Why am I more inclined to buy a Krome over a Kronos.......

[Slovenec]

In answer to the question posed.....

a). The Krome provides practically all the sounds that I'd require for gigging and one could be certain that 99.9% of punters wouldn't hear the difference between the Krome or a Kronos live! Korg should have retained the CX3 organ engine in the Krome though and this would have no doubt made it a direct Nord killer for gigging with an instrument that won't break your back whilst at the same time offering features that the Nord doesn't like.....

b). The Krome sequencer: Contains M3 sequencer features like piano roll & cue lists that Korg don't seem to want to (or simply can't) implement into their top of the line worksation that costs much more than the Krome.

c). Boot up time. The Krome doesn't take 2.5 minutes to boot up (especially if your at a gig and your only keyboard is a Kronos!)..... please no lectures about how dumb I am for not having a 2nd keyboard at a gig! Most of us simply aren't rich enough to have 2 keyboards to take to gigs simply because Korg's state of the art workstation takes a couple of minutes to get fired up!!!!!

d). The Krome doesn't have all those wonderful synth engines contained in the Kronos. But honestly, for the price of the Krome I don't really care (with the exception of the CX3 organ engine that should have been retained) and perhaps a more basic version of AL1 for VA synth sounds. Of course, aftertouch would be nice as well.

e). Weight & price: Both big factors in these tough economic times when many can only afford to splurge on one main keyboard and that instrument needs to be easy to cart around to gigs (seeing as though most of us can't afford the luxury of a roadie or 3 to move our 35kg axe...35kg in it's protective road case).

The more I look at what Korg have managed to include in their newer 'budget' worksation, the more I'm amazed and impressed! I'm not bagging the Kronos as it's one huge sonice powerhouse of a synth and Roland, Kurzweil or Yamaha have been able to compete when it comes to the sheer synthesis options available in just 1 instrument! Whilst, Korg have developed the Kronos with V2 and Kronos X, I only wish that they included the new sequencer features and a much shorter boot up time available in their 'budget' Krome workstation. Perhaps in Kronos OS version 3?????

In the meantime, continue to enjoy making great music on both the Kronos and Krome

[Saxifraga]

In answer to the question posed.....
...
The more I look at what Korg have managed to include in their newer 'budget' worksation, the more I'm amazed and impressed! I'm not bagging the Kronos as it's one huge sonice powerhouse of a synth and Roland, Kurzweil or Yamaha have been able to compete when it comes to the sheer synthesis options available in just 1 instrument! Whilst, Korg have developed the Kronos with V2 and Kronos X, I only wish that they included the new sequencer features and a much shorter boot up time available in their 'budget' Krome workstation. Perhaps in Kronos OS version 3?????
...

If you still have the money: Buy a used MacBook Pro (from 2010/11), some Softsynth (Minimonsta/Logic/Mainstage/Komplete/KLC etc.) and a decent Studiologic/Fatar keybed with hammer action and aftertouch. More value for your money and much easier to handle. I learned it the hard way.

[SanderXpander]

It sounds like you're in the market for a Kurz.

[lonelagranger]

I owned the Krome for three weeks before I got the Kronos X. I did like the display and thought the sounds were very good, and I think for the money it is a great board. I didn't, however, like the keybed. Just a notch above a Casio. Once I got the Kronos, well, it was a whole different world. I am not knocking the Krome. I think it is a great little board. But thats it, it is a little board compared to the Kronos. The first thing that surprised me were the pianos. I thought they would be the same. They are not. I got the 88 note Kronos x and the pianos are almost on par with Ivory, which is saying a lot. They are different than the ones on the Krome. I mean they are better. They are deeper and richer. In my opinion. Plus they finally got the polyphony to a point where I can play my classical compositions without notes dropping out. That's a biggy for me.

The rest is just icing on the cake. Karma is a blast. I haven't begun to get my head around all the things this board can do. I have had many keyboards and this is a special one, in my opinion. I'll have fun, fun, fun, fun, till my daddy takes the keyboad away.

[jeebustrain]

It sounds like you're in the market for a Kurz.

++

KB3 on my PC361 kills the Kronos CX-3

[Scott]

c). Boot up time. The Krome doesn't take 2.5 minutes to boot up (especially if your at a gig and your only keyboard is a Kronos!)..... please no lectures about how dumb I am for not having a 2nd keyboard at a gig! Most of us simply aren't rich enough to have 2 keyboards to take to gigs simply because Korg's state of the art workstation takes a couple of minutes to get fired up!!!!!

