Roland Fa or Korg krome

Forum for Roland FA-06/08
BigBANGtheory
Posts: 36
Joined: 10:11, 5 December 2014

Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by BigBANGtheory »

When I looked into this many months ago, I basically decided that the Krome looks good, nice screen and some great PCM sounds like 'Paddylicious' and of course the Kronos Grand Piano plus combi's to reproduce well known songs.

The FA08 though does less of what I considered to be superficial or one-off things that the Krome did very well and focused more on the serious stuff. So for example appearance wise the Krome looks better than the FA08, but the keybed feel is light years difference i.e. the Kromes feels cheap.

Personally I think there are things the FA08 can learn from the Krome, but it is imho the superior instrument. I'm sure as/when/if Korg do a replacement for the Krome it may well trump the FA08 I'm not anti Korg in anyway.

btw if anyone knows how to create the Korg 'Paddylicious' sound into an FA08 tone I'd love to know more, I assume it would have to be programmed rather than ported or possibly played somehow from a virtual instrument > DAW > FA08?
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CesarsoundOne
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Joined: 21:29, 9 October 2014

Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by CesarsoundOne »

Roland FA < Korg Krome IMHO
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flyingace
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Location: Central Arkansas, USA
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Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by flyingace »

That is my biggest problem with both of these keyboards being far from ideal for my needs: their keyboards suck. I love my Juno Stage and Jupiter 80's 76 semi-weighted key beds. They are a delight to play. When I owned the Krome 61 & 73, it was clunky, light and a short throw with terrible attention to detail (mold artifacts with sharp edges, wiggle, etc.). The whole FA06 keyboard feels cheap and thin, the shiny black control panels look all scratched up (in the stores that I've seen after only 1 day of being on the floor!) and both keyboards are impossible to see the buttons in the dark or when placed under another keyboard, only the Krome wins this battle by having lit buttons and the touch screen. BUT that touch screen has so much info crammed in that it's hard to quickly hit the right thing, a cleaned up display choice (like the Jupiter) for performing would be ideal.

I have come to understand that there is not a single PEFECT keyboard out there, they all have brilliance and quirks. I think it's a conspiracy to make sure that we buy more than one! :) ha ha

Someday if Korg will improve the keyboard, offer a new interface and add some color and easy to see controls for stage play, I would consider owning again. For now my Roland Juno Stage, Jupiter 80 and Korg SV-1 are more or less working for me. It will take some kind of brilliant design to make me sell any of those to buy another .
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topaz
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Location: england
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Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by topaz »

I had the FA-06 for 14 days, today it was swapped for a krome 61

I had not played either keyboards but after working with the FA-06 and now owning the krome I soon realised that the software and preset programming on the FA-06 lagged way behind the krome.

If someone has the time, knowledge, patience to programme the FA then I'm sure it would be a nice keyboard, why Roland didn't hire some decent sound and OS developers is strange.

Yes the krome has less features, but as far as inspiration, sound design, software design the krome is in a different league altogether.

In my humble opinion.
fa06roland
Posts: 42
Joined: 16:33, 3 November 2015
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada

Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by fa06roland »

I own both, Roland FA-06 and Krome 61 and use both in my live set up for totally different reasons. I have a few more software packages installed on the Krome. The Roland has a wide variety of tones and I like the Juno and Jupiter warm pads and strings much more than the Krome. Touch screen is a much better feature on the Krome for navigating. You do not get the ability to load up samples in order and create a Studio Set on the Krome if you want to change 4-5 different voices in a song or compile multiple voices or layers from song to song. I think the Roland has more advantages for live performing. Both are light weight for travelling in a gig bag. I don't like the fact that the Roland gets easily scratched up. The Krome has been hauled from place to place, no scratches on it. The Roland purports to have some 2000 tones on it and is a composite of many very successful Roland keyboards in it. For the price, the features take my money hands down. I hardly ever use the touch pads but many do, it is definitely an extra feature. Honestly, as a gigging musician, I might select 20 or 30 base tones in an evening, that's 1-2 % of it's capability. I use a Korg M3 76 for pianos and EP and a Hammond Sk2 for B3 emulation. My live setup is 4 keyboards on 2 x Ultimate stands. At this point in time, you might wait to see what comes out at the next NAMM exposition, keyboards seem to change year by year just like cell phones, always "new and better". Whatever you choose, check out and play both at a music store if available. I think the Roland definitely has the edge in this category, I like it a lot and the warm synth and strings taken from the Juno and Jupiter are brilliant. You might also find some good buys which are slightly used, many musicians keep their keyboards in a studio and do not get battered around. Good luck ! just my 2 cents worth this morning. GWN
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scramble
Posts: 88
Joined: 20:21, 16 November 2007

Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by scramble »

topaz wrote:I had the FA-06 for 14 days, today it was swapped for a krome 61

I had not played either keyboards but after working with the FA-06 and now owning the krome I soon realised that the software and preset programming on the FA-06 lagged way behind the krome.

If someone has the time, knowledge, patience to programme the FA then I'm sure it would be a nice keyboard, why Roland didn't hire some decent sound and OS developers is strange.

Yes the krome has less features, but as far as inspiration, sound design, software design the krome is in a different league altogether.

In my humble opinion.
Can't say I agree. I have both an FA and a Krome, and I think they're both of pretty similar standard. (If I had to choose, I'd say the FA edges it).
bill555
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Joined: 20:17, 12 June 2017

Re: Roland Fa or Korg krome

Post by bill555 »

bump

Given me more to think about, thx. sigh. I wish I could "rent" these each for a few months at a modest cost so I could really sit down and give them a valid test run. For me that's all but impossible in a store.
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