Korg Kronos 88

The Kronos 88 is a workstation with brilliant sounding patches that really boosted my creativity. I use this keyboard all of the time when I go to the studio, it is actually one of my favorite ones to work with there. I have never seen manual for it and never needed one. The first time that I had the chance to use this board I felt right at home with working on it.

UTILIZATION

The Kronos 88 has 9 really good sound engines that allowed me to create different sounds that most other boards don’t have. I have also used the Kronos 61 which is pretty much the same as the Kronos 88 but it has less keys and it is smaller. If I was going to recommend one or the other I would say go for the 61 because of its portability. The 88 key Kronos is very big and bulky, there is no way that I would want to travel with it for any types of gigs.

SOUNDS

This keyboards sounds are by far its best feature. I love Korgs workstations and synths because I feel they have the best sounds, all of the sounds are always warm full and rich. The sounds on the Kronos 88 are great for all types of music and most of the time I am working with the Kronos it is to create film scores which I love doing on it because of its ability to really create some ambient sounds that are different and not so much like every other keyboards sounds.

OVERALL OPINION

I love the acoustic pianos and organ sounds on the Kronos 88. They keys feel great, and that is another difference between the 88 and the 61. The keys are on 61 are “lighter” and not as heavy as they are on the 88 version this is good and bad because I love having the feel of real weighted keys but that always means a bigger and heavier board. In the studio this keyboard is also used via MIDI with computer sequencers. It has just about everything a musician could want!

Korg’s Kronos 88 is a 88 key workstation with a full color touch LCD display on it. If you purchase the Kronos 88 key now it will come installed with the newest OS system which is 2.0. It does very from the original 1.0 version that first came out with the Kronos. The Kronos 88 is a high end synth workstation that can be used for all types of music with a wide variety of sounds and patches that are ready to be added to your music without the need for much EQ or pre mixing. All of the sounds are of very high quality and they should be because the Kronos 88 key workstation cost over 3 thousand dollars brand new! The Kronos has a “flash based” storage that makes it really easy to load stuff, and it also makes it extremely fast. There are basically no wait times between patches or loading programs because it is really fast.


UTILIZATION

With 9 engines that the Kornos has, it basically puts all of them at your finger tips at once. With the ability to switch the presets up to 8 different times for each different patch you will have endless sounds to use in your music. I have been using the Kronos for around 3 months now and I fully understand most of all of the functions that the Kronos has to offer. A new feature is that you have the ability to record any external sound directly to the workstation which is amazing when it comes to recording in some live samples and effects from external gear, mainly my SP 404.


SOUNDS

Any sound you can imagine can be created with the Kronos 88 (if its not already pre installed!). Te sounds are very realistic and honestly there are so many of them including the variations that it will take you a long time to even just go through them all to check them out. I love all of the synths, but the basses stand out to me and so do the strings. All sounds are full and rich, I don’t have to do any modifications to them if I don’t want to because they are ready to be added to my mixes as is.


OVERALL OPINION

The workflow of the 88 key Kronos is impeccable and all of its functions are just amazing. You really can do anything you want on this board. This keyboard will allow me to get rid of about 3 of my other keyboards now because it can do what they can do all in this one unit. The price of the Kronos is pretty big but its worth it, thanks to my credit card! If you need a do it all synth workstation then the Kronos 88 key is what you have been looking for.

9 synths in one!! Yes, this machine is supposed to do the work of nine other ... 2 emulations of traditional Korg (MS20 and the Polysix), their CS3X organ in the beast, a stunning acoustic piano for a synthesizer, a kind DX7 FM synth, a Karma, a WS, a Z1, an M3 ... It is not called like that, but it is so you can imagine what is in the bowels of the beast ... Killing ...

UTILIZATION

Well, I did the test, I have not been able to deepen all that, but for a user Korg Triton accustomed to for example, do not worry, it's the same logic architecture, color touch screen more large, to better fly the various programming pages, and news of the head are well organized ... Very intuitive and all ...

SOUNDS

Well, here I feel there is already debate ... The sound is above all a matter of taste, some will find sublime, others will find it bland ... I'll try to be objective, but it is not win ...

Firstly what surprises is the pure sound: not a hint of breath ... From a surgical cleanliness, the signal / noise ratio must be hallucinating! The definition of sound is frightening, I think they have the converters installed in the machine are racing machines, type converters and Lynx consort ... The studio sound engineers will undoubtedly appreciate the true value ...

The piano sound is excellent, we did it on ANY workstation now. We can even have fun with some Chopin waltzes ... For cranky who say, rightly, that there are better, I would say yes, but they are dedicated machines ... The sublime or the V-MP10 piano in another, the nordpiano, is worse, but it's only a matter of taste ... When what is systems "embedded in pluggs", for the pianist than I am, the slight latency induced by the size of banks makes piano sounds to me very unpleasant game of "Moonlight" by Debussy. .. It is a SYNTHE guys, and a synthesizer with a piano like that, nobody else has done it again ...

