Korg Kronos - Tips & Tricks

[burningbusch]

I thought it would be worthwhile to create a repository thread for Kronos tips, tricks, Q&A, etc. like the one going for the Hammond. As the Kronos is a very deep there should be plenty to talked about.

 

To that point, here are some new EPs and APs.

 

[font:Courier New]Classic Wurly (val=trem)

Wurly 200(sw1/2=trm/chr)

Wurly200a(sw1/2=trm/chr)2

Herbie Stereo-Vibrato

Spring Rhodes (Fusion)

Summer Rhodes

Autumn Rhodes

Winter Rhodes

Warm German Grand 1

Warm German Grand 2

Warm Austrian Grand

Warm Japanese Grand

Debussy Steinway [/font]

 

Demo - Classic Wurly

 

All the new APs are designed for more classical, jazz, ballads, etc. type playing. With the Debussy Steinway I was going after a piano sound similar to a new Baldwin Grand that I played often in a music store where I worked in my youth. With its new hammer felts it had a full, fat tone--a far cry from the clanging sound many pianos develop with use.

 

Demo - Warm Grands: Japanese, Austrian, German

 

Demo - Debussy Steinway

 

Link to the PCG file

 

Busch.

 

[marino]

A really impressive job, Busch! The APs sound great.

 

(Trying to reach the Classic Wurly demo, however, requires a password.)

 

 

[J. Dan]

I posted in another thread, but where I've been unsuccessful is the classic slightly overdriven Wurli - where you just get some extra grit digging into the keys without that nasty sounding ditortion. The model is totally clean, the distortion is totally nasty....no middle ground that's useable. Similar issues on CX3.

[VanDerGraaf]

That's one thing that lets the Kronos/Oasys down- distortions in general are unpleasant and certainly not what you'd call warm or creamy. Any advice or ideas to get round that (other than patching audio in/out to external fx)?

[VanDerGraaf]

Busch I'm going to listen to your programs when I get home....

[burningbusch]

Thanks Carlo. Fixed the link for the Wurly.

 

Regarding the distortion, take a listen to what I have on the Herbie preset. I'm using Stereo Tube Pre-Amp Modeling FX.

 

Busch.

[Al Coda]

Awesome acoustic piano demos !

 

Would like to hear the "herbie..." EP.

 

A.C.

[Bill W]

Thanks Carlo. Fixed the link for the Wurly.

 

Regarding the distortion, take a listen to what I have on the Herbie preset. I'm using Stereo Tube Pre-Amp Modeling FX.

 

Busch.

 

These sound great...thanks for sharing your work!

[Dave Ferris]

Wonderful sounding pianos Busch ! Thanks. Hey is that you on Claire ? Nice playing...

[VanDerGraaf]

Lovely demonstrations. The Debussy Steinway is captivating.

[Melodialworks]

I've not heard the Kronos German Grand sounding like you got it in the Debussy. Well done!

[burningbusch]

Thanks guys. No Dave, that's not me. I didn't have the sheet music handy so I thought I'd just pull it from a MIDI file. When I downloaded it and play it back it sound great so I left it. It's not an audition tape and I certainly couldn't play it better myself.

 

I added a nice free harpsichord (and instructions of how to get it into the Kronos) at http://thekronosblog.blogspot.com.

 

Audio Demo - Petit Itallian

 

Busch.

[burningbusch]

FYI, I updated the CP-80 library to include a Tony Banks program from BillW. Here's Bill's demo: Kronos CP-80

 

http://thekronosblog.blogspot.com/

 

Busch.

[Bobadohshe]

Wow Busch, these pianos sound great. I might have to give the Kronos another pass at NAMM. If the pianos stand up to the Nord Piano and the organs sound good enough through a vent, I wouldn't need to shell out for the most expensive Nord Stage.

[PinkFloydDudi]

Wow Busch, these pianos sound great. I might have to give the Kronos another pass at NAMM. If the pianos stand up to the Nord Piano and the organs sound good enough through a vent, I wouldn't need to shell out for the most expensive Nord Stage.

 

BLASPHEMY!! =P

 

Great sounds Busch!

[NeedMoreBass]

Just loaded these onto my Kronos. They sound fantastic. Thanks!!

[allan_evett]

I thought it would be worthwhile to create a repository thread for Kronos tips, tricks, Q&A, etc. like the one going for the Hammond. As the Kronos is a very deep there should be plenty to talked about.

 

.....

 

Busch.

 

Indeed, plenty....

 

So, I'm slightly stuck: So far, the only tweaking I've done to the Kronos has been Program and Combi edits. Have arrived at some good sounds for various applications.

