Korg Kronos Sequencer Tips
2020-09-17
1. Introduction To Stuff
For a number of reasons, I continue to be attracted to the Kronos
sequencer. Over the past few years, I have eschewed computer-based
sequencing options, despite their perceived power, over what many
believe to be a less powerful alternative in the Kronos.
So why do I continue to use the Kronos sequencer when I have the
likes of Cubase, Studio One and Logic at my disposal? Theres a few
reasons (excluding masochism):
o Timing accuracy and latency: I find MIDI latency and jitter with
modern PC-based solutions to be extremely variable. Manufactur-
ers have come up with all kinds of clever ways to try and
improve MIDI timing on modern machines (e.g. MIDI Time Stamp-
ing), but these often only work well with particular
combinations of hardware and software. Additionally, theyre not
very well documented. The jitters and latency on the Kronos are
both extremely low. At the end of the day, most modern pre-emp-
tive multi-tasking operating systems do not place a priority on
timing accuracy.
o Ergonomics: This might sound like a strange reason, but every-
thing is right there in front of you: control surface, touch
screen, keyboard. Ive never found a good solution ergonomically
for using a controller with a computer. Also, I simply find
myself being more productive with the tactile nature of the Kro-
nos, rather than transitioning between keyboard, PC keyboard and
mouse. Now, I know you can customise most sequencers to work
well with a controller keyboard, but as a programmer I
inevitably end up down a rabbit-hole of writing macros to get
everything to talk to one another, rather than making music.
o Integration: Everything is nicely integrated into one, cohesive
package.
o Simplicity: Sometimes, less is more - not having 4,000 different
ways to quantise a take can actually be a blessing.
o Stability: This thing, especially on the latest firmware, is
pretty much rock-solid. I can count the number of crashes on it
in seven years with one hand.
So is the Kronos sequencer perfect? Far from it! And this is what I
like about it. I spend less time installing updates in the hope of
a minor workflow improvement (at the risk of breaking everything
else), and more time learning to work within its limitations. Cer-
tainly there are features I would love to see added, but I accept
it for what it is.
Theres also a stack of things you can do on the Kronos that are
simply impossible on most PC-based sequencers, which can help miti-
gate some of the other limitations.
What I wanted to go through are a few of the tricks and techniques
Ive learned over the years to help you get the most out of the
sequencer in the Kronos. Some of these may be really obvious, par-
ticularly if youve used the sequencer extensively before. But
hopefully there might be something in here thats useful to you if
youre just starting out on the Kronos, or if youre giving the
sequencer another try. Would love to hear your tips and tricks too!
2. Think Different
The Kronos is not a PC sequencer. It is not designed to be used
with a mouse. Trying to edit visually on the Kronos in the same way
you would on a PC is an exercise in frustration. Instead, get into
the habit of using the keyboard and control surface to make edits.
The other key difference with the Kronos compared to PC sequences
is that almost everything you can adjust on the Kronos generates
Sysex - and Sysex can be recorded. This means that effects rout-
ings, transposition settings etc can all be adjusted whilst
recording, and the adjustments can be played back as part of a
sequence.
3. Getting Started
Global Setup: When using the internal sequencer, make sure the fol-
lowing options are set in Global. These are based on my own
experiences and preferences:
o Global -> MIDI: Song Track = For Master
o KARMA External Routing: Make sure both of these are selected.
(See tip #38 below.)
o Param Edit: Controller.
o Controllers/Scales -> Controllers: Make sure that there are no
MIDI Continuous Controllers assigned to any of the KARMA func-
tions - you can do this via the page menu. Having CCs assigned
here will cause all sorts of funky behaviour if youre suing
KARMA with the sequencer. Enable Sysex: Off (Enable only as
required - see below).
4. SysEx Filtering
Most operations on the Kronos generate and receive associated Sys-
tem Exclusive (SysEx) commands, which allows virtually all
parameter changes to be recorded and automated - even if you dont
want them to be! This can be particularly problematic because SysEx
messages arent channelized - that is, they dont have a particular
channel assigned to them and will be recorded to a track even if
the parameter youre changing is completely unrelated to that track.
For example, I often find that if I adjust the volume for an audio
input whilst recording a MIDI track, the change is recorded as part
of my sequence - often not what I want.
Fortunately, the solution is simple: in Global -> MIDI, turn Off
Enable Exclusive. This will prevent SysEx from being recorded into
the sequencer. It wont affect the recording of audio automation,
nor continuous controllers. It also wont affect the recording of
MIDI volume and Pan changes if youve changed the Param Edit option
on the same page to Controller. It will however prevent changes
made in the Tone Adjust page being recorded, so keep that in mind.
Of course, it can be enabled as required but its generally advis-
able to leave this turned off.
