Korg Krome

[1001gear]

The demos sound like GMidi. 1k for the 88 is about right.

[ChristianRock]

You think those pianos sound like General MIDI?

I do want to hear more of the synth sounds though. I wonder if they got any of the digital filters from the MS20 and PolySix engines in the Kronos... one can but hope. The standard MMT filters from M3/M50 don't appeal to me.

[1001gear]

No not the keys sounds. The orchestral/synth stuff; typically reedy cheezy. Worth a thousand as a piano plus. IMO

[Synthaholic]

 

Originally Posted by keybdwizrd

Yes, I am seeing those prices here on the Sweetwater site, with free shipping.

Sweetwater also has the M50-61 for $999, with the "M50 Updates Pre-Installed" -

"Sweetwater updates it for you!

The Korg M50-61 you buy from Sweetwater is better! Before we ship it to you we upgrade it to the latest Operating System v1.10 that adds a number of improvements including 700 additional effects presets. We also install the M50-61 Vintage Keys Collection, which adds 32 new EPs, Wurlys, and Clavs that have up to eight velocity layers and extensive vintage effects processing. Finally, we include a Sweetwater M50-61 Bonus CD-ROM loaded with the new v1.10 M50-61 Editor for Mac and PC, updated Owner's Manuals, Quick Start Guide, Patch Lists, SysEx Charts, Parameter Guide, and USB Drivers for Mac and PC."

 

If all these incentive add-ons are exclusive to Sweetwater, then great.

If they are add-ons that I can get/do myself, I would rather have a factory sealed carton shipped to me, rather than have Sweetwater opening up and messing around with my new, expensive instrument.

[bdub]

 

Originally Posted by Synthaholic

If all these incentive add-ons are exclusive to Sweetwater, then great.

If they are add-ons that I can get/do myself, I would rather have a factory sealed carton shipped to me, rather than have Sweetwater opening up and messing around with my new, expensive instrument.

 

Yeah, they seem to open up a lot of stuff and mess with it. Send me the freebies and I'll install 'em myself. Just stay the hell out of my new box!

[Synthaholic]

 

Originally Posted by bdub

Yeah, they seem to open up a lot of stuff and mess with it. Send me the freebies and I'll install 'em myself. Just stay the hell out of my new box!

 

My natural distrust of retailers make me suspicious of getting a demo, sold as new. So I want that factory seal, and I want to be the first person to turn the unit on.

[Metrosonus]

but does it have a piano patch?

[kbeaumont]

Sweetwater began as Hammond Organ experts they would repair, mod or advise on them. They have a 2 year warranty on anything they sell. For me they have the best customer service in the business. About 3-4 of years ago I got a Juno-D from them. After a couple of months, I upgraded the firmware from Roland's site that just been released. Using their instructions, I ended up with a useless brick. Roland said to see if where I got it would take it back, because they wouldn't cover it. Sweetwater not only replaced it free, the one I got back had the new firmware installed by them.

The reason they add those updates is to prevent that from happening and to differentiate from other online retailers like amazon. They are also pretty good at shaving the price where they can and the shipping is free.

So I pretty much use them exclusively.

[ElectricPuppy]

 

Originally Posted by Metrosonus

but does it have a Jump patch?

 

FIFY.

[conundrum23]

 

Originally Posted by Synthaholic

If all these incentive add-ons are exclusive to Sweetwater, then great.

If they are add-ons that I can get/do myself, I would rather have a factory sealed carton shipped to me, rather than have Sweetwater opening up and messing around with my new, expensive instrument.

 

They are add-ons that you can get/do yourself.

Price being equal, get the Krome.

But Krome isn't worthwhile for anyone who already has an M50. I was expecting an update to be coming soon, but I was hoping they would have included ssd sampling capability. Certainly at least the HD1 engine, and not just updated pianos, and the rest the same sounds as the m50/3.

[Bernard]

So some Korg Brazil dude posts a YouTube showing how to load samples into Krome. He was using ''Awave Studio'' and the video showed him playing loaded patches from internal memory on the Keyboard, not from the SD card he used to load it.

This means they can reload song waves. It may just be for special offer sales promotions, but some seem to want this as a user feature.

Whatever, at least it has some flexibility for sound hacking in future McHale style... ;-)

[bdub]

The manuals were posted in Japan and this doesn't appear to be a feature of the Krome. That was probably an internal OS for product development.

[Bernard]

 

Originally Posted by bdub

The manuals were posted in Japan and this doesn't appear to be a feature of the Krome. That was probably an internal OS for product development.

 

For sure, not in the specs either AFAIK. I suspect it will not be launched, but you know what people are like, they will keep asking for it or attempting to do it ;-)

[Bernard]

Voice Name list:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=h...VNL_EFGSJ1.pdf

[conundrum23]

 

Originally Posted by Bernard

So some Korg Brazil dude posts a YouTube showing how to load samples into Krome. He was using ''Awave Studio'' and the video showed him playing loaded patches from internal memory on the Keyboard, not from the SD card he used to load it.

This means they can reload song waves. It may just be for special offer sales promotions, but some seem to want this as a user feature.

Whatever, at least it has some flexibility for sound hacking in future McHale style... ;-)

 

Unless it includes some extra hardware not intended for the production units.

[1001gear]

Upgrade interpolator. Included.

[triton76]

any idea how much of this is going to be old triton samples? I see lots of identical patch names in that list

[Bernard]

According to a guy who has tried one ( http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpB...184d2eb9a6db66 ) the key bed is better than the M50 (his M50 issue is shallow throw, which I agree is not great point on the M50). All the key bed shots I have seen show the same type of plastic hinged keys on the non 88 key Kromes. The video below @ 3.17 onwards also appears to confirm this is plastic flexing hinge type keys. ''zapruder film analysis'' shows the top of the key traveling backwards near the flexing hinge point in shot. That would be going down and less back if on a deeper hinge pivot and spring. So his comments of improved travel will mean the keys will bend the old style plastic more OK so that is why it is cheaper and lighter, so you pays yerh money and takes yerh chances...

