one EXs on two Kronos / how ?

musicsound · Post by **musicsound** » Mon May 12, 2014 11:45 pm

I have bought some EXs from KARO and authorized them on my Kronos.

Now I have bought a second Kronos. Can I use/authorize my EXs on the second Kronos as well or do I have to buy the EXs twice ???

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Tue May 13, 2014 12:31 am

Nope, your stuck buying it again. It is tied to your Kronos and nothing short of a miracle would get it authorized for your other Kronos. I emailed and asked about selling a Kronos and replacing it with one with more keys and was told no way no how would it transfer. I can't imagine they would let it be installed on two. This is why I won't buy and additional anything tied down like that. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Kenny59 · Post by **Kenny59** » Tue May 13, 2014 3:54 am

Kind of a sore subject with me. Search this topic and you will see that it has been addressed a few times. I am in the same situation. I generally have duplicates of all of the boards that I own for a couple of reasons. First, I like having a spare should a board fail, and number two, I like being able to program or sequence on the board without having to unload my trailer. This is the only board that I have that is a problem to loading sounds that I decide to purchase. What a major inconvenience. I have to by two separate banks of the same sound, what a joke. I would be happy if they could in some way have a USB dongle to plug in the board to authorize the sound, but by two separate EX soundbanks to use on two of the same keyboard. I just can't fathom this.

Every other board I own, I can purchase sounds and use them on my backup without any problems. Well, enough of a rant by me. I'm not really that bitter, but wish there were other options.

Kenny59

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Tue May 13, 2014 1:54 pm

Kenny59 wrote:Kind of a sore subject with me. Search this topic and you will see that it has been addressed a few times. I am in the same situation. I generally have duplicates of all of the boards that I own for a couple of reasons. First, I like having a spare should a board fail, and number two, I like being able to program or sequence on the board without having to unload my trailer. This is the only board that I have that is a problem to loading sounds that I decide to purchase. What a major inconvenience. I have to by two separate banks of the same sound, what a joke. I would be happy if they could in some way have a USB dongle to plug in the board to authorize the sound, but by two separate EX soundbanks to use on two of the same keyboard. I just can't fathom this.

Every other board I own, I can purchase sounds and use them on my backup without any problems. Well, enough of a rant by me. I'm not really that bitter, but wish there were other options.

Kenny59

an easy way to solve this is to offer a deep discount on the 2nd sample lib purchase, once they determine you have 2 Kronos'.

I think that the sample libs are not big sellers. IOW, if I were Karo or Korg, and even from that business perspective, I would show support for 2 Kronos owners. They could apply the large discount on the 2nd Lib on a ' one off ' basis to the customer.

Its really time for Korg and Karo to come around on this. Why not make an offer to them along this line of thinking ? I don't believe they will do a freebie on the 2nd lib, so a large discount makes business sense to a great Kronos owner.

dfahrner · Post by **dfahrner** » Tue May 13, 2014 3:47 pm

For EXs sold by Korg, I was told by Korg USA that this is "corporate policy" and that they can't make any exceptions...I wrote a long letter to Korg in Japan, saying that I thought this was unfair to owners of multiple units; how most software can be legally installed on backup machines; how allowing this would increase sales; etc., etc...and I got no reply from Korg...

df

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Tue May 13, 2014 3:54 pm

dfahrner wrote:For EXs sold by Korg, I was told by Korg USA that this is "corporate policy" and that they can't make any exceptions...I wrote a long letter to Korg in Japan, saying that I thought this was unfair to owners of multiple units; how most software can be legally installed on backup machines; how allowing this would increase sales; etc., etc...and I got no reply from Korg...

df

It probably sounded ' good ' from a legal and control perspective when they wrote the policy some years ago.

By now, since they have gotten an earful, the policy should be revised. Policy is words on a piece of paper. It takes someone at a higher level to drive a policy change. I have done lots of policy work for large corps so I understand how that ' process ' works.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue May 13, 2014 4:01 pm

To be fair, this has always been the case with expansions for hardware synths, because you were always tied to a chip/board. Nobody complained about it then because everyone assumed you paid for the hardware. In reality, the hardware was only a small part of the cost. Now that we perceive these expansions as software only, suddenly we feel cheated. There is something to be said for both PoVs really. As far as I've understood, at least Korg have demonstrated some leniency if a Kronos was deemed unrepairable by a service center.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Tue May 13, 2014 5:46 pm

Well, somebody might hack Kronos' Linux OS sooner or later and do some magic to circumvent such ridiculous restrictions. It's about time

Kenny59 · Post by **Kenny59** » Tue May 13, 2014 6:57 pm

SX, I hear what you are saying, however I can buy the expansions for lets say my Roland XP-60 for which I have 2 of them. I can and have swapped out expansions from one board to the next for usually a repair related problems since both are getting old, or someone with a beer gets to close and decides to accidentally spill it on the keys. At least I have the comfort to know that I have a spare at the house that I can use immediately and not compromise the sounds that I use.

