Korg Kross 2 61-Key Synthesizer Workstation

So...I remember when I was 14 years old, my voice changed and it discouraged me to sing going forward. But I’ve been so connected to music all my life and knew that I couldn’t not sing anymore and leave it at that. I wanted to learn how to produce, engineer, mix; the behind the scenes stuff, and maybe I’d grow into whatever my new voice would be. Before teaching myself how to make beats and build music. I had no idea that MIDI controllers existed till I was about 16/17. Always saw my influencers use keyboards and drum machines. Never used real keyboard to be able to use in making my tracks, got my first MIDI when I was 17. Never ever had my own synthesizer/keyboard of choice. Always told myself I’d get the one I wanted one day and my purchase with AMS was the one. I ... MoreSo...I remember when I was 14 years old, my voice changed and it discouraged me to sing going forward. But I’ve been so connected to music all my life and knew that I couldn’t not sing anymore and leave it at that. I wanted to learn how to produce, engineer, mix; the behind the scenes stuff, and maybe I’d grow into whatever my new voice would be. Before teaching myself how to make beats and build music. I had no idea that MIDI controllers existed till I was about 16/17. Always saw my influencers use keyboards and drum machines. Never used real keyboard to be able to use in making my tracks, got my first MIDI when I was 17. Never ever had my own synthesizer/keyboard of choice. Always told myself I’d get the one I wanted one day and my purchase with AMS was the one. I love Korg products and their sound, and I came across a used Korg Kross 1 and fell in love. Didn’t know how I would get one but knew I wanted one. Well a fellow colleague told me about AMS and the ability to make payments on gear and I couldn’t believe it till I saw it my self! I immediately thought to myself, this is my chance!!! I could really have my first personal keyboard/synth to myself. And it happened! I’ve been head over heels with the new and recent purchase of my Korg Kross 2 61 Key! I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!! Every sound has a feel that I’ve been waiting to experience and incorporate in my music and I’ve been using it non-stop! I can really expand and broaden my sound with this product. I’ve told so many people about it and exposed them to AMS! I’m so happy I finally, after all these years at age 24, have my alpha keyboard and so thankful for the opportunity that AMS has given me to get it! So blessed! I will be using this in all of my music from now on! THANK YOU AMS!

I’ve had this close to a month now. I wanted something to be able to scratch out ideas, just sit down and play, and do creative stuff with.The sounds are pretty good. I use primarily synth, electric piano and organ sounds. The synth sounds and arps are pretty great out of the box. I like pretty dry e-piano and organ sounds. With a bit of tweaking those are quite good too. It’s easy to set favorites onto the pads, and this has enough physicals controllers for playing live. Especially for the organs - you can press a button to flip the Leslie on and then control the speed with the mod wheel. It’s lots of fun.What’s less fun is the menus. If you just want to play, this thing is easy to learn. Just choose the category and sound. With just a bit of fiddling you can ... MoreI’ve had this close to a month now. I wanted something to be able to scratch out ideas, just sit down and play, and do creative stuff with.The sounds are pretty good. I use primarily synth, electric piano and organ sounds. The synth sounds and arps are pretty great out of the box. I like pretty dry e-piano and organ sounds. With a bit of tweaking those are quite good too. It’s easy to set favorites onto the pads, and this has enough physicals controllers for playing live. Especially for the organs - you can press a button to flip the Leslie on and then control the speed with the mod wheel. It’s lots of fun.What’s less fun is the menus. If you just want to play, this thing is easy to learn. Just choose the category and sound. With just a bit of fiddling you can learn to save it to the favorites (of which there are many - 4 banks of 16 pads). So getting set up for a gig with the default sounds is pretty easy. editing the sounds and using the sequencer, on the other hand, requires really studying the menus, lots of page button presses, and deciphering the manual. I haven’t even gotten all that deep, but even turning off a reverb is like 15 pages in. The sequencer works but is not super intuitive.On the right side of the board, I was able to figure out the sampler, step sequencer and favorites without too much trouble. They work great. The sampler especially is really fun to use for looping of shots.One big travesty is that you can’t record samples to beats and measures — only time. You can truncate a sample to get it wonky sounds like it will loop correctly, but if you try to sync it to the drum step sequencer or arp it will drift. It’s really too bad, because that would have been a killer feature that would have turned this into a more powerful tool.There are ways to take the sample pad sounds and then turn them into a program (e.g. so you can play then in the sequencer), but not like a typical sampler where it will pitch the sample across the keyboard. It just maps the 16 samples in a bank to 16 keys on a keyboard. Useful, but it would be nice to be able to map it across the board.One big benefit is that the thing is really light. For this price, I’ll deal with the faults. It’s a great performance keyboard and the sampler/step sequencer provide for a lot of fun and inspiration, I wish Korg would keep this form factor but add in the looping functions and make the menus a bit easier to navigate.

