Komplete Kontrol & MK3 Feedback Continued...

I'm in no way sticking up for NI when I say this:

If NI said what you wanted, say they said they know there’s issues and they hope to have them fixed by the end of Feb, if they didn’t meet their estimated deadline, for every customer that appreciates it wasn’t a guaranteed date, there will be another customer ranting about how they were told NI would have it fixed by Feb, and how they’re never going to use NI again etc etc etc.

I bought the Korg Kronos 88 note, it wasn’t cheap, it turned out there was a serious problem with a lot of the 73 and 88 note keybeds that made them unusable including mine. Quotes below all from korgforums.com from 2011/2012

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My dealer has kindly agreed to replace or refund my K88. He is going to send my keybed report to KORG US. I am assuming and expecting that they already know about it as there is a group of active KORG reps here (ignore the Sales guy who shows up only if there is something to sell out here) and they already know about the issue.

KORG's silence on the subject is very noticeable.

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Lesson learnt: I will not be the first one to try out anything new from KORG. I refuse to give my heard earned money to KORG unless I see at least 1000 happy users talking positive about the new unit in the future

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Got K73 today - after returning the K88 with faulty keybed having problem of muted keys.

Same problem with this new K73! In fact this time I can physically feel the hammer hitting twice under my fingers and ALSO hear the muted key strokes triggering the note TWICE. The hammer mechanics of Kronos is fundamentally flawed, period.

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Korg is making a big mistake now. 

They pretend that nothing is happening. 

But almost every day brings new reports of various defects of Kronos. 

Just read this forum.

silence is stupidity or cowardice. That's my opinion.

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The problem is with todays society, most large companies wont ..and employees are told "Not To Respond" or answer complaints such as these keybed issues(jus sayin')... for fear of being libel..or sued. 

This causes people to become impatient with each other, panic and get upset..wondering what is going on...and rightly due, as we just want to know and hear answers.

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Unfortunately, Korg's handling of this situation has made it a complete debacle. Once you are outside the return period with your seller, you are stuck dealing with Korg customer service. They give you no information other than to point you to a service center, which, given the complete lack of information, isn't very useful. If Korg understands the nature of the problem, they should let users know. If they don't, why are they telling people to bring their keyboards to service centers? If it is a software issue, that would seem like a waste of time. Nobody knows except Korg and their silence is deafening.

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There have been speculations about why Korg has been so silent lately. I really don't believe that the reason for this is damage control or "keeping face". There are a lot of potential buyers reading this thread and I can only imagine, what they must be thinking. It's scary stuff to read, but even more scarier to see how Korg has failed to inform its customers in time. This is surely one thing, that scares buyers away: not acting like a responsible corporation.

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Posted Nov 21st 2011 (problem first reported on 23rd September, so two months ago)

I'm posting this on behalf of Korg Inc.:

Some Kronos users have been discussing a problem with sounds cutting off prematurely when playing a Kronos 73 or 88. Korg is now very aware of the problems, we have seen the videos and the problems directly. The number of reported issues is less than 1% of all Kronos sold and so identifying the exact cause of the problem has been so difficult that proposing a solution that we know works for all people has been even more difficult. Our engineers are working tirelessly to rectify the problem, and we have no intention of leaving any Kronos owner dissatisfied. We believe that we will have some possible solutions in mid December this year. We ask that you please keep watching this forum for updates, and please contact your local Korg distributor if you are experiencing this problem:

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KORG! Today is the day you promised a solution to this problem. I really wish you will keep that promise. I've been waiting for a solution even more than the 1.5-update, since my Kronos has been in the repair shop for 4 weeks. 

Every day has been a frustrating one, since projects I would have loved to do with my Kronos are all on hold at this moment. If I can't get my workstation repaired SOON, I'm going to try to return it. Yes, the return period is already over, but this baby was dead on arrival, so there are legal reasons to get it returned. I hope I won't have to do that though. Just keep your end of the bargain. I did mine by buying your product and sticking to it until this day.

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Jan 6 2012

Thank you for your inquiry regarding your KRONOS 88. We do not have any additional updates for you yet, and we ask for your continued patience while Korg Inc. works on a solution. As soon as more information is available we will let you know. Thank you for supporting Korg.

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Jan 12 2012 (3 months and 19 days since problem first reported) and still not an official response

BIG NEWS!

I talked today with my local supplier (Finnish DLX Music) about the keybed issue, and he informed me that he contacted the Finnish distributor of Korg. According to the distributor, there are completely new keybeds on their way from Sweden, and my keybed will be echanged in 1-2 weeks. This should remedy the problem. Don't know if this is a new design of the RH3 keybed, but I have a gut feeling it is.

Still, it's really weird, that Korg hasn't given an official announcement here or anywhere else yet. What are they waiting for?

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Only reason I picked on Korg is the hell I personally went through to get my key bed fixed (after 2 faulty ones, my dealer gave me a mk2 Kronos that finally fixed the problem). There’s also numerous reports about other companies releasing their products without including things promised in the advertising etc and acting in the same sort of way.

The Kronos fault was first reported on 23/9/2011, the first public acknowledgment was 2 months later and they didn’t start replacing keybeds until late Jan 2012.

Why am I typing all this? Well I understand the frustration of some mk3 S series users, but compared to a lot of other companies out there, at least NI haven’t kept quiet and said nothing.

Imo they’ve been fairly open in what they have said and again, compared to other companies I’ve dealt with over the years, NI are up there with the best. Ok I agree that just because other companies act so bad, shouldn’t be a reason to praise less bad companies, but the sad fact is, in the modern world we live in, like it or not, that’s how most businesses now conduct themselves. Do I wish things were different, yes I do but they’re not.

Years ago if I got annoyed with a particular company I vowed never to use them again, nowadays I think that attitude is cutting my nose off to spite my face, I’d end up never banking anywhere, never buying anything etc. I took a building society to the ombudsman and won, I also used the same building society a few years later for my mortgage as they had the best deal.

Wednesday I purchased my mk3 s88, when Amazon delivers a power supply today (no USB C ports in my PC) I will power it on and see what’s what.

OK, I bought it knowing what people are experiencing, from my perspective (have Maschine but never used the integration with my s61 mk2), I’m really excited, especially about the NKS2, love the bit on NI vid where he is accessing Arturias CS-80 and all the various parameters have been grouped, so I just press one of the buttons to select say VCO. I love making my own sounds or messing around with presets, this one thing will be a real game changer for me and I can’t wait to try it out.

Personally I’m very hopeful that in the months and years to come, the mk3 will stand out as a superb instrument.

Lol I got asked the same questions about what Im using and that's about all the help I got lol. You sent this 1/8 and Im no further 1/14!

Trust me I want my things fixed but im now coming on two months of owning this and the only thing that works is going back to previous versions. Still waiting for NI to accept my return or fix their broken product.

WELL WELL WELL.

I have returned to say that @Matthew_NI took my sad and mad self, lulled me into a trance, scanned my computer, sent it to the Boys in Berlin, and they recreated my hardware, found the issue, did some genius things and then boom my computer got a patch and it ended up solving my issue.

I was about to give up on NI and while I had a horrible start, NI will actually take a look into it if it can't be solved through support and they will figure out a patch to solve it.

I can finally play my Kontrol S49 through KK without my DAW crashing. It's a beautiful thing.

@Matthew_NI is good at what he does. I don't even have the patience to deal with me, yet he did.

I told him I could kiss him.

bring back the Sub Bank,