Korg Forums

I am torn now between the Krome 2 and the Grandstage. I definitely dont want to buy the Kross 2, although the light weight does seem appealing.
I want something great for gigs, and with a nice piano action - I am a pianist rather than a synth/organ player, and I have become pretty good a creating new combi's from existing programs to use in various 80s and 90s pop and rock covers.
I am leaning to the Grandstage but will I miss the extra sounds and editing facilities of the Krome?
Ultimately I want a big step up from my M50, of which I still love dearly. But I cannot afford a Kronos, sadly.
Any opinions or thoughts are very welcome.

nico88 wrote:I am torn now between the Krome 2 and the Grandstage. I definitely dont want to buy the Kross 2, although the light weight does seem appealing.
I want something great for gigs, and with a nice piano action - I am a pianist rather than a synth/organ player, and I have become pretty good a creating new combi's from existing programs to use in various 80s and 90s pop and rock covers.
I am leaning to the Grandstage but will I miss the extra sounds and editing facilities of the Krome?
Ultimately I want a big step up from my M50, of which I still love dearly. But I cannot afford a Kronos, sadly.
Any opinions or thoughts are very welcome.

To my knowledge, the Krome 88 and Kross 88 share the same keybed.

If you want a piano-centric keyboard, the Grandstage would be a way to go. With that said, if you wanted to focus on piano sounds the D1 may also be an option. It shares the same keybed as the Kronos.

The Kross could also still be an option, especially considering the extra piano libraries from the OASYS that you can download. It appears to be a very powerful instrument. I have a lady friend who just bought the Kross 2-88 and she really likes it. She is a pianist.

Since weighted action is subjective, it will depend on which keyboard feels the best to YOU. I have 2 of the Kross 1-88 synths, a new Kurzweil SP1 digital piano, and a Lowrey (Kawai) EZP3 digital piano. Out of all of them, the Lowrey feels the best. With that said, the Lowrey is a 50 lbs instrument and it does not leave my studio area.

I have been using the Kross 1-88 for live work and use the other one in the studio and it works fine for what I need. The Kurzweil SP1 has a pretty good action for me, but it is springy and seems to bounce back faster than the Kross synths do. I rather like the action on the SP1 but can very easily play on all of them.

The action on the Kross 2 that my friend has felt pretty new and needs to be broken in, at least for me. My Kross 1-88 synths are MUCH easier to play. I have a light touch and so the Kross-88s feel better to me.

The Krome-88 would have the best interface of the ones you have mentioned.

The Krome is the replacement for the M50 (which I still have one of those too) and going to a Kross will require some sacrifice. I will say that the piano sounds are better on the Kross than the M50, but the EFX are better on the M50 (and Krome). You also retain the touch screen on the Krome and it is better than on the M50 (color and faster response).

I happen to like the Kross-88 units. They work well for me and give me every sound I want, except for lead guitars. This is mainly due to the lack of EFX routings. The M50 still sounds better for lead guitar sounds, in my opinion.

The D1 is around $700 USD and will give you great piano sounds and a great action. It is lightweight (no as much lightweight as the Kross-88 though) and is compact.

If you are really leaning toward the Grandstage, then maybe you could take a look at the Nautilus-88 as it would give you Kronos-level sounds but at a cheaper price. It lack some of the Kronos features, but for piano, it might work for you AND you can program Combis on it

Grace,
Harry

nico88 wrote:I am torn now between the Krome 2 and the Grandstage. I definitely dont want to buy the Kross 2, although the light weight does seem appealing.
I want something great for gigs, and with a nice piano action

Grandstage has the higher quality action.

nico88 wrote:will I miss the extra sounds and editing facilities of the Krome?

No one can answer that for you... but the Grandstage is definitely much more limited. Instead of a "do anything you can think of" workstation approach, it's a "do the most common things more easily" approach. Only two split/layered sounds at a time, no editing, minimal MIDI functionality, etc.

nico88 wrote:Ultimately I want a big step up from my M50, of which I still love dearly. But I cannot afford a Kronos, sadly.

How about a Nautilus? It's pricier than the others, but still a lot cheaper than a Kronos. Otherwise, of the two, the Krome is s step up from the M50, the Grandstage is a step sideways, better in some ways, weaker in others.

Thank you so much to Harry and Scott for the informative replies!

I didn't consider the Nautilus - I will research this now, many thanks. The M50 88 is/was an incredible instrument and I am only replacing her because she is old, and needs regular servicing now. She is a veteran of literally hundreds of live gigs, and boy she has had some hammering! Bought it in 2005!

Part of me thinks perhaps it is time for a change - perhaps Roland or Yamaha - but I do love Korg and I know my way around the editing really well.

