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Since Most of us here have had the Kronos for decent amount of time, which of the synth engine (other than HD-1 sampler) you like the most/why ?

For me it used to be Polysix at the start as I was familiar with it, but the more I have gone through with things, I Find the MOD-7 Engine to be the Holy Grail League, its ironic in a way too as I find it most phat and warm/analog sounding than the others (yet being based off a completely digitial synthesis).

I haven't created much sounds in it from scratch other than using the other FM patches (DX series etc), but what all I have heard and gone through, I'd pay for such synth on it's own if it comes with a decent physical control surface and a multimode filter.

Being mostly into cover band sounds, I have to go by the AL-1 engine as the most used, if not my favorite. I'm finding the Roland Supernatural synth engine to be consistently warmer and easier to dial in *that* sound.

I agree that the MOD-7 is a really powerful engine, capable of some unique sounds. Due to its complexity, though, it seems it will be forever on the fringe. The almost cliche and decades-old subtractive synthesis model we and the public are most familiar with is still the most popular.

Regarding unique and powerful, the same goes for the STR-1 engine. Physical modelling hopefully will one day be the dominant form, both for its ability to mimic natural acoustic instruments but also for the new boundaries it expands.

Another great thread!

I know it would be better to specifically choose an individual engine (I get your question), but I still look at the Kronos as one engine! Sorry!! A sound can go in SO MANY PLACES, where one engine is merely a part of the whole. Combi mode is my engine- haha!

I just cant seem to pick one.
They all sound fantastic.

Great topic

For me this is also not a straightforward answer. I've had my Kronos for about a year and half now, and I'm all in all extremely pleased with it. I use Combi mode a lot to combine things as well, so multiple engines are often used at the same time. This was one of the reasons I wanted the Kronos in the first place, to have a lot of options open to me and to be able to mix and match across the keyboard range and velocities, with effect chains, etc..

But there are some of them that get used more often than others, though:

AL-1 has become my goto synth for making my own sounds. It sounds great and is very flexible. It is also pretty straightforward to get into if you've ever owned an analog or virtual analog synth (I've had a Novation Nova since 2000ish). It is also more feature rich compared to the MS-20 and PolySix engines, so there are a few more things you can do with it. I know I should probably invest some of this time into the MOD-7, but I never owned any FM synths prior to this and the threshold for getting into the MOD-7 is a bit higher, so besides from a few learning experiments, I haven't used it so much. I often wish the AL-1 was more a bit more knob oriented though, meaning that it would be great if it mapped better to the control surface. You can assign individual things, things of course, but you quickly run out of buttons/sliders/knobs. Don't know what would be a good solution, short of a dedicated external control surface, and I can't really see that happening, so I guess the touch screen will have to do

CX-3 I like a lot. I see several mentions on this forum of it falling short of the real thing, but I never had that, so the CX-3 is the best I've had. (slightly off topic, but my parents did have a Technics organ when I was growing up which is still there and working, but that is _really_ not the same..) I also had the NI B4 VST plugin, but I like the CX-3 better, especially as you crank up the drive. The control surface on the CX-3 is also really great. Most of the controls you want to adjust are available right there.

HD-1 and SGX-1. To cover strings, brass, pianos, church organs, and all the other stuff one wants to make noise out of

AL1 for me as that is the one I am most familiar with in terms of programming, closely followed by all the rest.

The Kronos allowed me to get 99.9% of the sounds I needed to do Pink Floyd covers from a single board. For this job the Kronos s covering analog synths (AL-1), Organ (CX-3), Electric Piano (EP-1), acoustic Piano (SGX-2) and general pad sounds and samples (HD-1).

As mentioned above, sow some of those into a Combi and it gets even better. My "Shine On" intro pad had about 9 timbres to make an awesome gig opener.

And I use Polysix, MS20, MOD-7 and STR-1 in other things.