I had a Kronos when they first came out and it sounded great with lots of lovely features but the 2min+ boot up time and lots of stories of freezing during live performance, requiring a re-boot, meant that I never felt comfortable using it live.

That being said, it never froze on me during the 18 months I used it in my studio.

Also, it had a built in audio interface that I intended to use as my on stage outputs, as I now do with the Montage, but no ASIO driver! When I queried that with Korg they told me that if I was a serious musician I'd be using a Mac and wouldn't need ASIO!

I sold it and will NEVER buy a Korg product again.

Perfectly happy with my Jupiter-80, Montage 6 and PC laptop running Cantabile Performer 3 with lots of great sounding soft synths (I'd be lost without Omnisphere 2 and Halion Sonic 3),

Hello Gary - not a Kronos, but I do have a Korg M3-73 coupled to my Montage (and a Tyros 3 for good measure), and whereas there are almost limitless sound combinations and possibilities I find I gravitate to the Montage alone most of the time. The reason for that is that the Montage is an incredible synthesiser - which is my main interest - and no matter what combined sounds can be created (and there are plenty of those!) you can't do anything with them - they can't be saved or recorded easily without a ton of external gear. So whereas I love both the M3 and the Tyros for different reasons, I don't think I would have bought them if I had had a Montage to begin with.

Hello
I come from Austria and own both,
A Kronos X73 and a montage 7.
Both have advantages as well as disadvantages.
Kronos' constant software update, many new sounds,
Many ready-made sounds for live keyboarders,
Powerful sound, remote control
Ipad and more
Disadvantage: longer boot time than Montage
The main drawback of assembly:
After over a year no really new
Sounds, without editing the EQ not on the
Stage usable, still many open construction sites - no full-fledged Motif replacement
Is just my personal opinion

I do not own a Kronos - but its modeled approach is complementary as the soundscape (for some engines) comes from a different methodology than sample-playback. This consumes CPU cycles in Kronos - so using an external keyboard to offload some sounds is advantageous to Kronos (complementary works both ways).

Kronos has a more open MIDI structure such that all 16 channels can be used fairly arbitrarily for inputs and outputs - so the relative flexibility as a controller is useful. Not sure if this is fixed yet - but looks like the global MIDI channel can present an issue where you may possibly have one MIDI channel (out of 16) that cannot be utilized as fully as the rest. At least, you cannot turn this one off and therefore recommendation is to mute this channel on the receiving end. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64JNQJbMOgk

The effects assignments in Kronos are likewise more "open ended" where there is a pool of effects that can be applied to each Kronos "PART" (Montage speak - in Kronos-land, it's different) fairly arbitrarily such that you can stack more than 5 effects on each "PART" at one time. Montage any PART can have a maximum of 5 effects (InsA, InsB, Variation, Reverb, Master) - and some with limited choices. So the effects can be complementary. I suppose there could be some effects that one does better than the other - so Montage may complement Kronos in this respect -- I have no basis for comparison here.

Kronos faders/knobs/switches can be assigned different CC values for external control - so Kronos should integrate well with any paired device including Montage. Montage would be most fully utilized by using Kronos as the master controller with some direct access to Montage for certain gestures (not sure if 100% can be fully mapped to Kronos - this would be doubtful). Using an external controller from Montage allows tapping into PARTs 9-16.

I do like how both Kurzweil and Kronos provide presets targeting previously recorded (was going to say "popular" - but that's relative) tunes.

Each keyboard has its own character, capabilities, and limitations. If you have the funds and space - get them all. If not, play them in person -- preferably at a small music shop with little traffic (and sonic competition) to get a feel for the keyboard sound/navigation/etc. Realize it's going to take a while (unless you're already familiar) to "get" the interface and fully comprehend what a given keyboard can do. So expect a few surprises and a few let-downs after ownership with any modern keyboard of reasonable complexity. After playing and getting a feel - decide if the board is going to significantly improve your gig, studio, personal enjoyment (whatever you're trying to maximize). Keep in mind, if you're gigging with these boards, the bulk -- how much weight you're going to have to carry and transport.

Maybe try to get an inside scoop by gleaning what you can from support forums for the keyboard (Kronos).

Thanks Jason for the in depth reply. Appreciate that. I know what you mean about playing out and the weight issue. I have an older Yamaha KX88 that i love to play on 9the action is fantastic), but it is a monster to carry around.

If I could use the KX88 as a controller for both a Montage 6 and a Kronos 6, I could save a fewe bucks by getting the smaller keyboards, but because the KX88 is older and a little limited by it's midi capabilitiues, not sure how that would work out.

Thanks again!