Johnathan,

Rudess is such a master...the Kronos continues to impress...he obviously has great command of the Karma engine, as well as mastery of the instrument itself.


I've always enjoyed his work in Dream Theater.

Kudos to Korg for producing such an incredibly versatile and powerful instrument, and after seeing/hearing such a brilliant demo, it is easy to visualize this instrument's strengths lie in both studio and live production.

Thanks for the link.

Ian

Nigel.... don't dismiss this thing. Sonically, it is quite amazing!

As with most WS's, if you are willing to set up Performances in advance, and use the Set List feature, I see no reason why it is any worse than any other WS out there in a live situation.

The thing is, the reason why I still prefer to use my G70 in a normal WS role is, when you DON'T have time to preset spits and layers, effects routing, touch responses and all that, virtually no WS made can beat the speed and ease of my G70 for calling these up on the fly. Much of my work is with different people, so I often never know what I'm going to be playing, or with who, until I get there. My Triton and K2500 would be quite impossible to program on the gig all the splits and layers I might need, but it is a snap with the G70 (and I can save each new Performance on the fly, for future use).

But if your needs for a keyboard for live are currently filled by a Motif, the Korg is no harder to run live, and offers considerably more power and sonic realism and a feature set well past the Motif's capabilities.

I found it quite inspiring, and look forward to getting back to the store and spending a good day or two with it. And if I was doing a gig with a Motif or Fantom, etc., I would be VERY tempted if I had the cash to splash...

I've had my Kronos for about 6-8 months. At first I was pretty intimidated by it, but after spoon feeding myself daily with it's internals, I'm getting VERY comfortable with it. I am now sound programming, programming Karma, and creating sample libraries. I don't use the Kronos as an arranger. However, there have been occasions on stage that I will use Karma. Classic example is I programmed the two signature LMFAO dance songs; Party Anthem and I'm sexy and I know it. We play these at Wedding Receptions. I programmed the sounds and then Karma-fied the arrangement. I also use Karma for comping and soloing practice. There are some great COMBI splits with either bass, rhodes in the left hand and some other lead instrument in the right hand. For inspiration and song ideas, I have a set of Favorite patches that I use to practice and inspire. I got a kick out of Donny's assertion that Karma is too repetitive....that's so funny because that's exactly what Karma is designed NOT to be. Even if you don't take any action on the control surface to change the swing, accents, sound, etc., Karma will randomize your patterns automatically. The video I posted was instructional, not a performance video. Live on stage, I'm sure it would be much more dynamic.

The keyboard is Deep; very deep. Anyone who grew up through the 70's, 80's, etc who knows what ADSR and OSC and LFO is, can program the Kronos. After a while it become very intuitive. It's interesting that owning this keyboard actually get's me more work with other bands because of the true to the song sound reproduction and just the sonic fidelity it produces. Other musicians/bands approach me on stage and ask me if I'd consider working with them to replace their current keyboard player who is using with a Kurzweil PC88 for all their songs.

One new exciting Kronos development just occurred yesterday when Korg released the Version 2.0.2 of their Operating System. We can now create custom Streaming samples/libraries from the Solid State Disk. The impact of this is, you now can reduce the size and load times by an order of magnitude. It's ridiculous just how little memory is now consumed by some very large samples. So not only does Kronos have all those sweet analog synths, you can also have the very best in Samples on the market and then further process them with the onboard sound modifications and effects. Yikes!!!

I did want to address Diki's assessment of the control surfaces of the Kronos. Like any keyboard, you really optimize your sounds and setups in the studio and very rarely do this on stage. I only use a very few buttons and knobs on stage. I primarily use the Setlist function, which, by the way, has an EQ function so you can change acoustics of your entire set on the fly tailored to the venue sound characteristics. I find the buttons and knobs no less limiting on the K than on other keyboards; Once you gain comfort with the instrument. Training yourself for an hour at the music store is not going to give you a comfort level.

The other point folks brought up is how complicated this board is and how difficult it is to master. Again, it's a matter of familiarity. I will say most folks on this board have grown up with synths in all shapes and sizes and the principles are all there, just implemented differently. This is probably the last and final workstation/synth I'll ever purchase and one that I will probably NEVER sell; that is until they come out with Karma 3 and 9 more Synth engines! haha

Good post, Al...

