Anyone using this with the OT or other elektron gear?
I have one, but i doesn’t often get used alongside my Elektron kit.
What would you like to know?
I was interested how you might use it along side your elektron gear, particularly octatrack, but if you say you arent doing that then how do you use it? Studio use only?
Despite it’s size (talking 61 keys) it seems it would be a good addition to my own set up. Seems to have a lot of sound design potential but most demos on youtube and korg site tend to portray it as some cheesy backing band type affair.
How does MOD-7 compare to something like FM8? They seem quite similar (6 operator semi modular).
Also is the kronos capable of having a a combi that for example had one track for effects and an external instrument (say if I routed the OT main outs to the stereo ins) and maybe a zone that only sends midi to external gear like for example my tetra?
Sorry far too many questions. There is quite a vast amount of documentation which makes it a bit difficult to find out about particulars.
I did find some nice examples of the mod-7 engine http://youtu.be/fXz_l594hEY
For me it seems perfect because its basically all the ableton synths in one box. MOD-7 = Operator, STR-1 = Tension & Collision, HD-1 = Sampler, MS20ex/Polysixex/AL-1 = Analog.
I tend to use it as a keyboard for more traditional gigs.
Essentially, I use it as an instrument rather than a sound module.
I use it in the studio and on-stage.
When I’m using Octatrack, that tends to be for a different project (not yet aired) which uses modules in more of a DJ style performance mode.
Kronos sounds great, but the interface is very fiddly.
One big down-side is that when you use it multi-timbrely, you can’t dive in and edit patches in depth whilst you’re in that mode. You can tweak custom parameters via the dials, but if you want to change fundamentals, you have to go into program mode where you edit just the one patch at a time.
I haven’t used MOD7 much yet, but intend to.
Yes, you can process external instruments and sequence them too. You’d normally do the sequencing in the sequence mod, not combi mode.
Hope that makes sense!
Oh - someone’s made a really good Windows editor for AL1. Much better than the Kronos’ own UI.
Here’s a good place for more info:
http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=60&sid=240b913ff0d3ddbafaaf2fc492e3b4da
Thanks for the reply. I will check out the korg forums.
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Boot time is one of the things Korg is improving ( slash fixing, depending on your perspective ) in the new release.
The Montage M boots up in about 18 seconds and came out in 2023.
Was the Kronos 2 really that long?
Like @Prints says I get about 17-18 boot up time on my Montage M (running OS 2.10) and just over 16 seconds on my Nord Stage 4.
Neither of these boot times is bothersome, but if they were 3-4x as long that would be frustrating.
Yes, generally around two whole minutes. There have been some talks about what is actually taking up that time aside from loading large sample sets (possibly decryption), since SSD replacements that people have done haven’t made the process much faster.
You can do some optimization by customizing the auto-loaded KSCs though, and just loading what you need. I think you can get it to boot in around a minute in the best case, but that’s just from my memory.
The M came out last summer (2024), just to clear that up. → No it didn’t, summer 2024 was the full version of the ESP (along with OS2.0). I am full of shit.
They put a faster processor in the new hardware, and that helps too.
You are absolutely correct and I am an idiot. For some reason I had the release of the full version of the ESP plug-in in the back of my mind, and did not verify. Apologies.
The nine sound engines in the Kronos :
- SGX-2 Premium Piano: This engine produces realistic piano sounds, including German Grand, Japanese Grand, and Berlin Grand. It uses un-looped stereo samples and 12-level velocity switching.
- EP-1 MDS Electric Piano: This engine recreates six classic electric pianos, including Rhodes and Wurlitzer models. It includes software control over hammers, tines, reeds, and mechanical noise elements.
- CX-3 Tonewheel Organ: This engine models the original Korg CX-3 combo organ, including a vacuum tube amp, vibrato/chorus, and rotary speaker effect.
- HD-1 High Definition Synthesizer: This engine covers orchestral, classic rock, and hip-hop sounds. It uses PCM, sampling, and Wave Sequencing.
- AL-1 Analog Synthesizer: This engine uses analog modeling.
- STR-1 Plucked Strings: This engine uses physical modeling.
- MOD-7 Waveshaping VPM Synthesizer: This engine uses VPM synthesis.
- MS-20EX Component Modeling Technology: This engine uses analog modeling.
- PolysixEX Component Modeling Technology: This engine uses CMT analog modeling.
I still use my Kronos every day since it was first released in mid-2011. That’s almost 14 years. It is my main master controller and ROMpler. If I had to rethink my choice, I would go for a Nord Stage 4 73 Compact today (different feature focus). However, since it did not yet exist back in 2011, the Kronos was a no-brainer.
It would almost be my DAW of choice if there was not a major MIDI timing issue occurring when printing MIDI tracks to audio.
Now that the’ve revived the Kronos, I’m taking a closer look at mine again. I’ve been basically using it as a Keyboard Preset machine, but might want to jump back into the details of the engines. Does anyone know if there’s a decent Kronos editor for Mac these days? I remember Korg dropping support for the Mac version many years ago, which is one reason I stopped paying much attention to creating my own presets.
There is an iPad app. Plus, the Electra One has an add-on for it. I’ve used mine as a preset machine, too, albeit for live performance, so I’ve fiddled with layers/splits and fine-tuning sounds.
I found the iPad app. In its description, the developer points out that the app is really designed for tweaking the main pages of the various presets as a live performance, enhancement tool, and specifically says that the programming pages for the Kronos are not included in the app, which is actually what I’m after. Thanks for the heads up though.
In going back through some of the specifics for the programming, I am reminded why I never really looked very far into the physical modeling app, called STR – 1. I am not all that interested in playing plucked instruments on a piano keyboard. I would far prefer to have a physical modeling synth engine that mimics bowed and air physics. I might still look further into it and see if there are ways to tweak it to get what I want out of it.
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STR-1 is pretty versatile and yields sounds way beyond plucked instruments. The sound design GUI of the AL-1, STR-1 and HD-1 engines is pretty much a menu-diving catastrophe though.