Korg Kross 2 Combis vs. Roland Juno D61?

[thozzman]

I’m trying to decide between the Korg Kross 2 and the Roland Juno D61. I really find the Korg Combi presets easy to access and work with but I’m not sure if the Juno D61 has an equivalent feature. Can anyone who has experience with both boards explain if the Roland does and what it’s called? Thanks.

 

[happyrat1]

The Juno DS has performances which are more or less the same sorts of splits & layers, up to 16 layers with the superlayers.

I owned a DS for three years but have sold it now to buy a Nautilus.

Modifying and creating your own performances is simple and straightforward on the Juno. Writing them also straightforward. There are a few menus but they are all 2 layers or less deep.

Controls are all clearly marked and function as expected.

Great board. Right now I'm missing my DS88.

Gary

 

[Biggles]

I had a Kross 2 for two years before I sold it.

Yes, Combis are very easy to set up, the issue being the menu system is shallow and there are 16 tabs so a lot of potential scrolling to set things up.

The Setting up of Favourites is better than the Juno, the Kross sequencer is also much better, it is also more compact and way lighter in weight.

To give background, I spent a couple of months researching and watching tutorials on both, coupled with multiple visits to my local music stores to play them both back to back.

It was a very close call as to which one I was going to buy and the Korg only won because of its size and weight, sound wise it was very close with the Juno having imo better acoustic piano sounds and the Kross better strings and brass.

So why did I sell the Kross 2? The keybed got to bugging me in its feel but worst of all was note cut off as you pressed the favorite button to cue up the next combi or program, you had to be very precise in ones timing.

With hindsight I should have bought the Juno, but with what I now know it would be the 76 key version.

 

[thozzman]

The Juno DS has performances which are more or less the same sorts of splits & layers, up to 16 layers with the superlayers.

I owned a DS for three years but have sold it now to buy a Nautilus.

Modifying and creating your own performances is simple and straightforward on the Juno. Writing them also straightforward. There are a few menus but they are all 2 layers or less deep.

Controls are all clearly marked and function as expected.

Great board. Right now I'm missing my DS88.

Gary

Thanks, Gary. So just to clarify. on the Roland are there built-in preset Performances, or do you have to create all your own from scratch?

 

[thozzman]

I had a Kross 2 for two years before I sold it.

Yes, Combis are very easy to set up, the issue being the menu system is shallow and there are 16 tabs so a lot of potential scrolling to set things up.

The Setting up of Favourites is better than the Juno, the Kross sequencer is also much better, it is also more compact and way lighter in weight.

To give background, I spent a couple of months researching and watching tutorials on both, coupled with multiple visits to my local music stores to play them both back to back.

It was a very close call as to which one I was going to buy and the Korg only won because of its size and weight, sound wise it was very close with the Juno having imo better acoustic piano sounds and the Kross better strings and brass.

So why did I sell the Kross 2? The keybed got to bugging me in its feel but worst of all was note cut off as you pressed the favorite button to cue up the next combi or program, you had to be very precise in ones timing.

With hindsight I should have bought the Juno, but with what I now know it would be the 76 key version.

Thanks, Biggles. Actually I think the voices on the Juno overall are better sounding than those on the Kross. I used to have the original Kross model but was not happy with the quality of the voices. Do you know if Korg improved the sound engine on the Kross 2 version or is it still the same?

 

[happyrat1]

There are 99 factory performances and 99 empty user slots.

Also 8 banks of 8 quick access buttons.

Gary

 

[thozzman]

There are 99 factory performances and 99 empty user slots.

Also 8 banks of 8 quick access buttons.

Gary

There you go, that helps. Thanks again.