Bought KORE today!!

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:50 am

That is all

mo

radiance · Post by **radiance** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 9:47 am

Shit!
Looking at that picture, one can only contemplate all the improvements in DAW systems over these last years...

register · Post by **register** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:14 am

bathyscaaf wrote:I'm looking forward to the review myself, but from what I've read on their site (and watched in their riduclous yet very informative video)

... are you being sarc / taking the piss? I watched that video and thought it was a joke,. I thought it was a bit ridiculous how they thought they could sell some computer music tech on flashy 3d animation. (all those little balls spinning around are supposed to describe kore?)
they've clearly marketed kore very well, and have had a lot of people, myself included, wondering what the hell this new 'must have' plug in is.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:29 pm

bathyscaaf wrote: If the built in audio interface is any good I'll definitely be up for it -

what do you think? do you think you get more then you pay for?

this is the biggest gimmick around right now, and the thread starter is certainly affiliated with native instruments.

amen.

Krugger · Post by **Krugger** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 2:14 pm

er...no - i'm not affiliated with NI.

maybe this will help.

The first thing Kore is for me is a sound card - with 2 separate stereo outputs (headphone and line) and a digital out too - it's got MIDI ports for me to connect my Mackie Universal. Latency is very low (4ms total).
now the m-audio fw 410 is no more used and i can sell it. (i was never using those multiple outputs and was a waste of money/space)

the cool thing is that my sound card is also a box that a hardware controller. Now in terms of deskspace and consolidation of kit, that's already a winner (KORE is tiny - you wont struggle to find space for it)

Now with the remote controlling of VSTs:
Ableton has relative CC midi assignment as an option but not all DAW has this and I use Tracktion 2.
Despite having a Mackie Universal, I hate Mackie's approach of VSTs when it comes to parameters. You cant choose which knobs contols which parameter and instead have to scroll pages after pages of parameters to get to the once you want. (then realise the other param u need is on page 1, so off you go again............)

By getting KORE, my requirements were fulfilled. I'm not dependent on the DAW's capabilities to offer parameter feedback, relative cc etc. I just know KORE can do it and it doesn't matter which platform i dropped it in, I get the same facilities.

I considered Doepfer Pocket Dial (endless rotaries) then realised it's not supported on some DAWs or some VSTs, bla bla bla ... too much if/not/then/else and I gave up. The Behringer BCR2000 looked good with its endless rotaries but then again >> DAW dependent to offer the right features.

Obviously, it's nice to have higher resolution knobs and they're also touch sensitive - just hold any of them and without a single turn, the current value already shows.

Now I know the whole preset saving thing is like "Yeah but i can already save presets" - OK, but FOR THAT DAW only! If u save some midi controller assignments in Ableton for your soft synth then open that synth in Logic, Tracktion, whatever, your presets/settings aren't the same - you have to do it again.
With Kore, you have a central preset area (acts like a middle man) and as soon as you drop it on a track andload an instrument, it loads up all settings, knob/button assignment for that instrument in Logic just like you set it 2 months back in Ableton (for example).

I tried making presets and controller assingments for Albino and Rapture (I mean, non NI synths), works great.
The obvious advantage of having NI instruments is that KORE comes with presets for them. U also get combo presets - for example: an instrument made up of Absynth and Reaktor combined.

Bear in mind you can drop more than 1 synth on a KORE instance and have 1 knob control multiple parameters on those synths. Now that's pretty cool.

Then I tried something else: Using KORE as if it was an effects box
So I dropped KORE on each of the 5 Ableton tracks and instead of loading instruments to it, I loaded effects.

Now imagine this 'road' setup :
1) laptop
2) KORE 'effects box' (that sorts out your sound card in 1 go)
3) midi controller for channel strip + X-Fader (say the Faderfox)

You got KORE on each Ableton track, each KORE instance is named, and you can use KORE navigation controls/LCD to switch instance and use the knobs to blast your effects in and out. You can switch presets per channel and go from Reverb to Chorus to Delay etc.
All this on the KORE controller itself.
You use your MIDI controller normally for channel faders, EQs, x-fading and whatever else u need it for.

There's also a LIVE setting for KORE which I haven't checked out yet and it's meant for Live performances.

With regards to the presets again, it's dead easy to find them:
My Documents >> Kore >> My sounds, My Presets, etc
Easy to backup, share etc. No need to go to all your VSTs and DAW distinct folders to backup separately. All in 1 location.