5. Select The Current Track Easily
In Sequencer -> Control Surface theres an option to Link KBD/Rec
Track to Control Surface. Use it (its off by default). It allows
you to change the currently selected track that youre recording
to/playing/editing by using the 8 switches on the control surface.
6. Shotcuts Save Time
Learn to use the Page Menu shortcuts. For those unaware, you can
hold ENTER and [0-9] on the numeric keypad to quickly access that
item in the page menu (for example, clearing a track, quantising a
track etc). Combined with Tip #3 and the hardware transport but-
tons, this can actually make common editing tasks really quick.
7. Find Where You Belong
You can set the time location that the Locate button seeks to at
any time, simply by pressing [ENTER] and [Locate]
8. Tone Adjust
The Tone Adjust page of the Control Surface isnt just for configur-
ing the control surface: it can be used to make fairly detailed
edits to an underlying program as part of the sequencer, without
having to actually edit the underlying program. You can actually
modify the vast majority of a programs parameters using this method
- and modulate them as part of a sequence.
(Here's a cool one - you can change the multisample assigned to a
HD1 program and record this as part of your sequence for some
really interesting effects ...)
9. Moving Around
You can use the [Pause] button in the transport section even when a
sequence isnt playing. This is really useful to navigate around
your song using the transport keys [<<] / [>>] without playing it
back. When youre finished, just press [Start/Stop] (Try increasing
the FF/RWD speed in the page menu too).
10. Recording Tempo Changes
You can record tempo changes whilst youre song is recording. to do
this just set Tempo Mode to REC in the MIDI Prog/Mixer page. The
secret here is to select this when recording is armed, but before
pressing [Play/Stop]
You can record tempo changes using the tempo knob, or even the [Tap
Tempo] button.
If you just want to record tempo change sin an existing song, just
select on empty track first before commenting recording (the Kronos
will insist that you record something other than just the Master
Track).
11. Measure To and From for editing
The currently selected track, along with the From Measure and To
Measure settings in Track Edit, will be used to set the editing
range when using any of the functions in Track Edit. This actually
makes it quite quick and easy to perform edits:
Select the track you want to edit, using the eight buttons on the
control surface (See tip #3) Set the From Measure / To Measure
visually in the track edit page. You can also use Tip #7 to cue up
this point audibly. Press [Enter] and [0-9] to select the edit
operation you want to perform. Here are some common ones:
[Enter] - [2]: MIDI Step Recording [Enter] - [3]: MIDI
Event Edit [Enter] - [5]: Clear Track / Pattern [Enter] -
[8]: Erase Measure [Enter] - [9]: Delete Measure
12. Track Edit is useful for recording, too.
When recording and arranging, I find it useful to stay on the Track
Edit page predominantly, even though its not the default. This
gives you a visual overview tf your song whilst youre recording and
allows you to quickly perform edits such as clearing a take (Bad
take? Just hit [Enter] - [5] to clear the track and start again)
13. Recording long notes
Sometimes, you want to have a note that is held for the complete
duration of the track. Obviously recording a note of that duration
is tedious, so there are two main ways to deal with this.
One is to use the Hold function of the underlying program - but you
dont need to edit the underlying program to achieve this! You can
do this through Tone Adjust and set one of the controllers to tog-
gle Hold on or off. The cool thing about this approach is that you
can record changes to this parameter, so you can toggle it on or
off as part of your sequence.
The second way is to use MIDI Event Edit to alter the duration of a
recorded or inserted note. Again, theres a trick that makes this
slightly counter-intuitive. The length of each track is independent
and is determined by the last note that was recorded there. If you
try and create a long note on a virgin track using MIDI Event Edit,
it will only let you se the duration to a maximum of one bar. the
trick is to go to the measure you want to end at, record any random
thing on that track there, then go back to MIDI Event Edit and
change the duration of the note you want held. Obviously you can
then delete the random note too.
14. Recording KARMA
KARMA only ever receives input from the Keyboard or MIDI inputs -
it never receives input from a track. The output of MARMA can obvi-
ously be recorded to a track, or even an RPPR.
The same applies to RPPR and Chord Pads - it can only be triggered
from the keyboard or from external MIDI, and the resulting note
sequence can be recorded to a track.
15. Marker Tracks
There are no marker tracks in order to keep track of different
events in your song. I tend to either just write down the measure
numbers and a description in a notebook. Alternatively, you can
sacrifice a MIDI track for the same purpose (e.g. MIDI Track 16).
Simply use the Create Control Data page menu command in Track Edit
to create some control data (doesnt matter what) at the bar you
want to note. this will create a green block in Track Edit that you
can use as a visual marker.
16. Record Resolution
You can change the Record resolution whilst recording. This is
really helpful when used in conjunction with loop recording, as you
can lay down a quarter-note bass drum for example, then change the
record resolution on the next pass for say, hi hats.
