KORG KRONOS

[McHale]

It is my understanding that the KRONOS contains every stock patch from the OASYS plus additional patches. I thought the OASYS had one...

[Syntex]

I tried the Kronos this afternoon. Based on what I observed, I am going to keep this workstation on my Low Priority / Do Not Buy list. The sound seemed perfectly alright to me. The build quality left something to be desired.

Data Value Knob - It had a smooth feel. I could not feel any looseness. I tried to gently remove the knob from its base and it stayed firmly attached.

Small Knobs & Sliders - Cheap feel. An area where production costs were obviously cut. I was very unhappy with these controls. This seems to be an especially disturbing vendor trend with sliders. At least the Kronos sliders felt better than the cheap ones on the GAIA, though not by a large margin.

Vector Joystick - YUCK! Felt as loose and cheap as I had expected.

TouchView Display - Because I don't wear reading glasses, the small font did not bother me during my session with the Kronos. Over the long term I could change my mind about this item. It would have been nice if Korg had designed the Kronos with an OASYS style display. Too bad that would have raised the cost unacceptably.

[Vito Corleone]

There are so many patches now competing for space that human whistles are very low priority. The "Young Folks" hit ain't gonna happen soon again.

 

 

Oh please. There may be some very good reasons why one doesn't exist but "so many patches competing for space" can't possibly be one of them. C'mon. These things all have 15 variations of wood flute. I'm pretty sure there's room.

[Vito Corleone]

It is my understanding that the KRONOS contains every stock patch from the OASYS plus additional patches. I thought the OASYS had one...

 

 

Well, if you find it on yours, let me know.

[Vito Corleone]

I tried the Kronos this afternoon. Based on what I observed, I am going to keep this workstation on my Low Priority / Do Not Buy list. The sound seemed perfectly alright to me. The build quality left something to be desired. Data Value Knob - It had a smooth feel. I could not feel any looseness. I tried to gently remove the knob from its base and it stayed firmly attached. Small Knobs & Sliders - Cheap feel. An area where production costs were obviously cut. I was very unhappy with these controls. This seems to be an especially disturbing vendor trend with sliders. At least the Kronos sliders felt better than the cheap ones on the GAIA, though not by a large margin. Vector Joystick - YUCK! Felt as loose and cheap as I had expected. TouchView Display - Because I don't wear reading glasses, the small font did not bother me during my session with the Kronos. Over the long term I could change my mind about this item. It would have been nice if Korg had designed the Kronos with an OASYS style display. Too bad that would have raised the cost unacceptably.

 

 

Everyone has their own taste, of course. But the reports of cheap build quality are GREATLY over-exaggerated, IMO.

[McHale]

 

Well, if you find it on yours, let me know.

 

 

I'm looking at early July before the 88 key ships. I'd be shocked if there wasn't one in the GM banks.

[DJ RAZZ]

Build quality can be fixed and improved upon but the tiny writing on the screen will always be a challenge, until one gets the board ready to go and to their liking. Very nice sounds, expressive, deep, and a useful tool for composing, recording, and live playing, once it is set up properly. Eye candy is amazing. I was surprised. 61 Key version is much better looking in person. If I has the money I would buy one with out hesitation. Talk about a bread and butter synth in a small foot print.

[dumeril7]

Build quality can be fixed and improved upon but the tiny writing on the screen will always be a challenge, until one gets the board ready to go and to their liking.

 

 

I'm not following you on that one. The tiny typeface can be fixed with an OS update by Korg. But if the hardware and assembly isn't up to snuff, its impractical for the average player to fix/replace/redo all of that. (For the record, finally having seen and played one, I think the supposed build quality "issues" for the Kronos are way overstated.)

 

D7

[MartinHines]

Oh please. There may be some very good reasons why one doesn't exist but "so many patches competing for space" can't possibly be one of them. C'mon. These things all have 15 variations of wood flute. I'm pretty sure there's room.

 

 

One "problem" with the Kronos is there ARE so many Programs created for it. There are all the OASYS stock programs, the OASYS EXi, the later extra OASYS Programs (Vintage Keyboards) PLUS new Kronos Programs.

 

All of the Kronos Program banks are full with factory presets except one, EXTernal G. I assume Korg left this open so people would have a place to put their own programs (e.g. programs associated with samples they might load).

