Release notes

New: the combination editor

Open a combination from the Prog/Combi browser and it now opens in a full editor instead of showing its name only.

• A 16-channel mixer. One vertical strip per timbre, laid out like a mixing desk: the program it plays (by name), status (Internal / External / Off), Play/Mute, Solo, a pan knob with the Kronos's own readout, a volume fader, and its MIDI channel. Click a strip to edit that timbre in depth.
• Solo, safely. Solo silences the other timbres on the instrument so you can hear one part alone (or solo a few). It never touches your stored Mute settings; release it and everything is back as it was.
• Activity meters. Each strip has a signal indicator that lights as notes reach its timbre, following velocity, the volume fader, the timbre's key and velocity zones, and sustain-pedal tails. (It meters note activity; the Kronos does not transmit audio levels, nor the notes its own KARMA and Drum Track generate internally, over MIDI.)
• An 88-note keyboard, live. The keyboard sits at the bottom: drag the two ends of a timbre's zone to set its key range, drag the bar below for its velocity range, and watch the keys light up as you play your Kronos.
• Everything a timbre needs. Per timbre: the program it plays (assigned from the same Prog/Combi browser you already know), volume, pan, sends, transpose, detune, bend, delay, its key and velocity zones (with a visual map of the range that triggers it), oscillator settings, and the full per-timbre MIDI filter and track EQ.
• The combi's own controls. Vector joystick and envelope, the control assignments, and the combi's scale, all on their own Common pages.
• The effect chain, reused. The same 12 IFX + MFX 1/2 + TFX 1/2 editor from the sound editor, now for the combination's effects.
• Live where it counts. Timbre edits move the Kronos in real time, just like the sound editor. Your changes build up a draft; the header shows when there are unsaved edits, Revert restores what is on the instrument, and a guarded Write stores the whole combination to a USER slot (with the same read-back verification as programs, so it never commits a bad write).

Also new

• Light theme. A sun/moon button in the top bar switches the editor between dark and light. Dark stays the default; your choice becomes the default for new projects, and each project can keep its own theme (light in one, dark in another).
• Live combi effects. Effect parameters and on/off in a combination now move the Kronos in real time, the same as program effects.
• A better program browser. It widens with the plugin window (more sounds in view when you make it bigger) and has an X to close, alongside click-outside.
• Combi files. Loading a .syx that holds a combination now opens it in the combination editor (rather than as a program).
• Storing a combi now offers every slot in a USER bank (with the name of what's there), and afterwards the Kronos switches to the slot you stored to, just like writing on the instrument itself.
• Set list names are shown in full on their tiles, no longer clipped.
• A 4×4 set list view. A List / 4×4 switch on a set list shows its slots as fixed blocks of 16, laid side by side like paging through the set list on the Kronos. The fill-the-width list stays the default; your choice is remembered.
• Recall on project open. When a DAW project loads, the plugin switches the Kronos to the sound it was saved with, so the instrument matches your session without a click. On by default; turn it off under the ⓘ menu (Settings) if you'd rather the Kronos stay on whatever's selected.

Good to know

• KARMA, the Drum Track, and audio-input routing are not in this release; they are coming in a later update.

Fixes

• Combination timbre Status. Choosing External (EXT) or External 2 (EXT2) for a timbre now sets the matching status on the Kronos, and combinations that use those statuses read back correctly. (In the first 1.4 build EXT had no effect and EXT2 was applied as EXT.)

New: the set-list editor

Open any set list and switch its tab from “Play” to “Edit”.

• Put any sound in any slot. Click a slot's Performance button and the Prog/Combi browser opens as a picker, with all its banks, search and category filters. One click assigns the program or combination; songs are assigned by number, with a choice of which track your keyboard plays.
• Rearrange your show by dragging. Drag a slot onto another to move it, or use Cut / Copy / Paste / Insert, the same operations as the Kronos's own Edit page, with the same behaviour.
• Every slot detail on one screen. Name, the panel's 16 slot colours, label size, volume, hold time, transpose, and the full 512-character comment, no page diving on the instrument.
• The set-list EQ, live on faders. The 9-band graphic EQ, with input trim and bypass, moves the Kronos in real time as you drag, laid out like the panel's EQ page, alongside the list's name and control-surface setting.
• Live where it counts. Move a slot's Volume, Hold time or Transpose, the EQ, the Control assign switch, or the Tempo, and the Kronos responds instantly, just like the sound editor. Assigning sounds, names, colours, comments and reordering build up a draft; the footer shows what is unsaved, Revert restores what is on the instrument, and leaving with unsaved changes always asks first. A single Write saves the whole set list, live tweaks and draft changes together.
• A live tempo, too. A Tempo slider sets the instrument's tempo on the fly during a performance. (Tempo is a global, not part of the set list, so it is not saved and a slot's own program will reset it, exactly like the panel.)
• A guarded write, like everything else. Write to Kronos stores the whole set list to any of the 128 slots (to its own slot, or another as a copy), verifies the instrument received it byte for byte, and only then commits it to permanent memory.
• Set lists as files. Save .syx / Load .syx keep complete set lists on your computer, for backups or for moving a show between machines.

Also improved

• Change an effect's type live. In the effects editor, picking a different effect for a slot now changes it on the Kronos in real time, opened at the new effect's defaults and ready to tweak. The whole effect chain, type included, is now live: build and audition effects by ear without touching the panel. (Storing a chain into a program is still done on the Kronos.)

Good to know

• Live edits go to the set list the Kronos is currently on, which is the one you opened in the app. Storing needs the Kronos's Set List memory protect switched off (Global mode), and writing to the instrument requires an activated license.
• Combination references in set-list slots from banks INT-G and above now show the correct bank letter (a small display fix).

