Korg Kronos Tutorial Working With Samples

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Click Here To Download our Korg Kronos Demo Sound Set

How To Load The Demo:

1- Save the Kronos Sample Demo to your USB drive and then Insert your USB drive into one of the USB slots in the back of Kronos
2- Choose “Disk” and select your USB drive
3- Find the Kronos Sample Demo Folder and choose “Open”
4- Choose the “V1DEMO.KSC File” and choose “Load”
5- Highlight Box “Load V1DEMO.PCG too”. Set PCG Contents to “All”. You can also load the KSC and PCG file separately if you like.
6- Select KSC Allocation: Clear RAM – Load Method KSC Setting
7- Choose “OK”
8- Data will load into your RAM Memory & USER-G Bank. Do not touch anything while data is loading.

Demo Package Includes:

1- WAV folder containing twenty Prophet VS WAV files.

2- V1DEMO.KSC file and folder containing all the .KMP files set up as a “Multi Sample” program. This must be loaded every time you start up since the Kronos does not retain sample data in it’s memory when shutting down.

3- V1DEMO.PCG file contains two programs set up to load into your USER-G Bank.

Program 000 – Prophet VS Crystal Pad. Program 001 – Prophet VS Super Pad.

NOTE: When loading the .KSC file, choose the “CLEAR RAM” option.

This demonstration can be used in two ways. You can either just load in the .KSC and .PCG files and get a taste of how we added new Prophet VS multi samples to our upcoming Kronos Vintage Synth Collection. Or, you can follow the steps below and create your own programs from the wav files that we have included. This tutorial will give you a much better idea on how to create new programs using your own samples. It is not meant to be used exactly the same in every situation since there are many different ways to import and set up sample programs, It’s more to be used as a guideline on how to key map samples across the keyboard and get you started with using sample data on the Knonos.

Each WAV file has been sampled from our vintage Prophet VS synthesizer and includes an assortment of C’s and G’s. The files must be “Key Mapped” into the Knonos in order for you to be able to use them in a program or combi. In case your not familiar with how all that works, we’ve created a step by step on how that’s done. Also included is a .KSC file which has the samples already set up as a program and shows an example of what your finished program should look/sound like. Also note the effects, SW1 & SW2, joystick, drum track, KARMA scenes and real time controls that were added to the program to put the finishing touches on everything.

HOW TO CREATE A PROGRAM FROM SAMPLE DATA WAV FILES

1- Save the “Kronos Sample Demo” folder to your USB hard drive or memory stick. Connect your drive/stick to the Knonos USB port. Clear your sample RAM memory before doing anything else!

2- Choose the Disk button and find the “WAVS” folder, find the Crystal Pad folder and choose “open”. Choose the “Multiple Select” button, then choose all the WAV files that are marked with the 16 next to the name and choose “load”, then choose “OK”. The data should load. NOTE: Files with the _ (underscore) next to the name will not load, so don’t choose any of them.

3- Choose the Sampling button and highlight at the very top of the page where it says “000: NewMS” and choose the next available Multisample slot. The “create new multisample” box will pop up. Highlight the stereo button if you have a stereo sample and then choose OK. If your sample is mono then do not check the stereo box. Note that you can “rename” the multi sample by going to the “recording” function on the top/right and choosing “rename ms”. Highlight the “Sample” function. Choose the top sample “PVSPAD1_C2.WAV”. That sample should appear in the Knonos sample function display.

4- Just under the sample you will see the OrigKey and TopKey parameters. Leave them both at  C2 and choose “create”. At that point that one sample should now be “mapped” on C2 (the bottom note on a 61 note Knonos. If you have an extended keyboard with 73 or 88 keys then the sample should also be any note under C2. Play C2 on your keyboard and the you should hear the sample. If you can hear the sample when you play C2 then move on. If not then recheck your steps. You probably overlooked something.

5- Choose the sample arrow option again and now choose the PVSPAD1_G2.WAV sample this time. Set OrigKey to G2 and TopKey to A#2 and choose “create” again. This will map out the second sample between C#2 and A#2 and fill out most of the next octave. Play any of the keys in that range to test.

If you have gotten this far and everything is OK then you probably have a good idea how to finish key mapping the rest. Basically you now have to repeat step five several times where you set the range of the sample with the OrigKey and TopKey functions. The OrigKey is always the same as the original sample name (C3, G3 and so on) and you always “stretch” the TopKey usually three or four notes above the original. Usually a E or A# in this example. Remember that the goal is to fill in all the notes on the keyboard.

