Krome vs Kronos
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Krome vs Kronos
Greetings, all! Can you help me shop a bit. Regarding the Kronos, I am wondering how many of all those extra voices are routinely usable. Perhaps the Krome has a trimmed down subset of the Kronos voice list and most to all are usable. Your thoughts?
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Bald Eagle
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 2278
- Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:06 am
- Location: Long Island, NY
It really depends on what types of sounds you are looking for. The Krome has a respectable number of usable presets but can't come close to the Kronos. It would help more to know how you will be using it.
The Kronos has far more options for programming your own sounds and tweaking presets but if you are not interested in that perhaps the Krome is a better choice for you.
The Kronos has far more options for programming your own sounds and tweaking presets but if you are not interested in that perhaps the Krome is a better choice for you.
Thank you, Bald Eagle. You are kind to reply I prefer to use the sounds out of the box. I am not a big tweaker. My past boards were an M1, K2000 and recently an M50 that I'd hoped would remind me of the M1... it didn't! I have little use for most synth sounds, but I enjoy them non the less. My bread and butter are all kinds of acoustic, orchestral, symphonic, mallets/bells, drums and piano sounds.
The Kronos has audio in, which can be put through the Kronos effects real time. The Krome does not have audio in. The Krome does have the M1 bonus pack which can be downloaded from the Korg support site.
Both keyboards have a pretty impressive list of sounds, out of the box. It might be worth having a look at the voice name lists for both keyboards on the Korg support site.
Also, listen to YouTube videos of the Kronos and Krome in action.
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Both keyboards have a pretty impressive list of sounds, out of the box. It might be worth having a look at the voice name lists for both keyboards on the Korg support site.
Also, listen to YouTube videos of the Kronos and Krome in action.
.
Hi, VOIP. Good idea. I made funny mistake yesterday (stupid=funny). I downloaded pdfs of the Krome and Kronus voice lists. Thought I would print them to see if most of the differences were synth sounds. ...those who have been there know these files total about 200 pages including the percussion and combis. Ha! It cost me a printer cartridge and some pride. Any how, I think I will go with the Kronos if I can determine the audio recording is at least as good as a Duet into an Ipad.
Finally I prefer the Krome
Hi,
I'm the somewhat happy owner of a Krome (somewhat only because the keybed is pure crap, the interface is extremely slow and counter-intuitive and certain things suck such as MIDI compatibility and the boot time). However it has amazing sounds, especially the pianos.
I was really thinking about replacing it with one Kronos 2015, I saw some impressive videos that made me want to buy it. I had the opportunity to go to a local shop (where I bought the Krome) and to test the Kronos. I spent almost two hours playing with it and discovering it.
What I can say after this experience is that :
- the interface is easier to use than on the Krome, more complete, and much faster
- there are *a lot* of knobs and buttons, so you once you understand how to use them, you don't need to go through menus that much.
- it's pleasant that it doesn't stop your notes or change your sounds when you just switch to another bank to visit the proposed sounds.
- there are a lot of funny sounds named after the well-known song that features them. Sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's annoying because if you want, say, a Wurli, you can't find one and you have to figure what song features one.
- overall the sounds are awesome, especially the organs which made a huge difference with the Krome which has ones that sound like either flutes or trumpets. The choirs are extremely good as well.
- the piano features resonance, which is another nice thing to add to the realism.
- the weighted keybed is really pleasant. Maybe slightly too weighted for something that also works as a synth but it might be a matter of practising.
- it can sample sounds and map them to keys. That's really great. I failed to use them outside of the sampling interface though (the interface is really complex). But the videos on the net show how to do this easily.
- but... but... but... the much advertised "Berlin2" piano is an awful mess! It sounds too much synthetic. Some keys "meow" like a cat during the decay at mid-velocity. I found that the E4 or F4 are the most audible ones, but once you notice it you hear it on many other ones. It's even worse on some chords like G3C4E4 which sound as if you had a Leslie effect. The decay is not regular, the sound fades away and comes again several times. I spent almost half an hour troubleshooting this, even changing headphones, and found the cause in one of the menus showing the machine's status in real time. Multiple voices are superimposed for this piano, it starts at 5 voices when you hit the key and goes back to 4, 3, 2 then 1 during the decay. You clearly hear the different timbres each time a voice disappears, and I guess they compensate by adding more strength to the remaining ones. And the mix of voices makes it sound like the Roland FA06 that I returned exactly because of this.
Fortunately they had a Krome on top of it. So I could move my headphone's jack many times between both of them. And the result is quite clear : the Krome's piano is really good. The Kronos is awful, just because of this! I found no way to edit the sound to remove these extra voices unfortunately. And I know that for me it's a showstopper. I'm waiting to see if they propose other soundpacks with replacement pianos for this machine, because it's too bad to have such a synthetic-sounding piano on such a marvelous machine. And to be honnest, the piano is not that bad on other notes or at different velocity levels, it's just that it's the most horrible in the area you're going to use the most.
