Idea: east west libraries on Korg Kronos

[tritonhaven]

In case you never heard of East West libraries, check this out http://www.soundsonline.com

It's one of the greatest sample libraries. For example the bosendorfer piano is around 30 GB. I was wondering if there's a way to get this on the Kronos, so I wrote this in their forums:

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Hi there,

An idea: Now Korg released OS 2 for their flagship Korg Kronos, which enables the Kronos to make use of streaming samples right of the internal SSD (Solid State Drive). Wouldn't it be great if you could use QL instruments (eg QL pianos) internally on the Kronos instead of using an external computer?

It would be a dream combination if you ask me
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What do you guys think? Interesting idea?

[mcm]

Yup, I agree, this would be excellent!

[mathieumaes]

A friend owns the EW QL Brass collection, and lended me the 6 CD's to fiddle with the AKAI import stuff... I was considering to buy them as well.

To be honest, I'm not impressed with the sound quality, I was expecting a LOT better... It doesn't offer anything useful over the EXs3 library.

[Sharp]

I would imagine it's easily doable. They would just need to understand what's involved in assembling a library on the KRONOS which is way larger than it's physical sample memory.

I have their Symphonic Library and I have to say it's pretty darn easy to get it running on the KRONOS. Sounds sooooo freaking awesome.

Regards
Sharp.

[BasariStudios]

I own most of their Libraries for Years, in my experience as easy as it seems
on the Kronos they wont be even close, remember, in Play they use Scripts
and other things, there is tons of things that Kronos wont be able to duplicate
and the Sounds will loose a lot of Quality mostly Expression. As for straight
RAW Sampling then of course its possible but Layers, RoundRobing, Legato,
Portamento and other things forget about it...and thats what makes them what they are.

[RonF]

I own most of their Libraries for Years, in my experience as easy as it seems
on the Kronos they wont be even close, remember, in Play they use Scripts
and other things, there is tons of things that Kronos wont be able to duplicate
and the Sounds will loose a lot of Quality mostly Expression. As for straight
RAW Sampling then of course its possible but Layers, RoundRobing, Legato,
Portamento and other things forget about it...and thats what makes them what they are.

Agree 100%

[burningbusch]

EWQL has done some beautiful recordings. I am less impressed with the programming on many of their libraries. Take the QL Pianos. Beautifully recorded but it's not unusual to find notes jumping out at you, out of place timbres, etc. They can be difficult to control. Ivory, in contrast, is perfectly programmed even though I prefer how the QL Pianos were recorded. Seriously, EWQL could take a lesson from Korg with regards to note-to-note consistency. The Kronos pianos are some of the best examples of consistency you can find in the world of every-note-sampled pianos.

I am not impressed with their legato when compared to VSL, VASS or some of the Kontakt libraries with their sophisticated scripting. Maybe it's good in the solo violin (don't have that one), but in the QL orchestral packages it's very basic stuff. I've never heard a guitar/bass from them that's nearly as impressive as the Kontakt Scarbee basses, Orangetree guitars and others.

I don't know how well the Play engine compares to Kontakt is as it's proprietary. From what I've seen in the EWQL libraries I own it doesn't seem like it's close.

These are the products I own: EWQL Colossus, Goliath, QL Pianos, Stormdrum, Symphonic Orchestra Gold, Voices of Passion, RA, Symphonic Choirs. I haven't purchase much from them lately as I'm, 1) less than thrilled with the company, 2) don't really need any of the newest stuff and 3) can wait until they decide to sell it at 50% off and/or include it in some heavily discounted collection (which is their modus operandi).

BTW, the Kronos does support round robin via wave sequencing. EXS-11 Legendary Strings use this through out. Mono legato, which I use frequently in solo instruments seems close to the "legato" programmed in the EW SO. Neither is true legato.

I've ported Piano in Blue (close and room), 8Dio 1928, SoundIron Emotion Piano, SampleTekk Black Grand (Ambient and Med Ambient) and SampleTekk 7CGJr to my Kronos. They might miss some of the subtleties of the software versions, but the sound is 90 - 95% there and I gain close to zero latency, NO glitches and a tight control of the samples to the keyboard. Bottom line is they are much more enjoyable to play.

To the OPs question, yes I would love to have the QL Pianos in my Kronos but one would have to resample the entire library as they're locked into the proprietary Play format. The pianos I listed above allow access to the WAV files and through conversion and other techniques I was able to bring them onboard. It required some work but was easier and provided better results than resampling.

Busch.

[Jan1]

When it comes to wishes for expanding the sound set of the KRONOS I'd love to see the libraries of companies like EWQL, VSL, Samplemodeling on the KRONOS.

However, aside from the fact that the current CPU is not very powerful there is the question of how to go about getting those libraries on the KRONOS.
Import requires a good translator and a sampleplayer which can handle complex scripts.
The other route is for a third party company to develop a plug in for the KRONOS platform so that e.g. Kontakt runs as a separate engine on the KRONOS.
However, I have no idea how much time it would cost for such an endeavor and whether or not it would be financially viable.

For us it would be great since it opens up a huge resource of other excellent libraries, but somehow I don't think the current KRONOS is up to the task.
Not that there aren't libraries at the moment which can be imported, but proprietary sample players as well as intensive scripting put certain libraries out of reach of the KRONOS.

[Sharp]

Scripts sure do make the libraries more playable live, vs having to sequence the switch between the articulations yourself when recording.

Still, the actual recordings / samples are by far the most important factory of and sound.

I think a lot can be achieved with the KRONOS without scripts. Nothing wrong with working the "Old School" way either. People have it too easy these days

Regards
Sharp.

[Jan1]

People have it too easy these days

Ha, sure grampa

(Re-)sampling is always an option of course, but in the case of Samplemodeling instruments it will never achieve the same kind of expression and realism, simply because these instruments are much more than just sample playback.

The old EWQL Symphony Orchestra libraries are a different story.
They are designed to work with keyswitches, and originally they were developed for Kontakt, so they lend themselves very well as a candidate to be ported over to the KRONOS.

[Sharp]

but in the case of Samplemodeling instruments it will never achieve the same kind of expression and realism

Huh ?
East West have Sample Modelling libraries ?
Can you give me a link as I don't see anything on their website. This would be totally awesome...!!!

I have WIVI Band which is amazing.

Regards
Sharp.

[Jan1]

but in the case of Samplemodeling instruments it will never achieve the same kind of expression and realism

Huh ?
East West have Sample Modelling libraries ?
Can you give me a link as I don't see anything on their website. This would be totally awesome...!!!

I have WIVI Band which is amazing.

Regards
Sharp.

I was referring to the software instruments produced by the company Samplemodeling, not East West.
Sorry about the confusion.

[tritonhaven]

I own the complete composers edition and paid around 1000 dollars for it. The problem is that my computer can't take the load required to play nicely. I will upgrade my computer with a SSD later but I would be great to have it in the Kronos