The organs are excellent, close your eyes, and lacks only the pedals and one begins to Roda Scott ... This is still the engine of the audio CS3X that comes into play here ... Hammond was a well under the fingers, this is stunning ...

The acoustic sounds are generally very good, usable on stage, on the other as Yamaha can do better ... Matter of taste ...

The synthetic sounds themselves are extraordinary! This machine is made, and this is only my opinion, why! The grain of their synths "historical" is the breath in less ... The beast power is incredible, and I think with a little practice, a musician who likes to program will be filled beyond its expectations ...

For me, everything is huge, in the context of a synth, but the sheets, my God, what a joy ...


OVERALL OPINION

I have had only one hour in the hands, the time to listen to a lot of sounds, some touching to see the reactivity of various synthesis mode, the power of the synthesis filters dedicated to the sounds "that n do not exist in nature "... Nevertheless it is sufficient to form a fairly close to reality ...
3 things I was still marked:

- The very purity "class" of the overall sound. Very airy, very defined, without any noise from the electronics ...
- The extent of the range of sounds, even if some of the competition do better in some specific areas ... Universal definitely a synth ...
- The handling extremely simple, it is a machine very intuitive ... For those who are used to touch the synth brand, the manual is not necessary ...

Sometimes things that annoy, especially the banker ... € 3700 a synth keyboard with 88 keys, well made but still not great, are cured in Kawai piano much better from this point of view of, 3700 € So, it makes a lot of money ... (Approximately 25,000 Francs for fans of a currency that gave us the certainty that we were rich ... or not!)

Except that now, does not cost competitive in the best case, "only" € 1,000 less, with ONE synthesis, then a single grain noise ... Here we are 9! If you want to have a record as complete and versatile, you have to buy 4-5 different machines, and adding to the finish is very likely to graze the 10 000 €!!
Several questions arise from this discussion:

- Is what others do not sell too cheap machines "single synthesis", or is what it is that Korg OASYS Brade its revamped??
- Korg did he not shot himself in the foot with the Kronos as how to sell a 88 M3 now? And especially how to sell its stock of OASYS
- What may be the answer to the competition??
- The OASYS owners are left with a machine whose intrinsic value on the second hand market has been divided by 2 with the release of this toy ... They must cringe I think ...

I conclude by saying that there is finally the new synth on the planet, 3700 for the "9 in 1" is given somewhere, I think that America be the success story of the year ... I'm already saving, but I think version 76 keys is the most economically accomplished, but still, this is only my little person ... It is a dream anyway ...

A 88-key hammer. I am not a specialist but heavy touch celuis it suits me well. Complete connectivity for connecting to a PC and simultaneously connect a hard drive or CD burner. The surface of the machine includes a good amount of controller and as the Kronos recognizes surfaces natively type korg nano pad, there are many possible extensions. There is no editor Pc, or at least free, unfortunately, given the complexity of the machine that would have helped a bit. Big bank of sounds that I say, to explore it took me over 3 days ... And the old, there is even Flipper!

UTILIZATION

The machine is very accessible on the surface. For those who started, I recommend this equipment so it uses many concepts other than music. The editing sounds n is not hard on parts for Hi dx7 and modular, that is another story.

SOUNDS

For sounds, I'm not convinced by the guitars, largely on the best yamaha motif for the rest there is nothing to say. Banks are so equipped and fleshy, as that does not find his happiness will not find elsewhere. The effects are excellent and the Karma is a gas plant to program, not to mention that it seems difficult to anticipate the result, so programming a little empirical. I love tablecloths, violins, bass, pianos are by far the best I've heard on an electronic machine, far ahead of the reason for the coup. The synthesizers are many and varied, grain analogue is present.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for a few weeks, I tried a lot of models but the interface equivalent of Kronos and audio drivers can do without a lot of devices such as analog machines. As I said, the acoustic guitars do not make me fantasize at all, fortunately I kept a mox for more acoustic sounds. Once again the sounds are signed Korg Korg and difficult to mix (in contrast to yamaha) but the machine remains more attractive and open to my taste, not to mention that his program a sequencer or use the yamaha with sub-sub sub-menus ... I give up!

Here, I note the machine very good in my eyes and my ears, the best in the market today if you look globally, for that s not cons for me are the top-level sounds, 12 years after the release of Triton I expected more sophisticated sounds, but a decade and it will be perfect. In fact the machine is an ideal pattern for his acoustic mixed with Kronos, sound plans, pianos and interface effects and progressive difficulty.