How I came to be the owner of a 1-day old Kronos

[SeedyLee]

For many years, I have been the proud owner of a Triton Le 61, which I absoultely adored. When the original Triton was released I was about 15 years old, and I revered it. I poured over magazine articles detailing every aspect of this magnificent beast. When the Le was released, I saved every ounce of my meagre student earnings to buy the closest I could afford to the original Triton I lusted over.

For years, the LE has served me very well. It's an extremly competent machine, and I know every nuance of its operation.

A few months ago, I also purchased a Roland JV-80, which was in bad shape and needed restoration. I meticulously cleaned or replaced every pot, fader, switch and socekt until it was like new. It was my second child.

Then tragedy struck. A contractor working on the roof of my townhouse inadvertently managed to get water all over my beloved Triton and Roland. There was dust and water everywhere.

During this time of desperation, I gave in, and ordered a Kronos 61. Yesterday, five weeks after I placed my order, it arrived - unit number 2663.

It is a magnificent machine, it sounds brilliant, has every feature I found lacking on the LE and is much easier to use (even if I had memorised all the page number shortcuts on the LE!).

So, any tips for a newbie Kronos owner, powerful features that may not be obvious or just cool things you've found?

Incidentally, both the LE and Roland were repaired and are now working fine - the liquid ingress wasn't as bad as I first feared. But now I must decide what to do with the LE - the Kronos bests it in almost every aspect, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

Any thoughts on the LE? Should I hang on to it? Sell it? Make it into a coffee table? Is there anything the LE can do that the Kronos can't (arpeggiator is one that springs to mind).

[GregC]

For many years, I have been the proud owner of a Triton Le 61, which I absoultely adored. When the original Triton was released I was about 15 years old, and I revered it. I poured over magazine articles detailing every aspect of this magnificent beast. When the Le was released, I saved every ounce of my meagre student earnings to buy the closest I could afford to the original Triton I lusted over.

For years, the LE has served me very well. It's an extremly competent machine, and I know every nuance of its operation.

A few months ago, I also purchased a Roland JV-80, which was in bad shape and needed restoration. I meticulously cleaned or replaced every pot, fader, switch and socekt until it was like new. It was my second child.

Then tragedy struck. A contractor working on the roof of my townhouse inadvertently managed to get water all over my beloved Triton and Roland. There was dust and water everywhere.

During this time of desperation, I gave in, and ordered a Kronos 61. Yesterday, five weeks after I placed my order, it arrived - unit number 2663.

It is a magnificent machine, it sounds brilliant, has every feature I found lacking on the LE and is much easier to use (even if I had memorised all the page number shortcuts on the LE!).

So, any tips for a newbie Kronos owner, powerful features that may not be obvious or just cool things you've found?

Incidentally, both the LE and Roland were repaired and are now working fine - the liquid ingress wasn't as bad as I first feared. But now I must decide what to do with the LE - the Kronos bests it in almost every aspect, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

Any thoughts on the LE? Should I hang on to it? Sell it? Make it into a coffee table? Is there anything the LE can do that the Kronos can't (arpeggiator is one that springs to mind).

the LE is really old. Go to ebay and check completed listings to determine used value. See if that figure is worth letting go of a few fav old sounds.

[Korgstream]

SeedyLee, i shure you should sell your Triton LE.
Kronos is absolutely different level than Triton LE in all aspects.
Sell your LE and buy a good monitors. Right monitors is very important part in the end of sound chain. Kronos need a good amp and good monitors.
Roland JV its just another taste of sound. Dont compare it with your Kronos.
Sorry, for my English.

[EXer]

If you sell your old Triton Le you'll probably get next to nothing and I bet you'll end up regretting having sold it. Of course the Kronos is a much more powerful and versatile machine, but maybe there are sounds in your Triton Le you want to keep, and Karma won't replace its arpeggiator which you could still use to trigger Kronos sounds via MIDI.

[michelkeijzers]

Normally I don't sell old synths since they are worth almost nothing.

I use two synths while playing gigs, one as Master and other as just a slave keyboard. I use I TEX as slave (I know, it's a bit 'decadent' to use it as only MIDI keyboard, but in case the Kronos might fail I always could use the TEX instead.

And I have a few others at home so I only need to carry the Kronos back and forth to the rehearsal room. And the oldest is in the living room in case I just want to play for a few minutes.