I told the vendor my (disappointed) feeling, and he said he wasn't surprized, another client gave him the exact same feedback a week ago. Since then I've found a video on youtube (I forgot the link) where a guy tells the pros and cons and shows this problem as well (though it's not easy to hear in this video since he's using a microphone, he's not connected to the synth).
In the end if someone tells me how I can have the Krome's pianos (especially the Live stage one) on the Kronos, I'm really thinking about buying it. Otherwise I'd miss something good and I don't want to. I prefer to have an unpleasant keybed with a nice sound than the opposite.
I'm the somewhat happy owner of a Krome (somewhat only because the keybed is pure crap, the interface is extremely slow and counter-intuitive and certain things suck such as MIDI compatibility and the boot time). However it has amazing sounds, especially the pianos.
I was really thinking about replacing it with one Kronos 2015, I saw some impressive videos that made me want to buy it. I had the opportunity to go to a local shop (where I bought the Krome) and to test the Kronos. I spent almost two hours playing with it and discovering it.
What I can say after this experience is that :
- the interface is easier to use than on the Krome, more complete, and much faster
- there are *a lot* of knobs and buttons, so you once you understand how to use them, you don't need to go through menus that much.
- it's pleasant that it doesn't stop your notes or change your sounds when you just switch to another bank to visit the proposed sounds.
- there are a lot of funny sounds named after the well-known song that features them. Sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's annoying because if you want, say, a Wurli, you can't find one and you have to figure what song features one.
- overall the sounds are awesome, especially the organs which made a huge difference with the Krome which has ones that sound like either flutes or trumpets. The choirs are extremely good as well.
- the piano features resonance, which is another nice thing to add to the realism.
- the weighted keybed is really pleasant. Maybe slightly too weighted for something that also works as a synth but it might be a matter of practising.
- it can sample sounds and map them to keys. That's really great. I failed to use them outside of the sampling interface though (the interface is really complex). But the videos on the net show how to do this easily.
- but... but... but... the much advertised "Berlin2" piano is an awful mess! It sounds too much synthetic. Some keys "meow" like a cat during the decay at mid-velocity. I found that the E4 or F4 are the most audible ones, but once you notice it you hear it on many other ones. It's even worse on some chords like G3C4E4 which sound as if you had a Leslie effect. The decay is not regular, the sound fades away and comes again several times. I spent almost half an hour troubleshooting this, even changing headphones, and found the cause in one of the menus showing the machine's status in real time. Multiple voices are superimposed for this piano, it starts at 5 voices when you hit the key and goes back to 4, 3, 2 then 1 during the decay. You clearly hear the different timbres each time a voice disappears, and I guess they compensate by adding more strength to the remaining ones. And the mix of voices makes it sound like the Roland FA06 that I returned exactly because of this.
Fortunately they had a Krome on top of it. So I could move my headphone's jack many times between both of them. And the result is quite clear : the Krome's piano is really good. The Kronos is awful, just because of this! I found no way to edit the sound to remove these extra voices unfortunately. And I know that for me it's a showstopper. I'm waiting to see if they propose other soundpacks with replacement pianos for this machine, because it's too bad to have such a synthetic-sounding piano on such a marvelous machine. And to be honnest, the piano is not that bad on other notes or at different velocity levels, it's just that it's the most horrible in the area you're going to use the most.
I told the vendor my (disappointed) feeling, and he said he wasn't surprized, another client gave him the exact same feedback a week ago. Since then I've found a video on youtube (I forgot the link) where a guy tells the pros and cons and shows this problem as well (though it's not easy to hear in this video since he's using a microphone, he's not connected to the synth).
In the end if someone tells me how I can have the Krome's pianos (especially the Live stage one) on the Kronos, I'm really thinking about buying it. Otherwise I'd miss something good and I don't want to. I prefer to have an unpleasant keybed with a nice sound than the opposite.
Another opinion (and we all know what opinions are like) from someone who owns both: the KRONOS has many more and slightly better sounds, and the percentage of "usable" sounds is about the same on both so the KRONOS has more... the Krome's keybed is not very good compared to the KRONOS or other high-end board keybeds, but it's not all that bad and is certainly playable; both instruments have good displays and are easy to navigate; the Krome piano is good, but the KRONOS pianos are better and more realistic; the KRONOS has a lot more features, more controls, more sound engines, more effects, better drawbar organs and synths, KARMA, etc., etc...
The bottom line is the bottom line: if you've got the money, get the KRONOS, and you won't need another keyboard for a long time; the Krome will probably also satisfy immediate needs for a lot less cash...
df
The bottom line is the bottom line: if you've got the money, get the KRONOS, and you won't need another keyboard for a long time; the Krome will probably also satisfy immediate needs for a lot less cash...
df
I have no problem with the Kronos German Grands. They sound pretty good, apart from the C#2 key which produces an odd sound, but only with the German grands. Japanese grands are OK. Not sure if anyone has any ideas regarding this. the note sounded by the C#2 key basically has a little bit of A5 sound superimposed on top, that quickly fades in then out.
Dialling in too much string resonance can also produce a slightly unpleasant effect.
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Dialling in too much string resonance can also produce a slightly unpleasant effect.
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