Replacement for Kore

[DrGonzo]

After the whole damned story of killing Kore, I've been in a limbo. Yes, the current version works excellente - and it's probably safe for a few more years if you don't change your os too often (speaking of OSX here).

But I really don't want to spend time and energy creating a fab library of my favourite instruments that might break in a one or two years. I do plan making music after december 2012 after all

So what are the alternatives? Big Tick Zen has its moments, but to tell the truth - every time I launch Zen I always start missing Kore. I've been thinking of saving my favourite sounds as presets in Live, but it's not even close as it is with Kore.

I've tried building up a similar way of working with Maschine - but I never felt too comfortable doing that either.

Since the news of Kore no longer being developed. Which routes have you people taken to get similar functionality?

/C

[whyterabbyt]

dont update your OS then.

[DrGonzo]

dont update your OS then.

Actually, that is on top of my list.

[jancivil]

I use Vienna Ensemble Pro to host plugins anyway.

version 5 reads full automation from the DAW host, assigns these in a separate window than the mixer so you have a list of all parameters of the mixer and all the parameters an effect exposes to a host. as a visual it's very useful for a complex mix. as a way to host things in a process outside the DAW it can't be beat.

but I don't know of anything that morphs one thing with another. generally I approached that kind of thing not from the morph but from controllers and automation from the host anyway so I can work with this other thing for a lot of it... but some things are not nearly as convenient, you have to think everything through to another level. The real power of morph I never really used. I'm not expecting anything this significant to come down the pike. It would take the resources, and NI figures they don't want to devote them, who will?

[jancivil]

Fortunately I'm not that compelled to upgrade OS. If I need a new Mac, it's going to have Lion installed, which Kore I think supports. Beyond that is futurism.

[losan]

Well,
the "Kore fiasco" has actually slowed me down in regards to tagging sounds
(I'm a little late with some Alchemy add-ons right now...)
but the x64 version is stable on my system also (Vista x64),
and I decided to keep going - I don't see a replacement for Kore
right now (and I even crossgraded to Maschine, as I needed an drum controller anyway, but it isn't a replacement for Kore - no way !
It's cool for what it is, but it is not a replacement for Kore).
I don't see a need for upgrading my OS - for me Win Vista does fine,
no need for Win 7 right now or further OS (which might go more into the iPad route ?), OSX might be another story, as Apple seems to constantly
upgrade fairly often their OS introducing incompatibilities to applications,
which worked before - the one biggest reason, why I stayed away from a MAC so far .
And for me it's not only about the software - for me it's as well about the hardware controller - as long as this damn thing works I'll be using it for some hands-on control of synths and effects.

My 2 cents,
Cheers

[jancivil]

a light bulb just came on in my head, "the Kore controller". VEP 5 will take instructions from it in the parameter list so I'm going to see if it controls the other channels and effects, for instance Amplitube.

it's one page to refer to, not many pages.

[cryophonik]

I wish NI would develop a Kore mobile app for iOS with the librarian and controller features (with an XY pad).

[sys2074]

I think Kore would be great ... if just done right! But in practice it often makes working with VSTi's more cumbersome. By now three of the touch-sensitive faders have gone completely haywire and act totally erratic. It's not the USB cable, it's not a software update (this behavior started ~one year after I bought Kore), it's definitely a hardware problem. The hardware is - to put it mildly - shite! The faders are not only broken quickly but also slippery. The edges of the aluminum case are sharp. I've never used Kore to it's full potential due to these many reasons.

Maybe someday somebody will make a VST manager/ hw controller and does it right.

I'm trying to concentrate almost fully on Reason now, had enough of crashy VSTi's and Kore crashing down the whole host and audio driver. I just wish there was a dedicated HW controller for Reason.

[aMUSEd]

The future for me is:

a) My Windows laptop with Kore on is staying as it is

b) I bought a Mac as I'm finding apps like Lemur, Konkreet Performer (and potentially Liine Capture but not tried it yet) offer a lot more than Kore in terms of morphing and control (such as with KP morphs that evolve and move dynamically) - the experience using these is a lot less clunky on the Mac than my PC though. There are also some innovative new hosts like pMix that enable complex morphing and sophisticated handling of automation. The downside of all this is a much more fragmentary experience and setup than I had with Kore and more time spent setting stuff up.

For preset management for all its weaknesses I've yet to find a replacement, Zen isn't close yet even if it has some advantages over Kore in other respects.

For building super instruments I'm looking at Mainstage but tbh I like Kore a heck of a lot more, Mainstage is too convoluted to set up and rather clunky so nothing replaces Kore for that yet either (which may mean installing Kore on my Mac too just for that).

For single instruments like Alchemy and Omnisphere their iPad interfaces have enabled me to pretty much take them out of Kore for control purposes, except when I want them to play with others. Alchemy is getting a better preset browser soon too (and Omnisphere already has one)

Looking at the list of all the things needed to replace Kore though reminds me of how much it does and how brilliant a host/instrument it is (and what it could have been) - I still think NI were stupid not to develop it further - in pretty much every respect problems like lower sales in the last couple of years were of their own making, as were the technical problems that were down to poor design decisions that they had failed to respond to feedback from users on.

[jancivil]

By now three of the touch-sensitive faders have gone completely haywire and act totally erratic. It's not the USB cable, it's not a software update (this behavior started ~one year after I bought Kore), it's definitely a hardware problem.

I don't know. This did happen with me twice on two different machines. both times were addressed by repairing permissions. both ocurrences were after a reinstallation of Kore and drivers. It could be you got a lemon though. Apart from the one day I had this problem it's been smooth sailing.

[wetdentist]

if Kore 2 becomes incompatible with Windows 8, looks like i will try to always have a Windows 7 computer on hand

[sys2074]

By now three of the touch-sensitive faders have gone completely haywire and act totally erratic. It's not the USB cable, it's not a software update (this behavior started ~one year after I bought Kore), it's definitely a hardware problem.

I don't know. This did happen with me twice on two different machines. both times were addressed by repairing permissions. both ocurrences were after a reinstallation of Kore and drivers. It could be you got a lemon though. Apart from the one day I had this problem it's been smooth sailing.

Care to elaborate? What do you mean by permissions?

[jancivil]

It's a Mac thing, "repair disk permissions". I couldn't begin to say what it really does to solve an issue. But... I didn't do it after the reinstallations and this crazy random knobs behavior happened on both machines, and after I did the issue abated. I know that's just a correlation, but I kind of doubt it's a coincidence. in this case the list of what was incorrect looked longer than usual.

I forget how it would, or even that it would translate to windows. it might be a registry garbage issue.

[DrGonzo]

Thanks for your thoughts here. My latest plan is to guy a Mac Mini and turn it into a sound module for Kore where the OS will never be updated until the unit breaks down.

/C