Vocoder only allows use of 1/4 plug.Some sounds are a bit cheap... yet there are some sounds that sound really good.Two knobs control just about all effects and adjustments.You have to select the adjustments you want by pushing a button then the two knobs work in that category so on the fly adjustments are a bit tricky.Getting into deep settings are a bit cryptic and take some time to master.The synth sounds and adjustments are ok... Good enough to play out with.Favorites has 8 banks of 16 programs each.... Plenty...One of the best features is that the USB not only is used for editing programs on your computer but it also sends sound so you can use your favorite recording program without having to use a USB interface.All in all.... Not a bad little unit..If ... MoreVocoder only allows use of 1/4 plug.Some sounds are a bit cheap... yet there are some sounds that sound really good.Two knobs control just about all effects and adjustments.You have to select the adjustments you want by pushing a button then the two knobs work in that category so on the fly adjustments are a bit tricky.Getting into deep settings are a bit cryptic and take some time to master.The synth sounds and adjustments are ok... Good enough to play out with.Favorites has 8 banks of 16 programs each.... Plenty...One of the best features is that the USB not only is used for editing programs on your computer but it also sends sound so you can use your favorite recording program without having to use a USB interface.All in all.... Not a bad little unit..If you are looking to do deep synth with adjustments on the fly while you play I'd suggest you get a flat out synth.... but this can handle both keyboard/workstation and synth features good enough to gig with.

A Powerful Hardware Workstation

Overall:Korg sounds are legend. A killah option if you want a portable workstation that also syncs up in a larger studio setup. Nice for the $$. Added this to small portable studio that includes a Roland JD-Xi synth plus an Arturia Impact,all recorded into a Zoom L-8 or DAW. The Korg isn't as complicated as a Korg O1/W fd,but still--it takes some time to learn what up. Amazing Korg patches,just very fun to play. You have to understand it's limitations before you buy one but what you get for the $ is stellar kit. Not a $3,000$ keybed. Love the sequencer and solid drum sounds. Inexpensive,considering what's loaded inside.

A keyboard with very nice features for the price

My first experience with a Korg keyboard (other than repairing an old X-3). All my other keyboards are Yamahas and it's hard not to compare the Korg to them. The Kross 2 is way cool looking with lots of curves in the case a nice finish. It's light weight and can be battery powered by 6 AA cells. The keybed seems solid and the action (unweighted in the 61 I got) is good. There's a light up Korg logo with adjustable lighting levels that's worthless to me but some may like it. The cable plug ins on the back are somewhat difficult to see when seated at the keyboard.I ran through the "bread n butter" sounds (pianos, organs, E pianos) when I first hooked it up and most were good but nothing out of the ordinary. In going through the organ sounds I found the rotary ... MoreMy first experience with a Korg keyboard (other than repairing an old X-3). All my other keyboards are Yamahas and it's hard not to compare the Korg to them. The Kross 2 is way cool looking with lots of curves in the case a nice finish. It's light weight and can be battery powered by 6 AA cells. The keybed seems solid and the action (unweighted in the 61 I got) is good. There's a light up Korg logo with adjustable lighting levels that's worthless to me but some may like it. The cable plug ins on the back are somewhat difficult to see when seated at the keyboard.I ran through the "bread n butter" sounds (pianos, organs, E pianos) when I first hooked it up and most were good but nothing out of the ordinary. In going through the organ sounds I found the rotary speaker effect (Leslie sound) was totally unrealistic as compared to my old B3 or even to the Yamaha MX 's effect. That's a deal killer for me. A good assortment of sounds but nothing outstanding.Mic input with vocoder works and sampling to the pads is nice but buy a SDHC card if you don't have a spare because all audio, samples, and sequencer/MIDI files have to be stored on the SD card. The expanded internal memory is for Programs and Combi's. Someone has posted a video on Youtube showing how to play samples you make across the keyboard (with some limitations). Audio and MIDI over USB work but in working with a DAW you can't monitor your tracks through the Korg headphone jack without problems (monitoring through computer speakers works).The Kross 2 comes with a "quick start guide" but you have to download the .pdf operators manual, parameters list, and program list. That means you 'll have to carry around a tablet or laptop to consult the manual until you learn all the stuff you need to know about this board.On the whole the Kross 2 is a nice keyboard but I'll be passing it on to my son (who just needs a keyboard to practice on) while I stick with the Yamaha MX (which has it's own problems).

