How to improve the Kronos?

[Windsofsoul]

Much much better Technical Support to users and to Repair centers. It is subpar at best and really needs to improve. This includes better troubleshooting information between Japan and the USA and probably other countries as well.

[Burydudexxx]

HDMI out for sure would be cool - snapped next to daw on ultra wide screen 4k monitor would be sweet

[Burydudexxx]

Plus mouse input too - to go with the HDMI

[Synthee]

ASIO drivers and 16 channel throug USB to DAW.

[Iguanadon]

I've been hoping and hoping for the ability to:

Assign sounds to 16 squares on the screen which represent each of the 16 midi channels with intelligent effects assignment (automated). Then you have a 16 channel midi multi set up in a few minutes.

I think Korg should consider this because (1) midi, (2) multi-timbralism, and (3) ease-of-use are future trends that musicians might be interested in some day.

[savont]

If the kronos was 64 bit there would not be a limit of 3 gig on the ram!

[chini]

… must say! f I had invented a keyboard workstation as prolific as the KRONOS is I would certainly continue to offer mods/upgrades and general OS support. Hell! I would be more than happy to pay for continued upgrades of an instrument that has such a solid original concept. Of course it is the nature of competitive manufacturing to bring out new models and I am not against this but it makes sense for Korg to continue evolving the K at the moment. Obviously there comes a point where the CPU can not cope with any further modifications but I hope Korg continue to offer us further improvements with or without surcharge at least until that limit is reached!

In general I would like to see manufacturers start to think more about implementing upgradable CPUs in their instruments. I believe this is the smart way forward to increased longevity in products as it would avoid the expense of constant re-manufacturing of short lived new designs in hardware that can also irritate the consumer caught up in the "latest version" syndrome! Korg have not actually carried out this notorious practice with the K2 but they did upgrade the CPU to cater for the new features that OS3 and the continued OS updates bring to us. As such the original KRONOS is always going to perform very slightly under par with it's earlier chipset if the new features within these updates demand more juice from the CPU.

With a goal to providing upgradable CPUs in their products manufacturers would save themselves a lot of time and money on hardware design encouraging them to develop even more carefully researched hardware designs focussed on longer lifespans of upgradability. After all it is actually reaching the limitations of the non upgradable CPU in an originally well conceived design that plays a 50% part in the eventual decision to discontinue production of a product.

I think the KRONOS would actually have been a perfect example for this theoretic practice!

As an example in the 80's and 90's recording consoles began to be designed with faders "upgradable" to "moving faders". Space was provided within the channel modules to cater for the larger form factor of the motor fader. The moving fader is now of course ubiquitous in audio design as manufacturing costs have plummeted. In the modern era of upgradability the focus is more on the software side. I am not suggesting the KRONOS should have had moving faders or continuous controller knobs with led indicators! but my point is that a well thought out hardware design should include an option to upgrade the CPU in years to come to at least cater for large changes in firmware/OS updates. Looking at the the physical aspects of keyboard hardware design itself these may well develop to the demand of the musician but not be in any way as much demand as the continued cry for functionality which is of course limited only by the power of the CPU.

[ErnstDabest]

so far, it seems the only way to improve the Kronos is by replacing it w./ an...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Tm-5E-dIM" target="_top">Open Labs Timbaland edition........... </a> (click)

[gjvti]

priority
- first and most important - fit it in a size of Radias Rack/desktop (quick mock-up suggests that apart from sliders most controls and screen should physically fit along with some embedded pico ITX mb... there may be overheating problems, of course)
- mpe (multidimensional polyphonic expression) support (by default in program mode)
- improve boot time (Squarp Pyramid boots in 1-2 seconds, it doesn't have to load samples, though)
- time-stretch and audio sync to clock
optional
- if there is need for new sound engines - I vote for granular
- video out for external touch screen (welcome)
- allow re-sampling itself through external FX
- multi-track audio interface through usb
... however I doubt that there will be any revolutionary upgrades for Kronos, companies put every resource into analogue market these days

[SanderXpander]

I seriously doubt we'll ever see upgradeable CPUs in synths. It may seem that, being built on regular PC hardware tech, this is viable for an instrument like Kronos but in fact the opposite is the case. With the rate of chipset updates declared by Intel, it's simply not useful. They change sockets and standards pretty much every year. Within a chipset series, the benefits of upgrading are marginal. I know you've personally run into some limits. Have you actually tried playing your sequences/combis on a K2? I very much doubt there'd be a significant difference.

I can't even usefully upgrade my computer without changing out the mobo, which usually means changing the RAM too, which in the case of Kronos would mean adapting the OS to work with the new chipset, etc.

[chini]

I seriously doubt we'll ever see upgradeable CPUs in synths. It may seem that, being built on regular PC hardware tech, this is viable for an instrument like Kronos but in fact the opposite is the case. With the rate of chipset updates declared by Intel, it's simply not useful. They change sockets and standards pretty much every year. Within a chipset series, the benefits of upgrading are marginal. I know you've personally run into some limits. Have you actually tried playing your sequences/combis on a K2? I very much doubt there'd be a significant difference.

I can't even usefully upgrade my computer without changing out the mobo, which usually means changing the RAM too, which in the case of Kronos would mean adapting the OS to work with the new chipset, etc.

Ciao! Sander!

Yes! it is unlikely! it's a nice theory but as you quite rightly point out: CPU's and mobs go hand in hand… perhaps what I should have said was interchangeable Mobos rather than CPUs! but even this is a little far fetched an idea I fear!

The point is what we'd all like to see is more thought gone into design longevity in general with products rather than being constantly tempted into getting the "new version'. With keyboard design the common controller functions known to players have become pretty standard on top boards like the KRONOS and to be fair the practice of OS firmware upgrades is indeed helping to prolong the demise of a product line, the K being an excellent example of that!

[SanderXpander]

Perhaps I should have added that I would actually love tl see this!
I just don't expect them to ever implement it.

[EvilDragon]

If the kronos was 64 bit there would not be a limit of 3 gig on the ram!

That would be a huge update, and IMHO one single most important thing Korg should strive for v4.0 OS. Along with cutting down the boot time below 30 sec, but this will need whole new hardware (Kronos 3?).

Bringing back LEDs around knobs and along sliders. Changing knobs to rotary encoders.

KingKorg filters in AL-1 would be cool. Some new engines (brass physical model, granular?) as well.

There's plenty of things Korg could do to update Kronos and keep it relevant as time progresses.

[enigmahack]

Better/more intuitive sequencer

Backwards compatibility for certain synths (Korg Extreme? Triton? Hell, even Oasys support would be awesome)

MORE SOUND BANKS. I'm actually running out of space and it's only because I do a lot of sound work that I've got most of my sound banks full.

Better touch screen... Something closer to a cell phone screen would be ideal instead of the two-sheets-of-conductive-plastic stuff that misreads my finger presses.

Simpler sample loading and management

Dynamic linking of programs and combi's. (Kurzweil has done this incredibly well for years: You can load a combi [A setup in Kurzland], and it asks if you want to load the related programs that go with it instead of just pointing in the general direction. I moved a bunch of programs around yesterday and now a bunch of my combi's are dead because they're still pointing to the old spot. :-/ )

These are just a handful of things that I'd like to see someday.

[SanderXpander]

The Kronos is backwards compatible with Oasys as far as I know. Or am I forgetting something?