Korg Kronos 88 Synthesizer Workstation, 88-Key

Product Review:

I upgraded to the Kronos 88 from my trusty Roland RD600 with JV-1010 expansion module rig when my bandmates started complaining about the time it was taking me to change setups between songs (I'm in a "classic rock" band). This was my first experience with a keyboard workstation after years with what was basically a digital piano with a lot of extra voices, and even after several months, I'm still just getting my feet wet with what it can do. But the single best feature, and what sold me as a regularly gigging musician, was the Set List feature. With several hours of initial setup, I've programmed all the necessary voicings (with effects and keyboard splits as needed) for each song in the band's repertoire into a master set list. Now it just takes me an hour or so prior to each gig to copy and paste each song's full setup into a separate set list for that gig. Come time to perform, I simply step through the entire set list in order using the well-lit touchscreen (no more fiddling with a flashlight on a darkened stage trying to read the setup parameters for the next song and then find all the buttons, knobs, and sliders needed to prep the rig and be ready to play. Other things I like about the Kronos 88 include the feel of the fully hammer-weighted keys (I'd still give a slight edge to the Roland key touch, but the Kronos is definitely playable). The piano sounds are very nice and realistic, and you even have the option of emulating the difference in sound between the piano lid closed, fully open, or anywhere in between. Though I should note that I also seriously tried the Yamaha Motif-8 and actually found it's piano sounds slightly better than the Kronos - but the Kronos is still quite good and the other features like the very easy-to-use Set List made it the choice for me. The board is nothing if not versatile, and you have an amazing degree of control over your sounds. I've not even tried the sequencer for recording or sampling my own sounds yet, but it's nice to know they're available when I'm ready to learn it. I do have a few minor beefs. The full users manual is only available on the accompanying DVD disk (it does come with a printed "quick start" guide, which is somewhat of an inconvenience. For folks with their board set up in their studio with their laptop by their side in order to refer to the manual when needed, I guess it wouldn't be a big deal, but it would be better for me if it were all printed so I could refer to it wherever I and my board happened to be (I have printed out sections from it as I've needed them). As other reviewers have noted, you should definitely plan on spending the time viewing the intro video with your board set up as soon as you get it home. It will save you some hours of frustration. Other minor gripes are that the joystick for modulating effects real-time is too loose and thus easily bumped out of position by your arm or sleeve when selecting buttons in the middle of a performance. I've had a few times in the middle of performing where an expected sound just wasn't there, only to find I'd inadvertently joggled the joystick. Korg would be well advised to stiffen the resistance on the joystick movement. Another gripe is the necessity, when creating a new set list, of copying and pasting each song from one setlist to another one at a time, stopping to write the new set list each time (i.e. if you just paste it into the new list and then go back to your master list without writing the new one anew, you lose your changes). It would be so much faster if it would remember the pasted/inserted songs in the new set list for as long as I had the board turned on and just let me write the new set list once I was done with all the changes. And like many high-tech products, I ended up paying for features I didn't want or need, such as the Karma self-generating accompianiment feature, which they tout highly and is a fun toy, but I can't see using either in performance or recording. Maybe if I'm ever trying to do a gig as a one-man band... But those are pretty minor complaints. All in all I'm quite pleased with the playability, sounds, and above all, the convenience the Kronos 88 offers while performing.