Kronos Synths vs Korg Analog Legacy VST

[Cesarsound]

Hi
I have been using the Library Korg Analog Legacy VST and they sound very good to me.

How do this library compares with Kronos Synth Engines (Polysix / MS20 / AL1)? Are they better on Kronos (in terms of sound quality)?

[shawnhar]

I've never used the VST, but my understanding is that it was closer to the original instruments and lacks the Kronos enhancements.

MS20 in particular is vastly extended in its Oasys/Kronos incarnation. The original MS20 tantalized with its semi modular patchability, but in practice this was far less flexible than it might seem. In particular the audio routing was entirely fixed, so patching was only able to affect modulation routings. With no real way to combine signals and limited places to send them, the end result was only marginally more flexible than the fixed function "send LFO to pitch or filter?" type switches found on competing instruments of the time.

But the Kronos MS20 is a radically different beast.

For starters, it adds patch points for audio routing, so you can grab the oscillator signals (independently for each oscillator) before they enter the filter, and can rewire the signal flow into and out of the filters. Combine this with the two new audio rate mixers, and a world of new possibilities opens up:

- Rewire the filters in parallel as opposed to series
- Apply a different envelope to each oscillator
- Low pass filter one oscillator, while high pass filtering the other
- Apply tremolo to one oscillator but not the other
- Sum the two envelope signals to create more complex contours

But wait, there is more!

Kronos integrates MS20 into its standard AMS architecture, providing AMS modulation for every parameter, plus a host of additional modulation sources (extra LFOs, envelopes, step sequencer, and vector envelope) to drive them. This enables crazy complex evolving sounds way beyond the limits of the original instrument. Modulate pulse width with an LFO (haha! original MS20 couldn't do that), while using step sequencer to rhythmically switch the second oscillator back and forth between pulse and saw waveforms, and three more LFOs, each with a different frequency and shape, to move filter cutoff and resonance in a complex swirling pattern.

Think of it as like the original MS20 has been opened up, an additional CV input added to every single knob and switch on the panel, and you are using it together with a bank of modular LFO and envelope generators that can be wired to any of these additional inputs. Very powerful, very flexible, and the original instrument seems terribly limited in comparison.

Can you tell I love the Kronos MS20? It has all the raw gritty character of a real MS20, yet can do so much more.

The Kronos PolySix also gains AMS modulation control and additional LFO/envelope, but the less flexible nature of the instrument means there is less potential to do crazy stuff with these new controls. Still some very worthwhile enhancements, though. For instance on Kronos you can program PolySix with a different envelope contour for filter as opposed to volume, where the original only had a single EG per voice.

[X-Trade]

I knew the MS20 in KRONOS would be rather special, but you make it sound amazing! I just want one even more..

[DennyC]

Go ahead and bite the bullet. You'll like it...nobody plays just one note on a Kronos!