My Piano Adventure.

electronpirate

electronpirate

Axe-Master
So...

I've been spending a lot of time playing Piano as well as guitar (Let me slide in a NGD with an excellent Guild 12 string on the way...)

So, to the point. I picked up a Korg Krome about a year ago. I run it through a couple of Yamaha HS8's, and it sounded great. After a month or so, there was a strange crackling only on Piano sounds and intermittent. Annoying, but deal with it. Fast forward to the last month, where I finally get to the point where I figure I paid that much for this thing...it should not have this problem.

Welcome to the new age. A search on the issue, and lo and behold, it's a known problem. The common solution is...sadly...a complete board replacement. But others have had success replacing the dog-snot MicroSD card that supplies all these sounds. So, I get the Micro SD card, the adapter for the Mac, and endeavor to take this thing apart to replace this card.

Thus ensues a ridiculous comedy. There are no less that 30 screws holding one plastic top to the plastic bottom (what engineer thought THAT was a good design concept?). I even enlisted one of my twin girls to assist. 30 minutes later, and a few youtube views of some poor slob who did this before, and the damn thing is open. I remove the card (which seems like it's nailed in with Gorilla Glue even after lifting up the retaining clip on the motherboard), then spend the next hour finding some Mac utility to image copy what's on the card to my computer. Thanks be to the gods of Rasberry PI that someone created a homegrown one that will do that. It works! I have a new card that holds the image.

All that, a few aborted attempts at booting the Keyboard with the new SD card not fully in contact with the board prompting errors, and finally...success. It boots up. Let's lose another 30 minutes of my life placing all those screws back into the keyboard.

I plug in the monitors, and 15 minutes into playing...there's the crackle! Well, I tried. I have another image that is off the world wild web that may or may not be worth a shot, but the thought of tackling all those screws again is more work than I'm willing to do.

I will try support, but in the all-encompassing world of Korg, I am not convinced of any timely satisfaction.

Frustrated, and more than a little angry at (expensive) products that are rushed to market, and left to hang out there with known defects. Or maybe I'm spoiled by companies that put a quality product out there, and assiduously monitor users for problems...and FIX them immediately.

-Sigh.
 
Sorry for your trouble...
I recently went thru a huge piano shoot out with a piano playing friend and the yamaha cp4 won.
He’s had it for 4-5 months and he’s still pleased as punch.
 
I'm not familiar and never heard of the issue-
Does it happen with all outputs?
Headphones?outputs?digital?

It seems almost impossible that it would happen across all of those-
I'd also update the firmware and check if your presets itself are causing that- and also reinstall/reset factory presets
before you have to do anything drastic
 
I have a Yamaha Motif and so far, fingers crossed, it has worked flawlessly. My only complaint (not really a complaint complaint) is that it is REALLY heavy.
 
Jeries said:
I'm not familiar and never heard of the issue-
Does it happen with all outputs?
Headphones?outputs?digital?

It seems almost impossible that it would happen across all of those-
I'd also update the firmware and check if your presets itself are causing that- and also reinstall/reset factory presets
before you have to do anything drastic
Click to expand...

Good thoughts. I did a SW update to see if that would solve it (to the latest version). Should have probably posted that. Didn't solve anything.

It's a good thought about other outputs like headphones. That I haven't tried, but can't imagine it will be different than the 1/4 outs.

A simple google search can find the issue. Seems not right to post such things here. But the forum chatter has been that they've fixed it (sometimes several times), and/or the problem returns after a few months. Although as we know from these boards, people rarely post when everything is fixed. I've logged a support email, so we'll see.

I've always had good luck with Yamaha's, so the suggestions are appreciated. Was thinking about a Roland JUNO88 as well. Some decent reviews out there.
 
I've had numerous korg, and dozens of yamaha and roland keyboard gear

I never had an issue with anything korg- and to me they're so much better- while i've had every motif and phantom- I've never had to consistently change any of the korg gear

Never had an issue with yamaha either

Roland Phantoms I've had some issues with-

I would actually assume the outputs are all different- and for example- you might use a line out instead of the main outs and get fine results- check the headphones thats the easiest - and if there's issues on the main outs 9 times out of 10 the digital outs have no issues
 
Well, the Krome only has the 1/4 outs (which I did not check beforehand...would have thought that any higher end keyboard would have XLR outs...my bad.)

