to though.

And if you could store the sample to SSD you would still need seconds to load for larger instruments. But once loaded they would instantly playable until you cut the machine off again.

So are you speaking from experience or inside knowledge here or speculation?

I think he's speaking from common sense. If you could store user samples on the SSD drive and (especially) stream them directly from the drive, that would be HUGE. Don't you think that would've been all over their marketing materials and video demos?

So no, I think all we get is 1gb of sample RAM (minus whatever the synth engines are eating up), with samples being loaded from USB. Perhaps loading samples from the SSD will come in a future update, but I like to assume that no future updates will ever come out if I buy a synth, so at least that way I am pleasantly surprised when they do, instead of being pissed off when they don't.

[synthskier]

From Korg's website: "Once again, our SSD and Virtual Memory Technology (VMT) gives the HD-1 access to a larger sample set – gigabytes in size – than could be normally stored using internal memory. The HD-1 covers all of the essential sounds in exquisite detail, from orchestral to classic rock to hip-hop, all instantly available." (bold added)

And from the specs page:
"HD-1 High Definition Synthesizer (PCM Virtual Memory Technology)"

One of Korg's official videos echoed the statement that the Kronos offers instant access to all 12Gb of sampled content.

So yes, of course, user samples saved to the SSD can be streamed just as easily. It's just a simple matter of selecting a User multisample for an HD-1 oscillator.

Yes, this IS huge.

My guess is that the RAM is where samples would be edited using the, um, sample editing functions. I expect they can be played as RAM multisamples just like OASYS / M3 / Tritons. Once saved to the SSD, they can STILL be played as multisamples, but they can't be edited nearly as much (without being loaded back to RAM). The Motif XF functions like this as well. You can play multisamples back from the flash memory (up to 2Gb), but if you want to edit the samples on the keyboard, you must do that in the 128Mb RAM.

[EvilDragon]

From Korg's website: "Once again, our SSD and Virtual Memory Technology (VMT) gives the HD-1 access to a larger sample set – gigabytes in size – than could be normally stored using internal memory. The HD-1 covers all of the essential sounds in exquisite detail, from orchestral to classic rock to hip-hop, all instantly available." (bold added)

And from the specs page:
"HD-1 High Definition Synthesizer (PCM Virtual Memory Technology)"

One of Korg's official videos echoed the statement that the Kronos offers instant access to all 12Gb of sampled content.

So yes, of course, user samples saved to the SSD can be streamed just as easily. It's just a simple matter of selecting a User multisample for an HD-1 oscillator.

Yes, this IS huge.

My guess is that the RAM is where samples would be edited using the, um, sample editing functions. I expect they can be played as RAM multisamples just like OASYS / M3 / Tritons. Once saved to the SSD, they can STILL be played as multisamples, but they can't be edited nearly as much (without being loaded back to RAM). The Motif XF functions like this as well. You can play multisamples back from the flash memory (up to 2Gb), but if you want to edit the samples on the keyboard, you must do that in the 128Mb RAM.

I also firmly hope that this is true.

[macalister]

From Korg's website: "Once again, our SSD and Virtual Memory Technology (VMT) gives the HD-1 access to a larger sample set – gigabytes in size – than could be normally stored using internal memory. The HD-1 covers all of the essential sounds in exquisite detail, from orchestral to classic rock to hip-hop, all instantly available." (bold added)

And from the specs page:
"HD-1 High Definition Synthesizer (PCM Virtual Memory Technology)"

One of Korg's official videos echoed the statement that the Kronos offers instant access to all 12Gb of sampled content.

So yes, of course, user samples saved to the SSD can be streamed just as easily. It's just a simple matter of selecting a User multisample for an HD-1 oscillator.

Yes, this IS huge.

My guess is that the RAM is where samples would be edited using the, um, sample editing functions. I expect they can be played as RAM multisamples just like OASYS / M3 / Tritons. Once saved to the SSD, they can STILL be played as multisamples, but they can't be edited nearly as much (without being loaded back to RAM). The Motif XF functions like this as well. You can play multisamples back from the flash memory (up to 2Gb), but if you want to edit the samples on the keyboard, you must do that in the 128Mb RAM.

I also firmly hope that this is true.

UNTRUE

user samples CAN NOTsaved to the SSD YET,yet with luck with some future update, who knows, but from now on 12GB is more than...Yamaha XF won this issue, for now...life goes on ...

[billysynth1]

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Post removed.

Billy