Playing audio backing tracks on the Kronos 3... easy(ish)?

[G]

Hello everyone,

Is playing audio backing tracks on the Kronos 3... easy(ish)?

As simple as plugging in your USB stick with the audio track on and then...?

Thanks!

[voip]

Although the Kronos has relatively limited audio file playback features, the process is relatively simple. Play back is limited to .WAV format files, at 44.1 or 48Hz sample rate.

Plug in the external storage device into one of the rear panel USB-A slots (it will take a few seconds for it to be recognised). Choose the Program or Combi to be used for playing over the backing track, then go to Disk mode. For Drive Select, at bottom left of screen, select RDD <drive name>. Navigate using the touch screen to find and select the required .WAV file, and tap the onscreen Play button, or use the front panel Start/Stop button next to the Tempo button. The .WAV file should start playing from the beginning. Limitations are that there is no pause feature, nor is there any fast forward/reverse, only start and stop. If the track is stopped, it will only restart from the beginning. KARMA and Drum Track can be used during playback, and the Control Surface can be operated, plus some sort of synchronsation can be achieved using the Tap Tempo button, but it's not possible to exit Disk mode until playback has been stopped.

Sequencer mode allows some more creative possibiilities. The intended Program or Combi would need to be set up to record, by pressing the Enter and Rec/Write keys together. The.WAV file would need to be imported into a region in an audio track of the Song that was created. Some memory management might be needed before doing so, making the process somewhat more convoluted.

The alternative would be an external .WAV or .MP3 player connected to the Kronos Audio Ins.

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[decreebass]

What's your use-case? There are 10,000 better ways to play backing tracks than trying to route them through the KRONOS. But yeah, you can play them from the disk, you can use the audio inputs, you can record a sample and assign the sample to a note on the keyboard, you can record into the sequencer's audio tracks, and on and on.

What exactly are you trying to do? Maybe we can help with a solution.

[G]

Thanks for the replies!

I guess I should have been a little more specific.

I am looking to take an audio track (popular song, etc.) and remove the vocals and lead instrument(s) using software.

Then playing that audio track as a backing track and playing the lead instrument(s) over it using the Kronos sounds, etc.

It would be ideal to be able to have the whole thing – the audio track, Kronos sounds, etc. – be stored in a setlist.

Thanks!

[voip]

To access a song from a Setlist slot, and be able to play over it, Sequencer mode would be the way to go (see the penultimate paragraph in my previous posting).

Each Song, created in Sequencer mode, would need to be saved in a suitably named folder on the Kronos' internal drive. Songs are not automatically loaded when the Kronos boots, so they would need to be loaded using Disk mode, after the Kronos has booted. Entire folders of such Songs can be loaded at the same time, so different folders could reflect different musical genres, performance situations, or whatever.

It's worth noting that the Setlist slot for a Song is merely a pointer to a Sequencer song number e.g. Song S000, so the same Setlist slot(s) could be reused for several different Songs. The process would involve creating any desired number of Setlist slots, each pointing to different Song numbers, and when the Songs are loaded using Disk mode, the Setlist slot names will change to the Song names occupying those particular Sequencer song numbers.

All the features of Sequencer mode are of course available, so e.g. embellishments, using different Timbres if desired, could be added and saved as MIDI events, and further audio could also be added, and it would still be possible to play real time over the backing track, plus embellishments, during playback. Essentially you have a studio type creative environment at your fingertips, which is what the Kronos, as a workstation, is all about.

Using Sequencer mode for this process will eat into the available internal drive space, hence my earlier comment about the need for a bit of memory management. This probably wouldn't be necessary for just a handful of songs, but fitting a larger internal drive to the Kronos, would be something to consider for a repertoire involving a more extensive catalogue of backing tracks.

As far as the title of the thread is concerned, once each of the backing tracks have been loaded into Songs and saved, the process of playing them is easy. All that is necessary is to go into Disk mode, load the Song(s) of interest, select a Song in Sequencer or Setlist mode, and press the Start/Stop button.

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