61-note Keyboard Synthesizer Workstation with Semi-weighted Keybed, Solid-state Internal Drive, 8" Color TouchView Display, 4-way Joystick, Ribbon Controller, and 9 Sound Engines. One Workstation, Nine Generations of Korg Sound
The Kronos is back and better than ever. For starters, its got a beautiful sleek new look with wood side panels that give it class and sophistication. And with an Enhanced SGX-2 Grand piano engine, a massive library of top quality sounds, a Natural Touch semi-weighted action keyboard and a complete suite of performance and production tools, the Kronos is one for the professional and the keen amateur alike.
Massive Sound Library
Before looking at any of the bells, whistles and awesome technology on a new keyboard, the first thing on most players’ minds is “does it have a good piano sound”. Kronos has always delivered on this front, sampling some of the top grade pianos for a range of light and darker tones.
The new Kronos now has an enhanced SGX-2 Grand piano sound engine, that not only enhances the original pianos with Sympathetic String Resonance and Una Corda tones, but adds a whole new piano tone. The Berlin Grand offers a resonant piano with fantastic depth for passion filled performances.
The Kronos is not just about the pianos though. This workstation comes with over 21GB of preset sounds and 9 distinct sound engines so that you can process your own sounds and easily make changes and tweak your tone.
Some of the presets available to you are careful recreations of signature keyboard sounds from classic songs that you can use as is, or provide a basis that you can transform into something completely new. The other presets are some fantastic standard sounds that professionals use regularly. Whatever sound you’re looking for, the Kronos has something for you!
Gorgeous Touch Screen Display
To help you navigate the immense range of powerful features, the Kronos includes an enormous eight-inch (800 x 600pixel) SVGA colour Touch View Display. This display is the hub that gives access to all the different features on the Kronos, however it’s nice and easy to navigate. You can simply select a sound or choose a parameter with the touch of a finger, but with the enhanced touch-drag ability allows more detailed control of parameters without having to navigate through unnecessary menus and controls.
You want to have all your favourite parameters at the touch of your fingers and this fantastic display gives you all the control you need, making in-depth parameters available to all and the technology won’t affect your creative flow.
Designed for the Gigging Musician
The Kronos utilises an innovative set list mode that organises all of the resources you need for a song or even a complete set. You can instantly call up the needed preset, combination or sequence whatever mode you are in. There’s a comprehensive 9 band eq, colour options to help navigate, and you can even add performance notes to help you get through the set.
Designed for the Creative musician
In addition to a powerful library of gig ready sounds, the Kronos is also equipped with a number of valuable tools to transform your musical ideas to a complete composition. This includes a 16 track midi sequencer/audio recorder, drum patterns that you can bring out in an instant and an open sampling system to record pretty much anything around you for creative tracks.
Maybe one of the most innovative and powerful creative features on the Kronos however is the Karma engine. First introduced on Korg’s Karma workstation in 2002, this revolutionary algorithmic music technology reads the notes and chords you play and transforms your basic harmony and melody into full blown backing tracks with sophisticated phrases and full instrumentation. You also get a series of knobs, sliders and switches to help get the exact performance you’re looking for and much, much more!
Since it’s inception, the Karma technology has continued to develop and innovate, and now has Wave-sequencing, note mapping and 8 Scenes per layer. Certain instruments that you always found hard to recreate, like the glissando of a harp or rhythmic strumming of a guitar are now made easy with this fantastic technology. It’s not only great fun, it’s incredibly useful for professional musicians who want realistic and full sounding keyboard parts for their performances, and opens the doors to a completely new way of composing and performing.
Here's what Korg Say about the Kronos
Created by KORG to satisfy today’s most demanding, accomplished performers and producers—as well as tomorrow’s visionary leaders—KRONOS embodies over 50 years of artistic vision and production expertise. With nine distinct synthesis engines and a complete suite of performance and productions tools, KRONOS is simply the most versatile synthesizer ever made.