Just started trying to load the PC Mark V.... Wow, the manuals appear to leave a few things out (or perhaps have them in obscure, unexpected locations ?). I've spent the past hour or so reading through various KC threads about the Kronos, but couldn't find any detailed instructions regarding in-depth 'getting around' the internal RAM and HD. Really don't feel like spending the rest of the day digging through several other forums for relevant threads....

I could post a lengthy list of specific questions here, but since I'm pretty capable once I have complete documentation, examples, etc. - Are there any in-depth tutorials out there that explain the use of Kronos memory ? What I'm looking for are 'how to's' regarding: freeing up RAM memory, where to load 3rd party sample files, i.e. - possible to load directly to HD, and bypass the Internal RAM ? How do I set up the HD to load only what I need in the instrument ? (IIRC, there was a reference made in one of the threads here that mentioned there being a fair amount of stuff that doesn't need to be loaded). A related question, and the crux of my current dilemma: How do I get a 3rd party sample to load to the HD, vs. seeing a message re 'lack of sufficient memory' ( obviously an Internal RAM issue, as my Kronos' HD shows 14 GB of free memory) ? All that the three Kronos' manuals cover are some very basic disk functions, and the examples given are all Song/sequence related; same with Korg's video manuals.

 

If anyone here is aware of real, in-depth tutorials about this stuff, just point me there. Compared to the absolute ease with which I can fly around the sample, sound, and program memory of the Nord Stage 2 - plus work with a comprehensive manual that's not written for engineers, the documentation for the Kronos seems rather lacking.

 

Thanks.....

[J. Dan]

I haven't done a lot of this myself, and don't have it in front of me myself, but I may be able to help some.

 

The Kronos system is much like has been done since the creation of samplers, with the exception of things like the pianos. A user cannot add any sound that will stream from HD. Everything you add must fit in RAM. So for all practical purposes, the HD is strictly storage, and RAM is what you're playing. Everything must be preloaded. So to free up space, delete waves, save under a different file name, set the new file as your preload, add your new samples, and save. Your old samples are still in the old file name on the hard drive, which could be loaded (without your new samples)

[Aidan]

Kronos has been able to stream user samples since OS v2 came out

[J. Dan]

Kronos has been able to stream user samples since OS v2 came out

 

How did I miss that? How does it work? Any user samples, or pre-specified? If that's the case, how is he running out of RAM?

 

[burningbusch]

As it comes from the factory, the original Kronos is pretty tight on available sample RAM. After the all the standard libraries are loaded you have little left for new samples. Since OS version 1.5 youve been able to add an additional stick of RAM, which is highly recommended, but you can also go about managing your RAM in a pragmatic fashion, unloading samples libraries for which you have little use. Outside of 320MB of base ROM everything else, every sample, program, combi can be replaced with your own. Were talking tens of GBs of samples and thousands of programs.

 

FREEING UP ADDITIONAL RAM BY CHANGING PRELOAD.KSC

When the Kronos boots, it loads 320MB of base "ROM" and a large file called PRELOAD.KSC. PRELOAD.KSC contains the large piano and drum libraries, the EXs3 Brass/Winds, etc. On disk it takes up 12GB and 814MB of RAM. You can mange this file and remove libraries and even specific samples from loading.

 

As an example, if you primarily use your Kronos for gigging and never use the large stereo drum libraries, why not just remove them from PRELOAD.KSC? You can use the RAM you recovered for something more useful.

 

Do the following:

- Go to GLOBAL==>BASIC==>SAMPLE MANAGE.

- Click on the drop-down menu (very top right corner) and select UNLOAD ALL IN BANK...

- In the dialog box change the selection to EXs8 (these are the Rock Ambience Drums) and click OK

- Repeat these steps but change the selection to EXs9 (Jazz Ambience Drums)

- If you were paying attention to the Memory use scale at the top you should find yourself with more available RAM

 

A few more steps:

- Go to DISK==>FILE==SAVE.

- Click on the drop-down menu (again very top right corner) and select SAVE SAMPLING DATA

- In the text box at the top give it a name, e.g. "PRELOAD (no drums)"

- Make sure LINKS TO EXs & USER SAMPLE BAKS is selected (this creates a small pointer file vs. re-saving 11GB of samples)

- Make sure ALL is selected (in the Sampling Mode Data Options section) and click on OK.

- Now go to GLOBAL==>BASIC==KSC/AUTOLOAD.

- Near the bottom-left click on the ADD KSC button.

- Find the file you just saved (PRELOAD (no drums)) and click on ADD.

- Now click on the red button next to PRELOAD.KSC in order to deselect it and click on the same button next to PRELOAD (no drums).KSC to select it.

