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Hello, Ujiie here again.
The Korg Kross.
Available now. It's quite impressive.
Have a look at it.
What do you think about the red bottom?
Kind of a mix between red and pink,
a very stylish color.
A nice two-tone theme with the black front panel.
And it's really light!
I mean, look, there's a built-in handle!
How the heck is it so light?
What's the deal with this thing?
This one here is the 61-key model.
There's an 88-key model as well.
And that one is light too.
Really light. Easily portable.
The big thing about the Kross
is its usability, which is proportional to
the volume of great sounds that it's loaded with.
It's super easy to come up with ideas with this. Let's jump right in, shall we?
First of all, can you zoom in on this for me?
This area right here. This is very well done!
You know about the MicroKorg, I assume.
The sounds are categorized for easy selection.
That in itself is quite a good feature.
For example, it's in program mode now,
let's set the category to piano, the LED there lights up,
and over here the main screen lists piano sounds.
Excellent. Lots of good piano sounds here.
And, lots of variations.
Here's a Bright Piano.
This one's called Vivid piano.
Nice. How about Upright Piano?
Rock Piano next.
Next, Electric Piano, called E. Piano here.
How's that for a nice sound?
Like a Rhodes.
Ok here we have SW, or switch, 1 & 2.
Over here above the bend & mod wheels we also have switch 1 & 2.
Via those switches you can add tremolo.
Press switch number 2, and...
That's added a phaser-like effect.
They've done a good job with this!
Very nice!
On to the next sound.
Quite a good lineup of electric piano sounds.
It sounds really nice with that phaser on it.
Organ sounds next.
A very nice lineup of organ sounds too.
Quite nice, don't you think?
Bell sounds next.
Bell sounds get used a lot.
This is a DW bell sound.
Yeah, I used that sound many times. Strings next.
A good lineup of strings too.
Brass next.
Lots of brass sounds as well.
Synth lead up next.
That's a sine-wave lead sound.
Sounds nice, or how about this square-wave one?
These sounds get used a lot too. Synth pads next.
Again, there's a large variety of synth pad sounds.
That's a nice sound.
Fantastic. Guitar next.
There's a good variety of guitar sounds too.
Mute.
Let's try some electric guitar sounds.
What a clear sound. Bass next.
There are synth bass sounds like this, and...
Lots of drum sounds too.
A variety of kits to choose from.
Lots of different sounds.
Ok let's look at something, let me go back to that synth bass sound,
and you might find yourself thinking you'd like to use some drums that match that sound.
Let's see about that.
Drums that match the sound, well, over here is the drum track section.
Let's give that a try and see what happens.
Ok we got the drum track going.
You see this here?
Actually, it's a step sequencer.
Steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 are active.
Right? Every fourth beat.
Those beats sound. Well, let's edit it.
Aha! How's that?
Great. Have a look at the screen.
Right now, the bass drum is active. Let's go with snare next.
Press the steps you want to sound.
Yeah, that's good.
Closed hi-hat next.
That's good, right?
You can keep on adding parts.
Build a pattern, and with it playing...
The inclusion of a step sequencer is quite nice.
Very cool.
You can make your own patterns, however you want them.
And it's easy to do!
Now, this button here is labeled 'Favorite'
and it's a great feature!
What happens when you press favorite?
These buttons here, which we used for the step sequencer,
can be assigned to your favorite sounds,
with a total of four banks of 16 sounds.
Let me show you what it does. For example...
what's behind number two?
Something like this.
Got it?
Actually, that's a combination sound.
Combinations are made of multiple individual program sounds,
this one having drums, bass, and
percussion, with piano on top of it all.
Just one example of a combination.
On to the next sound.
Ah, this one is a good one!
On to the next sound.
You hear all the sounds going on there?
The programming is great!
The next sound...
…kind of an ethnic sound...
…a Gamelan.
The next one is a log drum and a pad,
and it's good too.
The next one is nice too.
SO much fun!
This next pad sound
is so deep, I love it!
Amazing.
The next one uses an acoustic guitar and a pad sound,
but the pad is being arpeggiated.
This next sound also uses an acoustic guitar,
and has a nice ambience.
Wonderful.
On to the next sound.
This electric piano and drum track,
as they are,
make you think "Yeah I like this!"
(for the sake of argument)
so let's see what it takes to go from this stage,
now that we have an idea for a song,
to a completed song,
using the step sequencer to record.
OK with the keyboard set as it is,
I'll just press the record button on the sequencer,
and the main screen shows 'Setup to Record'
'Do you want to continue?' Press OK.
And right away,
We have a click going at this tempo.
That's ok, yeah?
It's in record standby now,
so press the start button and
you'll get a two measure lead-in to start recording.
Ok. Playback!
It's ok.
Ok. Next,
there are already four tracks going on,
drums, bass, the backing tracks,
so why don't we add a new sound?
Let's select another sound.
And let's record that into the sequencer.
The next open track is track 5.
So let's go with that.
Now, what kind of sound should I use?
Let's see here.
Yeah, piano is nice...
…but I think I'll go with an organ sound.
Ok this one!
Yeah that organ sounds good.
Ok so now it's all set up, track five,
So here we go.
Ok, let's record.
Playback!
Perfect.
And that's how you go about it,
16 tracks in all.
You can put a song together SO quickly.
This is an outstanding keyboard!
So, you can see that the Kross
is great. And not just for beginners.
Even I would like to have one.
For an arranging and composition tool,
it would get used a lot!
Another awesome feature of this keyboard
is that it's equipped with an audio recorder,
and an SD card slot, so you can record
straight to it.
Record audio direct to SD card.
And a big point, as I said before, it's light,
but it will run on batteries!
How cool is that?
There's nothing left to be desired!
Of course, it's easy to cook up layers and splits, too.
This is really an awesome keyboard.
A great tool! Right?
Quite well designed, I think.
And that's it for the Kross!
Translation & captions by:
SWCreativeJapan