Also remember to create your multi samples in the following order:

1- C2 – index slot 1      2- G2 – index slot 2      3- C3 – index slot 3      4- G3 – index slot 4      5- C4 – index slot 5      6- G4 – index slot 6   7- C5 – index slot 7     8- G5 – index slot 8      9- C6 – index slot 9     10- G6 – index slot 10      11- C7 -index slot 11

6- Play the keyboard to see if all the notes are filled in and that everything is correctly tuned. Your getting there, but you may be thinking that this VS Pad thing sure does not sound like much. Yeah, that’s exactly right! To get the sound just right we have to turn this into a Knonos program.

7- Choose the top/right arrow to get to all the sampling options and choose “Convert MS to Program”. Select the program slot where you would like to store the program and choose OK. Then save your program to the Knonos memory by going to “write program”.

8- Select program mode and find your program. Now you can start editing it the same way that you edit any factory program. The first couple of things I would do is name the program and then save everything. Then you can get on to creating that cool pad sound. You now have to create two separate files. 1- A PCG file which will save your program 2- A KSC file which saves the multi sample data.

You don’t actually “have” to create a PCG file right now since this program will stay in your Kronos memory until you load over it with something else, but it’s always a good idea to back up your data.  However, you do have to save your sample data as a .KSC file since the Knonos does not hold the data in it’s internal memory and must be loaded in each time you boot up the machine.

To create and save a .KSC file:

Choose Disk – Select Save

Select “Save Sampling Data”

Name your file. Lets call it DEMOSOUNDS

Choose OK

All your samples should now save to your USB drive or memory stick and you should now have a file on your drive called: DEMOSOUNDS along with all the samples saved as Korg .KMP files.

Now you don’t have to go through all of that the next time you boot up the machine! Just load the file and your ready to start editing the program.

To create and save a .PCG file:

Choose Disk – Select Save – Select “Save PCG”.

In this case your only saving one program bank so uncheck all the program banks except the one bank where your Prophet VS Pad is living. We have chosen the User G bank and have unchecked everything in the program section except the USER G bank. Your not saving any combi, drum kit, drum track, global, set list or wave sequence data so you can uncheck all of the combi and drum kits boxes as well as the  drum track, global, set list and wave sequence boxes. Choose OK.

OK great. You have now backed up all your data and won’t have to start all over again if the power goes off at your house!

At this point the editing and creation of the final program begins. There is much that needs to be done to create a finished program and since programming is an art, the results will vary from person to person. However, here are a couple of tips to get you going. First notice that your program does not quite sound right. As soon as you lift your hand from the keys, the sound cuts off. Not a very natural sounding patch is it? What you need to do is adjust the “amp envelope” settings.

Go to; AMP/EQ and Choose AMP1 EG. This is where you adjust the settings. Below are two pictures. Example A: shows the envelope settings for a pre-edited program and should have the same settings as the program that you have created. Example B: shows what the correct envelope settings should be. Make the adjustments, play the keyboard and now when you release the key, there is a much more natural decay of the notes played. Your program is now staring to take shape.

NOTE: Since the Kronos Editor is not available yet, the screen shots were taken from the Korg M3 Editor. The layout is slightly different then on the Kronos, but the ADSR settings are the same.

Example A:

Example B:

 

There are many more steps involved in finishing up your new program. Adding effects, real time controls, drum track and KARMA settings just to name a few. For those who are interested we have included two finished Prophet VS Pad programs which includes all of the above and more. Just load in the V1DEMO.PCG file into your User G bank and you will see/hear what a complete program should look/sound like.

For those interested in learning how to program, look take a good look at the finished program and you can see how the effects, SW1 & 2, joystick, ribbon and real time KARMA controls look compared to the “bare bones” program that’s created when you first convert your multi sample to a program. That should give you some ideas on how everything works. You can also go ahead and take things to the next level by importing additional multi samples and setting each to play on different velocity levels. This is useful for creating keyboards, drums as well as many other types of sounds.

Well that’s a mouth full! I hope this gives you a much greater understanding of how to work with new multi samples on your Korg Kronos. Setting up one from scratch can be a bit confusing when your first starting out, but like anything else if you keep doing it your bound to get better. If you have any questions or comments please contact us at: support@kidnepro.com and we will be happy to assist.

Happy sampling and good luck!