- Click on the AUTO-LOAD NOW button near the bottom-right

 

Now you've freed up RAM for more user samples and your Kronos will boot without the drums until you change it back.

 

Busch.

[burningbusch]

REVIEW OF KRONOS OS UPDATES

Version 2.0

 

New features

KRONOS system version 2.0 includes a number of new features, as listed below.

User Sample Banks

User Sample Banks bring the benefits of Korg's EXs to your own custom sample libraries:

* Load & play gigabytes of your custom or converted samples, using Virtual Memory

* Create subsets of banks, and mix and match parts of different banks, withoutduplicating samples on disk

* Easily share sounds with friends and collaborators

* New, improved conversion of Akai and SoundFont 2.0 libraries

 

Second Internal SSD support

The KRONOS now supports installation of a second internal SSD, for more storage of samples, audio tracks, and program data.

* Supports blazing-fast, road-ready SATA SSDs

* Installation by authorized service centers only

* Contact your Korg Distributor for details on purchase and installation

 

USB Ethernet support

The KRONOS now supports USB Ethernet adaptors for fast, easy file transfer with personal computers.

* Back up files to your computer, transfer samples to the KRONOS, and organize and rename files and directories on the KRONOS internal disks

* Connect via off-the-shelf USB Ethernet adaptors (see manuals for list of supported devices)

* Uses industry-standard ftp, for universal support of all modern operating systems

 

Improved Akai and SoundFont 2.0 import

Import of Akai and SoundFont 2.0 libraries has been improved in various ways. Mostnotably:

* Up to 16 stereo velocity zones are now supported within a single HD‐1 Program

* Increased compatibility with variations in SoundFont 2.0 formatting and naming

* Enhanced support for SoundFont 2.0 synthesis parameters

 

KRONOS v2 Editor and Plug-In Editor

 

Version 1.6

 

Uninstall EXs

System Version 1.6.0 adds a new "Uninstall EXs" page menu command in the P6: Options info page in Global mode. It will uninstall selected EXs data from the internal hard drive.

You can use this command to remove demo mode EXs data, for example, if you need more space on the internal hard drive. This EXs data can then be re-installed at any time.

1. Select the desired EXs option at the Installed Option list in P6: Options Info page in Global mode.

2. Touch "Uninstall EXs" to open the dialog box.

3. Touch OK to confirm and execute the Uninstall EXs command, or press the Cancel button to cancel the operation.

4. After uninstalling the EXs data, a confirmation message will appear:EXs (number and title) sample data deleted Related PCG, KSC, etc. may remain; delete manually if desired.

5. Press OK to close this confirmation window.

6. As required, delete remaining folders and files in Disk mode.

 

Version 1.5

 

7 more User Banks each of Programs, Wave Sequences and Drum Kits, labeled USER‐AA through USER‐GG.

The maximum number of RAM Multisamples has been increased from 1,000 to 4,000, and the maximum numbers of RAM Samples and Multisample Indexes have each been increased from 4,000 to 16,000.

Support for connecting USB MIDI class‐compliant controllers directly to the KRONOS.

Installation of an additional 1GB of RAM is now supported, and can be performed at any authorized Korg service center. This approximately doubles the maximum available sample RAM, up to about 2 GB.

 

Busch.

[allan_evett]

Thanks, Busch ! That will help a lot in freeing up sample RAM. I also plan to pick up an additional 1G of RAM. I would guess that's fairly easy to self-install. Will search Korg.com for a list of compatible RAM sticks, and instructions for installation; if you happen to have available documentation for that, to post here, that would be cool too.

 

Two other questions, seemingly easy, but didn't see the answer in the manuals, or in the updates notes:

1). When loading the Mark V Rhodes (or any other sample / Program set, for that matter) from a separate drive, computer, etc., how does one move that into the Internal SSD (presumably for setting up as part of a Preload file). When I attempt to load the Mark V Rhodes from an external source, the Kronos wants to place it in Sample RAM. How does one bypass the Sample RAM and get 3rd party samples / Progams into the Internal SSD ? I could see having to load into Sample RAM first, especially as user samples had to initially fit within available Sample RAM for playing. But now with streaming of user samples supported there must be a way to get user / 3rd party samples directly into the SSD.

 

2). Extra Programs banks, that's great. Not at my Kronos at the moment, but guessing those are accessed by a double, button press, or holding two buttons ?

 

 

[Melodialworks]

Extra Programs banks, that's great. Not at my Kronos at the moment, but guessing those are accessed by a double, button press, or holding two buttons ?

