Kronos 3 in November ?

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, TJ Cornish said:

The fact that Yamaha just released a new flagship workstation should put another nail in the coffin of the "workstations are dead" trope.

Yamaha has been recycling the same sounds and technology for so long they've spent more than a Weekend at Bernie's.  There's no such thing as dead with that company.😁😎

[AnotherScott]

3 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Yamahas has been recycling the same sounds and technology for so long they've spent more than a Weekend at Bernie's.  There's no such thing as dead with that company.😁😎

 

Meanwhile, I'd love to see them revisit and update what they did with the VL1. Too interesting to have been abandoned, and it would be good to see what could be done with that technology with the kind of cost-effective processing power available today.

[TJ Cornish]

31 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Yamaha has been recycling the same sounds and technology for so long they've spent more than a Weekend at Bernie's.  There's no such thing as dead with that company.😁😎

Every brand reuses sounds; the "workstations are dead" arguments are not about sounds, but about how "nobody uses workstations anymore so no companies will make them anymore". 

 

For the most part, sounds are good enough for me from any latest-gen flagship board. The things that pry money from my wallet are non-audio functions - more polyphony, more effects units, more control, more routing/programming/whatever. 

[TJ Cornish]

9 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

 

Meanwhile, I'd love to see them revisit and update what they did with the VL1. Too interesting to have been abandoned, and it would be good to see what could be done with that technology with the kind of cost-effective processing power available today.

I had a Yamaha EX5 for a couple years in the late '90's which was the first board to have the VL engine other than the VL1 I believe. It was a cool idea and I had a lot of fun with it, but boy was it underpowered. If you layered up a couple sounds and played a big 8 note chord, you could actually hear the arpeggiation as the processor struggled to play it. I transitioned to an XP-80 which had other problems, but like most Roland things I have used over the last 25 years, was a little boring but bullet proof.

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, TJ Cornish said:

Every brand reuses sounds; the "workstations are dead" arguments are not about sounds, but about how "nobody uses workstations anymore so no companies will make them anymore". 

Sure.  The big 3 manufacturers are still incorporating workstation features into some of their KB offerings. 

 

I believe the "workstation is dead" argument stems from the fact that most music producers use MPCs and DAWs nowadays.

 

As a hardware dinosaur, I would use a KB workstation as a sketchpad to mock up musical ideas i.e. roll tape.😎

[Ibarch]

We are starting to see an evolution of the workstation away from a machine that does everything in isolation to one that works in tandem with DAWs and other software. Look at the Fantom for example, with its integrated support of Ableton, Logic and Mainstage. 

 

I've just acquired a Fantom 08 and started to play with its integration to Ableton. It is very slick. Start Ableton, plug in the usb cable to the laptop, press the Daw Ctl button on Fantom and choose Ableton off the touchscreen and it is up and running. 

The Fantom touch screen has several dedicated views that are cut down versions of the Ableton session view, with 8 tracks visible on the Fantom screen at a time. Pressing a clip on the Fantom instantly selects it on the pc screen. Pressing the clip record button on the Fantom triggers recording exactly as does clicking the clip record on the pc screen. Audio or midi clips can be recorded. Recordings appear instantly on both screens. Audio is seamlessly transmitted over the USB cable. 

 

I can choose to use Fantom sounds by mapping the appropriate Midi channel in Ableton or I can use any VST or Ableton instrument and just send midi from the Fantom. 

 

Scrolling on either the PC or Fantom scrolls the view on the other. Transport controls work, sliders work, midi learn let's you map any controller, fadar, rotary switch, button etc to anything in Ableton. It is like using a midi controller keyboard on steroids - one with a fully connected touch screen.

 

It is storing everything in the Ableton project on the PC, it isn't using pattern storage in the Fantom sequencer. But it does look like you can trigger the sequences to record into Ableton whilst it is all synced. 