Thanks for the tip on the NAUTILUS - back soon!

BTW, the M50, Grandstage, and Nautilus 88s all have the RH3 action, Krome has a lesser action. Though the RH3 action also yields a board that is heavier to carry around.

In other brands, the mid-priced workstation-style boards are Yamaha MODX, Roland FA, Kurzweil PC4, all with their own pros and cons. The nearest Grandstage equivalent is probably Yamaha CP88/YC88.

nico88 wrote:Thank you so much to Harry and Scott for the informative replies!

I didn't consider the Nautilus - I will research this now, many thanks. The M50 88 is/was an incredible instrument and I am only replacing her because she is old, and needs regular servicing now. She is a veteran of literally hundreds of live gigs, and boy she has had some hammering! Bought it in 2005!

Part of me thinks perhaps it is time for a change - perhaps Roland or Yamaha - but I do love Korg and I know my way around the editing really well.

Thanks for the tip on the NAUTILUS - back soon!

We are glad to help

Regarding the Krome-88. I believe that it has the same action as the Kross 2-88. So other than the interface, the Krome and Kross have the same action.

After re-reading your initial post, have you considered Kawai?

I REALLY like Kawai and their action is considered the best in the industry, especially on the MP11/MP11SE. The MP11SE is a piano player's dream. Of course, the keyboard weighs in at around 80lbs... Certainly not one for the gigs unless you have a lot of friends...

With that said, the MP7SE is a great option. It has a different action than the MP11, but is still considered VERY good. It weighs in at around 50lbs and to me, is managable. It has 256 sounds of all types, 256 notes of polyphony, can operate up to 4 MIDI zones for lots of layering possibilities, hammer action, triple sensors, etc...

I used to have the MP5 back in the late 2000's (until around 2014) and it was a dream to play. The piano sound was excellent and very woody and full, especially on the bottom end. It blew away anything I had with Yamaha at the time.

The Lowrey I have is very similar to that MP5 and it is a joy to play it. The MP7Se is even better because they've added more polyphony, better and newer sounds from their EX piano line, better microprocessors, better string resonance, and feature a more accurate action than the MP5 had. The MP7SE has a street price of around $1,800 USD. That puts it in the similar range as the Krome 88 and is cheaper than the Nautilus. The MP7Se is not a workstation though and really is geared toward piano players. With the master keyboard contoller features, it could be a real advantage to have live if you have multiple keyboards on stage.

With regard to how the Kawai would stand up against Roland and Yamaha, I cannot say about the new Yamaha CP. No one can argue with Yamaha's advantage over all brands for their piano sounds. They've been making pianos for over 125 years. Their workflow is very prized for most of their users and some find it more intuititive than anyone else (although I like to dig into my programming more than Yamaha might allow). The new CP series is quite nice and a worthy contender.

With regard to Roland, I have not played or owned anything new from them in a while, so I cannot comment accurately beyond what specs I can read on their website. The only things I have from Roland are an old E-09 arranger (that was replaced by the Korg PA700 in 2017) and a D-05 Boutique (basically a Roland D-50).

I have most brands in my studio and live, as you can see from my signature. With that said, my three are really Korg, Kawai, and Ensoniq (which are vintage machines now and not really applicable to your situation).

You have a lot of options I have a soft spot for Korg and Kawai though and between them, I feel that Kawai tries a bit harder because they are not in the top 3 of the Big 3 companies we have to choose from. I feel that they have to work a bit harder than the others because of that and I believe it shows in their products. Yeah, that is a bit more emotional than factual, but it is important to me as well.

Grace,
Harry

the Grandstage has the RH3 keybed , just like my Kronos 88 ...

i've looked for a ' less heavey ' weighted action 88 also ... that has similar programming abilities to my Kronos 88 , or Krome 73 ...

since i play left hand bass , and the Krome 73 has a low C , i'm planning on using that versus lugging my Version 1 55lb Kronos ( even more w/a case ) around to gigs ... it has always lived in my home studio ...

the Grandstage doesn't have enough splits/layers available for what i'd want to do ... and it's not that much less heavy ..!?

for just the basic piano that has the RH3 action ( which i really like over Yamaha or Roland ) , is the D1 ... no splits , maybe just a layer ? i forget ..

yes the Nautilus looks interesting with all the Kronos type synth engines and a newer programming interface ... and it is still 51 lbs ... and yes about $1,200 bucks less than Kronos 88 ...

sadly i have Never played the Korg NH ( natural weighted hammer action )
but it is not the more premium 'made in japan' RH3 action ..?!?

i have thought about upgrading my Krome 73 to the 88 ( which is 32 lbs ) which is a good weight for my older arthritic back/neck/hands ..!!

happy hunting ..!!