New: the effects editor

Click “FX” in the top bar and the whole window becomes an effects view for the loaded program.

• The whole chain at a glance. All 16 effect slots are always on screen: the 12 insert effects on one row, the two master and two total effects below, plus a Common tile, each showing the effect's name, an on/off light, and chain links. No page diving.
• Tweak every effect live. Move any effect parameter, on/off, pan, bus, sends, or chain, and the Kronos responds instantly, following the panel both ways, exactly like editing a sound. It is the fastest way to dial an effect in by ear.
• Effects for EXi programs, at last. Effects were previously only partially visible for HD-1 programs; now AL-1, SGX-2, CX-3, STR-1, MOD-7, MS-20EX, PolysixEX and EP-1 programs all get the effects view.
• Browse 186 effects by category. A searchable browser with category filters (Dynamics, EQ, Modulation, Delay, Reverb, the dual serial and parallel combinations, and more), by name or by Korg's effect number.
• Every parameter, laid out properly. The selected slot shows its routing and every parameter of the chosen effect, grouped the way Korg documents them; dual effects show one section per half. Compressors to rotary speakers, it is all there.
• Shared controls in one place. The two FX LFOs, the master-effect returns and chain, and the total-effect master volume live behind a single Common tile.
• Two ways in. Besides the FX button, the Flow view's FX stage shows a summary of the active chain, and the Classic view gets an “Effects” tab.

Good to know

• This release is built for live tweaking. The effect sliders open at each effect's default values rather than reading a program's stored settings, and choosing which effect sits in a slot, and storing your changes, are done on the Kronos itself.

Under the hood

• Fixes a long-standing quirk where one of Korg's documented effects was missing from the editor's internal tables, and repairs how some packed effect-routing settings were written.

New: the Prog/Combi browser

“Browse banks” has grown into the Prog/Combi browser, one window for finding, auditioning, and switching every sound on your instrument.

• Browse your Combinations. Every combination bank on the Kronos (INT-A to INT-G and USER-A to USER-G) is now browsable by name, right next to your programs. Click a combination and the Kronos switches straight to it, with the editor putting the instrument into Combi mode for you. It is the fastest way to change patches at a rehearsal or on stage.
• Filter by category, just like the hardware. A row of category buttons (Keyboard, Organ, Strings, LeadSplits, BPM Sync, and the rest) shows every matching sound across all banks at once, with a second row of sub-categories (A.Piano, Real E.Piano, and so on) when you want to go finer. If you have renamed categories on your Kronos, the editor shows your names; it reads them from the instrument.
• See Programs and Combinations together. The new “Both” view puts programs and combinations in a single list, so one click on a category shows everything you own in that style, each row tagged Prog or Combi.
• A cleaner layout. Banks now sit in a compact rail on the left (just the letters, grouped Internal / User / GM), leaving the categories front and centre where you will use them most.
• The GM banks have their own button. The read-only General MIDI banks do not carry category data, so they get a dedicated GM filter button instead.
• The editor follows your hardware. Turn the dial on the Kronos in Program or Combi mode and the browser highlights the sound you land on.
• Import all banks covers everything. One click reads every program and combination name from the instrument, and the button now pulses while the import is running so you can see it working.
• Double-click to change and go. One click switches the Kronos to a sound and keeps the browser open for auditioning; a quick double-click switches and closes the browser in one motion.

Improvements

• Combinations join your Recent list. A combination you select appears in your recents like a program does, so you can jump back to it later; the editor re-enters Combi mode on the Kronos automatically. (Combinations are not editable in this version; the editor shows them by name, view-only.)
• Favorites for combinations. Star a combination in the browser or the Recent list and the Favorite flag is written back to the instrument, the same safe way program favorites are saved.
• Get from Kronos understands Combi mode. Pressing it while your Kronos is on a combination now pulls that combination, not a leftover program.
• Tidy your Recent list. Hover any recent row and a small ✕ appears to remove it from the list; the sound itself is untouched.
• Safer favorite stars in the Recent list. A recent's star now only works on the entry you have selected, so a stray click cannot write a Favorite to a patch you were not looking at.

Fixes

• Small visual polish across the browser and the footer.

New: the riff engine

Erupting spike tips are quantised onto a swung 16th-note grid and recorded into a riff that loops. The physics decides the rhythm and the energy; your chord decides the pitches.

• The riff loops. Choose a 1, 2 or 4 bar loop, and set vary from a locked hypnotic riff to a line the fluid never stops rewriting.
• Hold a chord, get the groove. The riff arpeggiates the notes you hold over a 1 to 3 octave range, and follows your chord changes: same rhythm, new pitches. A bass anchor holds each downbeat.
• Play it like a synth. The keyboard now sounds the super saw directly, scale-snapped, with real sustain and sustain-pedal support, balanced against the groove by the new Keys control. Latch keeps everything rolling after you let go.
• New presets, led by Ferrofluid Dub. Nine reworked factory presets. Ferrofluid Dub, the slow swung echo-soaked one, is the new default patch.

Improvements

• Universal binary. One installer now covers Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
• Tighter timing and truer tempo sync. Notes land exactly on the grid, swing is proper MPC-style shuffle, and the echo is a true dotted eighth of the beat.
• A wider, darker super saw. A stereo ensemble widener, filter key-tracking, and a tone control with real authority from dark and plucky to wide open.

Fixes

• The footer controls no longer overlap the logo.
• The riff no longer freezes at high vary settings.