Official Korg Poll for KRONOS users

[Broadwave]

55, ex Pro Musician, then took a 15 year career in IT, retired at 48.

Got back into writing after retirement, decided to get the best keyboard I could (even if it *was* for self indulgent musical meanderings). The Kronos fulfills almost all of my needs, but if there's anything else I need, I try to build it myself

[Wsadj]

I like Poll, only in my case it must have been - Live and Studio

[tomto66]

Me 49, IT management consultant. But as a hobby we perform improvised musicals: we improvise a show, 1 1/2hr, and make up the story, the characters, the music, the songs and the choreography on the spot, based on audience suggestions. I use the Kronos as my 1-man orchestra.

I'm self-taught at the piano, used to build analog synths when I was 15 (actually used the curtis chips that Korg also used in those days for e.g. polysix) and I try to keep learning new keyboard skills, so apart from the live shows we do I'm usually trying out new things at home for about an hour every day. Love my Kronos!

[Ottawa58]

This is interesting information, but should not be taken to be statistically valid. The number of responses compared to users means a low precision (the confidence + or - is pretty wide), and like all internet based polls there is an automatic bias built in. And as mentioned, it could be that older users over 55 (like me) had more time to answer.

Internet use is widespread among all age groups.

its possible that us +55 types have more disposable income.

I would think many Kronos owners are in the habit of visiting this forum daily. But I can understand where many people don't have the time for a ' free ' survey.

interesting survey. Maybe its too early early to draw too many conclusions.

What I meant by internet poll (or survey bias) is that although there is widespread internet use (some would argue it is widespread but not evenly spread), you still have to make sure that the way the survey is built is such that it doesn't still build in a bias (if you want to use the results). In other words, you want the population sampled to be the same distribution as the total population so that you can draw inferences from the data. If this poll were perfectly unbiased, then (as of today) you would draw the conclusion that there were no Kronos users under 26 years old. But of course it is, and there are.

So it is 'interesting information'. Does anyone believe that 65% of the users are over 45? What we can say is that, 65% of the users that visited this site, read this item, signed-on, and completed the survey were.

I think a better way to get this data is through warranty registrations. I bet there is a greater uptake of people registering for their warranty than there is signing on to this forum. I can't remember whether the Korg site asked for age range or use.

[DocBambs]

I've voted for myself - mostly it is for live use with preparation at home (set lists, sound and combi creation etc). I have just turned 45 - just a few weeks ago - so am a little depressed to see that I've moved up an age category!

There wasn't an option to state that the K is used by others.

So here goes...

I would add that my 9 year old son uses it when it is set up at home. It is fascinating to see both what he finds interesting and also the music (noise) he makes. He was instantly fascinated by the MS20 module and busily makes plenty of unique sounds that he is very pleased with. He has also explored KARMA more than me.

Though he is only 9 he plays the piano reasonably (making the K easy access), as at home we have a "learn any instrument you want" policy with the kids, on the condition that they need to learn the piano too (still no requests for Serpent, Timpani or Theatre Organ!) From my observation it provides the highest level of musical understanding without spending too much time studying music theory.

DB

[mpabisz]

I'm surprised I'm the youngest one here!

[Bachus]

only 1 on 3 is using its Kronos live?

and 2 on 3 people is over 45 years of age?



But then, i guess... you can only afford a Kronos if you have a decent income, and the kids have left the building...


I also have a Tyros 5, i think the average age there is over 65.. so it might not be that bad at all...

[jmchiro]

Like many of you, I am 55+, play both live and in studio with Kronos.

For the poll, I voted for 'studio' to try to demonstrate that we need better DAW integration !!

Please, please, please: a 64-bit editor that would let us use the Kronos as a DAW plug in! Lots of other synths have this....why not the mighty Kronos??

[Hooked On Sonics]

Just donated my Kurzweil K2600xs to the local School of Rock, then spun up a studio with a Kronos II and Voyager XL, a couple of Moogers, Event Opal Monitors and at the end of Aug, ordering your ArpO

We notice the KII is setup for internet access, yet the board wasn't completed. I saw a video on how to do it, but don't have the time and wish you folks would have completed it, i would have paid extra for it to have been completed.

Personally, I'm HOOKED, Korg has a new friend.