17. Sixteen Track Limit
The limit of sixteen MIDI tracks isnt as bad as it might seem -
think of it more as a limit sixteen simultaneous MIDI tracks.
Unlike a PC sequencer, you can easily completely change the
selected program / timbre and all effects routings halfway through
a track without having to have a dedicated track for each.
18. In-Track Sampling is cool and useful
In-track sampling is really cool. At first I wrote it off as being
a hold-over from the Triton series which was made redundant with
the addition of multitrack audio recording. However it is so easy
and easy to use, and gives much greater flexibility with editing
and effects than the hard disk recorder gives (at the expense of
polyphony).
One of the nice things about using in-track sampling is that you
have access to ADSR envelopes, which makes crossfading and repeat-
ing audio loops much easier than using the hard disk recorder.
Note that to use In-Track sampling, the sequencer only needs to be
playing, not recording.
19. SysEx and Multirecord
When recording Sysex with Multi Record enabled, the Sysex is always
recorded to the first record-enable track. Im not sure this is doc-
umented anywhere.
Audio Automation is always recorded to the corresponding audio
track - unless no audio track is enabled for recording in which
case it is recorded to the first record-enabled MIDI track as
Sysex. This has caught me out a few times!
20. Changing RPPR Parameters
Many of the RPPR parameters - such as transpose - can be adjusted
whilst the pattern is playing. This is really useful for creating
drum fills or otherwise finding new variations.
21. Karma to RPPR
KARMA can be recorded to RPPR.
22. SysEx and RPPR = macros
Its not only notes and continuous controllers can be recorded to an
RPPR pattern - SysEx can also be recorded. This is particu-
larly;arly useful for recording macros" that can be used across
multiple tracks - e.g a Fade Out macro, or a modulated sustain
pedal, Tone Adjust, mixer adjustments etc are all fair game. I have
an RPPR setup and assigned to a key to mute and unmute the external
audio inputs, for example.
23. We Love Polyrhythms!
The time signature of an RPPR pattern is independent of the time
sequence of the sequence. This is great for creating polyrythms
etc.
24. Abusing the Quantise Function
Theres no Track Edit command to move events around by fractions of
a measure. There is a workaround though in the form of the Quantise
command. Just make sure that Resolution is set to Hi, Swing is at
0% and adjust the Shift parameter accordingly. +240 is equivalent
to moving events by half a measure, -240 back by half a measure
etc. This is great for changing the feel of a track, creating ghost
drum parts etc. Combined with the Track Bounce and Track Copy
options, its possible to do some pretty cool things.
25. Wouldn't have (half) a bar of it ...
Many of the track edit operations dont allow a range to be speci-
fied in part bars. For example, its not possible to repeat half a
measure. There are a few ways to work around this:
The easiest method Ive found for repeating one or two beats of a
measure is to use RPPR. The workflow is essentially to create a
pattern with a time signature half or a quarter of the projects
time signature. Use Copy from Track to take the first one or two
beats of the measure into the pattern. Then, use RPPR to play the
pattern back into the track.
If the portion you wish to repeat is at the end of a measure, you
can use the Quantise function as described in Tip 22 to shift the
events of interest to the start of the measure.
As for deleting part of a bar, frankly the easiest way Ive found is
to use the MIDI Event Edit page and manually delete the events.
26. Tip #24
With a few minor exceptions, changes to almost all MIDI Track Para-
meters - such as transpose, delay, portamento, wave sequencer swing
and scale - can all be recorded in realtime for some pretty cool
effects. Make sure Enable Sysex is enabled in Global.
27. Crescendos and Diminuendos
The Kronos doesnt have a native mechanism for creating crescendo
and diminuendos whilst retaining relative velocities. If you use
the Modify Velocity command in Track Edit to do this, there will
potentially be an abrupt jump between the section you applied the
operation and the remainder of the track. However, there is a work-
around.
First, using the Modify Velocity command, get your crescendo /
diminuendo sounding as you want it, paying particular attention to
the strength and start or end velocity. Then execute the same com-
mand on the rest of the track. However this time, ensure the start
and end settings are both the same and match the settings used in
the first step. This will ensure a smooth transition between the
two sections.
28. In-Track Sampling Triggers
When using In-Track sampling, the normal options regarding when to
trigger sampling still apply: when the sequencer is started, when a
note is played, when [Sampling Start / Stop] is pressed and thresh-
old. This makes it really easy, for example, to sample a few bars
that have been recorded and edited in the sequencer. Using the
Threshold mode also makes it easy to capture an external source at
just the right time and automatically create the corresponding
event.
Be aware that I have however experienced a possible bug once or
twice with this where In-Track sampling has always started as soon
as [Sampling Start/Stop] is pressed regardless of the setting
above. However this has been very rare and after playing with many
settings, so it may be operator error.
