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I have no complaint about the Krome keybed, except that it could easily be better. I consider it to be very similar to the keybeds of a number of keyboards in its price range. The one glaring error(which does not bother me) is the fact of the hinging of the keys so that if you play up close to the hilt of the white keys, it is difficult and finally impossible to depress the key. I didn't notice it until I read about it in another forum. It is not a problem for me but I can see how some might be hindered by that method of hinging and the resulting effect.

As I consider my purchase of the Krome, I must say that I am still satisfied.

But I am posting because I wonder how much more it would it cost if the keyboard manufacturers had only one keybed for all of their professional boards. If the cost were spread across the board, seems that it wouldn't be much. The savings would come from having only one keybed of each type to deal with. Fewer parts would be needed for repairs--repair facilities could stock keybeds/keys easier. Complaints about keybed quality would be eliminated. For the keyboard manufacturer, all of their boards would have a certain perceived quality(buy any Korg and get this). That certainly has value. Makes sense to me. Does it to anyone else? Does it to Korg?

This issue has been discussed and debated here... and especially over on the Keyboard Magazine forum.

Most synth and workstation makers have dropped their standards over the years in order to offer gear at certain price points. The end user, unfortunately, gets the shaft.

Keyboard companies that don't focus on the actual keyboard (keybed). Completely backwards!

Well, i for one think there is nothing wrong with the krome keybed, or the m50 for that matter... if you only want to Look at it that is...
Ohh... you mean to actually Play it? Well for that it an utter piece of crap..., it's as nice and polite as i can describe it!

I agree that keyboard companies are consistently end continuously drooping the ball on the build and material quality department.
Yes the Krome has lots of features (about 50% of them are meaningless to me, but just my own opinion), and it does sound very good. So to my use if i ever bought a Krome (not likely!!), i would stick it on the side, hook it up to my 01W or my Trinity (keyboards worthy of that name, with real and serious keybeds) and use it as a sound module.

Since i am and always will be primarily a live player, and use piano style playing about 70% of the time you can understand my point.

So you get an idea, when i tried the krome out on the store, after 5 minutes of playing with it i asked the guys to hook it up to the RD700 NX that was on the bottom tier, i just couldn't stand to play that toy like keys for more than 5 minutes!

As long as users keep always waiting for the newer thing with billions of new features and with the price of a laptop, that's what companies will keep giving us. No one can seriously thing that a company will be able to put this much features and technology in a keyboard and build it to last for 20 or more years, flawlessly, for 1000 or less.

I've read tons of discussions about topis like this here in the forum. I've read users stating that for example, an M3 is an old keyboard!! What???? Old??? WTF??? 5 or 6 years is Old????? I have 2 01W's, one T3, one Trinity, and a lot of modules, what do you call that, jurassic???
The newer keyboard i own is a Motif XS (2008), ant for me it is new, i men i can do everything i can possibly want with it. It has a good build and reliability, people are already waiting for Yamaha to come up with a replacement for the XF, for pete's sake!! I hope the XF will still be around for a while. I with i could still buy an Oasys new today, i would pick it over the Kronos for sure in the reliability department.
Sorry for this long post, and a bit of a rant too, but i honestly can no longer identify myself with probably more than 70% of keyboard players today, it seems that people's priority is specs rather than playability or reliability. If people actually change their keyboards every 2 years to get what's new, well they must all be rich!!
I for one don't need the latest and greatest, i need a top quality board (construction/reliability)with great sounds and great sound modules.

Any way... sorry for the rant. All this been said the Krome definitely is a great board for the entry level musicians.

Keep rocki'n!

Trinity and 01/W were flagships synths in their day. The Original Triton and the Studio series also had excellent keybeds. The LE didn't, because it was a budget model. If you want to compare the 01/W and Trinity to modern day synths it should go up against the Kronos, Motif or even the RD700 as you tried. The Krome is up against the likes of the Yamaha MOX and Roland's Juno G. Neither of which keybeds are any good, in my humble opinion.

Ok, i agree with your point. So let's compare budget models then (however Korg lists Krome as Professional):

Comparing the Krome with an X3 for example, or even the N256 witch where both budget models of the 01 series in the 90's
The keybed and construction quality of both those keyboards where miles ahead of the krome, way better keybeds and where All metal. All parts way better quality. Even the X5 witch was an entry level keyboard had better keys. They last to this day. Will a Krome last 20 years? Hummm... I honestly have serious doubts...

