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Korg Krome 88 Key Synthesizer
Korg Krome 88 Review - 03/28/14 The Korg Krome 88 is an impressive keyboard.  It is packed with impressive sounds and its performance is better than anything else I’ve seen as this price point. When I was shopping for a keyboard I had a budget that I needed to stay within.  I was able to play many  different keyboards and took about two months to decide as I weighed my choices and decided which one would best suit my needs.  Just like any other job you need the right tool(s).  I selected the Krome because of the warm piano sounds and the very functional color LCD. I found the LCD to be very responsive and the control over mixing a layered sound together to be very easy even on the fly during a performance.  You can find many demos on YouTube but the sound quality you will hear will be subject to your computer speakers and would not do it justice. This is the YouTube video that convinced me to take a serious look at the Krome:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgpaeitOoV4. Let me say this, if you are a working musician and making lots of money then the Kronos X is the keyboard you want.  It has more  features and some of the patches are fatter than on the Krome.  For the average musician on a budget, such as myself, the Krome is a great keyboard at less than half the cost. If I had money to burn I would have a Kronos X and a Motif XF8 but that reality does not exist for me…yet! Back to the review. The Krome I bought is the 88 key version which has weighted keys and the 73 and 61 key version have semi-weighted keys. Since I was making this my main board which I would play a lot of piano I chose the 88 key. The Krome 88 has a very natural feel and is sensitive to your playing dynamic as one would expect. The piano sounds are very good for a keyboard in this price range, far better than Yamaha’s MOX8 in my opinion. The programmability of the Krome is amazing and  intimidating. I am not using a fraction of the features that this keyboard has, but I intend to. I have not had a reason or a chance to play with split keyboard or velocity patch layering. I have layered my own sounds to create my own custom patches and tweaked some of the presets for my tastes. This procedure is fairly easy and straight forward. The Krome gives you a lot of parameters you can tweak to  create exactly what you want. Some of the presets are not as good as I would have liked and needed some significant adjustment in  order to be useful. The solo cello sounds are lacking when compared to the earlier Triton series workstation and even more so when compared to some Yamaha keyboards in this same price range.  The organ sounds are very good but I was a little frustrated by the lack of control in the B3 patches when using the joystick to control a simulated Leslie sound. There may be a way to reprogram this but I  have not had a chance to work with it. On layered patches I was able to control the volume for each sound on the touch screen under the mixer tab very easily during a performance.  Being able to adjust this during a practice or performance quickly has been as great help when ideas on how to play songs are being hashed out.  Some of the other functions such as tone and velocity are not so easy to do on the fly but those are parameters you would not necessarily adjust during a performance anyway.  There are 4 control knobs that adjust various parts of sound shaping and effects in real-time.  For example if you wanted more chorus you can set a knob to control that effect.  These seam to work on a patch by patch basis as far as effects go and not globally. As I get more in depth in my usage of the board I will update this blog with more information. I am looking forward to playing with some velocity sensitive patches and seeing  what kind of added dynamics I can produce for live performances. In conclusion the Korg Krome 88 is a keyboard worthy of attention and your consideration when buying your next board.  The features and sound quality will not disappoint. When searching Google you will be able to find sights where others share the patches that they have programmed. 
Copyright © 2015 | All rights reserved. | RjjR Graphics Home Gk mb110
Korg Krome 88 Key Synthesizer
Korg Krome 88 Review - 03/28/14 The Korg Krome 88 is an impressive keyboard.  It is packed with impressive sounds and its performance is better than anything else I’ve seen as this price point. When I was shopping for a  keyboard I had a budget that I needed to stay within.  I was able to play many different keyboards and took about two months to decide as I weighed my choices and decided which one would  best suit my needs.  Just like any other job you need the right  tool(s).  I selected the Krome because of the warm piano sounds and the very functional color LCD. I found the LCD to be very  responsive and the control over mixing a layered sound together to be very easy even on the fly during a performance.  You can  find many demos on YouTube but the sound quality you will  hear will be subject to your computer speakers and would not  do it justice. This is the YouTube video that convinced me to take a serious look at the Krome:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgpaeitOoV4. Let me say this, if you are a working musician and making lots of money then the Kronos X is the keyboard you want.  It has more features and some of the patches are fatter than on the Krome.  For the average musician on a budget, such as myself, the  Krome is a great keyboard at less than half the cost. If I had  money to burn I would have a Kronos X and a Motif XF8 but that reality does not exist for me…yet! Back to the review. The Krome I bought is the 88 key version which has weighted keys and the 73 and 61 key version have semi-weighted keys. Since I was  making this my main board which I would play a lot of piano I  chose the 88 key. The Krome 88 has a very natural feel and is sensitive to your  playing dynamic as one would expect. The piano sounds are  very good for a keyboard in this price range, far better than  Yamaha’s MOX8 in my opinion. The programmability of the  Krome is amazing and intimidating. I am not using a fraction of the features that this keyboard has, but I intend to. I have not  had a reason or a chance to play with split keyboard or velocity patch layering. I have layered my own sounds to create my own custom patches and tweaked some of the presets for my tastes. This procedure is fairly easy and straight forward. The Krome  gives you a lot of parameters you can tweak to create exactly  what you want. Some of the presets are not as good as I would  have liked and needed some significant adjustment in order to be useful. The solo cello sounds are lacking when compared to the earlier Triton series workstation and even more so when  compared to some Yamaha keyboards in this same price range.  The organ sounds are very good but I was a little frustrated by  the lack of control in the B3 patches when using the joystick to  control a simulated Leslie sound. There may be a way to  reprogram this but I have not had a chance to work with it. On  layered patches I was able to control the volume for each sound on the touch screen under the mixer tab very easily during a  performance.  Being able to adjust this during a practice or  performance quickly has been as great help when ideas on how to play songs are being hashed out.  Some of the other functions such as tone and velocity are not so easy to do on the fly but  those are parameters you would not necessarily adjust during a performance anyway.  There are 4 control knobs that adjust  various parts of sound shaping and effects in real-time.  For  example if you wanted more chorus you can set a knob to  control that effect.  These seam to work on a patch by patch  basis as far as effects go and not globally. As I get more in depth in my usage of the board I will update this blog with more  information. I am looking forward to playing with some velocity sensitive patches and seeing what kind of added dynamics I can produce for live performances. In conclusion the Korg Krome 88 is a keyboard worthy of  attention and your consideration when buying your next board.  The features and sound quality will not disappoint. When  searching Google you will be able to find sights where others  share the patches that they have programmed.