Korg Kronos

[SLD Music]

Yes, it's really very very nice.

It'll be keeping me busy for a good long while. 

[Fred S]

My current main board is a Yamaha S90es. First Yamaha I've owned. Have to say, there's a lot to like about Yamaha boards...especially the key action.

The Kronos has arrived. Haven't turned it on yet. Read through the "quick start" guide last night...details exceeded that of the full manual of my XK1!!

It's heavy...over 50 pounds. Fits nicely in my road case, so won't have to buy a new one . It's an attractive package. Plastic ends, but the gloss black looks great against a medium grey brushed metal looking body. The touch screen is large, but smudges easily. Think I'm going to try fitting an IPad screen protector as  I don't think a misplaced fingernail now and then will be a happy circumstance. Screen menus seem well thought out. There's an initialized, but empty, user program bank. However, you can only use created HD-1 engine patches in that bank. So, if you want to write new patches for the other 8 engines, you have to over-write an existing patch, which in turn, will effect the combination patches using those programs. Unless I'm mis-understanding, I'm not happy with that.

More later.   

[SLD Music]

Very cool Fred S.!  Looking forward to hearing more.

I love the Yamaha XF8's key action.  I tried MANY keyboards over a few months before I finally settled on the motif.  It's key action is the balanced hammer effect, which is a perfect compromise between a true piano feel and a synthesizer.  It lacks the heavier action in the bass notes like a piano would have, but because the weighted action is uniform across the full keyboard, it makes playing synth sounds a little easier than a true piano feel would.

That and the motif's downright jaw-dropping integration with Cubase is almost mindblowing (particularly when you have the firewire card installed, that is).  It's really something else. 

One thing that you mentioned that I'm still foggy on with my motif, though, is user storage.  When to store, what it stores, and where it stores it... especially when it comes to storing offset parameters that don't change the parameters of the original voice.  That whole architecture is still a bit bewildering to me.  I'll figure it out eventually. 

[Fred S]

It takes a bit of time to get used to the way Yamaha does things; counter-intuitive in spots. Once you get used to it, you'll be fine. The motif probably doesn't have any open slots for new patches. Once you edit or create something you want to keep, you may have to overwrite another patch. You can only overwrite the "user" patches. What I did is listen to all the reg patches and combos and listed those I didn't care for. Gotta be careful though, as you could overwrite a patch that's used in one of your favorite combos. Of course, this all comes from my familiarity with the S90es. The XF could be a lot different. I did have a motif ES7 for awhile, and the architecture was nearly identical to the S90 (sans the sequencer).

[SLD Music]

Fred,
 
Yes, I'm getting there.  Apparently the XF8 uses the user bank 1 to store the new XF only voices, but user banks 2-4 are all duplicates of preset voices, so it's safe to overwrite them.  I'm figuring the whole thing out, slowly but surely. 

[Fred S]

Not a lot to report yet...early impressions.

I've been through most of the manual. A few sections including sampling to go.

The acoustic pianos are good, not super great, but good...marginally better than those on the S90es...probably the best hardware samples I've heard.

I've been through quite a bit of the rest of the sounds. Some surprises and some disappointments. For example, I was expecting more out of the e-pianos. That said, they may just need a little sorting out to taste.

Sound editing is exceptional....the flexibility and depth is amazing. And, the menu structures are well thought out and intuitive. I did some editing today and I was getting to what I wanted in a hurry. The Set List and Smooth Sound Transition functions are very slick. Buiding combination patches is a gas!! 

I'm going to like this board a lot. I'm having second thoughts about gigging with it. It's a very attractive package I'd hate to scratch up....probably not for awhile anyway . 

[Fred S]

And, Karma is a gas!!!

[Moon]

Glad to hear you like your new material!

Soundwise, Korg is different than Yamaha. Yamaha is well known for it's acoustic sounds. So it doesn't surprise me you make the comparison.

Soundwise the Kronos is 9 sound engines... so I'm realy curious to hear what you think of the 'electronical'-sounds.


Moon

[Fred S]

I'll report more once I'm confident in my impressions. I've been playing with Karma all day today. What fun! I'm not much into electronica, but the sounds and Karma seem to do well in that area. Wish I knew more about sampling. Going to be working on that. I would like to be able to load a few of mine in. My S90es can write combinations (performances) with up to 4 programs (voices), while the Korg takes up to 16, so many of the combinations are beautifully deep. I'm assuming most of my writing will be in combinations. The pads are very good.

If I were to compare my S90es to my Korg at this point, I would probably say that overall, the individual patches in the Yamaha are slightly better/richer, but the Korg is better in just about every other category.....especially editing and creating (extreemly deep and intuitive). For a solo performer, it's heads and shoulders above the S90es.

That's it for now.

[SLD Music]

I'll report more once I'm confident in my impressions.

Yeah... that's where I'm at with the Motif.  I don't want to say too much until I know more about what I'm talking about and how _I_ want to work with the instrument.    There's far more I don't know about the Motif than I DO know, so writing impressions now would be more of a "I don't know how to do this yet, but it sounds pretty cool!" kinda thing.  


I'm enjoying your thoughts on the Kronos, though.

[Moon]

For a solo performer, it's heads and shoulders above the S90es.

I like the comparison and fully agree: it's amazing what a solo artist can do with only one keyboard. This goes not only for the Kronos, but also goes for the M3.

Only when comparing Korg to Motifs, the build quality of the Motifs (or S serie) seems more reliable if you plan to go on stage. I hated to put my M3 on the stage and would have the same feeling when owing a Kronos.

Moon

[Marc JX8P]

Only when comparing Korg to Motifs, the build quality of the Motifs (or S serie) seems more reliable if you plan to go on stage. I hated to put my M3 on the stage and would have the same feeling when owing a Kronos.

Moon

Oh great, now you tell me!

[Moon]

Well... it doesn't mean the Kronos or M3 are that fragile, only that the Yamaha's look more rugadized. Perhaps Korgs are made for the more "gentle" musicians 

Moon

[Marc JX8P]

Well... it doesn't mean the Kronos or M3 are that fragile, only that the Yamaha's look more rugadized. Perhaps Korgs are made for the more "gentle" musicians 

Moon

Ah ok, I wasn't planning to crowd surf with it anyway...

[Moon]

Ah ok, I wasn't planning to crowd surf with it anyway...

No, of course: you'll have to use the flightcase for that!