Korg Forums

WVought · Full Member Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 129

This has probably been discussed previously, but is it technically possible for Korg to make a Kronos that is software only and that would be played by an external keyboard via MIDI?

By Kronos I mean software that would emulate/duplicate all (or nearly all) the functions of the hardware device...samples, programs, KARMA, etc.

And of course there would be a VST version.

I would buy such software in a heartbeat.

Liviou2004 · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:42 am Post subject: Re: Kronos as Software Only?

WVought · Full Member Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 129

I know it doesn't exist.

My question is "Can it be done?"

Liviou2004 · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:03 am Post subject:

Hector Space · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:14 am Post subject: Software only Kronos

First impressions The design would need fairly major modification.
The display system and nearly all the Kronos IO is bespoke and handled by the subsystem processor PCB. So although the core operations of the Kronos are native pc board Linux/xxx86 32bit code compatible, much of the grunt is handled outside of this environment.
This means that Korg would need to invest in a new interface system that is every PC compatible and will run on Windows, Mac and maybe Linux.
It would be a pain to maintain because the pace of change or churn from massive companies like Microsoft and Apple means that Korg would have to commit much more resource to fixing the their software to continue to work on these platforms.
Whereas on the Kronos Korg have, to a large extent, managed to contain these external updates. Really it’ll be hardware obsolescence that stops the game.
It’s also true that the full Kronos would sit rather uncomfortably on a pc with a DAW because in many ways it is a DAW. So a VST Kronos doesn’t make sense.
In the end a software only Kronos doesn’t really add up. That’s probably why Korg have released soft synths instead.

WVought · Full Member Joined: 12 Sep 2010 Posts: 129

Thanks, Hector. That makes sense.

But I can dream, can't I? Smile

GregC · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:55 pm Post subject:

gminorcoles · Joined: 09 Apr 2019 Posts: 35

Korg is already a software developer, see the whole range of IOS apps they sell.

Kronos is mostly software. Keyboard, screen, IO, these are all systems integration tasks. Kronos is already running on one PC, there is no particular reason it cannot run on any other PC.

It is definitely possible to wrap any of the existing sound engines as VST, unless it has been coded in an old terrible way ( I have written VSTs for linux and ARM, but I don't really know what Might be keeping the legacy code from being easily wrapped as a VST, but if I can do it maybe they can do it )

I built a cool little DIY linux multi synth which has several VSTs running on it, coordinated by a little GUI, it is very much a little Kronos, at least from far away. It even has a touch screen, which is anything from a 4-inch up to any capacitive touch screen you want - there is no reason you cannot use any hardware you like, and you can switch when a certain batch of SKUS stop being supported.

Again, if that rag tag group of DIY linux developers can do it, anyone can do it.

I think that there is a new team of developers who writes the IOS stuff, and maybe one or two old people like me who do bare maintenance on the old stuff, and then maybe they hire in people on a contract basis to implement one-offs like the Prologue?

If you had all the source code I would bet 1000 dollars / Euros that a group of two or three decent developers could port and maintain what constitutes the Kronos, on any linux machine, with a touch screen, and some daughter board for IO midi audio, this is no problem nowadays.

Hardware, I know very little about, but the Kronos is really and truly not, in its present form, constrained by hardware in any meaningful way.

gminorcoles · Joined: 09 Apr 2019 Posts: 35

duplicate sorry

gminorcoles · Joined: 09 Apr 2019 Posts: 35

duplicate slow internet

gminorcoles · Joined: 09 Apr 2019 Posts: 35

19naia · Platinum Member Joined: 29 Nov 2012 Posts: 1216

Just when i got comfortable with the idea that Korg Kronos was the answer to the question about having a keyboard that was a made to work like it was a DAW with virtual synths and all.

That i would still need a keyboard controller with a DAW version, is reason enough i prefer a kronos hardware version that aspire to evolve to one day have the processing power to make it compete with Computer hardware and the type of DAW & virtual synths that computer power makes possible.

But they have already turned so many of their old synths into software versions, that it seems right in line that they eventually get to a Kronos software version.

Software or no software, i am still always going to need a key-board with good hammer actions and control surface. And Kronos does that already with its own software integrated onboard.
Maybe when kronos is outdated and replaced by a few generations of latest models, a software version would come and iPad would by then be powerful enough to run most software music tools.

GregC · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:09 pm Post subject:

kronoSphere · Platinum Member Joined: 04 Jan 2012 Posts: 697

the two could coexist. Even in the same room Very Happy

See Moog.
But it is also true that a real Moog is a paradise beside the VSTi instruments that try to be him !!! Laughing

_________________
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https://www.lairdeparis.fr

Current Gear : Kronos 88 / Seaboard Rise / Triton Extreme / Sequoia / Motif Rack XS / TC Helicon voicelive rack /Awave 11 / Audio & VSTi plug-ins connected /wide touchscreen / iPad Pro 512.

GregC · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:46 pm Post subject: