Better DAW integration

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 2:39 pm

Does anyone know if Korg is working on improving this?

Or is it just on everyones wishlist?

jimknopf · Post by **jimknopf** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 3:43 pm

Up to now,

- there isn't even any editor available for the current OS
- it is still uncertain if it will finally improve and/or become 64bit compatible
- even the expensive actual Soundquest Midiquest 11 Pro editor (369$) does not contain a working Kronos version for the actual OS.
- Soundquest stated they are waiting for Korg to allow for that (or Korg wants to publish their editor first or whatever)
- Korg says nothing at all about the current state

So, yes, it's on everybody's wishlist - or at least it would be, if it were to be a 64bit version, and if it were offering more UI benefit than it did so far. As it has been so far, it hasn't made too much of a difference, and that's probably the reason people aren't eagerly waiting here.

To be fair: the Kronos is a paramter monster, and it is a far from trivial task to get an advanced 64bit DAW integration running fine.

jmchiro · Post by **jmchiro** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:05 pm

jimknopf

Thank you very much for the great summary of the miserable state we are in with regards to the editor/plug in.

I will never forget Korg's promise of "seamless integration" with my DAW when I preordered my first Kronos.

I just don't get it: the Kronos is such a great performance synth. But without an editor/plug in, I find the use of all soft synths for recording to be superior.

If only there were a way to harness the power of the Kronos to my computer....

ahutnick · Post by **ahutnick** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:35 pm

Yeah the ball is in Korg's court on this one.

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 7:10 am

ahutnick wrote:Yeah the ball is in Korg's court on this one.

Well thats for sure, but my actuall question was, are they doing anything with that ball?

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 7:28 am

You could still get Polysix and MS20 for your DAW with the Legacy Collection.

Purusha · Post by **Purusha** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 7:42 am

I wonder if they're working on something at Korg?

I'd rather see something native than the Soundquest editor. I always found Soundquest's system a bit clunky.

ahutnick · Post by **ahutnick** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 8:33 am

I doubt anyone from Korg will comment on this due to NDA

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 9:59 am

Korg really should have a look at what Akai (vip) NI (kontrol) and Panorama are doing... Thats what i would expect from a next generation synth workstation too...

Or just at the integration between motif and Cubase.... maybe Korg could offer such integration with a 3rd party DAW like Ableton live, offering a top of the bill max 4 life device for Ableton integration would be awesome...

Sadly the Kronos can only send/recieve 2 channels of digital audio over USB... If they would have added USB3, it could have been 16 channels audio up and down.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:24 am

With USB2 it could still have been sixteen up and down. The USB version is not the limitation here. I would have been happy if they had made it even just 4 out, so you don't get a loop when you play back and record through the Kronos.

willfullydamned · Post by **willfullydamned** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:53 am

SanderXpander wrote:With USB2 it could still have been sixteen up and down. The USB version is not the limitation here. I would have been happy if they had made it even just 4 out, so you don't get a loop when you play back and record through the Kronos.

SanderXpander, do you know if there is any work around to this problem? I am new to the Kronos in general and am still working out the kinks. I ran into the problem today where I was just trying to record audio and play it back via USB but when I go to record the audio it's recording everything that's playing back from Cubase as well. Is the only work around to this to just record everything as MIDI and then record back the audio tracks later in realtime?

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:02 am

Seems the best workaround I can think of. If you have a mixer you could also direct the incoming tracks to individual outs 1/2. This avoids the loop, because the USB out automatically sends whatever is going out of L/R (which normally includes incoming USB). Sending incoming USB to 1/2 means you won't hear it though, unless you hook everything up to a mixer before connecting to your monitors.

willfullydamned · Post by **willfullydamned** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:12 am

SanderXpander wrote:Seems the best workaround I can think of. If you have a mixer you could also direct the incoming tracks to individual outs 1/2. This avoids the loop, because the USB out automatically sends whatever is going out of L/R (which normally includes incoming USB). Sending incoming USB to 1/2 means you won't hear it though, unless you hook everything up to a mixer before connecting to your monitors.

Thanks for the quick reply. Why would Korg do this to us on a 4 grand machine?

Could firmware updates expand the # of USB/digital outputs in the future or is that not possible?

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:04 am

Bachus wrote:Does anyone know if Korg is working on improving this?

Or is it just on everyones wishlist?

it's probably on everyones wishlist.

for now there is no offical integration available as far as i know. The Editor doesn't work with firmware 3, and there isn't a new version available. Also the fact that the editor was 32 bit makes it more or less useless in the current daw setups people have.

That doesn't mean that you can't do some basic integration yourself. Because basically what do you need?
- selecting the combi with programs you are using for a totall recall of the sounds you use.
- RTC model automation (or tone control automation)
-

The completely programming of sounds could still be done in an editor outside the daw (if it would be available), there is no real need to create complete programs from scratch in a musical project in my opinion.

Now in current daw's it's quite easy to solve the 2 basic integration requirements:
- selecting the combi: you can just send a bank change and program change to your kronos to select the combi you are using for the song. I would advise to use combis for that because you can store combis in the kronos. So what i do is creating a combi with the song name, and select the programs i need (manually) in that combi and save the combi. If there was an editor outside the daw available you could also use that editor to select the programs in the combi to avoid using the touchscreen on the kronos.
Since you stored the bank number and program number of the combi in your project everything will be loaded automatically as soon as you start the song in your daw.
- RTC model automation: this is a little bit trickier and this depends on your DAW. You need to create a CC mapping between the kronos and the parameter names you use in your DAW. For cubase this does mean that you need to assign the quick controls to CC messages. So you can automate these per sound. For ableton you need to download an Ableton Live CC mapping M4L device and create an external intrument for the kronos. Whenever you need the kronos in ableton, just load that external instrument and everything is connected and you can use automation on your sounds. Other DAW's would probaly have similar methods (but i do not own those daw's so i can't tell you how to do it).

If you do those two things you have integrated the kronos with your daw and you have total recall and automation support for the most important parts of the programs (like cutoff, reso, adsr, etc).

It's not that hard to set it up this was.

Full integration like the motif, virus ti, or even the korg m3 isn't available for the kronos, so it is what is is, and this is the best method in my opinion to work with it. It works quite good for me.

Also one thing to remember is to avoid the usb integration. You are way better off with an external audio device, because it will avoid the audio return problems you will have with the 2 channel usb integration. External audio devices should have at least 4 inputs to get the most out of the kronos since you can use the 2 stereo outputs and 2 mono outputs for your sounds.

scottgblood · Post by **scottgblood** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:58 am

First post in a while.

My Kronos 2 has arrived (weeks ago) but really pissed that the DAW integration advertised is completely missing, really annoying.

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