Gearank Recommendation
The Kross 2 appeared on our recommended list for Keyboard Workstations Under $1000 from March 2018 until May 2021 when it had been out-ranked by higher rated workstations.
Pros
- Neatly organized panel
- Lightweight
- Battery-powered
Cons
- Steep learning curve
Overview
We featured the Korg Kross 2 61-Key Workstation Keyboard back in March 2018. This lightweight unit can run for seven hours on six AA batteries, which makes it more convenient and portable enough to bring around.
The feel of the velocity-sensitive keys has a decent resistance to it, but I won’t consider them semi-weighted keys.
The panel layout is neatly organized and you can have an overview of the patch categories through the dial.
It features a newly added expanded PCM memory and a pad sampler that allows full-fledged sampling, and USB audio/MIDI interface functionality.
One advantage it has over the first version of Korg is the ability to sample more audio. You are given 16 playable pads. You can take a line in Jack and assign a stereo sample with 14 seconds of memory.
Should you run out of memory, you can insert a removable media such as an SD card. It recognizes SD cards up to 2GB and SDHC cards up to 32 GB.
That’s more than enough for you to make your short, sampled-based backing tracks and stack music easily. It’s also capable of a maximum polyphony of about 120 voices in a single mode.
They also didn’t hold back with its polyphonic arpeggiator modes. You get 4 basic patterns such as UP, DOWN, ALT1, ALT2, and RANDOM, and make your custom pattern with over 1200 of storage.
Despite getting revived, sold out, and revived again, it continues to prove that it’s a worthy contender among the best keyboard workstation selections in the market.
Specifications
-
- Keys: 61 velocity sensitive keys
- Polyphony: 120
- Sound Engine(s): EDS-i
- Controllers: Pitchbend, Mod wheel
- Effects:
134 types (74 x Insert effects, 101 x Master effect 1, 120 x Master effect 2)
- Audio Recording: PCM audio format 48kHz/16bit, WAV
- Audio Playback: Directly play back data from SD card
- Sequencer: 16MIDI Tracks, 128 songs,16 preset/16 user template songs
- Audio Inputs: 1 x 1/4″ Line-in, 1 x 1/8″ Line-in
- Audio Outputs: 2 x 1/4″ Line-out, 1 x 1/8″ Stereo mini phone jack
- MIDI: In/Out
- Other Connections:1 x 1/4″ Damper, 1 x 1/4″ Assignable switch, 1 x 1/4″ Assignable pedal
- USB: USB connector 1x TYPE B
- Power Supply: AC adaptor power supply DC 9V, 6 x AA alkaline batteries or 6 x or nickel-metal hydride batteries
- Dimensions: 36.81″ × 10.59″ × 3.46″
- Weight: 8.38 lbs