Most here contemplating getting a new Kronos ought to be aware that Korg have just started shipping the KronosX. While much of the KronosX's OS has been ported to the old Kronos, the new one comes with double the RAM and an SSHD twice the size.

It will be a tiny bit more, but Korg have announced a price drop on the original Kronos, so make sure your dealer isn't ripping you off for the old price. Me, I'd wait for that KronosX... with User Custom sample banks, you are going to want as much RAM and as big an SSHD as you can lay your hands on!



I think I pointed out the occasions where you CAN'T do this. I simply wish that WS manufacturers would pay more attention to ease of live use. Heck, most of their arranger divisions have already figured out how to do this, and what buttons and controllers need to be close to the performer's hands and which need to be well away (!), and if it doesn't change WHAT controls are available, just where they are and how ergonomically they are laid out, wouldn't we ALL benefit form this?

Forcing you to go OVER the top of the Karma sliders, to get to the scene change and Part Mute buttons introduces the risk of accidentally hitting something that could potentially introduce a trainwreck. Most of these kinds of issues have long been sorted out in arrangers. Sure, you CAN train yourself to be ultra-cautious going for anything live, but why, with a redesign, should you HAVE to?

Exactly Al there are Arranger KB players and then there are Synth players....two different things in many ways...KRONOS is a Monster on stage many of my band player friends who tour in big acts use it and just love the heck out of it.

Actually m8...ANY of those upgrades can be applied to the original Kronos! They are bog standard industry HDD/SSD's In fact the hardware cradle for a second hardrive was already in existence on the original Kronos...On the chassis just under the existing harddrive...Ram is easy to buy and upgrade as the MOBO on the K has not changed, and ALL the rest is a software upgrade to OS 2.2!!

So the X is more marketing and spin and far less substance - you know, the Yamaha model

Oh.... well, thanks, Dennis. Didn't realize Korg were stealing from the Yamaha playbook!

Just out of curiosity, is the price difference between the old Kronos and the KronosX more or less than the price of going out and upgrading it yourself?

I still have one peeve with the Kronos they aren't likely to address though... Why have they dropped the plastic 76 as an option? 88 and 73 wood and only a 61 plastic? For those of us that do LH bass, the 76's low E was perfect, and 76 piano notes rather than 73 allows a bit more pianism. I am afraid I simplay am not a big fan of the Rhodes-like 73. If you are going wooden, you need 88. If not, you need a low E. I tend to think the 73 wood is simply some kind of retro fetish, rather than an actual musical NEED...

As much of the Kronos's users are going to be synth-heads, why restricting the plastic action to just 61 notes, with all the Kronos can do across the keyboard just seems silly.

Yeah gotta agree...I find having the low E really useful for bass parts...(although not so much a problem these days now that there are 5 and six strings basses and drop tuning seems to be really "de rigeur") so it we can get away with playing a D below the E

I didn't like the C-C on the M3 and I didn't like the C-C on the Kronos either..Pity the keybed from the PA (Fatar) was not available for the Kronos - it certainly needs that option I agree.

I think it MAY have been a case of left over beds from the distinctly unpopular SV1 that they decided to stick with...I wouldn't be surprised to actually see a semi-weighted 76 option later on...

By the way, the action on the weighted K's is average to fair...somewhere between the M-Audio and Yamaha Motif weighted beds...I didn't find it all that convincing for piano, which is really the ONLY reason one buys a weighted bed imho....

Cost of upgrading is small depending on what SSD (if any) you want to use (hdd's - even the 7200RPMs needed for streaming are cheap and so is ram)

I think most existing owners will simply do this...New buyers I think could be better just buying the X, BUT...there are starting to be some really good deals on Kronos 1...so it is something to be checked by prospective buyers I guess.

I would still be VERY leery of anything that has to STREAM data enclosed in something that is being pounded on!

I think anyone that wants a secondary or bigger primary HD in a Kronos had better get a SSHD or have a REALLY good backup plan!

I agree that drop tunings have made the E a tad high, but what you lose at the top end to gain a seldom used C doesn't make it a great deal, IMO. I just don't get why everyone is trying to reinvent the wheel. 88, 76 and 61 have been tried and tested, player approved sizes for 30 years or more. This plethora of new sizes and ranges just feels like faddish fashion.

+1 m8