Korg Kronos X 61

cf. korg site and excellent test Synthwalker.
The machine is superb with all the lit, black metal hull and sides laminated controllers. Aesthetically speaking, the kronos is elegant and makes you want to want to put my finger on it.
61 keys keyboard is very nice, one of the best that I have ever tested (with one of Novation Supernova2 I cherish fond memories on this point).

UTILIZATION

I bought there is exactly one year. I am far from having been around. I used "stand alone", the aim being to make my models and my sound hacks then transfer everything into a DAW to finalize the sound.
The ergonomics of the machine is excellent menu system is effective both for the sound designer who has mastered thousands of parameters in the kronos for the hobbyist who needs to simply edit a filter, an envelope or fx .
A little regret, however, that the damage is not tilt screen like the oasys because the vertebrae can work through being looked over.
The number and quality of all programmable controllers provide a real pleasure to use and editing sounds. It fails maybe some pads for rhythm but here we quibble. I think nanopad2 take me to fix it, we'll see ...
And the big negative: if the user guide (250 pages) is excellent and in French, the manual settings (1000 pages) it is entirely in English, on that Korg does not provide ... 1 point less. Although I am not a beginner in English, at a time, ca drunk me to go to the dictionary to translate a series of technical terms for.
On the matter of 2 minutes start, people who criticize this point have short memories: let us remember the starting time of fully charged mpc sounds, the heating time of analog equipment, their settings before using ... A power outage would be equally problematic live at home or with a kronos or with a PC or a collection of stuff to rekindle ...

SOUNDS

Not being in a particular style, I am in full charm of sounds kronos whatever they are.
Pianos: this is the first time I feel a realism to this type of sound. so beautiful.
EP: Pfff what to say, great, I love that the Archive sound, I'm thrilled.
Organs: I discovered I did not know enough but I've done one or two organ sounds that I like very much personal.
The acoustic sounds: Do not overdo the kronos is doing rather well and given the number of available banks, there is happiness.
The guitar sounds: Playing guitar synth has never made the same as a real guitar. I have not bought a kronos to only play ACDC, U2 etc ... Yet I willingly used in my models because the sounds are very good.
Synths they sound exceptional. Here the field is open to all experiments and is in my opinion one of the big strong points kronos: pads, fx, leads, bass cover many styles. We are dealing with a real synth kronos with controllers and advanced synthesis engine.
The slamming drums, nothing to say. The kits are varied and cover a wide range and are set with an acoustic studio or live bluffing.
The FX section is huge (12 individual, 2 Master and 2 Total), there is something to experience.
Combi part: there is good and not so good but there is a matter of taste. if you like techno stuff with delay, reverb and all conceivable effects will be filled. Personally, I often removes effects and I leave it as little as possible. As against, styles are sources combi huge inspiration.

OVERALL OPINION

Already one year spent with my Kronos. This is a dream machine, led, which covers all possible uses in the creative process: desire to compose = sequencer want to sound designer = search engines want to play = it sounds so .... Want sampler: integrated sampler.
I have not tried many other models of this kind except the reason there is a long time who also enjoyed it. The PC3K tempted me but the chance that made me cross the path of kronos and I fell in love. I do not regret it. This is the machine all in one I wanted in my fantasies.
So yes, it can be complex, so see scary learning is abysmal. But quite honestly, I do not feel the need to know everything, I just want to make music, sounds and change some bopping. and then if one day I do not want to play, then I can decide to dive into the bowels of sound synthesis.
I think for me it has been very unfairly maligned, people have become so jaded with all the technology.
For my part I think spending many years on, discover the karma, sampling, audio, and many other things recording. I will change my mind over time.
PS / thank you to Coyotte14 and Francis and all the others to supply site kronoscopie, tutorials ...