Only request. When you have folks like Marco Parisi do marketing like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGKiVHVCHVc. Please have the sound engineers add his solo samples aka, the Lenny Kravits cover lead to the keyboard samples, that was INSANE!!!

There is no "internet access" on the Kronos nor is it set up for that. There is an ethernet/ftp link to your computer that can be made to work with most standard USB/ethernet adapters. Is that what you mean?

Oh my gosh, in the great words of Rosanna Rosanna Danna ... never mind. I'm not even sure what we would do if it did have internet access, work on a cloud DAW ... ummmmm

[Derek Cook]

Looks like a good portion are older, gigging musicians.

This means the next Kronos should be lighter, much lighter

It's lighter than both my EX5 and cable box!

I'm 50+ and debating about getting a keyboard amp that sounds brilliant, but is 35KG! I guess that makes me old! But it has castors and I have a trolley!

[Derek Cook]

only 1 on 3 is using its Kronos live?

and 2 on 3 people is over 45 years of age?



But then, i guess... you can only afford a Kronos if you have a decent income, and the kids have left the building...


I also have a Tyros 5, i think the average age there is over 65.. so it might not be that bad at all...

It helps to have disposable income , and a good work bonus helped finance my Kronos last year!

I lusted after synths in general and the DX7 when I was a young 17 year old pup in 1983, but could never afford it. So I lost interest until 15 years later when I could finally afford the DX7 I always promised myself....

[Ottawa58]

It's funny. We think of the Kronos being expensive.

But as an ex-classical guitar player, I can say that one really good classical guitar would fund Kronos replacements for almost the rest of my life - every 4 years. (I'm 58 ). A person with a good quality violin would say the same thing.

And let's not even mention other hobbies or interests. A good golf club membership around here would be minimum two kronos

[SanderXpander]

The "problem" is that a really good classical guitar or violin will be pretty consistent in value if properly maintained, whereas a modern keyboardist will spend approximately the same amount of money over, say, 25 years, constantly replacing "outdated" boards and ending up with virtually nothing. That's why it's a lot easier getting loan/mortgage for a violin.

[Kevin Nolan]

I'm sure you know this Dan but this survey is of limited use. The number of replies is not statistically significant - the error is roughly the square root of N so as it stands there could be upwards of a difference of 10 people in each category as represented here - meaning you can't determine the age profile from this sample. You'd need about ten times the responses to gain confidence in the result.

But it's also prejudiced because only certain types of users use forums - and likely more settled type of person, and I'd argue less involved in music professionally (at least, there are populations of Kronos users who don't use forums for all sorts of reasons, and they are not represented here).

And of course, only certain types of people fill in surveys!

And, even if the statistics were reliable, it would be difficult to infer anything from the results - you'd need to compare with a range of other questions such as the age profile of users of other keyboards, other types of equipment, ranges of price of equipment, demographic and geographic impacts, and so on, before you could actually use the numbers suggested in each age range (the survey is not about the age range who seem to buy it most, but about all age profiles as suggested by the survey) - so there really needs to be a range of questions to provide for any interpreted context of the result.




I know this because, currently, I'm supervising an MA to devise a survey to measure the public understanding of science in Ireland - and - through the project we're learning how hugely challenging it is to devise a valid survey, and interpret anything meaningful or unbiased from the results.


So I do believe you should essentially ignore the result you see here - to me and my research colleagues we'd reject it as essentially meaningless, both in terms of statistical relevance and interpreted use of the result (even if the statistics are reliable)

Kevin.

[Hooked On Sonics]

(Please answer only if you own or (use a KRONOS)

We're kind of interested in the use of Kronos and (0)% between 17 and 25. This is why we donated our Synth Sampler to the School of Rock. The young folks there from 6 to 17 yrs of age are now exposed to incredible possibilities and capabilities that these instruments (Synth Samplers) have to offer.

How do manufacturers like Korg handle or expose this type of technology to our future generation? Do keyboard/synth manufacturers work out cost to produce keyboards like the Kronos for High Schools and Colleges?
How do the High Schools or Colleges handle this investment?

We agree with Kevin's example of statistics and how things can get skewed, but 0% in the new generation was a bit surprising. We figure if its in your school, your at least using it? Can it really be that the age group is not forum friendly ...

Some of the parents at our SOR have invested in professional Les Pauls and Fenders for their kids and those are in the Kronos price range.