From ccmacdon@rogers.com Wed Dec 28 10:54:56 2011
Subject:Re: My Hammond SK1 saga is over!

Brian, I hear you buddy.. I've had a lot of trouble trying to find the right all-in-one keyboard, and it's a struggle deciding what is best..

I decided on the 61 note Kronos because it gives me the flexibility of using it by itself for small gigs when I don't have a lot of room, or I can simply use a two tier stand and add an 88 note weighted controller for pianos and a second keyboard when I have room.

I also want to provide a quick update regarding the sound.. I said in my previous note that in listening to the factory patches I thought they were kind of rinky-dinky and cheesy... well I have to correct that statement.. I just plugged the Kronos into my QSC K10's and holy crap this thing sounds great.

All of a sudden the bottom is right there and it was booming like crazy on the organ patch I've been working on, so I had to go back and re-EQ my organ patch to reduce/remove the extra bass I added. When I listened to the Kronos at the music store a few months ago, I was listening through some small studio monitors, and when I first got my Kronos home yesterday I was also listening through my studio monitors (and using a brand new audio interface).. and neither of these monitors were doing justice to the bottom end of this Kronos..
The organ patches are sounding much better through my QSC K10's and now it's just a matter of a bit more tweaking and I expect to have a great sounding organ!

When I was struggling with deciding on a keyboard to get I organized the various options into four categories(these are Canadian Prices):

1. Under $1000 - laptop/VST/Audio Interface/Controller option - great sound, but there's lot's that can go wrong, lot's of extra cables, and power chords and audio interfaces, laptop stands etc. I know that lots of guys are loving VB3 and it's working very reliably for them in gig situations, but for me is just seems a bit on the messy side (I'm looking for simple set up/tear downs). That said I may yet do this!

2. $1000-$1500 - Entry level workstations like the Yamaha MOx8, Korg M50, Kurzweil PC3 series etc.. great sounds but typically no drawbar organ. Kurzweil PC3 series is the exception in this price range because it has the KB3 mode and mixer/fader style drawbars.

3. $1500-$2250 - you can find a lot of "do it all" keyboards designed to provide bread and butter keyboard sounds, Korg SV1, Hammond SK1, Roland V-Combo, Various NORD products, and at this price point you typically get drawbars (or buttons) and good hammond sound, good piano, and good EP's but for the most part that's it, and beyond that the extra voices are kind of cheesy and medeocre(unless of course you're into "JUMP" synth sounds). So, on these keyboards you can get drawbars and good hammond sound but to do so it seems to me that you have to make a huge sacrifice in the area of extra voices (when compared to even the entry level workstations).

4. >$2250 - higher end workstations - motif, Nord stage 2, Kronos, Phantom etc.. While these have a huge sound libraries and tons of functionality, including the ability to import samples and massage sounds for studio and live performance, there's only a couple of options that allow drawbar organ control... the Kronos (CX3 mode + mixer/faders) and the Nord Stage, primarily.

So on one hand there seems to be a bunch of dedicated hammond clones that provide drawbars, but generally none or limited extra voices, and on the other hand there are workstations (high and low end) that provide huge libraries and functionality but no way to shape or control with the hammond drawbars. However there are some workstations that are in the middle... Kurzweil PC3 series on the low $$ end, that has KB3 mode and lot's of extra high quality voices, and there is the Korg Kronos on the high end , and both of these have a tonewheel mode (KB3 and CX3), they allow for drawbar control through the use of their mixer/faders, and they allow easy control of other typical organ parameters (C/V persussion etc.)

For me I wanted the best of both worlds.. great hammond sound with drawbar control, and great other sounds, without compromise. I ultimately chose the Kronos, because I wanted it's superb Pianos, and all the functionality that these 9 synth engines can provide, and bottom line, I got all of that for only $500 more than the SK1, AND the KRONOS is heads and shoulders above any of the other high end workstations at this point.

I hope providing my rationale helps you make your decision, and I don't mean that you have to pick a Kronos, this was just my way of organizing the options, and perhaps this will be of benefit to you Brian!!

Craig

--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Fuller" wrote: