Pros and cons with the Krome

[spinoria]

Just some short videos yet but what are the pros and cons so far?????

My 2 cents...

Pros
+ Good price
+ Light weight? (indicated by a video)
+ Should be good pianos for the money
+ Probably good synth sounds to

Cons
- No audio interface like the mox
- To few controllers
- No DAW integration
- No Korg komponent system
- Crappy organ sounds
- Even more crappy hammond sounds

[Sharp]

- No DAW integration

From KORG's website....

The Krome Editor and Krome Plug-In Editor allow you to edit your Krome from your computer while viewing large numbers of parameters simultaneously, or to use Krome in your DAW as if it were a software synthesizer.

Regards
Sharp.

[javaj]

no aftertouch. Yeuck!

[Sharp]

no aftertouch. Yeuck!

Same as the M50 which it's very likely the target audience considering the price.

It's an awesome deal.

Regards
Sharp.

[Stargazer]

+ Full Polyphony (120)
+ Bigger screen
+ Extra Piano section


- Same "old" tone generator from M50
- Same effect section
- No aftertouch


There are a few other things worthy of later inspection, such as build quality and reliability, which was a minus of M50. These will be answered by time.

[Sharp]

Don't forget the amount of PCM.
The KROME has 3.8GB of PCM data.

The M50 has 256MB.

Regards
Sharp.

[Stargazer]

It's a good marketing to come up with the 3.8 GB, but in fact in has the same old 256MB, while the rest of PCM memory is dedicated solely to the Piano section.

Although I don't own M50, those 256MB, for what I heard, are really good. But, it could have been better if they took over the Kronos engine with 314MB. Still, the price is good for what it offers. Of course, it's not flagship, so it is cut down here and there. Looks like a great board to me, but M50 does not look much inferior to it.

[Ojustaboo]

It's a good marketing to come up with the 3.8 GB, but in fact in has the same old 256MB, while the rest of PCM memory is dedicated solely to the Piano section.

Although I don't own M50, those 256MB, for what I heard, are really good. But, it could have been better if they took over the Kronos engine with 314MB. Still, the price is good for what it offers. Of course, it's not flagship, so it is cut down here and there. Looks like a great board to me, but M50 does not look much inferior to it.

This YouTube clip has a korg guy saying many other sounds are from the kronos too.

http://www.youtube.com/v/OgF0aARbGeE&fe ... autoplay=1

[alfredokiwi]

I expected that the new version of the M50, the newbie Krome will incorporate DAW over USB, but it seems to use the old EDS engine or maybe a similar approach. This means that you need to perform a DAC to ADC conversion to record its sounds on a performance, a big drawback due the complexity and insertion of noise on the recording process. In other word the new Krome series don´t follow the advantages of other brands, for example Yamaha MOX with direct DAW over USB recording. No direct digital recording capabilities and this sounds very strange on a 2012 design.

[alfredokiwi]

It's a good marketing to come up with the 3.8 GB, but in fact in has the same old 256MB, while the rest of PCM memory is dedicated solely to the Piano section.

Although I don't own M50, those 256MB, for what I heard, are really good. But, it could have been better if they took over the Kronos engine with 314MB. Still, the price is good for what it offers. Of course, it's not flagship, so it is cut down here and there. Looks like a great board to me, but M50 does not look much inferior to it.

This YouTube clip has a korg guy saying many other sounds are from the kronos too.

http://www.youtube.com/v/OgF0aARbGeE&fe ... autoplay=1

The current EDS synthesis has a very similar approach to the previous HI synthesis on the Trinity & TR series, because 256 MB linear memory is in reality 128 MB, and the TR with full expansion of RAM banks memory has the same amount as the M50 with only real 128 MB.
Only the five stages effects unit is one of the improvements on the M50 adverts, but because a DSP is managed via software algorithms maybe the TR engine has the capabilities of more insertion effects, maybe.

I can´t understand why Korg remains on the same PCM DSP platform without DAW and digital out capabilities, a feature much more important as 2 GB of samples for an "unlooped Grand Piano"..... is my point of view.

Watching the last video on youtube from andertons.co.uk is amazing the unit.... my congratulation to Korg about its new release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgF0aARb ... r_embedded

[andersborg]

I expected that the new version of the M50, the newbie Krome will incorporate DAW over USB, but it seems to use the old EDS engine or maybe a similar approach. This means that you need to perform a DAC to ADC conversion to record its sounds on a performance, a big drawback due the complexity and insertion of noise on the recording process. In other word the new Krome series don´t follow the advantages of other brands, for example Yamaha MOX with direct DAW over USB recording. No direct digital recording capabilities and this sounds very strange on a 2012 design.

