Narfsounds

Website Contact the business

Narfsounds Professional, gig-ready, song-accurate sounds for live keyboardists.

Cover Sounds, patches & setups for Yamaha Montage, MODX, Montage M, MODX M, Korg Kronos, Nautilus, Nord Stage 3 & 4, Roland Fantom & Fantom-0, and Arturia V-Collection + Gig Performer.

27/10/2026

The sounds I try to recreate can only be as accurate as my ability to hear them in the original recordings.

Sometimes, when a synth or keyboard part is buried deep in the mix, figuring out what was actually played and how the sound was created becomes a bit of a guessing game. You can make an educated guess based on the instruments available at the time, but there’s always some uncertainty.

Fortunately, these days, a little internet digging can sometimes turn up isolated tracks that reveal details you would never have picked up in the full mix. It makes recreating those sounds considerably easier and takes much of the guesswork out of the process.

Here’s a little progress update on It Must Have Been Love by Roxette. I’ve finished recreating the right-hand keyboard parts for the intro, gradually piecing together the sounds as closely as I can to the original recording

27/10/2026

Work is underway on my upcoming Korg Kronos 80s & Beyond v4 and Nautilus Ultimate Covers 144 collections, and alongside developing the new sounds, I’ve been testing some new software that could make managing them considerably easier.

One of my favorite features of the Kronos is Set List mode. Apart from organizing sounds for live performances, I can include performance notes, controller instructions, and even chord charts. The downside is that entering all this information directly on the Kronos touchscreen can be quite time-consuming.

In this video, I’m testing the Set List editing features of KAIJU, a new PCG editor currently in beta. It allows me to copy and paste performance notes and chord charts directly into Set List slots, making it much easier to prepare the information that accompanies each song.

This is just a basic demonstration of one of its functions as I begin assembling the new collections.

The next stage will be considerably more interesting. I’ll be working on integrating individual Combis and Programs into complete PCG files, with the goal of making it easier for customers to add selected sounds to their existing Kronos setups without having to rebuild everything.

I’m working closely with KAIJU’s developer, who is a musician, software engineer, and longtime Kronos user himself. We’re still testing and refining the software, particularly the features that matter most when working with larger sound libraries.

There’s still plenty of work ahead, both in developing the new sounds and refining the tools to manage them, but I’m looking forward to sharing more as things progress!

25/10/2026

It’s been a while since I’ve released anything new for the Korg Kronos and Nautilus, but I’m finally getting back into it.

One of the biggest reasons I slowed down development for these keyboards was the difficulty customers faced when trying to integrate new sounds into their existing setups. Anyone who’s worked extensively with the Kronos knows how unnecessarily complicated it can be to add a few new Combinations, Programs, and their associated samples without disturbing what’s already loaded.

I’ve dealt with this issue countless times over the years, and it’s something that should have been much easier from the beginning.

Fortunately, new software tools are becoming available that could finally make this process more manageable. I’m also personally overseeing the development of a new utility aimed at making it easier for Kronos and Nautilus owners to select individual sounds from a library and integrate them into their existing setups.

Some rearranging or overwriting of existing sounds may still be unavoidable, depending on how a keyboard is configured. However, the goal is to give users much more control over which sounds they want to load and where they go, without having to go through the unnecessarily complicated process we’ve had to deal with for years.

This has renewed my interest in developing sounds for these keyboards.

I’ve already started working on KRONOS 80s & Beyond v4 and Nautilus Ultimate Covers 144. Both collections will feature the same 16 new songs, selected with input from Kronos and Nautilus owners through my recent poll.

Here’s a demonstration of one of those songs, Eyes Without A Face by Billy Idol, performed on my Kronos 3. The Combination features a 3-way keyboard split, including the Synth Strings, DX7 Bell/EP layers, and the falling-pitch string effect from the original recording.

I’m aiming to release both collections in the next several weeks. Existing customers will also have an opportunity to upgrade at a discounted price.

It’s good to be working on the Kronos again, especially now that there’s a realistic possibility of making the process of adding new sounds much easier for everyone.

24/10/2026

A quick tutorial on how I setup the falling pitch pad for Eyes Without A Face by Billy Idol on the Korg Kronos

22/10/2026

I once had to play this at a fill-in gig along with 40 songs I had to learn from scratch. I didn’t get the chance to practice as I was told about the gig just the day before. I didn’t get to play the solo properly then and since that time I had obsessed on getting this playable with minimal preparation time on every keyboard and platform I’ve programmed sounds for.

21/10/2026

Why buy professionally programmed keyboard sounds when you can simply select presets or make them yourself?

It’s a fair question, especially when today’s synthesizers are capable of producing an enormous range of sounds.

Take the Yamaha Montage M or MODX M, for example. They’re incredibly capable instruments, with multiple synthesis engines, extensive effects, and powerful performance controls.

