Korg Forums

Best synth to pair with Kronos? Best/worst (non-Korg) synth you own?

Best: Access VirusTI Polar keyboard. It sounds like nothing else. Plus, it's able to make real "scary" sounds. Different from all my other synths—employs subtractive/graintable/formant/FM/wavetable synthesis.

Worst: Roland V-Synth GT. Every sound in it sounds the same. I have no idea how to program it. But, surprisingly, of all my synths, this is the only one which still sells used for what I bought it for, so people still really like it for some reason.

Best synth/ROMpler to pair with Kronos: Been thinking of a Roland Integra-7, but if I keep my Fantom G and XR, I won't really need one. I've always wanted a Yamaha Motif (I like ROMplers), so I've been sort of dreaming of a Yamaha Montage someday or a used Motif XF.

For piano sounds, I listened to that six-piano demo and four-piano demo on you tube, and to me, the Nord Stage 2 was the clear winner, with the Yamaha CP4/Tyros 4 and Kurzweil Forte as close seconds. Since I'm dreaming, I guess one of those, too.

studio460 wrote:Best synth to pair with Kronos? Best/worst (non-Korg) synth you own?

Best synth/ROMpler to pair with Kronos: Been thinking of a Roland Integra-7, but if I keep my Fantom G and XR, I won't really need one. I've always wanted a Yamaha Motif (I like ROMplers), so I've been sort of dreaming of a Yamaha Montage someday or a used Motif XF.

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The K has very good synth sounds and many. and you have Roland synths covered for the most part. I imagine Logic is going to have more to play with.
And since you are going Logic, it might be a decent move to have Logic host Omnisphere stuff ( thats expensive and CPU intensive)

Since I have access to 1000's of synth sounds, I am not in the market for more.
Plus I tend to be a minimalist ( or cheap) on gear.

I am aware that many keyboard players might add analog or a virtual analog synth to their K. I think you will see some replies in a few days.

Yamaha montage perfect match for Kronos did have one sold it for Kronos if I could afford both of them I would buy Montage again saying that I can do everything on Kronos without need to get another keyboard .

GregC wrote: And since you are going Logic, it might be a decent move to have Logic host Omnisphere stuff ( thats expensive and CPU intensive)

Thanks, Greg! I'm pretty happy with the pads, synths, and saws on my Roland Fantom G (Fantom has great saws!). And, yes, you do get a ton of synths free with Logic so I should be way good in that department. Not a big EP piano player, so the stock EP pianos will be more than adequate. I'm pretty sure I'm planning to get WaveArts' new Cinematic Suite for strings and orchestra. The only other library I might want right away is a nature sounds one (unless the Kronos already has a lot of that). I didn't see any nature samples (e.g., ocean, wind, etc.) in the Korg store.

leonh wrote:Yamaha montage perfect match for Kronos did have one sold it for Kronos if I could afford both of them I would buy Montage again saying that I can do everything on Kronos without need to get another keyboard .

Thanks for your input, leonh! I just said the Montage because I've always wanted a Motif. But I thought the Montage would be too similar to the Kronos so I'm glad to hear you think it would be a good pair (and not be too redundant).

studio460 wrote:Best: Access VirusTI Polar keyboard. It sounds like nothing else. Plus, it's able to make real "scary" sounds. Different from all my other synths—employs subtractive/graintable/formant/FM/wavetable synthesis.

Agree with that. Like the Kronos, the Virus has a multitude of different oscillator technologies, but the sound so unlike the Kronos. Best hardware variety combo I can think of.

Mike Conway wrote:

studio460 wrote:Best: Access VirusTI Polar keyboard. It sounds like nothing else. Plus, it's able to make real "scary" sounds. Different from all my other synths—employs subtractive/graintable/formant/FM/wavetable synthesis.

Agree with that. Like the Kronos, the Virus has a multitude of different oscillator technologies, but the sound so unlike the Kronos. Best hardware variety combo I can think of.

Cool! Thanks for your input! Appreciate that! (Makes me think I'm on the right track).

Sold most of my earlier synths to get a new Kronos and also resampled their best sounds in it, so now my K2 has everything all together.

Then I connect my MIDIboard controller in the K2 and I have two excellent keyboards to play everything - a Kronos RH3B action and my poly AT MIDIboard (remember the K2 responds to poly AT).

We're talking hardware here, right?

Best: Roland Juno-G. Has served me well for many years. Very capable, especially for more of a mid range keyboard. Has some good bread and butter sounds, and some quite unique sounds. Pretty deep editing too.

