Actually I have the new Yamaha TYROS 5 (61 keys) and I plan more and more to buy the KORG KROME 73 keys as a second keyboard for my Tyros

The 2 demos are from Nhac Viet Company, I am a real fan
Listen to the sounds , really a good deal for a 1100 euros keyboard. !!!

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The Impressive KORG KROME sound demos

If a very realistic piano sample is extremely important to you (and also realistic e-pianos), then the Krome is definitely worth considering. However, in other sections, e.g. strings and brass, I was partly disappointed of it.
I tested the Krome in detail last year in a store and uploaded some detailed line-in recordings, e.g. this audio of the Krome string sounds:
http://youtu.be/HeBxV6HuOzo
The impressive sounding 3.8 GB of samples the Krome has are 90%dedicated to the pianos, so the rest is not spectacular.
I found that the M3XP (module) was more recommendable, especially its included brass/woodwinds expansion sounds. The M3XP expansion piano sounds nearly the same as the Krome although it only has 128MB of waveROM (the sound as such is absolutely the same; the smaller sample size of the M3XP piano is only noticeable if you play chromatic scales slowly and pay attention to 'jumps' in the timbre, or if you listen closely to the decay of a single tone.)
You should also test if you are happy with the keybed; some users complain that the black keys cannot be pressed down easily enough in certain positions, I didn't feel it was a big issue when I tested it.

I am a big fan of the korg sound myself, i own a kronos and would not want to miss it for any money in the world. The krome has the same hd engine as the kronos with a lot of the same samples..

Korg instruments have great sounding pianos, epianios, organs, synths and synthpads and electrical guitars.. Strings and acoustic guitars are good and can be tweaked in any which way you want, but.....

Acoustical instruments like saxaphoness, trumpets, trombones, flutes are in my opinion way beyound yamaha and roland if you want to play them naturally in a live setting... And i dont see a huge investment from Korg either, as most pro musicians realise that for recording purposes its better to get the real deal...

Unfortunately, I never thought the Korg piano sounds were very good, but that's just an opinion from a deaf old codger. The other sounds didn't impress me at all. I guess for some kids in a club situation where they were really into distorted and weird sounds it would be a good buy, though.

Gary

Gary,
as much as I like and respect you as a person and human being in general, I have come to the conclusion that asking your opinion about how a given instrument sounds is pointless: your bias towards Yamaha is rivaled only by Henni's bias towards Ketron or Fran's bias towards Roland.
Respectfully,
Andrea

This looks like a great organ package for Kronos users, like Dreamer and Bachus...have you guys tried this?

http://www.korg.com/krs06

Wonder if it is destined to work it's way down to the Krome in a slightly different form, or can that instrument be set up the same way?

Ian

I guess it isn't compatible as the Kronos has 9 different sound engines and you need the "CX-3" engine for this package; the Krome has one sample-based engine.

Generally, I had a tough choice between the Yamaha MOX and the Korg Krome last year, as the pianos of the Krome were definitely more realistic, and I also liked some solo brass sounds and especially church organs better. Regarding strings, brass sections and guitars, the MOX was clearly better IMO. But all in all, both instruments are in the same league. Now, the new MOXF is much more interesting due to its 1 GB flash board.

Ian,

yes, this expansion pack comes free with the latest Kronos OS upgrade and has had rave reviews by many Kronos users, who claim that finally they can play their favorite Keith Emerson or Jon Lord solos with exactly the same sound.
Unfortunately the pack is not compatible with the Krome because it lacks the CX-3 engine, like Rosetree wrote.
Here is the relative thread on Korg Forums:

KRS-06 Keith Emerson presets hit the nail

and here are a few examples recorded by a Kronos user (canadian like you... )

Craig MacDonald plays the KRS-06

I always thought Korg's organs were pretty top notch way back in day of the old pre-digital original BX-3/CX-3. In fact a buddy of mine still uses a BX-3 (double manual), the wood cabinet is all scarred and scratched, but it sounds terrific...the drawbars are excellent...it's only weakness was the internal rotary speaker effect, although it was considered pretty good in it's day...he runs his through a Neo-Ventilator rotary sim, and it sounds every bit as good as the newest clonewheels...even the overdrive is great.

Emerson has been a Korg endorser for a long time...I think he's now using an Oasys or Kronos as his main 'board.

It is nice to see the new CX-3 engine supported, as the new type CX-3 organ itself was discontinued.

Maybe they will develop more organ patches for the Krome, based on those vintage sounds made for the Kronos.

Ian

Andrea, I never like Yamaha's grand piano either - that's why I took the time to create one from a GM piano and posted it for others to use. It has been downloaded thousands upon thousands of time over the past decade, and most everyone prefers it over Yamaha's default piano voices. And, if you re-read my post, I didn't mention Yamaha at all. Like I said, I really never liked Yamaha's default piano sounds.

From most of the demos I've recently heard, the piano sounds ALL seem to have been tweaked and tuned quite a bit. When I had the opportunity to get my hands on the actual keyboards themselves, the piano sounds have all been, at least to me, OOTB, somewhat synthetic or thin sounding. Just the opinion of a deaf, old codger that plays an arranger keyboard nearly every day of the week for a living.

Cheers,

Gary

I tried a Korg Krome out recently at my local Guitar Center. The sounds were great, I liked them a lot. But what scared me off was that 2 keys had already gone dead. It worried me that it may not be up to long term gigging if it starts to fail as a store demo.

I also had the same impression on the keybed. I thought it was very cheaply made. And the Kranos has had lot of keybed problems esp in there 76 or 73 keyed versions it a shame because the sounds are very nice .

My 88 X KRONOS has one of the best keybeds ever made and no problems so far..

I believe you. But the 88 weighted keybeds are totally different to the unweighted 61 keybeds.

Yes, and it has to be said that the Kronos X (much more expensive than the "regular" Kronos) had no problems even with the 73 and 88 keys versions.

Big difference between Krome and Kronos...

I played a 61 Krome that a friend has. Felt so light, it wouldn't stay put on the stand..! I'm not the heaviest handed of guys, but I do play strong enough to get a decent 127 out of the things when I get frisky, but that thing would move around on the stand with MUCH lower force.

TBH, I was not all that impressed. Didn't seem all that live band friendly (nice if you have your presets ready to go, not so good at creating splits and layers on the spot) and felt pretty cheap.

The Krome 61 is only 16 lbs...your BK-9 weighs approx 21 lbs.

I'd say, in this case, the seemingly slight difference of 5 lbs is enough to make the Krome noticeably less stable.

Since the BK-9 is still quite light, do you need anything grippy under it to keep from slipping?

My demo PSR-S910, at 24 lbs, was pretty good, but it was just the right size (front to back) to be resting on all four rubber end sleeves on my double braced X-stand.

Ian