More info on our Korg Kronos sounds can be found HERE!

 

 

 

 

New Sounds For Arturia Jupiter 8V

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Just Released! Kid Nepro Arturia Jupiter 8V Collection. A hot mix of 100 new virtual analog patches that will kick start your Arturia Jupiter 8V. The Arturia software has received great reviews for its sound quality compared to the original Jupiter-8 and adding our new sounds to the software package brings out it’s best.

The Kid Nepro Jupiter 8V Collection is available as a download via free e-mail delivery. Available for only $25. USD. Or all five of our Arturia V collections for only $100. Get Kid Nepro’s Arturia Bundle Collection containing new sounds for the Minimoog, ARP2600, Moog Modular, Prophet V and Jupiter 8 sound libraries for only pennies per patch! 500 new sounds for only $100. USD.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO & DEMOS

Arturia Moog Modular V – Sound Demos From Our Desktop

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Now that there are many cool apps available which will let you record whatever is happening on your computer desktop, we decided to make good use of them to present some demos of our patch and sample collections. Not only can you hear what the patch sounds like, but seeing what’s being played on the keyboard and controllers opens up whole new dimension to the sound. No overdubbing or multi tracking was done. Everything is played live. Drum sounds are from our Korg M3 “Hit Factory” collection.

The first demo that we did for our Arturia Prophet V collection worked out well, so we decided to continue along those lines with a demo for our Moog Modular V collection. We hope you find them both entertaining and useful in showing what these cool software synths are capable of doing. Stay tuned for many more demos from our software synth and sample sound libraries including our Reason and Kontakt collections.

More info on all our Arturia sounds can be found HERE

Arturia Moog Modular V Video – Mushroom Moog

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The very first time I had really “heard” a synthesizer played on a record was in 1970, when I picked up Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s first album. Sure, I had already heard many synthesizers played on classic albums from The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Beach Boys, but on those records the synthesizer was used mostly as a background to the vocal track – so I really did not take notice of just how cool a synth could sound. That was before I heard Keith Emerson’s solo on Lucky Man. When I cranked up my old Bose 901 speakers it just blew my mind. I can still remember saying “What is that”????? “That” was Keith playing a Moog Modular Synth. One of those defining moments.

Moving ahead forty years, I was (almost) able to get my hands on a Moog Modular synthesizer and create a library of sounds for it when Arturia released a virtual version of the classic synth. It may not sound quite a good as the original, but for a software version it does sound very good. It also did not cost me nearly as much as what the original is going for these days. I just noticed one on ebay going for 30K! For those kind of prices, I’ll be happy using the software version.

More info on our Moog Modular V collection can be found HERE.

Arturia Prophet V Video Demo

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A new video to demo our Arturia Prophet V Collection. Click Here for more info on our Prophet V Sounds.

New Arturia Prophet V Sounds From Kid Nepro

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Just Released! Kid Nepro Arturia Prophet V Collection. A cool mix of 100 new virtual analog patches that will spice up your Arturia Prophet V. This is our 4th release for Arturia’s V Synths following the Minimoog V, ARP2600 and Moog Modular V sound libraries. Included are 40 Prophet-5 Patches, 40 Prophet-VS Patches and 20 new Hybrid mode sounds which bring this collection to a new level in virtual analog sound.

The Patch King has owed several different Prophet’s over the last 30 years and still has a Prophet VS rack in the studio. The collection of sounds that Nepro has programmed for the Arturia V collection is done with expert care from someone who knows the Prophet-5 and Prophet-VS very well – so you can be sure that the sounds are well crafted and sound great.

One of the great things about the Prophet V is that you can import sysex files that were programmed on the original Prophets. We then took our original Prophet-5 and Prophet-VS sound collections and imported the best patches to use as a starting point. The patches were then tweaked using the new Prophet V parameters using the added modulation routings as well as the new delay and chorus effects using the joystick and aftertouch – none of which were on the original synths.

The Kid Nepro Prophet V Collection is available as a download via free e-mail delivery. Just open the file in your Arturia software and your ready to roll! Available for only $25. USD. Or all four of our Arturia V collections for only $80. Get Kid Nepro’s Arturia Bundle Collection containing new sounds for the Minimoog, ARP2600, Moog Modular & Prophet V sound libraries for only pennies per patch! 400 new sounds for only $80. USD.