[jeebustrain]

I'd definitely say keep it if you have the room and aren't hard up for cash. They're right when they say you probably won't get what you think it's worth... Plus, as much as it pales in comparison, I'd love to be able to still have my old Korg N5 - it was my first "modern" synth (first actual one was my Micromoog). It started acting up about 7-8 years ago and I tossed it in the trash out of haste and frustration once when I was moving. I don't know if I could have fixed it, but it would have been nice to have still had it.

[PianoManChuck]

That's how I felt about my Triton Pro/X Classic (which I had for 11 years) until the Kronos 88 arrived. The day the Kronos came, I put the Triton in its case and there it sat - for 2 months - unused, collecting dust. I knew that after the Kronos I would never even open up the case again, let alone play the Triton. So I took it apart (all the add-ons) and sold everything on eBay (you get more for everything in pieces - meaning selling the add-ons seperately - than you do selling it all in one). I have no regrets... it was a fantastic instrument, but now that the Kronos is here, I just can't justify storing something that I'd never even look at again, let alone use. I do have another digital piano - a Privia PX-330, that's the one I take whenever I need to go on the road with a synth for any reason - its light weight at 88 keys, sounds great, and not nearly as costly as the Kronos so I don't need to constantly worry about something happening to it.

[Chriskk]

If you sell your old Triton Le you'll probably get next to nothing

$400 is not next to nothing AFAIC.

[SeedyLee]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. It's really interesting to hear people's perspectives, particularly with respect to collecting old tech.

I'm in two minds to keep it: On the one hand, it was my first "proper" synth, and I have a reasonably large body of sounds and samples I've created for it. I may or may not move all of these over to the Kronos (since the PCGs ae not compatible).

I like the fact that the Triton is a "real" hardware synth, rather than essentially a software synth like the Kronos. Even though it makes no practical difference whatsoever, it's nice having an example of a "real" hardware sampler/rompler in my collection. (Might sound stange, but I have a bit of a weird fetish for systems architechture!)

Space for it is more of an issue than the money: that being said, as I have the sampler board and a bunch of SCSI drives etc for it, could probably get ~$500 for it in Australia, which is about 15% of the purchase price of the Kronos.

My latest thought is perhaps I should sell it and get a Motif rack or similar for the same money, and expand my sonic palette?

Damn me and my sentimentality for inanimate objects!

[kingtj]

I just ordered a Kronos 73-key myself, last week, and am hoping it arrives in today's mail. Right now, I've got a 61-key Triton Extreme I've used since it first came out as well as an 88-key MIDI controller.

I can really appreciate the "instant on" nature of the Triton, compared to waiting something like 2 minutes for the Kronos to boot up before it can even be played!

The "hardware synth" vs. "soft synth" thing is otherwise a non-issue, since in reality, they're ALL running software anyway, unless you're talking about a true analog synth. But traditionally, musical instruments are always ready to play on a moment's notice. The switch to a synth having an operating system that actually has to be loaded into RAM from "fixed storage" ruins all of that.

So yeah, that fundamental difference makes the Kronos more parallel to using a PC or a Mac, despite it all being housed in a synth enclosure.

I think I'm really going to enjoy the Kronos and I'll probably wind up parting with my Triton Extreme ... but I realize that in doing so, I've made the decision to convert to the computer-like model of making electronic music, where I have to deal with boot-up times.

If I had more space, I'd keep both synths.

Wow, thanks for all the replies. It's really interesting to hear people's perspectives, particularly with respect to collecting old tech.

I'm in two minds to keep it: On the one hand, it was my first "proper" synth, and I have a reasonably large body of sounds and samples I've created for it. I may or may not move all of these over to the Kronos (since the PCGs ae not compatible).

I like the fact that the Triton is a "real" hardware synth, rather than essentially a software synth like the Kronos. Even though it makes no practical difference whatsoever, it's nice having an example of a "real" hardware sampler/rompler in my collection. (Might sound stange, but I have a bit of a weird fetish for systems architechture!)

Space for it is more of an issue than the money: that being said, as I have the sampler board and a bunch of SCSI drives etc for it, could probably get ~$500 for it in Australia, which is about 15% of the purchase price of the Kronos.

