Korg KRONOS
Music Workstation Synthesiser

The Korg KRONOS was the direct successor to the Korg OASYS.  The Korg OASYS had great prospects based on the ethos behind the way the synthesiser was architected.  However, it was too expensive to have the same impact on the market as the KORG M1.

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The original incarnation of the Korg KRONOS was launched in 2011, two years after the Korg OASYS was discontinued.  

The architecture of the KRONOS followed the architecture of the OASYS before it.  It is based around a real time Linux computer with Korg customised inputs and output boards.  The 3 core engines from the OASYS were ported to the KRONOS, with a further 6 engines added to the instrument, giving 9 different engines that can be combined in many combinations into the patches used by the instrument.

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I initially wanted to buy my KRONOS in 2012, but due to personal circumstances I couldn't.  Then the next version of the KRONOS was released the following year called the Korg KRONOS X.

The other key point to the KRONOS line was that every time Korg updated part of the operating infrastructure of the instrument to provide more features or bug fixes, these updates could be applied to the initial version all the way through to the KRONOS II and the ensuing special editions. 

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I finally purchased my Korg KRONOS II in 2015 and have never regretted buying this synthesiser / workstation. I purchased the 88-key version, although for all iterations of the KRONOS a 76-key and 61-key versions were also available.

If you have owned a KRONOS you will know what I am talking about.  If you have never owned this keyboard you should try this out.

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Korg finally discontinued the KRONOS in 2022.  If your looking to pick one of these up in the second hand market, you will almost pay the retail price new for one of these instruments in good condition.

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And then at the end of 2024 rumours started to circulate that the Son of Kronos or Korg Kronos 3 was being launched.  And just in time for NAMM 2025, Korg finally announced that the Kronos 3 was being launched with shipping starting in July 2025.

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The Korg Kronos 3 is a full hardware upgrade to make its boot sequence quicker and the synth more responsive.  Together with the hardware there is a operating system upgrade and 21Gb of samples to support the new sounds that have been loaded.