I currently own and gig a Roland VA-76 arranger.

It is generally a pretty poor effort, having old and tired sounds and extremely primitive styles. It also has such a poor control layout that it is unusable as a normal arranger, in my opinion.

However, it has one feature that caused me to choose it over anything else available at the time. This feature concerns it's abilities when set up to use midifiles as backing tracks, together with live keyboard parts.

Basically, what it does is to enable me to create a full set up of manual keyboard parts, together with splits, layers and effects etc and store this as a "user panel preset patch" (a "Performance" in Roland speak, or an "Arrangement" in Korg i-series language) - for instant recall later.

So far, this is pretty much what any arranger will do. This difference comes when you are then able to additionally store a link to an on-disc midifile into these patches. So, when you recall a "user panel preset patch", you get all your two-handed manual play keyboard settings, plus instant recall of the relevant midifile, which then instantly plays direct from disc at the kick of a footswitch.

As there are 64 storable "user panel preset patches" on the instrument, this means that I can have up to 64 of these "midifile + live parts" patches set up. Enough for any gig with reloading anything.

Other than the older Roland G-1000, I don't know of any non-Roland arrangers that will do this, but I think the PA1X just might.

I have owned a couple of older Korgs, the i3 and the i30. I liked the sound of these much better than the Roland, and they were great as on-the-fly arrangers (the i3 particularly)but they lacked anything like this ability with midifiles. You could maybe set them for a single non-split keyboard part to play over a midifile, but not much beyond that, and the results were not storable either.

What I want to know is whether or not the PA1X can acheive this result, even if it goes about it via different method. Could be that the "one-touch" settings are heading this way, but I could use some advice from an experienced PA1X owner.

What I am after is to set the instrument up so that, for my next song on stage, I just call up the appropriate "patch" and hit GO, and keep doing this for the entire gig. Thus 10 slot pre-load style sequencers are out, which is the way Korg used to do it. Similarly, play from disk - but won't save the keyboard settings with the file - systems won't do either.

I am particularly interested in the Korg because, even though the new Roland G-70 is a definite step in the right direction and will undoubtedly have this feature, I have a strong preference for Korg sounds and styles compared with those from Roland.

Any guidance would be appreciated

Why not wait for the G70?

I will certainly have a look at it as, on paper, it looks very good. It looks to have much improved ergonomics in comparison to the VA series. The acid test for me will be whether it also meaningfully improves on the VA series sonically.

I appreciate that sound in very subjective, and each manufacturer's equipment tends to have it's own characteristic flavour - and that's a good thing. Still, judging by the VA series - which is still a relatively recently designed range - Roland's characteristic sound & style programming sounds many generations out of date to me, which doesn't bode all that well for the G-70.

Whilst it does have some very good individual tones, and some excellent facilities buried in it here and there, the VA has an overall sound of a decent 1980's instrument, rather than something launched only a few years ago.

Its style programming and basic style controllability also seem more what you would expect on something costing a few hundred pounds - maybe a very low end Yamaha of several generations ago - rather than what you would expect on a recent/current top of the range instrument.

I would never attempt to use the VA as a true style based arranger on stage, and find it far too crude and primitive to use in this mode beyond recording some rough guide tracks for future editing & overdubbing.

I was well aware of these shortcomings before buying it, but was prepared to take a backward step from the Korg i-3 I previously used as my main instrument in order to gain the Roland's unique midifile handling abilities.

Despite its antiquity, in terms of style programming, overall sound quality and ease of on-the-fly use, the early '90s Korg is still light years ahead of the VA in almost every respect. It only real fault for me was its limited SMF abilities, and limited onboard memory facilities - hence my interest in the PA1X, which may have the best of all worlds.

Hee Hee .... good one, Mike !

Here is the Korg Pa1X Manual: Pa1X .pdf Manual Check it out. You may find your answer in its contents Mike. PS: It is recommended you have a Broadband connection such as DSL or Cable before trying to download the .pdf Manual file. If you're on dial-up your in for a long wait as the .pdf file is over 20 Mb's.

Fire off an email to Korg UK: info@korg.co.uk Somebody might just reply to your inquiry.

Here is a list of Features and Specs on the Pa1X/PRO:

Pa1x/PRO Info and Features

Korg Pa1X/PRO Specifications

Maybe somebody with a Pa1X/PRO will also get around to answering your questions with more certainty soon.

In the meantime you have some things to go on to hopefully help in your search.

Best regards,
Mike



[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 11-28-2004).]

Hi, MikeTV
Try the PA1X Irishacts forum: http://www.irishacts.com/forum/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=35

for more info www.korgpa.com

Franky

jamman

No it can't.
Mid file play are arranger mode work differently here.(yam shines here).If you'll familiar with newer Korgs(PA's)it'll be easier to explain.
You can however have both performance and prog setups in arranger mode and will have 4 single touch settings(great for live)-again in arranger mode.
the thing you can do (in Mid file playback) is create a patch(korg can do this-layer piano,piano and strings etc-yes they are singe patches,not performances-),you may want to be careful with poly issue- poly is 62) (with split-assign key range,recall it as a user patch on non use ch-eg-ch 16-and use it real time-ofcourse you have to rewrite volume levels in that track,delete the data part-etc).

again you can't have it call.Korg in general blows most in sounds dept but those little yammies are killing them in versatility dept.

Once you are playing from HD preloaded(or seq ed own format songs number is not a problem)unlike I3(40,000 note mem).PA series have triton like(200,000 note mem for seq).
don't forget the dual seqs(load when other plays)feature where seq play song /mem number will not be a problem.

yes it can't do exactly wat roland can but sound wise OMHO it's great.make sure you know what new Yam can offer in that dept(I know some people don't want Yam but most of them who doesnt want (say Tyros )are not totally aware of what most new high end yamaha arranger KBs have to offer.(esp in realtime features).

if you play in the store some (or overall)yam's sound and hardware may dissapoint you but the more you learn what you can do with it the more you want one.unfortunately Yam hasnt done much in that keys,hardware,and overall sound dept compared to korg or GEM/ketron KBs make 1st time yam highend arranger buyers change their decision.

see PAs have triton sound board(samples)(not all efx) inside.
Tyros doesnt have Motif board inside(but still sells for 2700$)
roland doesnt have full Fantom board inside but still sells over 3000$.

Korg should learn from Yam and change their OS,
Yam should learn from Korg and put better sound board(motif) and hardware in their KBs.
Roland should finally throw that Sc88 pro board and use at least JV2080 or fantom X boards inside.

Kurz and Ensoniq/Emu should enter the arranger market(we need more than Euro and Japanese companies) and
then we'll see the real competition.



[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 11-28-2004).]

IMHO,
If Kurzweil designed and built an arranger KB, it would be absolutley awsome!.

I have their K2600X and it is one super synth. But it, of course is not an arranger.
The sounds are terrific! And the programming options are unriveled.

If Kurz did it, and they did it like they did everything else, it would be the new leader.

Lee