A new Kronos expansion really sets a high level for onboard sax sounds..





Not that i got any room left in my Kronos
But i tought you would want to hear these

Thats probably the Kronos biggest problem..
All the best sounds come from expansions..
And even tough it blows away the competition with sample space
Full is full.. also the limited number of banks is a problem..

I have often said that sax sounds on all KBs are lacking, but these sound REALLY good ...
Thanks for posting those, Bacchus ...

The sounds themselves are great. One thing that always gives them away (for me) is hearing a slight 'attack' on each not (even when playing legato). Skilled and careful playing can mitigate some of this but it always seems to be there. I guess you could go in an edit the tone to take some of the attack off but that would also affect the authenticity. Oh well, maybe I'm being too picky. Diki used to always nail me about my feeble attempts at emulating sax. He was right, of course and it did make me try to do a better job with the emulation.

BTW, you also have to pick the right sax for the tune. A 'growl' sax is not going to work on a romantic ballad .

chas

Absolutely brilliant -
Also came across this
Swam virtual Soprano Sax

https://youtu.be/ZUxtA2MFkZQ

Yes, the SWAM instruments are incredible..
But they are VST, not inside keyboards..
Where SWAM really shines is when played by MPE capable devices
MPE is a new standard in MIDI which assigns a whole channel to every note played... most often 4 channels for polyphonic instruments..


But SWAM does not make it into keyboards yet...

There are some cracking Sax sounds out there if you go into VSTs, but Kronos is up there with them as it is in essence a VST player, but as it can only use players designed by Korg, the VST name cannot be used.

In the first video there is too much reverb and a bit too smooth for an accurate representation of the first song, (But that’s only because of the way it has been set up rather than the sound itself) however the quality is definitely there.

As to the SWAM, well I regularly listen to live jazz and there is something about SWAM that just isn’t right, I don’t know what it is, but it just doesn’t sound right to me.

Bill

Listen to the Genos Saxes , they are even so good , just learn to play it like a sax .
also the recordings are made with a lot of reverb , a little to much .
The swam samples are extraordinary good , but for a keyboard the genos are the best ( also on Montage& Modx)

Impuls

Swam doesnt use samples
Its sound is calculated by a model