Status of Korg Kronos DVD-ROM Images, System Updates, and Manauls
Since I no longer own a Kronos and have never really been able to effectively provide support on Korg’s behalf, I have removed the archive from my site as of today.
Since I no longer own a Kronos and have never really been able to effectively provide support on Korg’s behalf, I have removed the archive from my site as of today.
Hot on the heels of the Wavestate mkII, SE, and SE Platinum, Korg have just announced the opsix SE and SE Platinum. Like the Wavestate models, they’ve basically repackaged the guts from the standard model in a new case and substituted the excellent 61-key keybed alleged to be from the Kronos. And also, like the Wavestate counterparts, the opsix SE models ship with a custom hard case, making them gig-ready.
Back in 2020 or thereabouts (thenabouts?), Korg reinvented the Wavestation, and called it the wavestate. With four complete wave sequencing synth engines and the ability to mix and morph between them, the wavestate packed a lot of punch in its 37-key body, and pushed the Raspberry Pi Compute Module beyond what most mortals thought possible.
The opsix aims to change not only the interface shortcomings of most FM synthesizers, but also enhance the sound design capabilities by moving beyond the use of simple sine waves and also by adding the ability to use filters and other modulation sources/effects — something Korg calls “altered FM”.
A couple of weeks back, I added another new keyboard to the arsenal. It wasn’t exactly a planned purchase, but I was able to pick up a brand new Korg Wavestate at a price I couldn’t refuse.
It appears that after 11 years, Korg have decided to discontinue the KRONOS line of music workstations, leaving the Nautilus as their new “top of the heap.”
This is post 8 of 14 in the series “Korgs I've Owned” On numerous occasions, I’ve alluded to having a love/hate relationship with Korg keyboards. With the exception of a few scant hours with a modular Moog in college, and some experimentation designing various circuitry… Read More »Necessity’s Child
This is post 7 of 14 in the series “Korgs I've Owned” On numerous occasions, I’ve alluded to having a love/hate relationship with Korg keyboards. With the exception of a few scant hours with a modular Moog in college, and some experimentation designing various circuitry… Read More »Kronos’ Public Debut
What’s really impressive is that Kronos family has been the top of Korg’s heap since 2011. Again, rightly so. There’s not really much it can’t do. It is quite literally, a complete music workstation and recording studio in a single box.
With the Kross 2, Korg have made a fairly complete workstation for someone on a really tight budget. It relies on Korg’s EDS-i sound engine to produce over 1,000 sounds, and has an additional 128MB of PCM memory dedicated to pianos.
Of all the keyboards I’ve owned, Korg or otherwise, the PS60 is probably the most uniquely performance-oriented keyboard I’ve ever owned.
Anyway, I’d promised myself that I’d never own another Korg after the disappointment of the X2, and it was with some trepidation that I considered the X50. But, my friend Steve Rosch of the band The Janglebachs had one, and he loved it.
The X2 was the big brother to the X3, and in addition to another 15 keys, it had an expanded sample ROM featuring a nicely multi-sampled grand piano, and it also had two independent audio outputs in addition to the standard left and right main outputs. Many of the sounds were derived from Korg’s T3 and O1/W synths.
The first Korgs in my life were the DS-8 digital synthesizer and SQD-8 8-track MIDI sequencer. The DS-8 was an interesting synth. It was an attempt, I believe, to be a simplified 4-operator FM synthesizer that was simultaneously a multitimbral performance synth. It was even based on an enhanced Yamaha 4-operator FM synth chip that was found in a number of Yamaha keyboards!