Fun sound machine at a budget price

Despite the low price and lower specs of Korg’s beefier offerings, the Kross 2 is a little ripper of a thing. You’d be hard pressed to not squeeze a decent tune out of this synth, plus it’s fun to use which can’t be said of most other workstation synths.The sampling pads are a brilliant addition and Korg’s firmware update claims to allow importing of any Korg format samples into the 128 megabyte sample memory to use in programs and combinations - YES PLEASE!The neon ‘special edition’ Kross synths have additional samples installed so you’d need to back them up before importing your own samples but there are worse things in this world to worry about.iPad and iPhone peeps can plug them into the Kross 2 for an audio/midi interface — no complaints there :-DGood on ... MoreDespite the low price and lower specs of Korg’s beefier offerings, the Kross 2 is a little ripper of a thing. You’d be hard pressed to not squeeze a decent tune out of this synth, plus it’s fun to use which can’t be said of most other workstation synths.The sampling pads are a brilliant addition and Korg’s firmware update claims to allow importing of any Korg format samples into the 128 megabyte sample memory to use in programs and combinations - YES PLEASE!The neon ‘special edition’ Kross synths have additional samples installed so you’d need to back them up before importing your own samples but there are worse things in this world to worry about.iPad and iPhone peeps can plug them into the Kross 2 for an audio/midi interface — no complaints there :-DGood on ya, Korg.

KROSS 2- sounds great/weighs nothing

I use this keyboard on the weekends with a band in a live situation. This board packs a lot of sound and literally weighs nothing(under 10 lbs). It was very easy to set up splits/combinations that could be saved for use with the band. The keyboard action leaves a little to be desired, but all the other features of this board outweigh the mediocre keyboard action... adjusting the velocity helps to fake a better feel, but the action leaves a bit to be desired. The midi sequencer is limited but you can work around its limitations by recording your sequences on your DAW and importing into the KROSS 2. According to Korg, it comes with expanded PCM that will be supported in the future. For someone like me who plays music every weekend this is a great keyboard for the ... MoreI use this keyboard on the weekends with a band in a live situation. This board packs a lot of sound and literally weighs nothing(under 10 lbs). It was very easy to set up splits/combinations that could be saved for use with the band. The keyboard action leaves a little to be desired, but all the other features of this board outweigh the mediocre keyboard action... adjusting the velocity helps to fake a better feel, but the action leaves a bit to be desired. The midi sequencer is limited but you can work around its limitations by recording your sequences on your DAW and importing into the KROSS 2. According to Korg, it comes with expanded PCM that will be supported in the future. For someone like me who plays music every weekend this is a great keyboard for the price. I would recommend this keyboard to any gigging musician who like me, hates carrying heavy sh@# to gigs. The sounds are great and can always be tweaked to your liking.

Learning curve is there, but a very strong instrument.

I am a fan of Korg products.I have owned the Korg Kross 2 for about a month now and I am happy with my purchase at this price point.The Good.I bought the Korg Kross 2 for a number of reasons, but the following are at the top of the list.1) The presets for the program and combination modes are extensive and the tones are top notch. The presets may not be exactly what your looking for, but it is very practical to use them as a starting point and edit from there.2) The combination mode is very expansive. You can layer 16 tones at once and zone each of them individually on the keyboard. This makes the Kross extremely versatile as an individual instrument covering a number of necessary parts in one Combination.3) Favorites and user created patches. The Kross ... MoreI am a fan of Korg products.I have owned the Korg Kross 2 for about a month now and I am happy with my purchase at this price point.The Good.I bought the Korg Kross 2 for a number of reasons, but the following are at the top of the list.1) The presets for the program and combination modes are extensive and the tones are top notch. The presets may not be exactly what your looking for, but it is very practical to use them as a starting point and edit from there.2) The combination mode is very expansive. You can layer 16 tones at once and zone each of them individually on the keyboard. This makes the Kross extremely versatile as an individual instrument covering a number of necessary parts in one Combination.3) Favorites and user created patches. The Kross Provides 500 available user presets which is plenty. The favorites section provides 16 presets for each of the 8 banks. 128 patches that can be called in an instant. This equals multiple set lists if ordered properly.4) Sampler. This is where the Kross 2 exceeds the original version and why I opted for it. The samples can be recorded from a mic, an external audio source. or from the Korg 2 itself. This feature provides creative latitude that I have not had on a synth before and it has been well worth the wait.The features that where not primary to my purchase where the Sequencer and the Drum Machine.Again, I purchased the Kross 2 for the accessibility to a wide variety of tones and the ability to create multiple tones in one preset throughout the keyboard.The difficulties:For those of us that struggle with menus, be prepared to work on understanding UI.The Arp is hard to programEven though there are realtime controls, the Kross 2 is best manipulated through the menus.In fact, my current challenge is assigning parameters to controls that seem limited.However, I won't condemn the UI because I am having trouble with it.Those that may have more experience might find it easier to navigate