Korg Forums

I'd love to be able to buy some of the libraries for my Kronos but I can't because of the DRM. The problem is that when I tour, I often need to rent a Kronos in different cities and any libraries I buy won't be able to load on them because of their public keys.

Surely I can't be the only touring musician who has this problem. I don't really want to have to get into the Auto Sample game, make a Kontakt library (say) and then convert back to Kronos with CS Translator.

What do others do?

Unfortunately they don't buy libraries, mostly. There has never been an official reply by Korg on this issue, which is indeed one that many people feel, and not just those that tour and rent boards.

Are the commercial libraries created by 3rd party vendors protected the same way?

I think it's only the libraries with an EXs number. But I don't have any of the others.

The way Korg has implemented license management makes it pretty secure. When you provide the ability to automatically transfer licenses it can get messy and opens the door to hacking the license management system on the machine.

You can't even beg for a new authorization if you need to replace a single Kronos. I don't see Korg changing their policy and this is why I will purchase very few additional sample libraries.

Not only am I hesitant to buy any more EXs sample libraries for fear I won't be able to move them to a replacement board, I'm also hesitant to buy a new Kronos as I won't be able to easily migrate my existing investment.

At least in the days of expansion boards it was possible to remove, resell or reinstall them into another synth as necessary. With the EXs model, that purchase is forever tied to that particular synthesize, whatever its fate might be. If it gets stolen, lost or damaged, then so does your software purchase.

In my very humble option, Korg could have made the hardware Cryptographic Module a removable board that could then be inserted into a new board or a rental unit, in the same way that could previously been achieved by swapping out expansion cards.

SeedyLee wrote:
In my very humble option, Korg could have made the hardware Cryptographic Module a removable board that could then be inserted into a new board or a rental unit, in the same way that could previously been achieved by swapping out expansion cards.

sure , the Triton had EXB expansions and Roland had bunches. What I read is they could not generate enough sales to justify the cost to continue them. I wouldn't expect a back to the future.

True, GregC, but there are much better DRM implementations that allow for purchased content to be transferred to new devices. My son recently had his Nintendo 3DS break, and he bought a newer model. A quick call to Nintendo and all of his purchased content was downloadable on his new device. (In cases where the old device isn't broken, Nintendo device owners can transfer their content themselves, without calling support.)

As an owner of an original Kronos, I hesitate to buy sound libraries knowing that if I decide to upgrade to Kronos 2, I'll have to buy them all over again.

voxg wrote:True, GregC, but there are much better DRM implementations that allow for purchased content to be transferred to new devices. My son recently had his Nintendo 3DS break, and he bought a newer model. A quick call to Nintendo and all of his purchased content was downloadable on his new device. (In cases where the old device isn't broken, Nintendo device owners can transfer their content themselves, without calling support.)

As an owner of an original Kronos, I hesitate to buy sound libraries knowing that if I decide to upgrade to Kronos 2, I'll have to buy them all over again.

I have the original K , as well. I really don't " need " the 2 model.

I agree that owners should vote with their wallet/credit card if they don't agree with the policy of a mfgr. We have mostly been saying the same thing about the policy for a few years here.

It would be nice if Korg could make a portable device with a SSD that one can load all the proprietary Korg sounds into it. Then keyboard players can take the device with them anywhere and plug it into any Kronos, or any future keyboard with similar characteristics.

Fred

Stratario wrote:It would be nice if Korg could make a portable device with a SSD that one can load all the proprietary Korg sounds into it. Then keyboard players can take the device with them anywhere and plug it into any Kronos, or any future keyboard with similar characteristics.

Fred

thats a nice idea. Can you or any enterprising business person create a proposal/plan that would prove( and convince) it would make a lot of $$$ for Korg ?

Many, many better things can be thought of and have been expressed. Unfortunately Korg has yet to even acknowledge that this is a problem.