Korg Forums

I have owned a Kronos for over 10 years and also have 2 sound modules - Roland Integra and Yamaha Motif Rack. These 3 instruments provide a variety of synth sounds as well as a lot of "generic" instruments such as pianos, electric pianos, organs, sax, guitar .. etc.

Can anyone recommend a keyboard or sound module, that contains mostly synth patches (pad, lead, strings, poly..etc) rather than the above generic instruments, which I have enough of already ? Buying a Roland or Yamaha workstation (for example) would result in a lot of duplication - I already have plenty of pianos, organs, electric pianos etc but would be interested in more synth patches, as some are likely to be very different to what I already have.

I don't need more piano sounds as I have a Kawai digital piano that is better than all the pianos on the above 3 instruments. I don't need more guitar sounds as I own 3 guitars, an amp and Axe FX III that can provide all the sounds I will ever need. I don't need additional drums as I own BFD3 and IK Multimedia Sampletank, which keep me well stocked for drum parts.

I play prog / classic rock. Any suggestions for instruments that contain mostly synth patches / programs and only a limited number of "non synth" type instruments would be most welcome !

Many thanks

Peter

The Korg shop might be worth looking at, for expansion libraries. There are several synth oriented offerings available.

.

Maybe have a look at soft synths? There’s a lot available. Also for iPad. Also for free there are some very good soft synths out there. No big investment needed to try them. Good luck!
Edit:
For iPad: SynthMaster2, Sunrizer, SynthOne, Korg Module,iWavestation, iM1 etcetera.

See also YT, for instance https://youtu.be/sN1SpS2cvSA?si=a2pW2uw5SPPsLsa6

Waldorf Blofeld and Kodamo Essence FM would both give you sounds with a different character to the gear you already have. Beyond that, there are more boutique/experimental modules around - it depends how much you want to spend, and how far out you want to go with your sounds. You don't mention whether or not you like to get hands-on with programming sounds. Something like Tasty Chips GR-Mega might be worth you taking a look at, not because I'm suggesting that you want to go for the full-on sound design of which it is capable, but because it's interesting in itself and your internet searches would probably also lead you to some of the other more left-field modules around at the moment.

Beyond the sound/money considerations, I'm sure you'll know well enough that a lot of this depends on whether you click with the workflow of these units. For example, I thought an Access Virus might help my music, but it turned out to be a frustrating waste of time and I got nowhere with it. I hated the thing. That's not how it would be for many other users, of course, but the lesson is to check them out in person if you can.

Finally, I would say that it's likely that at least some of the things you're after are probably possible with your existing gear. We're all susceptible to attacks of GAS. I've fallen foul of that one, buying gear and then realising that going deeper into what I already had would have done the job for me. That's especially true with the Kronos. Hope you find something you like.

There are tons of dedicated synth boards/modules to choose from. Since you mentioned prog/classic rock, though, I think the new Korg Multi/Poly looks like it would be a good choice (currently a keyboard, with a keyboardless module version on the way). It has settings to emulate the filters, envelope behaviors, and portamento behaviors of classic 70s synths like Minimoog, Oberheim SEM, Prophet 5.

Thanks for your suggestions - much appreciated !

Hydrasynth Plus with polyphonic aftertouch.

I have a Hydrasynth and Korg Prologue - both sounds great with Kronos

Korg Multi Poly is very nice. But, I don't know if I'll get that one, as there seems to be some overlap with Kronos. I'm actually looking at Moog Muse and Melbourne Instruments Nina.