My latest thought is perhaps I should sell it and get a Motif rack or similar for the same money, and expand my sonic palette?

Damn me and my sentimentality for inanimate objects!

[PianoManChuck]

I can really appreciate the "instant on" nature of the Triton, compared to waiting something like 2 minutes for the Kronos to boot up before it can even be played!

I had a Triton prior to the Kronos. It was NOT "instant on"... there was about a 30-second wait (mine was connected to external SCSI devices that it needed to handshake with before becoming "ready to play").

But traditionally, musical instruments are always ready to play on a moment's notice.

That's only true if the instrument is perfectly tuned... usually, guitars need tuning, and any concert piano needs tuning prior to a performance. Drum sets also need tuning, all string instruments need tuning, etc.
The 2+ minute wait is well worth the wait for all the capabilities it has to offer... its not just an instrument, nor is it just a snyth anymore. Its a 32-track sequencer (16 track MIDI + 16 track AUDIO) and editor, sampler, effects processor, computer w/ GUI interface, drum machine, and a multitude more that would fill this page. To have all that capability at your fingertips in one box is nothing short of amazing, and well worth the 2+ minute wait every time I flip that power switch to ON.

[jick]

Damn me and my sentimentality for inanimate objects!

I hear you LOL.. I would not sell the triton, given the amount of money you'll get for it. I regret selling my very first keyboard, a Yamaha PSR540, since I got almost nothing for it, compared to the new prize.

It's nice to have a collection and I am not going to sell any more synths from now on, except my Fantom G6 which will be sold this saturday (too much overlap with my Motif XS8 and soon coming Kronos 73).

[SeedyLee]

Done, the Triton stays.

Even if I don't end up using it much as a tone generator, I've got it hooked up to my Motu 828 to use as an external effects unit via the sampler, and it never hurts to have another controller keyboard.

Now, to look at three-tier keyboard stands ...

Thanks for all your input everyone

[kingtj]

Yeah... can't disagree with any of your points there, really. But at the same time, music synthesizers aren't generally in need of tuning before they're ready to use. (Again, some of the older analogs might be exceptions here since they were known to "drift" a bit and need tweaking to bring them back to a standard tune, now and then.)

So at least for the type of instrument it is, a 2 minute delay before it's ready to make any sounds is not really what most long-time synth players would expect.

And you're right... a music workstation like a Kronos offers a LOT of functionality once it's booted up. It's not just there to play notes on. I suspect, though, that more often than not these days -- the people using these instruments are doing the bulk of their actual music editing and recording using some type of computer setup. Some of the Kronos sequencing and DAW like features probably go unused 99% of the time for many of its owners. That's been the case for me, ever since I first owned a Korg Triton Studio. I learned that while I appreciated such things as the built in CD-ROM drive for loading in samples conveniently, I never used it to actually record finished compositions onto CDR media. Doing so was just far more frustrating and limiting than using a computer system for that part instead.

I understand that there will always be those who aren't real computer-literate, who will stick to doing everything on an instrument like the Kronos. That's great, and I'm glad it has the ability to do that if people wish. But I'm pretty sure the vast majority are buying these things primarily because of the sounds they're hearing coming out of them. (If the Kronos had a sequencer/editor twice as good as what it has now, and even if its retail price was $500 less or so? I bet it wouldn't even sell if it didn't include any inspiring sound patches.)

That's only true if the instrument is perfectly tuned... usually, guitars need tuning, and any concert piano needs tuning prior to a performance. Drum sets also need tuning, all string instruments need tuning, etc.
The 2+ minute wait is well worth the wait for all the capabilities it has to offer... its not just an instrument, nor is it just a snyth anymore. Its a 32-track sequencer (16 track MIDI + 16 track AUDIO) and editor, sampler, effects processor, computer w/ GUI interface, drum machine, and a multitude more that would fill this page. To have all that capability at your fingertips in one box is nothing short of amazing, and well worth the 2+ minute wait every time I flip that power switch to ON.

[Chriskk]

kingtj wrote:
But traditionally, musical instruments are always ready to play on a moment's notice.

PianoManChuck wrote That's only true if the instrument is perfectly tuned... usually, guitars need tuning, and any concert piano needs tuning prior to a performance. Drum sets also need tuning, all string instruments need tuning, etc.

So, you can't play the piano unless a professional tuner tunes it?