My primary objective of attending NAMM this year was to see and hear Korg’s new Workstation – the KRONOS in action, check out the specs of Korg’s new Professional Arranger – the Pa3X and capture Martin Harris playing live on the Yamaha Tyros4.
Korg played up the hype and anticipation on the unveiling of the KRONOS with their clever teaser video.
Their ad campaign was so successful that it generated over 91,500 views and 1,500 responses at Korg Forums.
http://tinyurl.com/6jbcksgThe Korg booth was my first stop on Thursday morning, the opening day of NAMM.
I was beyond amazed and speechless at Korg’s landmark achievement. The brilliant sound designers under the guidance of Dan Phillips, Product Manager of Korg Research and Development, had created pure audio magic, all under a tight lid of total secrecy.
This was Korg’s moment. They knew they had something special and cut no corners in showcasing this extraordinary machine, even to the point of creating a sound proof enclosed booth to demo the product.
This was a brilliant move.
From the moment Steve McNally hit the keys, I could tell it evolved from the sonic purity of the OASYS. As Steve went on to demo each of the nine Synth Engines, you could tell this was every bit an OASYS plus much more. Same sparkling quality, same lush pads, same monstrous combinations that makes you feel you are listening to a full orchestra.
Steve, as always is an excellent product demonstrator. His presentations are always so informative and amusing to watch. The viewers sat through the 30-minute demo with stunned looks on their faces.
The final look of disbelief came at the end when it was announced that the 88-key version would carry an MAP of $3799.
This was less than half the price of the OASYS 88 when it was introduced 6 year ago.
The stock KRONOS carries all of the OASYS sound engines, has a redesigned computer connectivity, and can stream gigabyte-sized samples directly from its internal 30GB solid-state hard drive. Boot up time is down to a mere few seconds.
Nothing in the synth landscape can compete with the Korg KRONOS at present.
In a masterstroke of genius, Dan Phillips and his team has left the competition in the dust by designing a more capable and versatile OASYS for the masses.
At this point in time, it is pointless to purchase a Yamaha MOTIF XF or a Roland Fantom G8.
Korg has won this round in the Workstation battle. This synthesizer will sell like hot cakes just based on the factory sounds alone.
Specs do not say much, but for someone interested, here they are:
http://tinyurl.com/6j5zef3I sat through several demos of the KRONOS presented by Rick Formidoni, Jack Hotop and Jordan Rudess.
Jordan improvised three pieces just by doodling on 3 combinations and adding Karma Generated Effects. He mentioned how the KRONOS inspired him every time he selected a program or combination and allowed the Karma Sequences to add body to his own rendering.
I was lucky enough to sit on the front row, equidistant between the speakers and capture Jordan’s improvisations on my Canon M30. I sent them to my buddy Scott to have a listen. The sound quality is poor, but you can tell that Jordan was having a blast.
Forget the specs. This is what an instrument should do. It should inspire you and help unleash your creativity. It should give you a reason to wake up in the morning and lay your hands on the keys conforming your pride as a musician/hobbyist…hopefully without breaking your bank account!
The Korg KRONOS delivers all of that in spades.
I asked Dan about the operating system. He mentioned it is based on a bare bones LINUX core, just like the OASYS. He wanted to use the same 640x480 resolution touch screen as the OASYS, but surprisingly the higher resolution 800x600 display panels were cheaper to buy.
Dan is a down to earth humble gentleman. He is always approachable and friendly on Korg Forums and I told him that he should be rightfully proud for his best creation at Korg USA.
If any of you are looking for a Workstation, the Korg KRONOS is the way to go, and our buddy Frank Ventresca will offer you the best deal. There is a reason why Frank is the number one Yamaha dealer in the US. I bet he will do the same with Korg.
Frank was sitting behind me through the demos and kept on commenting on how wonderful the KRONOS sounded.
On Friday, I walked over to the Yamaha booth at the Marriot Ballroom.
Yamaha did something special this year. They decided to broadcast all their product demos live on the Internet in HD. They had cameras mounted on the ceilings all over the place. This turned out be a bit hit, as thousands of Internet viewers got to see the action as it happened, live, all over the world.
Scott gave me hourly updates of these product demos and wanted to make sure I got to capture Peter Baartmans and Martin Harris on the Tyros4.
Martin Harris is the brains behind the technology and sounds inside the Tyros line of Professional Arrangers. Martin knows this instrument inside out and nobody tops him when it comes to showcasing the Tyros. He makes his demos look deceptively simple and covers a wide genre of music from classical, country, folk, pop, jazz, dance…you name it, and Martin will play it for you.
Martin and Peter are irreplaceable assets to Yamaha and provide an industry benchmark on how a professional demo should be conducted.
Martin has taken the Yamaha Tyros through 4 iterations. His latest effort is by far the best. The Tyros 4 is one of the finest and most versatile keyboards one can buy that is equally suited in a studio or a stage. The natural acoustic sounds on the Tyros 4 rival those found on the Motif Workstations and the finely crafted Yamaha Styles are the best in the industry.
