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Gosh, going hi-tech always seems to make you have to work harder!

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts comparing the main pianos in the Krome and the PX-350, and how the additional sounds stack up.


That's good news.


I've played it very little, since I connected via MIDI straight away (I knew that were I to use it live, it would be from a weighted board). The little I've played on the 73's own keyboard, I would have to say that it feels much like most recent Korgs I've touched, namely a light, reasonably serviceable action that has problems with black notes if you try to trigger them too near the pivot point. I think the Nord Electro (particularly version 2) has a much better action for a non-hammer action semi-weighted board.

I would probably have to A/B them again and compare the Krome 88- but I enjoyed them both. I believe the decay felt longer on the PX350 and I enjoyed the EQ settings on them.

I used to have a Korg Trtion Le from 2002-2010 (traded it in for my P95) and wouldn't mind having another Korg workstation. I have used many of them that friends had, from the M1-T3-Trinity-Triton and so forth.
There was a particular combo on the Korg Triton called trancy euphoria which I was wondering would be on the Krome.

Could you let me know how you felt about some of the other Krome sounds? I think its a steal at $850

If I did purchase a PX350, I of course would mainly be using it for the acoustic pianos. Besides the main fender rhodes (which may of may not be similar to the one on the 130) there was an EP called Mellow which I also liked a lot. I did not care much for the Hammond sounds.

I am fairly confident I would probably use the non-AP Krome sounds more than the PX non AP sounds.

I found the action on the Krome better than the triton but liked the Roland Juno Gi's action better. The Gi also has the built in digital recorder- as opposed to a sequencer.

As it stands, I don't think I would upgrade DP's unless I unload the P95- don't really have room for 3. The Krome would be different though.

Well, I'd be interested to know if anyone manages to get one for $850. Given that GC/MF exclude Korg from their coupon offers, requiring you to phone/call in for a quote, it's not a guarantee that they will provide that level of discount, particularly as it's a brand new instrument.

As to the sounds, I've not had enough time to go through them. There are a gazillion of them! What I have heard screams "Korg," if you know what I mean.

Korg have long been good at using FX to their full advantage in their Romplers, and I think the Krome is no exception. The sounds I've heard are competent, and frequently lush. I could imagine that they'll work fine in a lot of genres. Of course, this is also a workstation (a whole side of the Krome that I'll probably never get into), and so you could build vast soundscapes with what's in there. It can also be used as a VST from your PC.

Update 1:
OK, so bypassing the EQ section seriously improved the main piano sound. It had been factory set to have a very dominant bass. Now it plays very sweetly.

At the moment, it is not possible to depress a key without a note sounding. I don't know if that's editable or not - not a major issue, though.

Polyphony is only just adequate. If you sustain a low bass note (with pedal) and play a repeated motif in the right hand, eventually the bass note cuts off abruptly. It allows around thirty notes before this happens. I doubt if this is much worse than many DPs.

Editing is very deep, if you take into account Combi editing as well. It's a bit much for me, and I'm having difficulty working out simple things like how to transfer a Program sound into Combi complete with its original effects. I hate menu diving. If I can just set up the few patches I need, I'll be happy.

Thanks for the early reviews VP!

Interested to read that the EPs weren't quite the game-changer you were expecting. Have your efforts to edit the sound changed this opinion a great deal?

Cheers,
James
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You're welcome, James!

Well, to be fair, it wasn't really the EPs that I was expecting to be the game-changer, but more the APs (with their allocated 2+ gigs). While the APs are incrementally better than what's in my other gigging boards, they aren't so drastically better that I would suggest everyone rush out and trade in their current DPs for a Krome. However, they do have a more natural envelope and feel more organic. I'd like to hear them with other instruments to get a clearer picture.

As for the EPs, I haven't really spent much time on them yet. Pretty much the whole evening was taken up trying to figure out the basics of setting up Combis so that I could play piano from my weighted boards, and other sounds on the Krome. The effects routing is really quite complex. I will take the time to go through the EPs in detail soon. What I did notice is that the dry Rhodes sounded pretty much identical to that in the Numa. I think the Rhodes patches will scrub up very nicely, but of course, live control is a little more limited than in a Nord. However, there are four assignable knobs and two switches, so most needs should be covered; the limitations being that you have to preselect the effects you want to assign, and the factory assignments aren't always consistent - or what you want.

There are actually a lot of Rhodes sounds on board - Mark I, II and V in all sorts of configurations. It would be wrong of me to pronounce on these until I've spent some time with them, but given that the basic real (original) Rhodes sound is actually quite plain, a lot is down to the quality of the effects.

In my initial whizz through the sounds, it was the wurli that surprised me. I didn't come across a patch that sounded like any EP200A I've played. But I need to take the time to strip them down to audition the raw sounds before marking that as a fail.

Unfortunately, this is not the kind of intuitive board that means you can spend an hour two on it and have a clear picture of its capabilities. I expect a lot of people who own M50s etc. will have no problem adapting, but I have a rather deep dislike of computer interfaces on keyboards, and it takes me a while to get just the basics sorted out on boards like this. And then, once I've got the sounds programmed that I need, I tend to leave well alone.

Wurli update. The picture isn't quite as bad as I painted it. But the Wurlitzer samples seem slightly muffled and lacking the tonal range of the real thing. That is surprising, given that the EPs are touted as having about 600 megs dedicated to them. I think the Numa is definitely better in this respect, and possibly the Kawai MP6 (although I would need to compare them side-by-side).

