Kronos - new sound libraries announced by Korg

[DaveBoulden]

OK, by way of comparison, the NI "Vienna Concert Grand" piano library is 3.2Gb and costs €69. Now I realise they have a larger customer base that allows them to price the products more competitively, but this is the kind of pricing something like the EXS12 is going to be compared to.

[carmol]

OK, by way of comparison, the NI "Vienna Concert Grand" piano library is 3.2Gb and costs €69.

Right.
What if someone buy Vienna Concert Grand and import
samples on kronos ?
aren't them already in wav format ?

[DaveBoulden]

No, they are only usable within NI Kontakt or the Kore player. I was only making a price comparison.

[Bruce Lychee]

No, they are only usable within NI Kontakt or the Kore player. I was only making a price comparison.

If you only look at software cost and consider what you get with Komplete 8, it is going to be really hard to match that kind of value.

[DaveBoulden]

If you only look at software cost and consider what you get with Komplete 8, it is going to be really hard to match that kind of value.

Yes, fair point, but I was more making the comparison as both are libraries created for a closed architecture and would both have required the same sort of effort to produce.

I'm a fan of both and currently waiting for both my pre-ordered K73 and my Komplete 8 Ultimate upgrade from my usual music shop

[burningbusch]

OK, by way of comparison, the NI "Vienna Concert Grand" piano library is 3.2Gb and costs €69. Now I realise they have a larger customer base that allows them to price the products more competitively, but this is the kind of pricing something like the EXS12 is going to be compared to.

You know, IMO, the Korg did a much better job in sampling their two pianos than did NI. NI didn't sample each note. You can clearly hear clumps of two and three notes throughout (mainly three notes). Play chromatically in the bass, you'll definately hear it. There are some tuning issues and there are places when the imaging jumps. Akoustik Piano came out in 2005 or there abouts. It was meant to compete with Ivory but never really measured up, as far as most people are concerned.

I own many piano libraries and the high level of note-to-note consistency on the Korg is pretty unusual.

Busch.

[Arp_]

What about Ivory II Italian Grand - $179 list price, with actually much more sampling work. Or individual pianos from Galaxy II, they are about 150$ and have about twice amount of samples than Kronos pianos, also with fully chromatic sampling.

[burningbusch]

What about Ivory II Italian Grand - $179 list price, with actually much more sampling work. Or individual pianos from Galaxy II, they are about 150$ and have about twice amount of samples than Kronos pianos, also with fully chromatic sampling.

No question there are some excellent libraries out there in soft synth/sampler land. Over the last ten+ years or so, quality has gone up and prices have come down as the number of people creating music with their computers has grown astronomically. My point was specific to the NI piano libraries.

I look at the Kronos as maybe similar to Digidesign Protools TDM (which I own). Prices of TDM plugins are significantly higher than VST/AU/RTAS largely because it's a much smaller user base and one needs to program to the Motorola DSP.

Busch.

[StephenKay]

What about Ivory II Italian Grand - $179 list price, with actually much more sampling work. Or individual pianos from Galaxy II, they are about 150$ and have about twice amount of samples than Kronos pianos, also with fully chromatic sampling.

Bottom line, to some degree, is:

1. Does the sound and playability of the piano in question satisfy and exhilarate you? If the more expensive piano is more satisfying, then perhaps you would buy it. If you find the less expensive piano to do the job for you, then by all means, purchase it. All pianos are not equal. You can sample a piano at 5 velocity levels, unlooped, on every single key, and then sample the hammer noise, the damper noise, the ambience of the room it is in, the mice living in the piano body, etc.... but the end result is: is it a wonderful playing experience? Is it what you need in your tracks?

Number of samples, points of samples, length of samples, etc. is not the most important criteria. Although companies have to list something as specs in order to give you a list of what you're buying. They usually don't just say: "fantastic piano, sounds and plays great."

2. Can you put it in a self-contained workstation, leave the computer at home, and take it to a gig?

I suspect the second point is where Korg assesses a certain percentage of the value of their sound sets to be. For this you might expect to pay a slight premium. Of course, maybe you could get one of those other third party plug-in pianos into the Kronos - but that's generally huge work. More time and cost-effective perhaps to get the Korg "Austrian Grand" or other set, assuming it satisfies you, and assuming you want it self-contained inside your workstation. Just speculating, after seeing much discussion here...

[PianoManChuck]

What about Ivory II Italian Grand - $179 list price, with actually much more sampling work. Or individual pianos from Galaxy II, they are about 150$ and have about twice amount of samples than Kronos pianos, also with fully chromatic sampling.

Bottom line, to some degree, is:

1. Does the sound and playability of the piano in question satisfy and exhilarate you? If the more expensive piano is more satisfying, then perhaps you would buy it. If you find the less expensive piano to do the job for you, then by all means, purchase it. All pianos are not equal. You can sample a piano at 5 velocity levels, unlooped, on every single key, and then sample the hammer noise, the damper noise, the ambience of the room it is in, the mice living in the piano body, etc.... but the end result is: is it a wonderful playing experience? Is it what you need in your tracks?

Number of samples, points of samples, length of samples, etc. is not the most important criteria. Although companies have to list something as specs in order to give you a list of what you're buying. They usually don't just say: "fantastic piano, sounds and plays great."

2. Can you put it in a self-contained workstation, leave the computer at home, and take it to a gig?

I suspect the second point is where Korg assesses a certain percentage of the value of their sound sets to be. For this you might expect to pay a slight premium. Of course, maybe you could get one of those other third party plug-in pianos into the Kronos - but that's generally huge work. More time and cost-effective perhaps to get the Korg "Austrian Grand" or other set, assuming it satisfies you, and assuming you want it self-contained inside your workstation. Just speculating, after seeing much discussion here...

+1

[curvebender]

Number of samples, points of samples, length of samples, etc. is not the most important criteria.

Well put Stephen!

In fact, one of the most enjoyable pianos I've ever played was in my Yamaha S90ES.

The size of the ROM for that particular piano sound? A whopping 54 MB...

It's not about size (!), but more so about programming.

[cello]

Number of samples, points of samples, length of samples, etc. is not the most important criteria.

It's not about size (!), but more so about programming.

And how you play it!

[curvebender]

Number of samples, points of samples, length of samples, etc. is not the most important criteria.

It's not about size (!), but more so about programming.

And how you play it!

Of course!

[Fred S]

Number of samples, points of samples, length of samples, etc. is not the most important criteria.

Well put Stephen!

In fact, one of the most enjoyable pianos I've ever played was in my Yamaha S90ES.

+1

[aron]

> In fact, one of the most enjoyable pianos I've ever played was in my Yamaha S90ES.

I know. I think the S90ES is a keeper for me. I don't like the size or weight, but the instrument itself is great.