Korg Forums

[BrianCa]

Just thought I would throw this question out there. If there were a rack version of the Korg Kronos available and you could afford one, would you buy it?

Many people already have a main keyboard, perhaps a Motif or EX5 etc and also space could be a factor so a rack would be ideal. It makes sense to me that Korg should produce a rack version of the wonderful Kronos but, would is sell?

So would you buy a Korg Kronos Rack?

If not and you would buy something else, what would it be and why?

I don't expect a rush of replies but would be interesting to leave the question out there. Korg do listen to feedback and they are not adverse to taking a risk so it's not entirely out of the realms of possibility that they would indeed produce a rack version. After all...where do you go from the Kronos as it is right?

[SKung]

In addition to an arranger keyboard this would be a great product. The Kronos would be a sound generator far advanced from any arranger available.

But having a second keyboard available is an advantage, too. I have a PA2X connected with a Kronos 61 and wouldn't replace the Kronos with a rack version.

[Falcon2e]

This reminds me of the rack version of the Triton from years ago. I have no idea how many of those units were sold, but I don’t think it was widely popular. I didn’t have one, but I did have a Roland JV80 rack and I remember it wasn’t easy to use. I can’t imagine how Korg could design a rack unit that’s practical, and include everything that’s on the panel on our Kronos.
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Kronos2-61, Triton Classic, Nord Stage 2

[voip]

See:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=119552

.

[timg11]

I've given a lot of thought to alternate packaging for the Kronos.
First off, I don't think Korg would do it. Certainly not now that it is near end of life. So let's think about rack mods that could be done by the owner or a tech.

The rack form factor poses some significant challenges with the touchscreen UI. Would you build into a 5U rack enclosure and mount the touchscreen on the front? Maybe the right control panel would also fit. That makes the whole package rather bulky. You would still have to rely on a tablet app for the the buttons, knobs, and sliders on the left panel.

Or do you eliminate the touchscreen (and most of the controls), redesigning a circuit board with subset of controls that would fit into a 2U rack, and then rely on a remote-control app for normal operation? That could work, but what happens when/if the K fails to boot?

You could build a 2U rack enclosure on sliding rails. The touchscreen is flush in the top, and normally invisible. If there is an issue where the touchscreen must be accessed, you slide out the rack to get to it.
Or if you're a mechanical expert, design a slide-out tray for the touchscreen that slides out and drops down for use, but can be stowed safely back inside the rack otherwise.

If you have serious hardware/software skills, you could design an FPGA to take the LCD drive signal (which is digital, but not video), and convert it to HDMI video output. Further engineering would be required to engineer a return path from an external touchscreen back to conversion hardware to emulate the old-school resistive matrix used by the Kronos.

All these options require significant engineering effort, which is why I ended up going with a less extensive repackaging to remove the keybed.
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Kronos2 73, Presonus StudioLive, Sonar Platinum, Windows 10

[GregC]

[StephenKay]

Sharp did a mockup of this once, pretty cool:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=88108
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Stephen Kay - KARMA Developer • Karma-Lab - karma-lab.com