 

Another example, I can add a drum rack to an Ableton track and drop in one of the Ableton kits. This is the immediately playable from the Fantom drum pads (assuming fantom pads are in Note mode). Or alternatively I can select a Fantom drum kit on one of the Fantom zones, map a midi track in Ableton to the corresponding midi channel and I can now record the drums straight to a clip. So now I have both Ableton and Fantom drum kits to choose from. 

 

This direct support of DAWs and other software is where the Roland's workstation is moving. And from first impressions it makes a very powerful combination. Forget ideas of plugging in iPads etc. They are simply not relevant when you can drive a good part of the way on the workstation and complete the journey in your computer DAW. 

 

 

If Korg do bring out a new workstation any time, it would make a lot of sense if they chose to follow the same path. More than trying to recreate a DAW in a workstation or turning a workstation into a VST host. But then again, this is Korg. Who knows what they may or may not do. 

[analogika]

It was so weird to hear the Anderton’s review gushing over AWM2… I bought my SY77 new in 1990…

[Radagast]

1 hour ago, analogika said:

It was so weird to hear the Anderton’s review gushing over AWM2… I bought my SY77 new in 1990…

Are you in the right thread?

[analogika]

3 hours ago, Radagast said:

Are you in the right thread?

quote fail, sorry. 
 

was responding to ProfD’s comment about Yamaha recycling their sounds since the EX5 days

[Paul Woodward]

AWM2 has improved over the years, and I felt they were gushing more over the articulation in the sounds which was pretty good in some patches.

[stoken6]

20 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

Meanwhile, I'd love to see them revisit and update what they did with the VL1

Cannot. Upvote. Enough. This would work really well with poly-aftertouch and the kind of expressive keybeds we see on the Osmose.

 

We've got enough sampling, VA and FM synthesis to see us through to the next millennium.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[ProfD]

9 hours ago, analogika said:

was responding to ProfD’s comment about Yamaha recycling their sounds since the EX5 days

To be clear, Yamaha has been recycling sounds since the DX7 was introduced.🤣

 

Seriously, as mentioned, all of the manufacturers have been recycling their sounds. 

 

The *newer* KBs get an extra bell or whistle but nothing game-changing IMO.😎

[analogika]

Well, occasionally they lose basic functionality, like aftertouch. 

[DmitryKo]

Genos 2 it is.

 

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/contents/keyboards/your-next-masterpiece/index.html

2
YOUR NEXT MASTERPIECE
NOVEMBER 15TH 2023 – 6PM CET
Come discover the next generation of Yamaha workstations in a very special online event.

 

[Fleer]

Come. 
On. 

[scoopicman]

On 10/12/2023 at 8:00 AM, ProfD said:

To be clear, Yamaha has been recycling sounds since the DX7 was introduced.🤣

 

I still use DX/TX sounds.  Every time I hear a Taco Bell commercial, I get giddy.

 

 

On 10/12/2023 at 8:00 AM, ProfD said:

all of the manufacturers have been recycling their sounds. 

 

The *newer* KBs get an extra bell or whistle but nothing game-changing IMO.😎

 

I'm glad they do, as long as their sound libraries grow in size (which they do).  I like backwards compatibility, so that I can call up sequences from decades ago. 

 

I sold my SY77 for an SY99.  It had all the SY sounds, but ROM size was doubled.  My Fantom FA can play all my XP-50 sounds.  My Kronos can play my DX sounds, etc.  I was a little miffed that Kronos was not fully Triton compatible.  I had the Triton Classic & Triton Studio.  The latter, especially, had an amazing sound set, culled from the expansion cards.

 

Including most of the old libraries is good for me.  I just need to load in the Factory PCG, if I need those.  Most of my Kronos slots are filled with 3rd party samples, as pictured HERE.