So to sum it up, in my opinion, Krome should have a way better keyboard and they could have cut corners in less technology to keep the same price. However just my opinion only, all opinions are valid here, it depends on what you want or expect from a keyboard

jorgemncardoso wrote:Comparing the Krome with an X3 for example, or even the N256 witch where both budget models of the 01 series in the 90's
The keybed and construction quality of both those keyboards where miles ahead of the krome, way better keybeds and where All metal. All parts way better quality. Even the X5 witch was an entry level keyboard had better keys. They last to this day. Will a Krome last 20 years? Hummm... I honestly have serious doubts...

I agree... many entry-level keyboards from the 90's had better keybeds--and better overall build quality for that matter--compared with today's boards. But in order to produce a workstation or synth for a specific price point today, a manufacturer has to cut back somewhere. Sadly, keybed quality seems to be #1 on the "chopping block."

My Radias keybed is absolutely awful compared to the Triton or M3.

The problem is that a good keybed simply costs too much. So when you put a quality keybed in a budget synth it's no longer a budget synth. It becomes a mid priced synth at best.

Lets say there was a Krome with the current semi weighted keybed and also a model with the Kronos semi weighted keybed, which one would NOT sell very well. I think the model with the better keybed would not sell. People on a budget would go with the cheap one and people with a bigger budget would just go for the Kronos for the extra features.

I think it's a shame because the experience you get playing a quality keybed just takes things to a higher level. I personally can't put my heart and soul into playing on these cheap "toy" keybeds.

Of the keyboards you mention I only can recall the feel of the X5 and I thought that was pretty bad as well. I have a Karma, that shares the keybed with the LE I think and is pretty bad, even though it wasn't a budget model. I also had a a Roland XP-30, that one was kinda decent even thogh it was their entry model of the xp series. Currently Of the older models I have a JX10 which is very good (but was a flagship synth) and an Alpha Juno 2 which is alright-ish (and wasn't cheap when it came out). I also have a Micromoog which is ridiculously bad in comparison.

I don't think it's a great rule of thumb to say older keyboards were better. But that manufacturers are on average trying to cut cost is only logical. That this can translate into less than perfect build quality, especially for entry models where being affordable is a main goal, also makes sense.

Oh and for what it's worth, the word "professional", especially as used by manufacturers, is 100% meaningless, and only serves to make you think it is a high quality product.

Bald Eagle wrote:I think it's a shame because the experience you get playing a quality keybed just takes things to a higher level.

Agree 100%.

Count me in for being highly disappointed in Korg's decision to use very cheap key beds in their products. High quality key beds are of crucial importance to players and inspire many of them--including myself--greatly. I have written on this topic on my site, and there seems to be a lot of agreement: Korg, you need to put better key beds in your products and stop taking shortcuts.


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I can deal with a cheap key bed, although I would rather not, but the 61 note Krome at my local music store for a week, had broken keys on it. They would not press down and play a sound. Not one, but many across the key bed. Completely unacceptable for me. I can not afford the stress and panic of showing up at a show and have your keyboard unusable. It is a shame, because I was going to buy one. They should just make this into a rack mount unit.

stale wrote:...They should just make this into a rack mount unit.

I agree. either the keybed is commensurate with what you'd expect or forget it. A rack mounted Kronos would be even better. C'mon Korg get real.

After a week working with my gig with my new Krome 61, I just love it. First is better Keybed compared with M50, faster when you play solos and less noise in the keys, 120 poly. I sold my M50 and I use the M50 sound installed in the Krome.


Korg DS-8, Korg M1, Korg M3-73, Korg Krome 61, Korg Kontrol49, Novation Sl MKII 61 etc.....
of course I love Korg.

Well, i thought i could get on with the 61 key Krome but I really miss the Piano style 88 key. However, i am not using any of the workstation features of the Krome due to having a mac with logic.
So, i am off to demo a Roland RD300NX today with a view to changing to that.
I just dont like the keybed on the Krome and its a bit of an expensive sound module.