Worst: Guess I've been lucky. I haven't really had a bad one. The one I've gotten the least use out of is the Yamaha DX7. Not that there's anything at all wrong with it - it's iconic! It's just old and there's just no particular reason to own one anymore unless you're a collector, nostalgic, or just want to put your hands on the original for a while. Everything it can do can be perfectly replicated (and far beyond) by both the Kronos and FM8, and the modernized programming interfaces are 100x more user friendly on them. So it's probably time for me to pass mine along to someone who is in the above categories so they can enjoy it next.

Pairing: I'm planning to pair my K up with my Eurorack modular synth. There's no specific make/model since it's a collection of little analog and digital modules made by different companies. It's very different from a workstation. Kind of an audio playground with countless possibilities and few rules (and also, zero presets). I figure the between the polished Kronos and the untamed modular I can get wherever I want to go.

My Kronos is the only hardware synth I own. Have NI Komplete 10 ultimate.

Would love to get my hands on a Jupiter 80 to pair with my Kronos.

IMHO, I think the Nord Stage 3 is the BEST! Sounds on par with the Kronos except no extensive menu diving to create the sounds you want for live playing. Also, the organs on the NS3 are killer!

After owning Motif workstations since their introduction, the Kronos has no equal! Every sound you have on the Motif/Montage, can be made better and sound more interesting on the Kronos, even regarding that gimmicky “Superknob”.

As for synth, I also agree that the Access Virus TI2 keyboard is a great compliment! Whatever the Kronos can’t do, this can simply put.

In short, if you own the Korg Kronos 2, Nord Stage 3, and Access Virus TI2 keyboard, you can cover any sound or basis that anyone can imagine. Only thing to add would be VSTs. This is DEFINITELY my soon to be rig! Once achieved, everything else I have will be gone....well except for the D-550 !

studio460 wrote:It sounds like nothing else. Plus, it's able to make real "scary" sounds. Different from all my other synths

Examine the case to add a Kronos EXs library like this https://youtu.be/f5_FdGhO3wA?t=9m37s
Kronos has 2 powerful engines that you can create almost any analog sound and FX but you have to know how to work
with them plus the deep knowledge of synth modeling / modulating but when you want to create the oldies analog fatness
of 80's analog , you will soon run out of Kronos polyphony plus the fact that those old synth monsters also use mixed wave
samples of PWM with a unique sound colour that is not either nature nor synthesized and you need the original samples in
order to replicate this sonic texture , that's why many Musicians are stucked with Omnisphere.
Therefore , before 1,5 year , I decided to create a very fat synth orchestra based on all famous unique syths as a Synth
Symphonic implement with extraordinary fatness that can't be produced in Kronos analog engines , called Legend Synths Suite.

Concerning nature sounds , you can order anything you like for Kronos from our service http://wavesart.eu/Hire

My hardware pairing is Kronos X 61 on the top tier and Montage 7 on bottom tier - despite some flaws/quirks (see that Montage thread that is raging!) it is a very good synth and gives me “the Yamaha sound” as well as “the Korg sound”.

In terms of hardware VA like your Virus, I have a Nord G2 Engine stuffed in my gig rack - it only takes 1U of rack space!

And in the same rack I have an NUC PC (about the size of a paperback book) that runs every VSTi that I own, and is powerfull enough to run CPU hogs like UH-E DIVA and Omnisphere!

So whilst not quite a pairing, that is an awesome combination

I’ve never had lemons as I have always made careful buying decisions.

For me and my needs best synth to pair with Kronos was a second Kronos .

Thanks again for everyone's comments!

Derek Cook wrote:My hardware pairing is Kronos X 61 on the top tier and Montage 7 on bottom tier - despite some flaws/quirks (see that Montage thread that is raging!) it is a very good synth and gives me “the Yamaha sound” as well as “the Korg sound”.

That's two votes for a Montage, one, against. I've wanted a Motif for so long I'm probably bound to get either a Montage or Motif XF someday. If two of you are recommending the Yamaha/Korg combo, there must not be too much duplication.

darrellskey wrote:In short, if you own the Korg Kronos 2, Nord Stage 3, and Access Virus TI2 keyboard, you can cover any sound or basis that anyone can imagine.

It's encouraging to hear so many similar recommendations. You've come to the exact same picks as I did! So, yes, that affirms my keeping the Virus in the mix. I'm probably keeping my Fantom G in the mix also (for its sequencer), and maybe someday getting an Integra-7 to replace my Fantom XR. That way I would have the equivalent of all 12 SRX cards.