 

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

I'd be more interested in a Pa6X with the Opsix engine added than a Kronos 3 😀

 

I just seem to get on better with the arranger keyboard paradigm for piecing songs together, vs. the workstation keyboard paradigm.   Speaking as an owner of a Korg M3 workstation, who resisted cajoling, teasing, and whatnot from fellow Korg owners to "upgrade" to a Kronos.   I do admit the KARMA function is fun to mess around with.

[analogika]

13 hours ago, scoopicman said:

I like backwards compatibility, so that I can call up sequences from decades ago. 

 

I sold my SY77 for an SY99.  It had all the SY sounds, but ROM size was doubled. 

That's kind of a bad example, though, because those came out at the same time. 
 

I know, because I wanted a 99 (not least for the Chick Corea endorsement), but could only afford a 77 (which is still with me). 
 

The 77/99 thing is just Yamaha naming boards of the same series by their tier in the product line (like the Motif EX6/7/8). 

[scoopicman]

1 hour ago, analogika said:

That's kind of a bad example, though, because those came out at the same time. 

 

Not true.  Just google the release dates.  SY77(1989), TG77 (1990), SY99 (1991).

 

i also know because of projects I worked on during those years.  I bought the SY77 brand new, in 1989.  I did my music for THE BLACK CRYSTAL on it.  THIS trailer was done entirely with the 77.

 

In 1991, the SY99 came out.  Not only did it contain backwards compatible SY77 ROM samples, but many of the sounds (like the acoustic guitar samples, etc.) were improved over the older SY77 samples.  I sold my SY77 after two years of use so I could get the 99, which I scored the movie, DEAD RIGHT on it.  Like most of the songs for that, THIS title song, Cloudscape, was done entirely on the 99.

 

[RABid]

For me the game changer for the Fantom is Mainstage control. No more reaching for the computer to change sounds. Glad I kept my M1 Air when I upgraded to a Pro. It is now going to be my experiment in integration. This is the setup I would want if playing live with a computer. With a Fantom you have an emergency backup if the computer goes down. I also don't mind recycled sounds. We still play old songs. People pay crazy prices for the keyboards that were used on those old songs. Why not just expand memory so you can keep the old plus get some new? It is a system that works. 

[analogika]

1 hour ago, scoopicman said:

 

Not true.  Just google the release dates.  SY77(1989), TG77 (1990), SY99 (1991).

 

i also know because of projects I worked on during those years.  I bought the SY77 brand new, in 1989.  I did my music for THE BLACK CRYSTAL on it.  THIS trailer was done entirely with the 77.

 

In 1991, the SY99 came out.  Not only did it contain backwards compatible SY77 ROM samples, but many of the sounds (like the acoustic guitar samples, etc.) were improved over the older SY77 samples.  I sold my SY77 after two years of use so I could get the 99, which I scored the movie, DEAD RIGHT on it.  Like most of the songs for that, THIS title song, Cloudscape, was done entirely on the 99.

 

Thanks for the correction. I thought I'd started looking in 1990, and both had been out at the same time — but looking through my invoices, it was 1991. 

Still, the SY99 was in no way a "successor" to the SY77 — it was very much the flagship of the SY/TG line, not a replacement for any of the models (especially the 22, 55, etc. that came later). 

[Radagast]

On 10/7/2023 at 9:19 PM, Fleer said:

So there was a mention by SudClaviers that both the Genos 2 and Kronos 3 would launch in November. Any more news on the latter?

So is anyone going to ask Sudclaviers where the Kronos 3 is?

[Finale]

Never believe anything sales people say. In this case, he achieved his goal : you remember the name of his store.

[TJ Cornish]

I played pretty much exclusively Korg from 2005 (OASYS) until 2021 (a couple Kronoses). Korg hasn’t been the same since they let JerryTheK go.

 

[AnotherScott]

7 hours ago, Radagast said:

So is anyone going to ask Sudclaviers where the Kronos 3 is?

 

They did not say a Kronos 3 was coming. That was someone's mis-reading of something they posted.