Beefing Up KROSS EP's - iPhone App

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 6:08 am

1. Raise Velocity Curve to 6 (In 1st Global Page) - save Globals if you like it.
2. Download Neo-Soul Keys App in iTunes Store
3. Use their 1st Rhodes (Suitcase) to sit under any of the KROSS ep's - WOW! -here's how-
4. Plug the iPhone (headset) Output into the KROSS' Line In,
5. Press Audio In button (above the keyboard's 2nd Ab)
6. Oh, you need the Camera Connect Kit from Apple ($30 US) and a USB cable
7. Plug the USB cable into the KROSS' USB jack on the back, and the other end of the USB cable into the Camera Connect Kit (just an adaptor really)
8. Plug the Lightning connector (other end) of the Camera Connect Kit adaptor into your iPhone (they may have Neo-Soul Keys for Android now or soon, I don't know...)
9. Play! - you can hear the difference by toggling the Audio In button on the KROSS - when it's not lit, you are hearing only the KROSS; when it's lit, you are hearing both sound sources together. *
10. That's about it! It's kind of free (with ads, but I didn't see any.) I was so happy with its sound, and how it beefed up the Kross, that I bought the Suitcase In-App Purchase, to support the GospelMusicians that created this app. Lots of sampling went into it, apparently.

Try it with the different KROSS EP's - I especially like it with the Mark I Silver, the Hybrid Phaser E.P., and the Reed EP Wah Wheel, but they all work well together.

*If you want to hear JUST the Neo-Soul Keys sound, go down 2 Pages from the Main Screen (Page Down twice (under the Window are those buttons)) and then turn the Big Kross Knob to the right of the screen clockwise, to turn PLAY into MUTE (for both OSC 1 and OSC 2 if OSC 2 is not greyed out from the Kross EP being a Single Oscillator Program.) - Now you won't hear the KROSS. You have to do it that way, because if you just turn down the KROSS' volume knob, you will silence the Audio In (Neo-Soul Keys) sound too.

It's kind of a funky video, but you can hear them using that very Rhodes sound (triggered by a Motif ES8 in the video) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1shAHAbXbc

rammstein · Post by **rammstein** » Thu Apr 16, 2015 2:03 am

cool! but since i don't have an apple device, i guess i'll have to stick with layering within the kross for now.

sleepingangel · Post by **sleepingangel** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 12:52 pm

Great tip. Quick question. just curious ? what does raising the velocity curve in Global do? I haven't tried your tip yet but I will and just wondering

thanks so much!
I'm guessing that in this way you could actually record one part (the ipad part) into your ipad. BUT if you use the audio recorder you can also then record both the iPad and the Kross right?

thanks I'm loving this keyboard!!

Maria

tommymandel · Post by **tommymandel** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:38 pm

For me, raising the Global Velocity curve makes the electric pianos speak better, more aggressively, a bit more solid attack and less pad-like. (some effects like chorus can soften or smear attack as well...) But unfortunately, the Kross (Acoustic) pianos sound better (with my personal playing touch) when the Global Velocity curve is set to either 4 or 9. 4 is the default (recommended) setting, and 9 is meant for players with weighted controllers, but sometimes feels the best to me on the Kross (61-note) when I'm playing one of the boss KROSS Piano programs.
Everyone's touch is different, but try it out. A neighbor with Meat-ty technique (but far from a Loafer) came by and suggested that 6 was the best Global Velocity curve for the KROSS 61.
I once asked Jack Hotop, the legendary programmer of this and other Korg flagship synths over the years (the Triton for example, and probably the OASYS too) if Korg would ever come out with new Global Velocity curves, and he said no, probably not, as these 9 have been traditional with Korg for a very long time.
When you wake up, sleepingangel, experiment with the different curves, and especially on different types of KROSS Programs.
In my case, I should really edit each Program so that its velocity response sounds and behaves ideally when using one Global Velocity curve (probably 4, but it could be any one.. .. .. you just can't save a different Global Velocity curve as part of a Program...

That's why they call it GLOBAL

But there are plenty of places in the Oscillator Pages of Program Edit, where you can engineer different response to keyboard velocity into a KROSS Program.

sleepingangel · Post by **sleepingangel** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:57 pm

Awesome thanks for explaining that a bit to me. I will experiment as you said all touches are different.

I also wanted to tell you that I tried your "trick" of playing the Kross along with iPad (you used iPhone) and instead of the Gospel Musician's Rhodes (which I own and do enjoy) I used Animoog. WOW it's fun. It inspired me to do two videos. The first gives a bit of a step by step on how to hook it all up and then the second is an improvisation that I did using the two with (two different patches then the first video) and the second has really good sound because I used a Behringher UCA-222 interface hooked up to my iPhone (which I used to video) and the mobile cubes's headphone out. I also took it a step further and used the Audio recorder to capture the performance and then took that wave out and sent it to soundcloud!! Here are the two you tube videos if you are interested. Not sure if I will get the links to be linkable but you could copy and paste if I screw it up! thanks for the inspiration!
Maria
https://youtu.be/BKz-f6MM_oA

https://youtu.be/7oTEP8ruJBs

Asleep By Dawn · Post by **Asleep By Dawn** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 9:11 pm

cool video!

sleepingangel · Post by **sleepingangel** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 12:45 am

Thanks!!

jobro · Post by **jobro** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:03 pm

What I'm about to say can possibly offend some people:

*sighs* I personally can't understand why people can't start exploring the waveforms in the Kross and come up with your own sounds.

I mean c'mon guys you have 420 waveforms in Kross, 20 of them is from electric pianos. If you combine the DWGS electric piano waveforms you have 25 different electric piano waveforms. Want some variation? Set the pitch envelope to all levels -99 and all times +99, except attack which should be at 0, and you've doubled the waveforms. Set the levels to +99 and you've trippled them waveforms. Apply a switch to transpose up or down the waveforms with 12 semitones, and you've quintupled the waveforms. And there are certainly other alternative waveforms you can use as well to get your unique touch on electric pianos.

Look at it this way: You've bought a Kross, to link it up to an Ipad that costs 66% of what the Kross costs because it has phatter electric pianos?! Ain't that a waste of money so to say?

Stop tripping dude and keep your hands away from them preset wheels that you expect to have that all mighty phatt sound you're looking for.

When I bought Kross last week I listened to the organ sounds, and I found none that really fit my taste. I like it raw, deep, dark, dirty, and heavy as heck, so I started to program a few organs of my taste. I created 4 patches yesterday. And if I can make new patches in less than 3 days, then you can make new patches as well.

It's not rocket science. So get on it. I mean if you've programmed a Korg M1, that is the archetype of this synthesizer, then you definitely can program this synthesizer as well!