 

There are so many programs that some of them are not in the Kronos factory preload. If you look at the Kronos Voice Name List there is a section at the end titled "EXs Extras". These are 333 Programs that are not in the factory default preload. They are provided on the hard drive so a person could load them if you wanted (just not all at the same time).

[McHale]

 

One "problem" with the Kronos is there ARE so many Programs created for it. There are all the OASYS stock programs, the OASYS EXi, the later extra OASYS Programs (Vintage Keyboards) PLUS new Kronos Programs. All of the Kronos Program banks are full with factory presets except one, EXTernal G. I assume Korg left this open so people would have a place to put their own programs (e.g. programs associated with samples they might load). There are so many programs that some of them are not in the Kronos factory preload. If you look at the Kronos Voice Name List there is a section at the end titled "EXs Extras". These are 333 Programs that are not in the factory default preload. They are provided on the hard drive so a person could load them if you wanted (just not all at the same time).

 

 

Since it's basically a soft synth running on a PC, I'd be willing to pay for them to expand the amount of banks for progs and combis. I don't understand why they have the limit they do...

[rosebud]

[realtrance]

Yeah I wouldn't be too concerned with build quality unless you're on the road a lot and looking to this synth to be your mainstay, and even then, probably no real issues. The SSD is a huge plus there.

 

Korg have always had small, fragile-seeming knobs, a hard-to-read display font, and other such things, and yet Tritons and others have been prominent on many tours. As a studio synth, really no issues.

 

Heck I can remember when everyone was dissing the JP-8000 for being made out of cheap plastic with easy to break sliders, yet here we are, 14 years later and I doubt many of 'em fell apart.

 

Build quality issues are mostly overblown.

[zoink]

 

Yeah I wouldn't be too concerned with build quality unless you're on the road a lot and looking to this synth to be your mainstay, and even then, probably no real issues. The SSD is a huge plus there. Korg have always had small, fragile-seeming knobs, a hard-to-read display font, and other such things, and yet Tritons and others have been prominent on many tours. As a studio synth, really no issues. Heck I can remember when everyone was dissing the JP-8000 for being made out of cheap plastic with easy to break sliders, yet here we are, 14 years later and I doubt many of 'em fell apart. Build quality issues are mostly overblown.

 

 

 

My concern is not that the Kronos will fall apart, but that certain aspects of the physical interface are just not very wieldy.

 

While auditioning the Kronos and trying out the screen and the dial, I found myself just saying, "You've got to be f*cking kidding me."

 

And again, fortunately the font size issue is fixable. I don't see that as a long-term problem. But it would have been nice if they had given it the same screen as the Oasys. Hell, they can charge me a couple hundred dollars more, but don't skimp on the display. Or give it a VGA output so you can run it out to a large monitor.

[mididoc]

 

Or give it a VGA output so you can run it out to a large monitor.

 

 

THIS!

[dumeril7]

 

THIS!

 

 

Unless it also included a mouse interface, it would be pretty unwieldy to go back and forth between a monitor and the touchscreen.

 

Even in the studio I consider build quality immensely important. Things like cold solder joints, cheap pots/switches, loose keys, poorly assembled boards, etc. will give you problems over time whether the keyboard is on the road or not.

 

D7

[realtrance]

D7 true, but I'm talking about things that are often perceived as build-quality issues that really aren't. The things you mention are of course more serious. And zoink's point about the crappy font is equally serious; I was astonished when the Karma came out that the screenfonts looked like they'd been ported from a circa 1993 MS-DOS PC computer, but then I discovered that yes, that's the font Korg had been using for years. And is still using, apparently. Why they can't/won't improve it is beyond understanding, but there it is; it hasn't apparently hampered use of Korgs for the past decade, though.

 

But yes, the problem with visible cut corners is always, well, what is there that I can't see that's also crap? Crap in one place often implies crap in others; so yes, at that level it's a concern especially for out-of-the-gate buyers.

 

If I had the money I'd eventually be interested in a Kronos, but at this point I'd definitely wait at least a year to see what kinds of issues show up with the first round of buyers. Ditto anything complex made these days, really; a lot of it has gone to crap, unfortunately, in the current economy.

[Vito Corleone]

I think the complaints about "build-quality" are overblown, frankly. Is it "built like a tank" like the Motif? No. But nor is it a lightweight piece of junk either. Everything on the board feels solid to me. The only things on the board that feel even slightly sketchy to me are the data wheel (and that's just mostly because I allowed myself to become so paranoid about it falling off...) and the vector joystick, which I think is SUPPOSED to feel that way.