More info and audio demos at: www.kidnepro.com

Korg Kronos Released At Winter NAMM

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The winter NAMM show has started out with a big bang with Korg announcing their next generation workstation, the Kronos. Looks like us synth programmers will have our work cut out for us with no less then NINE different synth engines combined into one instrument. All that plus the combination of KARMA and One Gig of sampling memory adds up to one very powerful instrument.

Kid Nepro has been working with Korg’s synths since 1985 and has programmed sounds for nearly every Korg workstation since the groundbreaking M1 was released in 1988 – so we just wanted to let everyone know that we will be continuing our support for Korg’s next generation workstation and creating several new sound libraries for Kronos. Stay tuned for announcements later on in the year. Get on our mailing list and we will keep you posted with more details on what’s coming for Kronos. It’s going to be awesome!

More info on Kronos can be found at Korg’s web site.

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

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Many people might not know the name Vince Guaraldi, but I’m sure they have heard and loved his music since Vince is the one who composed and performed all that great music for the Charlie Brown TV specials back in the 60’s. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” being the one most beloved by millions.

Vince was a great jazz pianist and composer and could swing with the best of them. He even had a hit on the pop charts with his cool “Cast Your Fate Into The Wind”, which (I guess) is how he got the Charlie Brown gig. Hiring a jazz trio play as the background for a cartoon was unheard of at the time and CBS should be credited with trying something new. Turned out it was a match made in heaven. The specials greatest legacy is that they are still being played today, nearly fifty years later. I, like many others look forward to seeing “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on TV this time of year. Just one of those things you never get tired of watching.

If I had to pick a favorite moment in the Christmas special, it would have to be the part where Linus tells Charlie Brown “what Christmas is all about”. The universal theme of “Peace On Earth – Good Will Towards Men” is something that we can relate to – especially in todays troubled times. Many years ago I picked up  The Vince Guarlidi Trio Charlie Brown Christmas CD and always have it on this time of year. It’s some of the best arrangements of classic Christmas music that you will ever hear – so if you have not has the pleasure be sure to pick it up. Great stuff!

As a pianist and composer, I’ve always been influenced by Guaraldi’s work. His music is probably one of the first things that I can remember hearing, having grown up watching those specials on TV way back when. Before I even knew who Guaraldi was, I loved his music – so it was a real treat for me when I finally went out and picked up the sheet music to Guaraldi’s arrangements of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” early this year. I’ve been having a blast playing through all the songs on my old acoustic piano.

After learning most of the arrangements (some of them are pretty hard), I wanted to pick one which I could re-arrange, record and add a bit of my own style to – so I decided to go with “Greensleeves”. I booted up my Korg M3 and Yamaha Motif workstations and went to work recording everything in MOTU’s Digital Performer. Once I had the drum and bass parts recorded everything came together easily. The piano part was a bit tricky since the original arrangement was in “three” (a jazz waltz) and I changed the rhythm to a “slow four” (pop feel), but eventually it came together.

Once I finished recording the music I thought a video would be nice as a Christmas message so I surfed around YouTube and found a bunch of video from the special. I grabbed a few clips and edited everything together on my Mac using Apples Final Cut Express. The project was lot’s of fun from start to finish. I hope you enjoy it as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together.

Peace On Earth – Good Will Towards Men. We need it more then ever now.

Merry Christmas From Kid Nepro!


The RAM Cards Are Gone – Why You Should Buy A Midi Interface

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Just about every week, we get several e-mails from someone looking to buy our sounds on the old RAM cards. I usually respond and explain that the cards have not been made in many years and are no longer available. I also mention that all our sounds are available in other formats including system exclusive (sysex) or standard midi files and that all you need to load them into their synth is a “midi interface”.

All of those old RAM cards have a battery inside of them. It’s usually a small “lithium” battery about the size of a US nickel. The battery usually has a lifespan of about five to ten years. After that, they go dead and whatever data you have stored on the card is lost.

A midi interface is not as complicated as you think. As you can see in the picture, It’s just a little USB device that you connect to your computers USB port. You then run a midi cable from the midi interface “midi output” to your synths “midi input”. Takes about two minutes to set up everything. There are two types of midi interfaces. One is a actual piece of hardware consisting of a small box or rack mount device that has midi inputs and outputs. You only need a simple one that has one midi in and out. However, if you have a lot of synths and samplers and plan on recording them using midi, you can purchase a larger midi interface which can have up to sixteen in’s and outs. The second kind of interface is just a simple USB to Midi cable. This should also do the job for simple sysex dumps, but I have not had the opportunity to test this yet so it’s possible you may run into problems with certain midi devices if you go this route. A USB to mid cable can be purchased for under $20. Midi interfaces are a bit more, but you can find a simple one that will do the job for around $75. USD. That’s about the same amount of money that you would spend on one or two RAM cards!

