Hi guys I’m looking into getting a keyboard or a controller to use in live gigs is it worth getting a synth like the korg kross with a built in audio interface? does anyone use the korg kross in a live situation? any other recommendations.
Thanks in advance
Havent used the Korg Kross, But use a Montage M live. The Montage M is a perfect keyboard for live use as you can quickly create Live Sets and switch sounds on the fly. It is also a no brainer when it comes to quickly creating layers and splits. It pretty much has all of the basic sounds you would need and has pretty much every control a person could want.
A controller + laptop would take more setup time but is more customizable and are able to utilize stems if that is important to you.
Also the Montage is heavy about the biggest gripe. It s light compared to a 20 year old workstation but it is heavier than about any modern midi controller so would be more of a pain if you need to move around.
Do you use GP with your M? (6 or 7?) or mostly use the M’s onboard sounds? I’m still learning my M8x, but its looking like it’ll be a killer controller as well…so now I’m thinking of adding an M6 for the upper tier as my NI KKmk2 can really piss me off sometimes. Would like to hear more stories integrating the M with a laptop/softsynths setup.
So far i just use my Montage M7 by itself or depending on the gig with a Korg Prolouge or a Korg Kronos.
My plan is to use Gig Performer in an all software setup and maybe pull sounds from the Montage M ESP Plugin.
This would be alot lighter than the heavy Montage.
What you dont like about KKmk2?
im considering KKmk3 s88.
I had some issues with my pedals on my last show, but it was probably user error. But having to use komplete kontrol software to troubleshoot on the spot was not ideal. And up to now I still keep hitting the damn touchstrip accidentally. A lot of things seem to have been addressed with mk3, especially the polyaftertouch, so I might still look into it, but I’ve accumulated a bunch of synth controllers (soundforce etc) that I don’t really need a fancy controller, just a good keybed (no one makes a waterfall polyaftertouch unfortunately).
I was hoping the ESP would equal a portable M8x, so I’m still experimenting with that coz I’d rather not spend another 3 grand on an M6. But as you probably know, it isn’t exactly the most efficient plugin at its current state. The plethora of knobs and sliders, especially the Superknob, would be fun live tho…& makes me think how best to integrate it with GP.
Yeah I wish the M7 implemented Poly aftertouch.
Also it seems that there is a somewhat lack in diversity of high end controllers. There seems to be a ton of options if you want 49 keys or less, or even if you need 61 keys there is a lot of choice. But if you need more than 61 keys, you pretty much have to go with an 88 key model and they are mainly fully weighted. There are practically no 76 key synth action models and few options of semi weighted and many don’t include aftertouch and poly aftertouch is even less.
That said many lower end hardware keyboards don’t even have mono aftertouch, so I guess midi controller manufacturers somewhat follow suit but it would be great if someone made a good 76 key synth action controller with afterouch (poly would be nice as well).
Yeah I’m not sure why NI got rid of the controller editor and relied on Komplete Kontrol software to manage a controller. In some ways it does make sense but it doesn’t seem the most intuitive.
I’m betting my money that they plan on releasing ESP as a plugin option for folks without the hardware. The free ESP software is a good perk, but I think there are too many use cases for where a user will not buy the hardware (mainly if they are studio users and limited on space). That said the ESP software at is current state is a glorified preset player which is a shame because the Montage is a pretty powerful synth environment especially for building layers and splits. ESP software is also resource heavy. It uses more CPU use than Diva in its current state. I actually find the An1x is the least resource hungry presets. FMX and AWM patches uses a bit more resources but all are fairly heavy. I mean for a fairly modern CPU (Apple M series or a relatively modern Intel i7) they will work fine.
Matter of fact it was the M3 processors where I noticed the heavy use. Where M3 processors are highly efficient for most VSTis, performance only seemed slightly better than my Intel i7 PC from 2019, where on most other plugins there are pretty significant differences. I’m guessing they will optimize the code down the line but I guess not too bad for their first VSTi plugin (although Vocaloid is pretty intense too but it isn’t designed for live use so that is somewhat understandable).
I’d say right now there are more powerful FM synths in VST land but there is basically nothing that lets you combine FM, Analog, and decent sample playback (with great built-in presets) all in one engine except maybe Reason with Algorithm. So I think if they get this right and not make the plugin too expensive, they will have a nice hit.