Kronos 3 Editor

Kronos 3 Editor installs from a single signed, notarized .pkg. Download it from the download page (the link is also in your purchase email) and open it.

One installer carries three formats: a standalone app (no DAW required), an Audio Unit for Logic Pro and GarageBand, and a VST3 for Ableton Live, Cubase, and other VST3 hosts. The standalone is the simplest way to use everything in this guide; it talks to your Kronos directly.

After installing, launch the standalone app, or restart your DAW so it rescans plugins and insert Kronos 3 Editor on a MIDI track. Requires macOS 11 or later (Apple silicon or Intel).

Without a license key, Kronos 3 Editor runs as a fully functional 7-day trial: editing and writes to your Kronos are enabled, so you can try the whole editor on your own instrument.

After 7 days the trial drops to read-only. You can still connect, pull sounds, browse banks, and switch programs, but live edits, writes, stores, .syx export, and set-list slot selection no longer reach the hardware. Activating with your license key restores everything immediately.

To activate, open the Presets view (top right), paste the license key from your purchase email, and click Activate.

One license covers two computers. The editor checks in over the network about once a month and keeps working offline in between, so a brief outage never locks you out. You can see and free your activated devices from your account page at any time.

Manage your devices on your account page

If a purchase is refunded, the license is disabled at the next check-in.

• A Korg Kronos 3 (61, 73, or 88 key). The app is developed and tested on the Kronos 3, the latest model. It has not been tested on the original Kronos or Kronos 2, so compatibility with those is not claimed or supported.
• A USB-B cable from the Kronos's USB B port to your computer. The small USB-A ports on the Kronos are for controllers only and cannot carry the larger messages an editor needs, so always use the USB-B port.
• The Kronos's Enable Exclusive setting switched on. It is on by default; if in doubt, check GLOBAL, MIDI, MIDI Filter, Enable Exclusive.

• Connect the Kronos to your computer with the USB-B cable and power it on.
• Open Kronos 3 Editor. It looks for the instrument automatically.
• Watch the status chip at the top right. A green dot with a line like KRONOS, USB-MIDI, ch 1, v3.x means you are connected (it shows the model, MIDI channel, and firmware version). 'Searching for Kronos' means it has not found the instrument yet: check the cable, that the Kronos is on, and that Enable Exclusive is set.

If you have more than one MIDI device, use the device picker (top left, next to the status chip) to choose the Kronos output, and the refresh button to re-scan.

The editor talks to the Kronos's own USB-MIDI ports directly, so it connects the same way whether you run it standalone or as a plugin; you do not need to set up any MIDI routing in your DAW. Use a single instance of the plugin at a time, since it owns the hardware ports.

The editor only ever sends safe messages on its own; it reads the instrument and follows your edits. Nothing is written to your Kronos's memory unless you explicitly choose to (see Writing a program).

• Top bar: the brand and current engine, the MIDI device picker, the connection status, the Flow / Classic skin switch, the WRITE button, and an info button (about rumcake and support).
• Librarian (left): a Search recents box, the Prog/Combi browser (find and switch any program or combination), Set list, Load .syx / Save .syx, and your list of recent programs (each row has a Favorite star, and a small ✕ on hover to remove it from the list).
• Editor (centre): the program name, the engine badge, Get from Kronos, and the controls for the current sound.
• Activity strip (bottom): a short log of what the editor is doing.
• Resize by dragging the bottom-right corner of the window (works in your DAW as well as standalone).

Two views: Flow and Classic. Use the Flow / Classic switch in the top bar to choose how the controls are laid out.

• Flow: a signal-flow view. The synth is laid out as the path the sound travels (for HD-1 and AL-1: OSC, Pitch, Filter, Amp, Mod, plus Common and FX on HD-1). You get each stage's key controls, live graphs (filter response and a draggable envelope graph), and the modulation feeding into it. Curated and visual, built for fast, musical sound-shaping.
• Classic: the complete editor. Every parameter, organised into pages and tabs the way the Kronos's own screens are. Comprehensive and familiar, and it covers all nine engines.

The editor opens each engine in the view that fits it best: Flow for the multi-stage engines (HD-1 and AL-1) and Classic for the single-stage EXi engines. The toggle lets you switch at any time.

Click Get from Kronos (top right of the editor). The editor pulls the sound currently loaded on the instrument, adds it to your Captured list, and opens it for editing.

The editor recognises all nine Kronos sound engines: HD-1 and the eight EXi engines (AL-1, SGX-2, CX-3, STR-1, MOD-7, MS-20EX, PolysixEX, EP-1), and lays out the right controls automatically based on what it pulled.