I was just as eager as Scott to listen to Peter and Martin perform their magic.
I got much more than I bargained for!
Peter began to demo the new Yamaha Clavinova CLP480. The Clavinova label has been dropped. It is now called Yamaha CLP480. This model has the best piano sample of any CLP series and it showed. Peter excels when it comes to playing Jazz.
Peter then walked over and sat to play the Yamaha Tyros 4. This was an unplanned demo all in the spirit of having a good time. Peter said he was going to do something special and plugged in his personal USB thumb drive to call up some custom registrations.
He sounded fabulous! Indeed, his performance caught the attention of Jazz Legend Keith Jarrett who was just passing by with his entourage.
Peter did not realize at first, that Keith was standing behind his shoulders watching him jam on the Tyros 4.
As Peter played on, Keith joined him playing the upper registers. Peter turned around and immediately recognized whom he was and was delighted beyond words. Keith got in the mood and sat at the Tryos 4 and began improvising as Peter switched the sounds for him.
This was a truly magical moment to see a Keyboard Legend show up unexpected and wow the audience on his very first try at a new instrument. You could tell that Keith was having a good time and thoroughly immersed himself in jamming away with the presets. This was totally unrehearsed, and unplanned.
It was a delight to get a chance to watch a master player perform under the guidance of a skilled demonstrator.
Top of the line Professional Arrangers like the Yamaha Tyros 4 have blurred the line between traditional home organs and workstations. A gifted player like Keith will find himself equally at ease pulling up the DX7 preset on a Tyros 4 or a Yamaha DX7.
It was a shame that time was limited, as Martin’s scheduled performance was coming up at 4:30pm. The Yamaha reps pulled away Keith to showcase their acoustic pianos on the other end of the room while Martin got ready for his 30-minute demo.
The crowd followed Keith for his autographs. They all felt lucky to be at the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of this legend in action.
Martin’s demos are in a word outstanding. None of my videos do justice to the sonic clarity of the Tyros 4. Martin’s demos are a thrill ride as he takes you through decades of music. He always makes sure to include something for all ages. He ended his 30-minute presentation with a little Celtic music that he calls close to his heart and heritage.
It is hard to fight the feeling – I want this now – after watching Martin do his audio wizardry on the Tyros 4.
This brings me to the topic of the Korg Pa3X.
Korg decided not the showcase the Korg Pa3X in its full glory head to head with the Yamaha Tyros 4. They did not want the Pa3X to steal the thunder from the KRONOS, which they knew was a knockout product for 2011.
Korg knew they had a winner and were happy to capitalize on this moment. Their decision to market the 61-key KRONOS under $3000 effectively kills Roland and Yamaha’s Workstation market.
They let the Pa3X stand idle on a corner with no official demos. Curious onlookers were free to come up on stage and poke around.
Frank Ventresca took his turn playing some riffs. I asked Malcolm Doak to try out some presets. I caught a few minutes on tape. They are not worthy of posting. The stage monitors were too wimpy and not focused enough to drown the background noise from the show floor.
Still Malcolm did the best he could given the circumstances.
It would have been a whole different story if Malcolm or Steve were allowed to have just one demo session inside the enclosed booth along with the KRONOS.
Frank remarked that Korg will have an official product launch of the Pa3X at Musikmesse 2011 (April 6-9).
Indeed, if you go to
www.korgpa.com, you will not find any mention of the Pa3X yet.
In closing, I would like to say that I am happy to see the unveiling of the KRONOS – a truly amazing feat by Korg R&D. They have a killer workstation and just may repeat the success story of the Korg M1, which started all of this.
I was thrilled to watch Peter, and Martin do their magic on the Yamaha Tyros 4 with the surprise interlude by Keith Jarrett.
It gave me a feeling that it would not be too long before the line between Arrangers and Workstations dissolve completely to give birth to a new breed of instruments that simply inspire you, unleash your creativity, and entertain you friends and family both at home and or stage.
Come to think of it, what is the basic difference between an Arranger and a Workstation?
An Arranger assists your playing with ready to use fully orchestrated styles, albeit static, while Workstations allows you to jam along with Karma assisted sequences that are dynamically generated on the fly.
Here is a thought.
What if Korg decided to drop the Pa series after Pa3X and decided to make a unified instrument that had both dynamic Karma GEs and traditional Arranger Styles?
For arguments sake, let’s pretend that Korg comes out with a KRONOS2 with all the capabilities of the current KRONOS and adds the styles from the Pa3X. Let’s say they release this instrument in 2013 at a price point of $3000. Will anyone in their right mind bother buying a dedicated Workstation or an Arranger after this?
This would be another game changer for Korg. With one stroke they would capture both the high end Workstation and Professional Arranger market.
Yamaha could do the same with their Motif XF/Karma and Tyros 4 technology.
It is only a matter of time before this blending becomes a reality.
I see good times ahead for pro musicians and hobbyists alike.
Cheers,
Tapas
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