Check out this post on Digital Music Mag. Hmm... Yeah, I'm with him, this would definitely suck. However, if there are dependencies on the hardware for DSP, that would make sense, but something tells me that's not the case. I haven't done much research on Kore. The Korg Legacy is a great example of doing it right. You can play the soft synths with or without the controller connected.
I shall now reveal NI's ultimate strategy:
ReplyDelete1) Their move to a KORE architecture really just means that they have a visual programming language to build synths/effects/gui's, etc...
2) This visual language, unlike most DSP code, is PLATFORM INDEPENDENT, and could be COMPILED to run on ... wait for it ... accelerated hardware.
3) I conclude that eventually NI will offer a hardware accelerator, similar to Kyma, ideally using FPGA's (vs. generalized DSP's), and re-configure the hardware on demand to provide radical performance improvements, easily 10x to 50x what today's top CPU's are capable of.
4) Before an FPGA solution is realized, it may be safe to hedge bets and run on the ProTools DSP accelerator cards. This will radically increase NI's market value, and possibly make a strategic acquisition by Avid likely.
5) This hardware accelerator strategy will effectively nullify Wave's box, and also put a bit of a pressure on Muse as the 'Kore' virtual UI will also manage VST's and AU's on the PC's they reside on, as well as the hardware accelerated versions. Unlike Waves and Muse, you'll be able to 'open' the ensembles on your computer and tweak their internals, which is something you can't do in a closed-source instrument or effect.
If NI representatives are purusing this tack, or would like to, I encourage them to kontact me 800 966 1337 as I can help make this a reality.
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After all the buzz and stuff about Kore, i still can't figure out what it does besides being a knobby box boxed with a preset sorting gui software.
ReplyDeleteSo, out of ignorance i say: Kore is Krap ?
nice phone number doktor phuture, i like leet phone numbers.
I'm pretty sure about Korg Legacy working without the MS-20 controller plugged in. The demo obviously works and I beleive there was a software only version out there as some sort of promo deal.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely confusing and the info the NI website doesn't help. To me it looks like:
ReplyDelete1. USB audio/midi interface for your computer
2. Appication that runs on your computer that hosts vst/au plugins (can also run as a plug-in itself for hosting by your DAW)
3. A control surface for the above software
4. A patch manager librarian that places all the patches from the hosted plug-ins into a common format (.ksd)
5. A common editing interface to any of the hosted plug-ins
Now this is where it gets confusing as NI talk about transfering between computers and live usage. My guess is that either the KORE dongle contains a file system that stores a copy of the plug-ins and these .ksd patch files, or the actual plug-ins must also be installed on each computer.
For live usage I'm guessing you still need a computer to run the actual vst/au plug-ins. Though the picture on their website is ambiguous as no computer is shown - except a single USB lead coming out of the back of the KORE dongle.
It's not a Raptor/Kyma/Powercore/APA32 type thing. Though I agree with the doktor that it could become one.
Most over-hyped thing for ages, in my view. Sure it's got knobs to kontrol plugins (I have those already), and audio interface (yup, that too). Ok, so it's a plugin host (got plenty of those, ta), it can layer and split multiple instruments (can do all I need to in Logic thanks very much).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure 8 FM7's layered might sound nice, and making patches with multiple softsynths would sound fat and thick but it's the same old thing we had in the late 80's - once people kould layer synths via MIDI, everyone was using sounds from nice synths at once, and finding you couldn't really fit them in the mix. Not to mention the CPU requirements with the kurrent generation of synths and komputers.
Ok, so they've named and meta-data-ed all the patches in NI Komplete (I don't have that). They let Kore create a dumbed-down EZ-GUI for all my plugins - oh except all of my heavily used Logic plugs, which you'd still have to use independently (not Kore's fault I know, but losing points for konsistency and integration).
So, if you have Kore on two platforms, you can load your KSD file and play the same sounds exactly. *If you already have the plugins installed on both systems*. How is that different to loading up your .aupreset/FXB etc patches already?
I suppose the only useful feature it has, is that in Logic, you could finally use Mac VST's, which would probably be useful for the last few holdouts where plugs haven't been ported to AU.
Look, I understand that the whole preset handling in plugins, and the fact that you have to deal with a kompletely different interface from plug to plug is messy, and I laud an attempt to try and tackle it. I just don't see Kore doing anything klever to the koncept - all it does is add yet another layer to the kake.
Now, of course, maybe if I used it I'd see a wealth of elegance and neatly implemented features. But the fact that there's already an update released *on the day of release* and reports have already come in that's it's rather buggy, it just makes me wanna shrug my shoulders...
I've seen lotsa posts of people going "Oooh! Gotta buy this" and I can't help thinking that because they've been told it's kool and the kontroller has nice lights that they should get it, without really understanding what it is or whether it kan help their workflow.
KORE? Kare? Kouldn't kare less, I'm afraid.
ymmv - obviously.