Your captured programs stay in the librarian for the session. Selecting one reloads it; if the editor knows which slot it came from, selecting it can also switch the Kronos to that program. Choosing a program on the instrument's front panel is followed in the editor.

Get from Kronos only pulls the one sound currently loaded. To find any program or combination across the whole instrument, by name or by category, click Prog/Combi browser in the librarian.

Along the top, three tabs pick what you are browsing:

• Programs: every program bank, as before. Clicking a program opens it for editing and switches the Kronos to it.
• Combinations: every combination bank. Clicking a combination switches the Kronos to it (the editor puts the instrument in Combi mode for you), perfect for finding and changing patches live. Combinations cannot be edited in this version, only selected.
• Both: programs and combinations together in one list, each row tagged Prog or Combi. Pick a category, search, or show Favorites to fill it.

The banks sit in a rail on the left: Internal (INT-A to INT-F for programs, INT-A to INT-G for combinations), User (USER-A to USER-G, with USER-AA to USER-GG for programs), and, for programs only, the read-only GM banks (General MIDI factory ROM you can browse and open but not overwrite). Click a bank and the editor reads its names off the instrument; empty slots read Init Program or Init Combi, and a small HD-1 or EXi badge shows what a bank holds.

Filtering by category. Above the sound list, a row of category buttons mirrors the Kronos's own Category Select (Keyboard, Organ, Bell/Mallet, Strings, and so on; combinations have their own set, such as LeadSplits and BPM Sync). Click one to see every matching sound across all banks; click a bank in the rail to narrow the list to that bank.

• One category at a time is selected, just like on the instrument, and a Sub row appears for a finer filter (Keyboard to A.Piano, Real E.Piano, and so on).
• The category names are read from your Kronos, so if you have renamed categories in Global mode, your names appear here.
• GM programs carry no category data, so they have their own GM button at the end of the row.
• In Both, the category row is the combined set of program and combination categories, so one click shows everything in a style, programs and combis together.

Working the list.

• Open a program: click any slot. The editor pulls that exact program, opens it for editing, adds it to your Captured list, and switches the Kronos to it so it is the active, audible sound. The window stays open so you can click through to audition; double-click a sound to select it and close the browser in one go.
• Select a combination: click a slot in the Combinations or Both view. The Kronos switches to Combi mode and loads it; its name appears (view-only) behind the browser and joins your recent list, so you can jump back to it later, and re-selecting it re-enters Combi mode automatically.
• Follows the hardware: dial through sounds on the instrument itself and the browser highlights the current one, in Program and Combi mode alike.
• Search: type to find a sound by name across the banks you have loaded. Use Import all banks to read every bank up front, programs and combinations, so search covers the whole instrument.
• Favorites: the star to the left of each row is its Kronos Favorite flag; click it to add or remove the sound from Favorites, written back to the instrument the same guarded way as a slot store. The Favorites button shows only your starred sounds, gathered from every bank. GM programs are read-only ROM, so their stars are disabled.
• Refresh: re-checks the instrument and re-reads any bank that changed.

The editor remembers each bank it has read, so switching back to a bank you have already opened is instant. It also notices when a bank changes on the instrument and marks it so a quick Refresh brings it up to date.

Click Set list in the librarian (under Prog/Combi browser) to swap the main area for the Set Lists view. It reads the names of your set lists off the instrument and shows them as tiles. By default only named set lists appear; tick Show empty to see all 128 slots, and use the search box to find one by name.

• Open a set list: click a tile. The Kronos switches to it, and the grid is replaced by its slots, shown as cards in each slot's Kronos colour with the slot number, label, performance reference, and the program or combi it points at.
• Switch a slot live: click a slot to jump the Kronos to it, so you can step through a set list's sounds from the computer.
• Going back: click 'All set lists' to return to the grid, or 'Editor' to return to the sound editor.

This version browses set lists and switches slots live. It does not edit set lists (build, rename, or reorder slots). See What this version covers below.

Move any control and the Kronos responds instantly: there is no apply step. The change is sent live over USB, and if you turn a knob on the instrument itself, the editor's control follows to match. It is fully two-way.