At the end of the day, like any other product it won't be attractive to everybody. I'm sure you can read my post and think of other ways to accomplish XYZ using different methods, hardware, etc.
But the point I'm trying to make is that KORE works for me and this is why I bought it.
I dont have any benefit or aim to get the whole world to buy it! That's just silly.

Kr.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 2:21 pm

ya - i was kidding. I'm one of those the kore doesnt appeal to..

bonomius · Post by **bonomius** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 2:37 pm

please can you tell me if loading reaktor patches in kore eats less cpu than loading the entire instrument in other hosts?
I think it's great to have all n.i. synths patches assigned to the controller, expecially the reaktor ones, but many of them are really too heavy.

Krugger · Post by **Krugger** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:02 pm

tell me which specific patch to load and i'll give it a go

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:53 pm

register wrote:
bathyscaaf wrote:I'm looking forward to the review myself, but from what I've read on their site (and watched in their riduclous yet very informative video)
... are you being sarc / taking the piss? I watched that video and thought it was a joke,. I thought it was a bit ridiculous how they thought they could sell some computer music tech on flashy 3d animation. (all those little balls spinning around are supposed to describe kore?)
they've clearly marketed kore very well, and have had a lot of people, myself included, wondering what the hell this new 'must have' plug in is.

No, I'm not being sarcastic. If you can get past the monster-truck-rally voice and overproduced graphics, it does give a general idea as to how it is not a DAW replacement or a VST host in the "receptor" sense, or just a MIDI controller -- which is what I hear people descibing it as here and elsewhere. I did call the video "ridiculous" in my first post, BTW.

If you want to know more, read the "chapters" on the website. If you really want to know about it, ask the people that have one or wait for the SOS review.

Look, I din't have one of these things, but I've looked into it enough to know what it isn't, at least.

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:05 am

b0unce wrote:
bathyscaaf wrote: If the built in audio interface is any good I'll definitely be up for it -
what do you think? do you think you get more then you pay for?

this is the biggest gimmick around right now, and the thread starter is certainly affiliated with native instruments.

amen.

Ummm...no. But I don't want to get less than I paid for. That's why I'm looking into it. Asking questions. You know, it is possible to buy an expensive item and have it be worthless.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:45 am

heh, my point was that you shouldnt expect much from the ad/da's included in this monstrosity - because its too cheap to do everything well.

ewistrand · Post by **ewistrand** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:30 am

bonomius wrote:please can you tell me if loading reaktor patches in kore eats less cpu than loading the entire instrument in other hosts?
I think it's great to have all n.i. synths patches assigned to the controller, expecially the reaktor ones, but many of them are really too heavy.

How could it? Kore still loads the plugin, after all.
Kore itself is fairly transparent- the shell's under 1% on my 3500+, and about 2.5% on my ancient 933 PIII.

ew

bathyscaaf · Post by **bathyscaaf** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:34 am

Ahh. Sorry, I read your post as more aggressive. Yeah, I'm not expecting an Apogee or anything. I have an 1st gen Gina 24 from Echo that is just fine for my purposes. Something on par would be fine -- I have a laptop now, so I can't really use my old interface easily (the laptop is significantly faster than my old desktop). I am willing to spend around $500, so I've been looking at all the options out there.

I don't have much outboard gear, just an old micro-moog and some instruments I'm building (not yet functional). I have a series of effects I like to apply to the micro-moog, and the Kore preset dealy sounded pretty ideal for just setting them up as preset "bundles". They are mostly OhmForce plugins, and I've experienced weird problems in Live (I'll save a set, then for some reason after saving, the OhmForce plugins will no longer pass audio), so "hosting" them inside another VST sounds like a solution. I've tried EnergyXT, but it didn't work for me. I guess I could rewire Bidule and try that.

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:31 am

chagos wrote:so can anyone tell us exactly what this monstrosity does and how well it does it?????

do you have to give one of your arms to authorize it like the rest of N.I's bullshit?

SPOTLIGHT FOR YOUR NATIVE INSTRUMENT PATCHES WITH A GIANT USB DONGLE
THAT HAS KNOBS ATTACHED.

totally pointless. native instruments, wtf.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:52 am

I'm in the camp of people who think it's pretty cool. Even though the Novation controller with automapping looks in some ways cooler, for me Kore includes Komplete 3 update for free from 2. If the USB audio works well as an aggregate device under OSX with the X-Station, then I'm set for live audio outputs!

There are other solutions, but I actually am in the camp of people who really like NI products, and the discount is worth it to me.