Regardless, I took your suggestion and checked on headphones...problem is still there.

It's not really an indictment on Korg gear, but like any company, they can make mistakes. I'm giving them a chance to make things right, but this is a product that has been around for awhile, so these things *should* have been fixed long ago.

Whatever it's worth, I'm looking at a few lower end models to replace this (@1000.00 US.) The crackle/cutout is unacceptable since I've been recording. Yamaha mx88 vs Roland Juno ds88 are in my sights. I'm leaning towards the Roland, but the Yamaha seems to be about even when it comes to 'issues'. The youtube comparisons in my mind slightly favor the Roland.

Fun times. New gear is all good.
 
If you want the distinct Roland sound, get the Roland...it is a classic sound.
I love Roland keyboards and the RD2000 sounds great and was on the short list.
But...it was not the most natural sounding keyboard imho.
 
What I don't like about korg today- is that- they don't make anything currently that competes or is better with what they used to make- Yamaha and Nord and Roland do...

But everything Korg makes that I want isn't really in their current lineup- compared to the old stuff...

Buy a used Triton Extreme
 
Or get an old Yamaha S90ES! they had a lovely acoustic piano voice. I have a Yamaha MO88 which i picked up used years ago. Still sounds great and i use the acoustic voices on it and then midi control some VST for other synth sounds. I wish mine had XLR outs.
 
If you don't play out at all - you may want to consider the midi controller route and plugin VST's on your mac? I have a Yamaha MOXF 6 and though its been nice and reliable for gigging I find it easier to get the sounds I'm after through software. But I don't like relying on my mac for gigs. Power up the MOXF and I'm set.
 
A great combo is the KAWAI VPC1 controller and Pianoteq 6 on a computer. Playability up the wazoo... keybed feels way nicer than most upright and baby grands.
 
I've had several Korg keys over the years, until a few years ago when I purchased a used Roland Fantom G7. I'll never go back to Korg again. A friend and former band mate always used Yamaha Motif XS series, and they're rock solid as well (from what I can tell based on him beating on his and his faithful patronage).

My dinky Roland XP30 had some of the best sounds I've ever heard straight out of the box. I've been able to recreate the ones I used the most in my G7, but not without some frustration. The next iteration of Korg workstations were cheap and cheesy, so I never bothered looking at them again.

YMMV. Good luck.
 
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Keg8605 said:
If you don't play out at all - you may want to consider the midi controller route and plugin VST's on your mac? I have a Yamaha MOXF 6 and though its been nice and reliable for gigging I find it easier to get the sounds I'm after through software. But I don't like relying on my mac for gigs. Power up the MOXF and I'm set.
Click to expand...

I have Logic X, and have used that before with great results. It's a little painful getting it to talk to the Duet sometimes, but it's a good option to have. It's more effort than just walking downstairs and pushing 3 buttons to play.

I bought the Roland. At worse I send it back.
 
electronpirate said:
I have Logic X, and have used that before with great results. It's a little painful getting it to talk to the Duet sometimes, but it's a good option to have. It's more effort than just walking downstairs and pushing 3 buttons to play.

I bought the Roland. At worse I send it back.
Click to expand...
For sure, all depends on your setup. Mainstage is great for keyboardists. Plus the roland is still a midi keyboard anyways so if you want to use it with mainstage or logic you can! My MOXF is an interface as well which is nice too. Good luck with the Roland. It should do a fine job for ya.
 
I'm a big fan of Native Instruments Komplete Stuff. It may need a computer but it makes sense that a 3GB piano sound at least sounds at good as the sound out of an workstation with 3GB space for all the sounds in it.
I played Yamaha mx and motif xs before and they might cut throught in a band a lot better but when playing alone i miss stuff like hearing the pedal move or the sound of the hammers hitting the strings in the piano.
Also Yamahas user interface isn't the easiest.
 
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