• HD-1 oscillators: when editing an HD-1 program, use the OSC 1 / OSC 2 switch in the top bar to focus on either oscillator.
• Drag the envelope graph: in the Flow view, the filter and amp envelope graphs are interactive. Drag a node up/down to change its level, or left/right to change its time. The sliders below follow.
• Pedals and switches: some controls (such as the una corda soft pedal) are driven the way the hardware expects, so the real pedal and the on-screen control move together.
• Keyboard control: every control is reachable and operable from the keyboard, and the editor works with screen readers (see Accessibility).
• It just works: a few EP-1 parameters (its tine EQ) cannot be changed by the usual live messages; the editor handles these for you automatically and sends the whole sound so you hear the change.

Live edits change the sound you hear but are temporary: they live in the instrument's edit buffer. To keep a sound, either Save it to a file or WRITE it to the instrument.

The editor is designed to be usable without a mouse and with a screen reader. Every control can be reached and operated from the keyboard.

• Tab / Shift+Tab move between controls; the focused control shows a visible highlight ring.
• On a knob, the arrow keys nudge by one step, Page Up / Page Down jump by ten, Home / End jump to minimum / maximum, and Enter resets to default.
• Sliders and drawbars are standard range controls adjusted with the arrow keys. Drop-downs and on/off switches focus and choose with the arrow keys or Space.
• Screen readers announce each control's name and current value the way it reads on screen (for example +35, 0 cent, or a named choice like Poly), and the filter and envelope graphs are read as a short spoken summary of their shape.

A built-in high-contrast / large-text mode is not available yet; in the meantime your operating system's own zoom and contrast settings work with the editor.

Click the program name (the big title at the top of the editor, or the name in the WRITE dialog) and type a new one. Press Enter to confirm or Esc to cancel. Names can be up to 24 characters, matching the Kronos. The new name travels with the program into files you save and into the program you write to the instrument.

A .syx file is a standard MIDI patch file. These two buttons (top of the librarian) move sounds between the editor and files on your computer, quite separate from the instrument's own memory.

• Save .syx: exports the current program exactly as it is (your edits and its name included). A complete, faithful snapshot of the whole sound.
• Load .syx: opens a .syx file back into the editor. The sound appears in the librarian, opens for editing, and is sent to the instrument so you hear it straight away.

Use them to back up and build an unlimited library (your computer has no slot limit), to share and collect sounds in a universal format, and to experiment safely. Save and Load only ever touch files; they never overwrite anything on your Kronos.

The WRITE button (top bar) saves the current program into the instrument's permanent memory, in a USER bank slot of your choosing. This is the same Write operation you would do on the Kronos itself. Clicking WRITE opens the Write to slot picker.

• Pick a USER bank from the tabs (USER-A to USER-GG). Factory banks are protected and not shown.
• Choose a slot. Each slot shows the name of the program it currently holds; empty slots (Init Program) are flagged as safe to use.
• Confirm. The editor tells you exactly what you are replacing before it writes permanent memory.
• The editor writes the program, reads it back to verify it landed correctly, and only then commits it. If anything does not match, it stops rather than risk writing bad data.

Match the bank type: Kronos USER banks are typed HD-1 or EXi, and the instrument refuses a mismatch; the editor warns you up front. WRITE is permanent, so save a .syx copy first if you want a backup.

A typical session: Get from Kronos, tweak the sound (you hear it live), rename it, then either Save .syx to archive or share it, or WRITE it to a slot on the instrument.

Kronos 3 Editor is a Program editor and librarian. It edits Programs across all nine Kronos engines, browses and switches both Programs and Combinations, manages and backs up your library as .syx files, and browses set lists.

It does not include a Combi, Global, or effects editor. Combinations can be browsed and switched but not edited. It does not edit set lists: you can browse them and switch slots live, but not build, rename, or reorder them.

These may follow in future updates, shaped by what players ask for. Nothing here is a promise of a specific feature or date.

• Stuck on 'Searching for Kronos': make sure you are using the USB-B port (not USB-A), the Kronos is on, and Enable Exclusive is set (GLOBAL, MIDI, MIDI Filter). Use the device picker and refresh to re-scan.
• WRITE says the bank is the wrong type: the target USER bank is HD-1 and your sound is EXi, or vice versa. Pick a bank whose type matches.
• Wrote to a slot but do not see it: re-select the bank/slot on the Kronos so its display refreshes.
• Live edits disappeared: live edits are temporary until you Save or WRITE. Selecting another program discards unsaved changes.

• Reading is safe. Pulling sounds, browsing, and editing live are all reversible: selecting a program again restores it. Only WRITE changes the instrument's permanent memory, and only after you confirm.
• Files are forever. A saved .syx reproduces a sound exactly, even after you have changed or overwritten that slot on the instrument.
• One cable does it all. Everything in this guide works over the single USB-B connection: no extra hardware needed.