I don't think the issue is budget. For one thing, if the issue is what to do if there's a power glitch, you can bring a sub-$100 UPS if you don't want a second keyboard. But if you play piano and organ, you are much better off with two boards just because of the actions. The Kronos 61 keybed is awful for piano, the 73/88 are awful for organ. So instead of buying a Kronos 73 or 88, I'd buy a Kronos 61 and a Korg SP170 (or Yamaha P35, or Casio)... there's your two keybeds for piano and organ, plus your second keyboard if needed during a long Kronos boot, and it's actually cheaper than buying the weighted Kronos. Easier to carry around, too, since each of the two boards weighs under 30 lbs.

Anyway, the Krome is a nice value. You can't really compare it to a Kronos, though... it's basically a scaled down version of just one of the nine Kronos engines (closest to the HD1, with some enhanced piano and EP samples). Since personally I don't use sequencers, in the lower price range, I'd actually prefer a Yamaha, for its sounds. But that's subjective.

[burningbusch]

I don't know the exact boot time on the Krome, but judging from the video, assuming it's all real time it's about 50 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY2prrkiBFI

Busch.

[jeebustrain]

Anyway, the Krome is a nice value. You can't really compare it to a Kronos, though... it's basically a scaled down version of just one of the nine Kronos engines (closest to the HD1, with some enhanced piano and EP samples). Since personally I don't use sequencers, in the lower price range, I'd actually prefer a Yamaha, for its sounds. But that's subjective.

To me, the Krome doesn't seem that much different than, say, the M50, save for the Kronos German Grand samples and a higher res touch screen. From what I could gather from the specs, the PCM audio engine looks to be almost the exact same.

[Stipes Vigilo]

Aftertouch is very important to me.
My second keyboard (Roland V-synthGT) takes just as long to boot.
So does my wife's M3.

Takes half the time if you don't sit and watch it.
Especially in a live setting, you can't find something that
needs to be done in that time besides watching it boot?

I've kept my Korg N5 around with the justification of its
7 sec boot up, size, sound & aftertouch.
But honestly, I think I keep it around more for sentimental reasons.
I don't really play it any more.

When I need something quick or just practicing,
I use my Yamaha Motif XS rack with the Studiologic VMK188+.
Never even timed the bootup, but it's quick enough.

However, I've stopped playing live.
Too many DJ's and rockstars and not enough musicians.
So none of this may be relative. Or maybe it is.

Bottom line, we get what we need for what we are doing and
put up with idiosyncrasies that give it to us.

My wife calls the Kronos the time machine,
beacuse I play for hours on it.
I consider it and my V-SynthGT to be real instruments.
The others made now are just keyboards.

My worst problem use to be carrying around a Rhodes + 3 other keys for gigs.
It took 2 min just to open the case and screw in the legs.
Everything seems so much easier now.

[karmathanever]

I considered the Krome but the Kronos was only another $1000 approx. and for the extra money it was a mind blowing option (for me).

But it always comes back to the personal needs - sounds, weight, boot-time, and 1000's more considerations.

Glad you're happy with Krome - you can always get a Hammond B3 emulator mod sometime later.....

Cheers

Pete

[NuSkoolTone]

Without going in depth on the others, I can comment on bootup time. If you or your band is setup and ready to PLAY in 2.5 minutes, you're the fastest setup I've ever seen! Non-issue IMO. If you're worried about losing power a cheap UPS would solve the rare oops of "tripwire". I've had a circuit on a strip trip ONCE in about 500+ gigs. Not impossible, but still unlikely IME. YMMV of course.

[SanderXpander]

To be honest, at festivals it can be annoying, sometimes I'm driven onto the stage on a rider and don't get power until I'm there. Then you have to line check pretty much right away. But I get around it, as you say, by using my UPS, actually powering up before I plug in.

My Triton Extreme also took a long time to load all my extra samples, but at least I could line check after a few seconds.

[michelkeijzers]

Of course with a couple of thousand dollars difference (at least here in the Netherlands) it is logical the Krome has less features/quality etc than the Kronos.

About the boot time: I use a UPS, costed about $50 and never have problems when the power would fail (never happened to me by the way). An additional advantage is I can already setup my gear even while on stage the power is not arranged (during setup of the PA system this sometimes is the case).

[1jordyzzz]

Of course with a couple of thousand dollars difference (at least here in the Netherlands) it is logical the Krome has less features/quality etc than the Kronos.

About the boot time: I use a UPS, costed about $50 and never have problems when the power would fail (never happened to me by the way). An additional advantage is I can already setup my gear even while on stage the power is not arranged (during setup of the PA system this sometimes is the case).

+1 to this

In the case of festivals, you can start kronos early with UPS and just take it on stage with the UPS.. 50$ ups is able to power the kronos for 20-30 minutes.. It's a 60 watt machine...

[watermelon]

If i'm not wong,the kronos has a 16 track audio recorder,instead of a midi
recorder for the krome,it's for me a very big difference,because i use to
record analog instruments without a DAW,and the FX are top of the pops