29. Use RPPR as a sketchpad for creating audio loops
When the Sampler recording trigger is set to Sequencer Start/Stop,
this works in the Pattern/RPPR -> Pattern Edit mode as well. This
makes it really easy to record a short pattern (either for an
internal synth part or an external MIDI instrument), arm the sam-
pler and hit Sequencer Play/Record. This will sample the loop
without having to assign the RPPR to a key or edit any of the
sequencer tracks, essentially making it a great scratchpad for cre-
ating audio loops.
30. Get in time
When using In-Track sampling, its often helpful to make sure the
metronome is set to Play & Rec to give a time reference. If sam-
pling from an internal source, make sure to use the Record Busses
to prevent the metronome being recorded into your loop.
31. Tip #29
Whilst RPPR is great for creating MIDI loops and assigning them to
keys, Ive found using the sampler really fun for creating audio
loops and assigning them to different keys.
A full multi-sample set can be built up really easily by succes-
sively pressing Sample Start/Stop.
Rather than painstakingly loop each sample, Ive found it easier to
create RPPR patterns to re-trigger each sample at the appropriate
time. For example, if you have an audio loop that should be four
measures long on C2, just create an RPPR pattern that triggers C2
for four bars. This ensures your loop stays nicely in sync, whereas
looping the actual sample can cause sync issues over time if theyre
not exactly in sync. You can also then use the ADSR envelope of the
sample to ensure a nice smooth crossfade.
It sounds more complex than it is, but once you get the hang of it,
it can be really fast and lead to great results.
32. Drum kits are great for loops
Creating a custom drum kit isnt just for drum sounds - its really
great for multisamples youve created of various audio loops. There
are a couple of key advantages to using drum kits for loops and
effects:
You can use Exclusive Groups in conjunction with the Hold option in
the HD1 engine to define loops that should stop when another starts
playing. You can give each sample (key) unique parameters for fil-
ter cutoff etc.
33. Kronos as a digital mixer
Like everything else, any adjustments to the Audio in settings can
be recorded directly into the sequencer, essentially making the
Kronos a 6 in, 6 out digital mixer with automation! I use this reg-
ularly in sequences where i have external audio sources connected
and wish to automate volume changes, but dont necessarily wish to
record them to the hard disk recorder yet. Another use case might
be having house music playing over USB from iTunes and have it
automatically fade up by assigning a sequence to a set list slot
that does that.
34. [Rec Write] can be used to delete
When performing loop recording, either in Pattern Edit or in the
main sequencer with Loop All Tracks enabled, you can hold
[Sequencer Rec/Write] to delete the currently playing events.
Really useful for fixing mistakes without starting and stopping
recording.
35. Erase Selected notes in loop record
When performing loop recording, either in Pattern Edit or in the
main sequencer with Loop All Tracks enabled, you can use the Erase
Data checkbox to delete specific notes. When this box is checked,
whichever keys are played on the keyboard will be erased from that
part of the pattern or track. This is an easier way to remove bum
notes than using Event Edit (IMHO), and its also great for working
with drum patterns as it makes it easy to remove a specific part.
36. Keyboard velocity in step recording
When performing Step Recording, you can set the note velocity to be
the same as played by selecting Note Velocity (which will be 64 by
default) and scrolling all the way up past 127 until its set to
Key.
37. Chords in Step Recording mode
In Step Record mode its possible to enter chords one note at a time
- just keep holding the first note of the chord down whilst you add
the additional notes, making it possible to create some pretty com-
plex chords.
38. Tip #36
In Step Record mode, notes of a chord can have different lengths -
experiment with holding different notes of the chord and using the
Tie button. The chord will be completed once all notes are
released.
39. More advanced editing on the PC
It's possible to export a Kronos Sequence as a SMF (MIDI File),
load it into a PC based DAW for advanced editing, re-export it as a
MIDI and load it back into the existing song on the Kronos. If you
load a MIDI file into an existing song, all the parameters remain
unchanged - it's only the track data that changes. IFX routings,
tone adjust settings, track names etc all remain unaffected.
Coupled with the inbuilt FTP server, this makes it quite easy to
perform the odd advanced editing operation on the PC without break-
ing your workflow too much.
40. Tip #38
There appears to be what I suspect is a bug, or at least undocu-
mented behaviour, regarding the interaction between KARMA, the
Global Channel and External MIDI. If "Enable MIDI In to KARMA Mod-
ule" is disabled in "Global" -> "MIDI", there may be issues
receiving external MIDI on the Global Channel if the Global Channel
also coincides with one of the source channels in "KARMA" -> "MIDI
IO". This applies even if KARMA is turned off.
This behaviour has led to many long nights of trying to diagnose
MIDI routing issues!
For this reason I tend to leave both options enabled when "Local
Control" is on, even though the manual selects only having one of
the two options enabled. Your mileage may vary depending on you
particular configuration though.