I don't the endcaps look like cheap plastic at all. But I don't like that they are so shiny that they smudge with fingerprints easily.

It feels comparable to a D-50 era Roland regarding build-quality, and those things have held up pretty well.

It remains to be seen how it holds up after a year or two on the road. I'll get back to you.

[Bernard]

... But it would have been nice if they had given it the same screen as the Oasys. Hell, they can charge me a couple hundred dollars more, but don't skimp on the display.

 

 

IIRC the Korg team mentioned during the release of the OASYS that the screen was an off the self (read industrial) item that effectively added approx $1000 to the cost of the unit. I am sure this kind of bespoke unit is a tad cheaper nowadays but who knows unless you research it to get an exact same quality item with the connectivity needed for the KRONOS OS.

[Michael Blue]

It would be great if they include some way to use an iPad as the screen/interface, but this would likely require being USB'd to a PC or some sort of USB/WiFi/Bluetooth adapter and the drivers to run it.
Likewise, it'd be cool to be able to run a nanopad straight from the onboard USB port(s), but there again, drivers needed. Since it's Korg/Korg, maybe they can.

Obviously some people here are going to tear it down regardless...
I dunno if it's fanboyism for another brand, self-reassurance because they can't (or don't want to) afford it, or what, but once you've stated your opinion, you really don't need to keep re-posting the same opinion overandoverandoverandover...

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to meeting one of these in person.
I've still got my pre-order in on an 88, but I need to sell the OASYS first.
Maybe this means I'll be able to test-drive a KRONOS before I buy...
...Who knows...Maybe they are just el-cheap-o crap and I'll save myself some heartache.

[zoink]

 

IIRC the Korg team mentioned during the release of the OASYS that the screen was an off the self (read industrial) item that effectively added approx $1000 to the cost of the unit. I am sure this kind of bespoke unit is a tad cheaper nowadays but who knows unless you research it to get an exact same quality item with the connectivity needed for the KRONOS OS.

 

 

 

Recently the cost of LCD and touch displays has gone down dramatically, at least as a separate peripheral, so I'm guessing that it's less consequential in the cost of the Kronos than it was when the Oasys was released.

 

It also would have been nice if they could have made it a dual touch display so that you could zoom in and out by simply spreading your fingers, as with the iPad. That would fix the small font problem right there.

 

I do like the fact that each screen on the Kronos is packed with information. It makes the unit a lot easier to navigate.

[realtrance]

All this points to where things should go in the future: make the screen wireless! The keyboard! The other modular components of the design! No reason they all have to be locked and wired together into one unit. I really think, a few years from now (assuming we survive a variety of impending catastrophes), that's going to be the step forward. The funky/weird Korg Radias keyboard will be seen as an early experiment in this direction.

 

And yeah, as with all stuff, the proof is in the pudding; whether or not you like the way the fonts look, if they prove functional in allowing more stuff on each screen, over the long run, that may matter more than whether the letters are pretty and easy to read. We'll see.

[NuSkoolTone]

One thing I'm GLAD about the "Build Quality" is it appears they kept the WEIGHT down. A Real BOON for gigging!

Conversely, the whole 73 key thing is a SHAM. I USE those 3 extra keys DAMNIT! A LOT! So now I have to consider the weight and cost of the 88? Or say {censored} it and just get the 61?

 

It's seriously messin with my head.

[evildragon]

Say "{censored} it" and go with 61. The most portable out of the bunch. Get an 88-key weighted board (if you don't have it already) to marry it over MIDI and you have a great combo with piano-like keys, and a decent keybed to do fast synth stuff and organ smears on.

[zzzxtreme]

One thing I'm GLAD about the "Build Quality" is it appears they kept the WEIGHT down. A Real BOON for gigging! Conversely, the whole 73 key thing is a SHAM. I USE those 3 extra keys DAMNIT! A LOT! So now I have to consider the weight and cost of the 88? Or say {censored} it and just get the 61? It's seriously messin with my head.

 

 

a 61 key kronos plus a 25key midi controller haha

[McHale]

Otherwise, I'm looking forward to meeting one of these in person.

 

As soon as mine comes in, I'll let you, STG, and SS know and I'll head to STG's studio with it. WITH screwdrivers.