I just wish that there were some sort of workaround.

Kenny59

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue May 13, 2014 7:17 pm

I agree completely. I don't really find it unreasonable that they don't want you to install it on more than one board at the same time. I do find it unreasonable and somewhat myopic that they didn't put into place any system for carrying a license on a USB stick or even facilitate selling a purchased expansion (or keeping it after changing Kroni).

Sam CA · Post by **Sam CA** » Tue May 13, 2014 9:09 pm

If multiple hardwares are registered to the same owner, it's only fair to get at least some kind of reasonable discount for multiple licences matching the registered products. Generally, non-sense restrictions backfire one way or another.

danmusician · Post by **danmusician** » Tue May 13, 2014 9:56 pm

i own 2 Kronoses and I do understand what everyone is saying, put consider this:

Did anyone get their second Kronos for a discount because they already owned one?

Do we expect that we should be able to buy a "blank" Kronos for less money and then just copy the library from one machine to another?

I don't "want" to spend the money to buy 2 expansion libraries, but I'm not sure it's unreasonable to be asked to pay for 2 copies. I ponied up for the second machine - compared to that cost, the libraries are pretty cheap.

Sam CA · Post by **Sam CA** » Tue May 13, 2014 10:04 pm

danmusician wrote:i own 2 Kronoses and I do understand what everyone is saying, put consider this:

Did anyone get their second Kronos for a discount because they already owned one?

Do we expect that we should be able to buy a "blank" Kronos for less money and then just copy the library from one machine to another?

I don't "want" to spend the money to buy 2 expansion libraries, but I'm not sure it's unreasonable to be asked to pay for 2 copies. I ponied up for the second machine - compared to that cost, the libraries are pretty cheap.

Nobody said a second Kronos should be at a discounted price. You said that!

I can tell you of hundreds of situations where I've seen discounted products especially for software and sample libraries have been made available to one person/organization. I know this first hand, because I've been doing just that for schoosl and churches for the past 12 years!

By the way, this is not a problem for me personally, as I only own one Kronos.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Tue May 13, 2014 10:32 pm

Assyrianpianist wrote:
danmusician wrote:i own 2 Kronoses and I do

I don't "want" to spend the money to buy 2 expansion libraries, but I'm not pretty cheap.

I can tell you of hundreds of situations where I've seen discounted products especially for software and sample libraries have been made available to one person/organization. I know this first hand, because I've been doing just that for schoosl and churches for the past 12 years!

By the way, this is not a problem for me personally, as I only own one Kronos.

What you are doing past 12 yrs makes standard business sense. And I have no dog in this hunt, since I own one Kronos.

Speculating further, what if or when korg creates the next uber Kronos ? And Kronos owners have several sample libs on their Kronos' and want to buy the new Kronos Uber . They will have to belly up the full cost of the same sample libs for their new Kronos Uber, to support their tunes, film scores, etc.

I realize this is hardly a worry now, but in just 8 months, potentially, it might be an issue. I think the policy is simply out of sync with reality, or they make the loyal Kronos owner pay twice.

danmusician · Post by **danmusician** » Wed May 14, 2014 12:24 am

Assyrianpianist wrote:
danmusician wrote:i own 2 Kronoses and I do understand what everyone is saying, put consider this:

Did anyone get their second Kronos for a discount because they already owned one?

Do we expect that we should be able to buy a "blank" Kronos for less money and then just copy the library from one machine to another?

I don't "want" to spend the money to buy 2 expansion libraries, but I'm not sure it's unreasonable to be asked to pay for 2 copies. I ponied up for the second machine - compared to that cost, the libraries are pretty cheap.
Nobody said a second Kronos should be at a discounted price. You said that!

I realize that I'm the one who said that. I'm just saying that if it isn't unreasonable to pay full price for two keyboards, perhaps it isn't unreasonable to pay for the sounds in each keyboard, either.

By the way, I've got you beat. I've been doing that for schools and churches for 30 years!