Could you also please post your opinioins on the B3's? Some of them I really liked- perhaps more than the 350's offerings in that department.

-In the past it seems I have had luck with the GC/MF coupons when calling even when the websites do not take them.

My initial impression of this board is that is of excellent value. I am wondering what I would use though for recording it- perhaps a usb audio interface for vocals as the keyboard itself seems to be a DAW interace

Possum, I'll post back when I've had a chance to give the organs a good workout. For now, I can say that they sound very "Korg." The annoying thing is that they've gone overboard on 888 percussion instead of providing a good selection of different drawbar registrations. This seems to be to make every patch as punchy as possible rather than provide the variety that a gigging keyboard player really needs. Oddly, some of the patches have switchable percussion, and others have it built into the sound.

I think that a few of these patches will be perfectly usable for me, and some of them sound very good as vintage emulations. It's not a clonewheel, and doesn't provide the depth of sound that well-modeled drawbar organs have, but there's enough there to work with.

So the organs are PCM, not clonewheel?

I assume so, although on some patches they add a second clump of "drawbars" controlled by one of the switches. This is presumably done via the second oscillator (although I've not checked to verify this). I've just been testing a bunch of the organ patches, and I have to say that, if you accept the limitations, many of them sound very good.

For a mid-range instrument, this is turning out to be generally very good. I wasn't expecting flagship performance for $1,200, and as that is $1,000 less than an Electro, it's not bad to have a grand piano that rivals those offered by Nord, excellent Rhodes, passable (just) Wurlitzer, good organs, and a slew of orchestral and synth sounds that are much more usable than Clavia's - plus full workstation features, if you're into that kind of thing.

A note with regard to the AP. I think they've shortened decay times a tad to allow for the absence of looping, but, overall, I think it's going to be very playable. It's quite clearly sampled, as there are a couple of notes where the strings sound a little old!

So it's a keeper then?

At least until Clavia release a new set of large-sized EPs, leading you to sell the Krome and buy an NE4.

Cheers,
James
x

Not sure yet, James. It really depends on whether I can make it work sufficiently well in a two-keyboard rig - and without drawbars.



Am I that transparent?

Just confirmed that the main AP & EPs offer 8 velocity levels (pretty sure they are all unblended). I haven't spent time listening for stretching yet.

Thanks VP!

8 velocity levels for the EP is pretty good!

James
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i have been studying this thread and others carefully regarding the Krome. it seems to get a lot of criticism from the gearheads (who view is as an R&B/funk oriented board), but it also seems that for the price- assuming the action is playable- this really offers an outstanding array of piano samples in a very lightweight and affordable performance board. and options for layering sounds and instruments for band-oriented mixes, etc.

if i look at it mainly as something lightweight to lug around- seems like a very attractive option to the Nord Piano ($3K) and the Rolands/ Kawais. and a step up in sample quality from the Privias...

So looking at this mainly as a performance piano(s)- not a bad idea?

bfb, I would not consider the action in the 61 & 73 versions truly playable for piano - for that you should really be looking at the 88.

I think it is a viable alternative to the Nord instruments. You only get one main piano with multiple variations, plus a bunch of lesser "rompler" pianos, but I think the German Grand is up there with Nord's Grand Lady D, and has more tonal range. For Rhodes, there are some great patches covering all the essential variants, and I think they sound and play better than those in the Nord. Wurlitzer is passable, but I prefer the Wurli in other boards, including Nord's. Organs are plentiful but can't compete with clonewheels. I wouldn't buy this board for the solo synths - the Casio XW-P1 runs rings around it - but they (and the pads, orchestral sounds etc.) are still more usable than Nord's (except in the Stage) because you can edit them easily.

As for its performance credentials, there are sufficient performance controls to be able to tweak the essential parameters live, but you probably need to do a bit of editing beforehand. Due to rehearsal cancellations, I haven't been able to hear how the Krome holds up in an ensemble setting, but hopefully that will happen next week. I'm also debating whether to risk using it on a gig at the end of next week.

thanks voxpops...keep us posted..

yeah, i was definitely thinking about the 88. i know 73 keys is perfectly acceptable for piano, but there is something about those lost keys that gives me the creeps. So my interest is as a portable but professional sounding digital piano...

the Krome 88 weighs 32.4 lbs and is priced @ $1700. The only other workstation w/ 88 keys around that price/weight looks to be the Yamaha MOX8 at $1700 and 33 lbs. i wonder if its piano sample fares nearly as well..

there are a lot of stage piano options in that price range...

Roland 300NX $1800 38 lbs (good piano sample but "meh" on the action)
Korg SV-1 $1700 45 lbs (outdated piano sample w/ Kronos/Krome in marketplace)
Kawai MP6 $1500 47 lbs(no opinion- but seems like a possibility)
Yamaha CP300 $2000 72 lbs(YIKES!!... but then i have a P250 so i already know this..!)
Kawai EP3 $1100 46 lbs(interesting..should this be measured against p-105 and PX330?)
Yamaha CP50 $1700 46 lbs (nice samples but viewed as poor cousin to CP5?)

and of course one really should kick the tires on the P-105 and PX-150/350 if looking in this lightweight digital piano/keyboard arena- at $599-799 respectively

but it seems - on paper because i haven't really played several of these including the Krome - that the Krome stands up well against these DP's if the action is acceptable. should be favorable on piano samples (of course, individual tastes override any analysis), weight, and the versatility of a workstation without the big bucks....

it seems intriguing. Do workstations hold up as well as stage pianos?