 

7 more User Banks each of Programs, Wave Sequences and Drum Kits, labeled USER-AA through USER-GG. Program Banks are easily accessed from the front-panel hardware by pressing both the INT and USER buttons simultaneously. For instance, to select USER-DD, press both INT-D and USER-D.

[allan_evett]

Thanks, Melodialworks. I suspected it might be something like that; just was away from my workspace today, where the Kronos is based..

 

[burningbusch]

LOADING USER SAMPLES AND PROGRAMS

Often when you download a user samples library for the Kronos it comes with instructions detailing how it should be loaded, but that's not always the case. I thought it would be helpful to examine the files that come with a typical download and explain the function fo the files a little.

 

Example files: If you downloaded the CP80b.zip posted above you would find the following files:

 

CP80b (folder)

CP80b.PCG

CP80b.KSC

CP80b_UserBank.KSC

 

You should have unzipped these files and copied them to a folder on the SSD of your Kronos.

 

- CP80 (folder) contains all of the samples. You shouldn't have to deal with this folder at all.

- CP80b.PCG contains the Programs. You will be loading this file. PCG BTW stands for Programs, Combis and Global.

- CP80b.KSC This is the old version of the KSC. It will load everything into RAM. You typically don't need to worry about this file, but if you did want to go in and make changes to the actual samples/multisamples then you would use it. Editing of the samples/multisamples must be done in RAM.

- CP80b_UserBank.KSC This is the new version of the KSC file format that supports VMT (streaming from SSD of user samples). You will want to load this file.

 

So the two important files are CP80b.PCG and CP80b_UserBank.KSC.

 

LOADING _USERBANK.KSC

 

http://www.purgatorycreek.com/downloads/KSCLoad.jpg

 

To load the UserBank.KSC do the following:

- Go to DISK and find the _UserBank.KSC for the library, e.g. CP80b_UserBank.KSC

- Click on the LOAD button near the bottom right. You will see an information screen similar to the one above.

- In the KSC ALLOCATION section you have three choices. I'll go through each of them in more detail.

 

• APPEND: will simply add CP80b_UserBank.KSC to any samples that are in RAM or used by EXS or other UserBanks. If you have enough available RAM, this is probably what you want to do.
  
• CLEAR SAMPLE MODE DATA: This is a very useful option if you've converted, for example, a soundfont into the Kronos. When the Kronos does the conversion, all the samples are in RAM. When you save the sample data a _UserBank.KSC is created. Now when you load the UserBank (streaming version) of the KSC you will want to clear out the samples from this library that are currently in RAM. This option only removes samples in the sampling area and does not touch the EXs like those loaded in PRELOAD.
  
• CLEAR ALL: This does what you would expect. It clears EVERYTHING out the sample area as well as any EXs libraries that are loaded. You would possibly use this option if you were loading in a very large KSC--maybe something that you would use instead of PRELOAD.
  

- Next is the LOAD METHOD FOR KSCs AND USER SAMPLE BANKS. Generally you will just want to keep this at the KSC SETTING. You can flip through the other options, RAM and VIRTUAL MEMORY and see the impact of the two methods on the memory required. Typically KSC SETTING and VIRTUAL MEMORY are the same thing.

- Press OK to LOAD.

 

LOADING THE PCG FILE

 

Now let's take a look at the CP80b.PCG file. Before actually loading the file it's often useful to do a little investigation before hand.

 

- With PC80b.PCG selected, press on the OPEN button at the bottom. It will show a folder called PROGRAMS.

- Again press the OPEN button. It now says BANK U-G. Remember this, U-G. When I saved this file on my Kronos, it was in Bank U-G.

- Press the OPEN button one more time. Now you can see a list of all the programs in the bank and what's really cool is you can audition them right from here. Just select the program and you can play it. You can even load individual programs and save them to specific program slots.

- Let's back out of this by hitting the UP button three times. You should be back to CP80b.PCG.

- With PC80b.PCG selected click on the LOAD button. You will see a dialog box similar to the one below which was pulled from the manual.

- Ignore the top options (you've already loaded the .KSC file) and instead look at the .PCG CONTENTS. It has a couple of options.

• ALL: All will take any and all program, combi and global banks and load them into the exact location(s) they were saved to. This might or might not be what you want to happen. We know from investigating the PCG file above, that I had saved it to Bank U-G. If you would choose ALL now, it would load and overwrite everything in your U-G bank.
  
• SPECIFIC BANK: If instead you click on the arrow (or use the value dial) you will get a list of all the program banks. Using this option you will want to select BANK U-G. A TO: field now is selectable to the right and you can choose any destination bank. This option allows you to store the bank anywhere you'd like, but you must properly choose the source bank (U-G in our example).
  