Has it been stated that it doesn't support audio over USB?

The synth engine has nothing to do with whether audio would be transferred digitally over USB or not. It's all CPU/DSP software, and the output from the engine is of course digital.

I really hope they've added digital audio over USB, as it doesn't cost anything extra, and would make recording to a PC so much simpler. That was one of my main complaints about the M50.

[alfredokiwi]

Has it been stated that it doesn't support audio over USB?

The synth engine has nothing to do with whether audio would be transferred digitally over USB or not. It's all CPU/DSP software, and the output from the engine is of course digital.

I really hope they've added digital audio over USB, as it doesn't cost anything extra, and would make recording to a PC so much simpler. That was one of my main complaints about the M50.

Of course, the EDS synthesis chip had an SPDIF output on one of its pin outs and maybe it would be possible to have a digital out on a M50, Pa500 and so. From DAC perspective this devices use more as 1 wire on its I/O data interface and here the only solution is to integrate an spdif external converter to the DAC digital bus in case the EDS spdif out is disabled from factory. I don´t know exactly if something external to add to the DAC bus is available in case the digital serial stream or SPDIF is not logical available on the EDS engine.

The PCM sound data stream is managed by the EDS PCM DSP on previous models and would be the same on the Krone. Because it manage not only the PCM ROM waves interpolation (sound mixing and playback), also the DSP for effects on each patch, EQ, etc, the CPU dosen´t care about sound generation. The CPU only manage the keybed pressed key/status scan, LCD screen, MIDI/USB interface, memory banks patch storage and retrieve to the EDS engine and panel board functions. Yes in the case of sound over USB in the same way as the Yamaha MOX the CPU should receive the digital stream from EDS sound chip because the EDS don't integrate a USB interface.

Also to have "audio in" you need to integrate an ADC converter, this would enable the Krone as sampler if RAM memory is integrated on the EDS engine and realtime vocoder and other voice effects if the DSP engine handles real time stream processing, is only an opinion.

[andersborg]

Of course, the EDS synthesis chip had an SPDIF output on one of its pin outs and maybe it would be possible to have a digital out on a M50, Pa500 and so. From DAC perspective this devices use more as 1 wire on its I/O data interface and here the only solution is to integrate an spdif external converter to the DAC digital bus in case the EDS spdif out is disabled from factory. I don´t know exactly if something external to add to the DAC bus is available in case the digital serial stream or SPDIF is not logical available on the EDS engine.

The PCM sound data stream is managed by the EDS PCM DSP on previous models and would be the same on the Krone. Because it manage not only the PCM ROM waves interpolation (sound mixing and playback), also the DSP for effects on each patch, EQ, etc, the CPU dosen´t care about sound generation. The CPU only manage the keybed pressed key/status scan, LCD screen, MIDI/USB interface, memory banks patch storage and retrieve to the EDS engine and panel board functions. Yes in the case of sound over USB in the same way as the Yamaha MOX the CPU should receive the digital stream from EDS sound chip because the EDS don't integrate a USB interface.

Also to have "audio in" you need to integrate an ADC converter, this would enable the Krone as sampler if RAM memory is integrated on the EDS engine and realtime vocoder and other voice effects if the DSP engine handles real time stream processing, is only an opinion.

Right, sampling would affect production cost. Audio over USB would not.

To be honest I thought everything was running off of a CPU with DSP extensions to keep cost down. Thanks for explaining that point.

[Chriskk]

Korg should have included one VA synth. Then, the Krome would stand out even more.

[BasariStudios]

Cons
- No audio interface like the mox
- To few controllers
- No DAW integration
- No Korg komponent system
- Crappy organ sounds
- Even more crappy hammond sounds

I still wonder why people come up with such conclusions...why is this a Con?
There is something that has all this...its called Kronos...can't afford it?
Too bad...lets not be nice to each other but be real.
You pay for what you get...Krome isn't meant to replace Kronos or M3,
it is meant for what it is...the Cons mentioned above are EXCATLY why it
is called Krome, why it costs less and why it is not a high end WS.
Spread your legs to how long your cover is.