You can certainly recreate the keyboard sounds from your favorite songs yourself.

The question is how much time you want to spend doing it.

Consider a typical cover band setlist with 40 songs.

Some songs might only require a straightforward piano or organ sound. Others could involve several synthesizers, carefully arranged splits, multiple layers, and specific controller assignments.

Now imagine having to program all those sounds before your next gig.

When I develop my cover song collections, I take care of that programming work.

You load the library, select the Performance for the song you’re playing, and concentrate on the music.

The sounds are organized for practical live use, with the keyboard parts arranged to make playing them as straightforward as possible.

I’ve always believed that the value of a professionally programmed sound library isn’t simply the number of sounds it contains.

It’s also the time it saves you preparing for rehearsals and performances.

If that sounds useful, visit the narfsounds website and check out the sound sets for your keyboard.

There have been a number of new third-party editors and library management tools appearing lately for the Korg Kronos an...
21/10/2026

There have been a number of new third-party editors and library management tools appearing lately for the Korg Kronos and Nautilus. With AI-assisted coding making software development more accessible, we’re probably going to see even more of them.

The marketing looks schmick. The videos make everything look easy, and some of these tools appear to take a lot of the headaches out of organizing Programs, Combis, Set Lists and samples.

My advice: give them a try before you buy.

I made the mistake of buying one without trying it first. I figured that after owning four Kronos keyboards and developing sounds for the platform for nine years, getting my head around it should be a piece of cake.

It wasn’t. What a frustrating endeavor it has been.

The Kronos is already complicated enough when you start dealing with PCGs, Set Lists, samples, KSC files and dependencies. The whole point of using an editor or library management tool should be to make that easier.

AI-assisted coding can make it much easier to create sophisticated-looking software, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the workflow has been designed around all the different ways people actually use their Kronos. If you have to learn another workflow, reorganize your existing files and figure out another set of requirements and limitations, you may simply be adding another layer of difficulty and confusion.

A slick demonstration using a perfectly prepared set of files doesn’t necessarily tell you what will happen when you throw your own libraries at it.

So learn from my mistake. Try before you buy. Make sure the software actually makes your workflow easier before you shell out your money.

19/10/2026

There’s a reason I spend so much time making demonstration videos for my keyboard sounds.

Buying sounds for a synthesizer isn’t quite like buying a physical product. You can’t walk into a music store, try every sound in the collection, and decide whether it’s suitable for the songs your band plays. And descriptions such as “authentic vintage sounds” or “professional-quality patches” don’t really tell you very much. You need to hear them.

That’s why I regularly publish video demonstrations of the cover sounds I’ve developed. I want you to hear how the sounds work in the context of the actual songs, and whenever possible, demonstrate how the different keyboard parts are arranged and how the sounds can be controlled during a performance. I don't do any audio processing or add any effects post recording. The audio outs of the keyboard go directly in the recording software and played as I perform the song.

I also make the complete song lists available so you know exactly which songs are included in each collection. Some of my libraries might contain sounds for songs you’ll never play, while others might cover a significant portion of your band’s current setlist. I’d rather you know that before purchasing.

Have a listen to the demonstrations, go through the song lists, and decide whether they’re useful for you.

You can find everything on the Narf Sounds website or through the products tagged in this post.

18/10/2026

Ever spent an entire evening trying to recreate one keyboard sound?

You know the one.

You’ve listened to the recording dozens of times. You’ve tried browsing for the closest preset or tested different samples and waveforms, adjusted filters, experimented with effects, and you’re convinced you’re getting close.

Then you listen to the original again.

Still not quite right.

I’ve been there more times than I can remember.

One of the challenges with recreating sounds from classic recordings is that what you’re hearing isn’t always a single synthesizer playing a single patch.

Sometimes it’s several keyboards layered together. Other times, it’s a carefully programmed sequence, a random arpeggio pattern, a sampled instrument, or a combination of sounds processed through studio effects.

And figuring out which is which can take hours.

That’s why I spend a considerable amount of time studying the original recordings when developing cover sounds.

I try to recreate the complete keyboard setup as closely as the instrument allows, including the different parts, layers, splits, and controller assignments needed to play the song live without it looking like a balancing act in a circus when changing patches.

Of course, there’s still the important business of learning how to play the parts.

But at least you can spend more time doing that instead of trying to figure out how they made Where The Streets Have No Name. (hint: The Shimmer Reverb makes a world of difference.)

17/10/2026

Rosanna! Back in 2019 I was finally able to watch Toto live.

I don’t usually record anything during concerts but I wanted to capture the solos on the Montage and the MODX. I made sure that I watched the whole thing with my own eyes so I held my iPhone at an arms length pointed at the general direction of the stage which is why Steve Porcaro was off-center and off-camera at times.

Address

Chadstone, VIC

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Narfsounds posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Narfsounds:

Shortcuts

Share