- Click on the OK button.

 

http://www.purgatorycreek.com/downloads/PCGLoad.jpg

Now you're Programs and Samples for this library are loaded. The Programs are non-volatile (you won't have to loaded them each time). The KSC will need to be loaded each time you start up the Kronos, but you can add it to the KSC AUTO-LOAD detailed in the earlier post.

 

Busch.

[burningbusch]

Thanks, Busch ! That will help a lot in freeing up sample RAM. I also plan to pick up an additional 1G of RAM. I would guess that's fairly easy to self-install. Will search Korg.com for a list of compatible RAM sticks, and instructions for installation; if you happen to have available documentation for that, to post here, that would be cool too.

 

Two other questions, seemingly easy, but didn't see the answer in the manuals, or in the updates notes:

1). When loading the Mark V Rhodes (or any other sample / Program set, for that matter) from a separate drive, computer, etc., how does one move that into the Internal SSD (presumably for setting up as part of a Preload file). When I attempt to load the Mark V Rhodes from an external source, the Kronos wants to place it in Sample RAM. How does one bypass the Sample RAM and get 3rd party samples / Progams into the Internal SSD ? I could see having to load into Sample RAM first, especially as user samples had to initially fit within available Sample RAM for playing. But now with streaming of user samples supported there must be a way to get user / 3rd party samples directly into the SSD.

 

2). Extra Programs banks, that's great. Not at my Kronos at the moment, but guessing those are accessed by a double, button press, or holding two buttons ?

 

 

Hopefully I answered this in the above posts. BTW, I'm giving all this detail as I'll probably just place these in the blog as well.

 

Busch.

[J. Dan]

Thanks, that clears up how to do the streaming samples. Is there any benefit to doing it the old way (preloading into RAM) over streaming?

[burningbusch]

Thanks, that clears up how to do the streaming samples. Is there any benefit to doing it the old way (preloading into RAM) over streaming?

 

None that I can think. VMT (streaming) loads faster and uses less RAM. It works flawlessly. It's the best technology for working with samples.

 

Busch.

[allan_evett]

Thanks, Busch ! That will help a lot in freeing up sample RAM. I also plan to pick up an additional 1G of RAM. I would guess that's fairly easy to self-install. Will search Korg.com for a list of compatible RAM sticks, and instructions for installation; if you happen to have available documentation for that, to post here, that would be cool too.

 

Two other questions, seemingly easy, but didn't see the answer in the manuals, or in the updates notes:

1). When loading the Mark V Rhodes (or any other sample / Program set, for that matter) from a separate drive, computer, etc., how does one move that into the Internal SSD (presumably for setting up as part of a Preload file). When I attempt to load the Mark V Rhodes from an external source, the Kronos wants to place it in Sample RAM. How does one bypass the Sample RAM and get 3rd party samples / Progams into the Internal SSD ? I could see having to load into Sample RAM first, especially as user samples had to initially fit within available Sample RAM for playing. But now with streaming of user samples supported there must be a way to get user / 3rd party samples directly into the SSD.

 

2). Extra Programs banks, that's great. Not at my Kronos at the moment, but guessing those are accessed by a double, button press, or holding two buttons ?

 

 

Hopefully I answered this in the above posts. BTW, I'm giving all this detail as I'll probably just place these in the blog as well.

 

Busch.

 

 

Yes; thanks much !

 

Re, below:

 

Example files: If you downloaded the CP80b.zip posted above you would find the following files:

 

CP80b (folder)

CP80b.PCG

CP80b.KSC

CP80b_UserBank.KSC

 

You should have unzipped these files and copied them to a folder on the SSD of your Kronos.

 

Haven't tried that yet, but guessing that I simply create a folder in the SSD, name it, then place the files there. Feel like I'm in the freshman class, "Kronos For Dummies, 101", though .

 

Next project: after getting 1G additional RAM for the Kronos (any particular recommendations, or warnings would be great), installing that, then working with the sound files I've downloaded (Mark V, etc.) is figuring out how the particulars of getting the S700 Grands into my Kronos; still have the files I downloaded from Yamaha as part of the free, 500 MB sample/sound library for my Motif XF - now sold. If that doesn't work, sample extaction-wise, I should still have the Yamaha Loyalty CD-ROM that has the S700 samples/Voices for XS somewhere in the workspace. Having the S700 pianos in the Kronos would give me a best of both worlds scenario - reproducing my still favorite live piano - from the S90ES - with the Kronos.

 

After that, sampling my gargantuan 'clavitar' Performance directly from the XV-5080 would be cool....