As I mentioned, we provide you will a software app with your order that lets you load in the sounds from the computer to your synth. The apps are available for both the Mac or PC users. We also provide instructions on how to set up everything to get your computer and your synth talking to each other. This does take a bit more time to sort out everything, but most users have things set up within an half hour or less. The set up is a bit different depending on which synth or computer you have, but most synths are pretty easy to deal with – the older ones only have a few midi parameters so it’s easy to access the midi section and see what’s going on inside.

If you do wind up having a problem once you get our sounds, we don’t forget about you. I’m happy to answer as many e-mails or phone calls as it takes to get you up and running. Our customer support is as good as it gets.

3- Once you have your midi interface up and running you will now be able to do lots of cool stuff with your computer. Not only can you now load our sounds into your synth, but you can also use the software that we give you to “save” whatever sounds you have in your synths memory to your computers hard drive. The midi interface and software app will work with just about any synth that has midi, so you can now do a “bulk dump” to load and save sounds from any synth you happen to have in your rig that has a midi port.

After you get used to using our app to load and save sounds you can then take the next step and get yourself a “librarian” or “editor”. A librarian is a software app which lets you take several banks of sounds and choose the ones you like most to create your own “custom sound banks”. Need a bank of sounds with just organ or piano sounds? No problem. Just use your librarian to drag and drop all your keyboard sounds into one custom sound bank. Some librarians are sold by music software companies, but there are also lot’s of free ones that can you can download online. An “editor” not only lets you set up your own custom sound banks, but you can also access all your synths parameters and “edit” them to create your own sounds. This is what we use when we create the sounds that we offer for sale. Who knows, maybe you can become the next Patch King! Just like librarians, editors can be purchased or found online for free. The ones that are for sale usually have lot’s more features. Some of them, like Mark Of The Unicorns “Unisyn” or Sound Quests “Midi Quest” are both librarians and editors and work with hundreds of different synths and are the top choice among musicians who want to store and edit sounds with their computers.

Unlike the old RAM cards which will just hold a small number of sounds, your midi interface lets you store all your sounds on your computers hard drive – so you can now store an unlimited number of sounds on your drive and access them with a few click of the mouse. You also don’t have to worry that the battery is going to go dead (like on the RAM cards) and you will lose all your sounds. Also remember that your synthesizer has an internal battery with a lifespan about the same amount of time (5-10 years) as the RAM cards. When your synths internal battery goes dead, just like the cards, you lose all the sounds in the synths memory. When this happens, all you have to do is replace the battery and reload the sounds again using our software app and your back in business!

There are many other good reasons for purchasing a midi interface that I won’t go into at the moment. Your welcome to call or e-mail us if you need any more info and I’ll be happy to fill you in.

Click Here To Get To Our Main Catalog Page

Deconstructing Sgt Pepper

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This has always been one of my favorite Beatles tunes, so it was a real treat for me when one of my Facebook friends posted the link. As a recording engineer and Beatles fanatic, I wondered exactly how this was done. My best guess was that someone got hold of the master tapes and was able to isolate the four tracks. I didn’t think it could be done with software ripping apart the stereo mix. It sounded too good. And that ending – It blew my mind! No way you can do that with software. I’ve been listening to the track for 43 years and never heard that ending before. What a great find.

I also thought about how The Beatles catalog has always been guarded by tons of lawyers and if someone did indeed use the master tapes without getting any authorization then I wondered how YouTube would allow this to be posted. Something just did not seem right. I asked a couple of my friends about it and they were like, “Oh Yeah, when they did the remixes for The Cirque De Soleil shows, they actually made everything into Pro Tools Sessions and one thing led to another”. I was like “ohhhhhh right”. Sometimes I’m a little slow.

Anyway, I guess it’s OK with the powers that be that this is allowed to stay online. I’m sure glad it is. To be able to see how George Martin and the boys set up the tracks is a real treat. It’s also a great learning tool. Amazing how they were able to create this landmark recording with only two four track machines. It just proves what you can do with limited resources if you know what your doing. Of course, at the time it was all state of the art. We’ve come a long way in 43 years!

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