 

French language vid:

 

[elwoodblues1969]

 

Originally Posted by zzzxtreme

"sounds better" is totally subjective

 

The Krome's 2.8GB worth of uncompressed and un-looped piano samples,versus the MOX's amount of piano sample data(355MB for the overall ROM)...that's subjective??

Your utter lack of knowledge about keyboards precludes the possibility of you making a valid argument.

[elwoodblues1969]

 

Originally Posted by Nismology

Forgive me, but apart from the nicer touch screen and a new piano sound, is there really anything that makes this worth ditching my M50?? It's not looking worth the upgrade so far, especially if they haven't improved the keybed. I also happen to think it looks fugly as sin.

 

If you're really fond of your street-sign-yellow M50,then no...you may not want to ditch your caution-yellow M50 for a Krome,because more than likely,you won't ever see a Krome in anything other than black.

Damn dude....speaking of fugly as sin,you're M50 is an abomination.Explain to me how a Fisher Price yellow M50 is prettier than the Krome??

[elwoodblues1969]

 

Originally Posted by AnotherScott

Maybe look for a used Motif XS (or XF)? In a new board, the closest to what you want might be a Kurzweil PC3LE.

 

Personally,I would choose a Motif XS over a Kurzweil PC3LE.I am a previous owner of one and the screen, effects routing and the overall layout of the sequencer is a bad joke.

Not only will the PC3LE NOT get you going without a computer,the PC integration is also piss-poor.

[AnotherScott]

 

Originally Posted by elwoodblues1969

The Krome's 2.8GB worth of uncompressed and un-looped piano samples,versus the MOX's amount of piano sample data(355MB for the overall ROM)...that's subjective??

Your utter lack of knowledge about keyboards precludes the possibility of you making a valid argument.

 

Attitude aside, zzzxtreme was talking about the entirety of the included sounds, not just the piano. (Although it is also possible that someone could prefer the sound of a technically lest sophisticated piano... size isn't everything.)

 

Originally Posted by elwoodblues1969

If you're really fond of your street-sign-yellow M50,then no...you may not want to ditch your caution-yellow M50 for a Krome,because more than likely,you won't ever see a Krome in anything other than black.

Damn dude....speaking of fugly as sin,you're M50 is an abomination.Explain to me how a Fisher Price yellow M50 is prettier than the Krome??

 

The nice thing about the colored M50s is that the could be easier to use and read on stage or in other less-than-ideally lit environments, compared to the stock black-on-black M50 design. From the pics, it looks like the Krome might be better than the M50 in that respect, even though it's still a kind of black-on-black, because the textures/reflectiveness seem different.

[elwoodblues1969]

 

Originally Posted by CfNorENa

For anyone who cares, one feature of the Krome worth noting is the sequencer. It's essentially the M3 sequencer, so a big step up from the M50 (drag and drop editing; track view; piano roll editor, etc.). And it has a bigger touchscreen, in full color. Given the specs and the GUI, the Krome will sport the best sequencer in the Korg workstation lineup -- significantly better, in fact, than what is on the flagship Kronos!

 

I certainly care about the sequencer,as even though my DAWS are the central workhorse of my studio,sometimes I prefer to lay down an idea on a piece of hardware,or just supplement my songs,without having to worry about additional CPU usage.

However,I have to wonder how much inspiration I can derive from the Krome,if the synth sound set is no different than that of the M50?I don't even care if the amount of data dedicated to the synth sounds is no different,just so long as some of the samples themselves,are different.

The inclusion of the Radias engine would have been nice,but I suppose it would have driven up the price significantly.

[nobeatnik]

 

Originally Posted by elwoodblues1969

The Krome's 2.8GB worth of uncompressed and un-looped piano samples,versus the MOX's amount of piano sample data(355MB for the overall ROM)...that's subjective??

Your utter lack of knowledge about keyboards precludes the possibility of you making a valid argument.

 

That's pretty harsh. As I recall, Kronos users initially had a hard time finding a piano sound on that board that could cut through as well as the pianos in the Motif could. So just because the Kronos/Krome piano sound is a better emulation doesn't make it better in all cases.

[elwoodblues1969]

 

Originally Posted by AnotherScott

Attitude aside, zzzxtreme was talking about the entirety of the included sounds, not just the piano. (Although it is also possible that someone could prefer the sound of a technically lest sophisticated piano... size isn't everything.)

The nice thing about the colored M50s is that the could be easier to use and read on stage or in other less-than-ideally lit environments, compared to the stock black-on-black M50 design. From the pics, it looks like the Krome might be better than the M50 in that respect, even though it's still a kind of black-on-black, because the textures/reflectiveness seem different.

 

Yes...oddly enough,people do find Korg's M1-quality type of piano sounds purposeful in some way,but if all the keyboard has to offer-is just those sh*tty pianos sounds,what's the point?

It's about Godd**n time,that Korg has some authentic sounding pianos at a budget price(which is an amazing feature),so that one has the option of including some quality pianos to their songs in a DAW for example,without any additional CPU usage.

Besides which,Korg will always include their old cheesy pianos,in whatever keyboard they make in the future.

As for the color scheme...well...if being able to see what the hell one is doing on stage,necessitates the need for a neon yellow keyboard,then something is terribly wrong. Wouldn't a portable,clamp-on LED stage-light do the trick...maybe??