Korg Kronos, cool overview

[Jeremykeys]

I know that this is now considered to be an old keyboard workstation, and yes, I am still totally in love with mine even though she's now 6 years old. The thing is, so far, nobody has yet built a better workstation as far as I can tell. This is a cool new video from a music store here in the north end of Toronto. Back in June of this year I had the opportunity t,o see Jordan Rudess show off on one. It was freaking awesome! This is not him but it's still a cool vid! Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Biggles]

Great review Jeremy.

Many thanks for posting it.

I need to start saving up what bit of my pension is left each month, I have long been a Kronos Iwantoneofthose sort of guy, the trouble is I am also a Nord Iwantoneofthose guy as well, oh did I was that I was an Iwantoneofthose sort of guy about a Roland FA.

Get the picture?

 

[Jeremykeys]

I understand! I'm ousting for theMoog One but it's the price of a used car and my car is now 10 years old.

 

[happyrat1]

10 years from now I might be living in a cardboard refrigerator box but for now I have all the keyboards I'd want or need

All it takes is a tough budget and the discipline to stick to it and a line of credit with a low interest rate definitely helps.

Even then, I always prioritize debt in my budget before spending on anything else.

I'm really not that big of a fan of Korg's interfaces either. Having owned a TR76, an X50 and a Minilogue and and Electribe ER-1 I would have to say that Roland and Kurzweil have superior sounds with less confusing interfaces.

I''m not saying Korgs are terrible but overall in the long run none of them survived the cut with me.

Gary

 

[Biggles]

for now I have all the keyboards I'd want or need

There was a popular saying a few years ago that seems apt ...... yeah right.

 

[Jeremykeys]

I understand, Gary. Myself though, I've always found the Korg interfaces to be the easiest. They just seem to make sense to me right from the get go. With Korg synths, I've hardly ever had to look at the manuals but ROland just perplexed the heck out of me and I don't want to mention Yamaha.
Granted I'm quite frequently asking questions on the Korg forum but that's usually because I'm trying something way out in left field.

 

[Biggles]

Similar Korg experience here Jeremy

Once I got into the Korg Menu mindset making adjustments, creating Combis and customising them is very quick and easy as is recording, setting up the Pads.

That is with the Kross 2, the PA is somewhat different and I keep forgetting how to do something and have to hunt around for the answer, the manual is still written in Klingon when I look for something specific but trial and error and I get there but not in steps that I can yet make notes of so I can refer back to them.

Conversely to get to grips with some aspects of the Kross 2 I found the Roland video tutorials far more useful than the Korg ones.

Heaven help me if I ever shell out for a Kronos

That is probably why a Nord looks so good, all the significant controls are good old buttons and knobs, no where near the menu depth, well at least that is what my limited playing of them has found so far.

 

[Jeremykeys]

One of the cool things with the Kronos is that to the left of the screen you have a lot of buttons, switches and sliders. On the screen is a tab called control panel. When you tap the tab, the screen changes to an image of the control panel and shows you exactly what all of the controls are set up to do. Cut off frequency, envelopes, resonance and a ton more.
So what you actually have is quick access to a lot of the main sound sculpting tools right at your fingertips.
Of course, if you're like me, you often forget you can do this and get all futzed up!

 

[Biggles]

Stop it Jeremy, I am going into Imusthaveoneofthose mode again

 

[CowboyNQ]

I've always found the Korg interfaces to be the easiest.

I don't have any specific commentary on the Kronos but my experience mirrors yours in that I get along very well with the Korg UI. It just makes sense to me and I find it so quick and easy to get around my Korg keyboards.

I also own Roland and Yamaha and of the two I find Roland FAR more user friendly than Yamaha. Years ago I auditioned a MOXF6 in a shop and walked away before I had a nervous breakdown trying to understand it. But I think these things are very much horses for courses. It's possible to get used to any keyboard if you're prepared to put the time and effort in.

I think as keyboard players we are so lucky with all the wonderful options out there for us. And they're getting to be better value all the time.

 

[Jeremykeys]

"I think as keyboard players we are so lucky with all the wonderful options out there for us. And they're getting to be better value all the time."

I totally agree with you. These days, the options are almost endless and cover all price points. Of course for many years the price was almost endless, remember the Synclavier? I just think we might be in a bit of a golden age keyboard wise right now. Although I'd love to see a synth that has a one knob per function setup that has several oscillators, multiple filters and LFO's, an awesome feeling keyboard, CV functions, a killer touchscreen and is on $99!

An also comes in your choice of colours!

 

[Hodor]

My lust for the Kronos has been pushed aside by my lust for the Montage.

 

[Biggles]

Montage uggh

The damn flashing light on the Montage would drive me bananas

 

[Hodor]

Hardly a reason to not like a monster machine like the Montage - especially when you can optionally turn that off.

 

[Jeremykeys]

I'm not really all that interested in the Montage. Of course Yamaha tech is just a weird foreign language to me as opposed to Korgspeak. I understand that one.

 

[Hodor]

There’s certainly a learning curve.

 

[Biggles]

There’s certainly a learning curve.

The trouble with Yamaha is that their learning curve is steep and unique to Yamaha.

Korg and Roland have a lot of similarities and whilst I was assessing the Kross 2 and Juno DS there was no difficulty in switching between the two, and this action I did on many occasions before I decided.

 

[Jeremykeys]

That's what I've found too. That and only Yamaha deviates from standard nomenclature. I can't remember exactly but "voices" means one thing to Yamaha and another thing to everyone else. Just and example but it was something that always bothered me.
I mean,come on here! We've all managed to get together on a MIDI standard, so why can't we all use the same terminology?

 

[happyrat1]

Actually a lot of manufacturers have butchered a lot of technical terms over the decades.

When referring to "voices" do they mean number of patches or number of tones capable of being generated simultaneously.

When they refer to this as "polyphony" they are dead wrong. A stereo amplifier is "polyphonic." A keyboard is properly named as "polytonic."

Polyphony refers to the number of audio channels.

Polytonic refers to the number of tones a keyboard can generate simultaneously.

As for "voices", "patches", "programs", "tones" I've seen them all used interchangeably.

The same applies to "setups", "performances", "combis" or whatever else the kids are calling them these days.

Little things, I know but it irks me to no end whenever I see a keyboard advertised as "128 note polyphonic."

Every time I read a keyboard advert I die a little more inside

Gary

 

[Hodor]

"Polyphony refers to the number of audio channels. Polytonic refers to the number of tones a keyboard can generate simultaneously."

Yeah, well good luck with changing that. Every manufacturer and keyboard player on the planet are comfortable with 'polyphony'. There are things that irk me, too - but you have to pick your battles.

I agree with the ability of a Yamaha manual to make you feel dense (dating back to the KX88, TX7 and DX100 that I owned in the mid 80's) but feel rewarded with every chapter I start to understand. That said, I'm admittedly daunted by the prospect of trying to digest a Montage users manual.