well after several months of experimenting after selling off my pa1x pro, i have now just re-ordered one, and sold off my midjay...i also tried the yamaha psr 3000 and T1, and software arrangers as well using a laptop, but nothing, NOTHING ccompares to the PA, in my opinion of course!!!! i reckon it even shades the T2....if anyone is interested i could post some thoughts on the midjay and the others, but i reckon opinions on these have already been covered quite well by others..

yeah, korg's sounds and styles are sooo good! i miss my pa too.

Miden, since I just started using the Midjay, I would be interested in your thoughts on it.
Thanks,
DonM

MIden ...please post some of your Korg Pax songs for us to listen too.....Im curious as to the overall sound myself being an old Korg affectionato from the M1/i3/i30 days.

hi don,
where do i start....probably in point form, and i must say that i am pointing out pretty much what i found to be not good things from my working perspective, i respect that others work differently and so these issues do not affect them, and i AM NOT at any time criticising anyone for owning one, it is a solid instrument and certainly has its own niche which it fills quite well
1.its good value at its price point.
2.similar in sound (apart from drums)and style quality to say, the yammi 3000.both are good and in most instances adequate. and i think that if you could replace the drums in the mj with those in the yammi they would both sound very similar, the drums are the biggest sound feature on the mj, very "live" sounding and dynamic.
3.the midi implementation is quite basic,suprising really when it is a midi file player, and you cannot access the special "super voices" via midi, only via the front panel, and even then it requires a couple of key presses, which on a darkened stage could be a problem, especially when they need to be quick changes.i use a daw for all my midi file prep.
4.PC interaction difficult and not well thought out, ie the USB is only there for transferring of files, which imho is a waste of space, (but to be fair i think ketron are working on an upgrade to allow full midi transmission)..the midi ports are not available whilst in the usb mode (in fact nothing is!!)
5.can't use anything but a proprietary footswitch controller, again this "add-on" is quite expensive, in fact if you add the cost of the 2 most important add-ons (footswitch+harmoniser) they come to nearly half the vale of the module itself, at least in australia they do, and at the prices i was quoted. (nearly all other boards have at least 1 assignable footsitch, apart from sustain pedal i mean).
6.style editing is very basic, and this could be better advised in the ketron literature.
7. (and this is a biggie as far as im concerned,) NO editing software for working with a PC.
8.buttons are too small and closely set together, which on a keyboard is usually okay because they are just above your fingers mostly, but on this, as it sits probably a distance above the board, or even on a seperate stand is more of an issue.
9.being able to play a style with just bass and drums, whislt it is possible, requires some menu manipulation, on the other arrangers it is a simple button press.
10.menu scrolling is a bit "clunky" and not intuitive (although with practice and familiarity it probably becomes more so)
11. no sound modification/creation is possible.
13. style variation switching is via just one button??!! and the fill in depends on which part of the style you are in.
14 when going to a different style, instead of starting at that styles number 1 variation it stays at the variation of the last style used.
15. using a master controller is a bit awkward (apart from basic note on/off info), again because of the limited midi implementation.there is probably a lot that can be done via sysex, but to be honest not a lot of people using these boards would be too familiar with hexadecimal programming (im not thats for sure, i just know some basic stuff) more things should be assigned to the many controller numbers or via nrpn/rpn messages, which are far easier to program into midi files, and are quicker to transmit, (midi being a serial connection).
16. ONE GOOD THING though is the way ketron set up the different file modes on the front panel, each with its own on/off button and volume, plus the ability to play more than one of these modes at the same time..THIS is a huge plus for this unit.
17. microphone efx are good if not spectacular, but a down is that when you use the mic out jacks, for sending to say a mixer to have more individual level control module-v-vocal, all the efx drop out and its totally dry..although i did read somewhere that you could go back into the mic efx screen to re-instate them for recording purposes, but i dont know if thats the case for live use.
18.GM sounds are okay, but i have heard much better, and much worse too!!!..there are no higher bank sounds, and as i said previously accessing the 64 special sounds (which are just layered btw not variations of the original ones) is quite difficult in a spontaneous (live) and /or midi file way..............
Don there are probably a few more little things that i noticed along the way, and if i think of them, and of course assuming you are interested in hearing them, i will add later.
but in conclusion i will say that this is quite a decent sound module, the styles are good and solid, well mixed and for the most part, enjoyable..it was just the total package was a bit of a let down for me, perhaps because i was expecting too much initially, i am not sure really....
anyway for what it's worth, that's some of my thoughts on this.....
dennis

[This message has been edited by miden (edited 03-10-2006).]

dnj,
i would be happy to post some songs (as long as you can put up with my vocal )... when i get it i will try to do some midi files and some arranger songs.
dennis

Dont worry just post away we're all friends here.....learning from each other

Hi Dennis
sorry to hear the midjay wasn't quite right for you.
Korg's have always had great style editing functions onboard.

I think it is a real pity Ketron haven't created pc style editing software.
The emc style conversion program with the plus package, I thought, might have been an option, but unfortunately it can do some pretty strange things , so personally not a perfect option.
Fortunately with the sd1 , I can actually record styles across to the sd1 via midi, so for me it works well.

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by miden:

6.style editing is very basic, and this could be better advised in the ketron literature.
7. (and this is a biggie as far as im concerned,) NO editing software for working with a PC.

Thanks for taking the time to give your impressions of the Midjay. As you suggested, most of the items that bothered you are not significant for my style of playing.
(14)BTW there is a setting you can make to have the newly-selected style start on Var. 1.
(11) I have used the limited sound editing to successfully alter some sounds so that they are improved, to my ears at least.
(5) I gave $150 for the vocal harmonizer and found a used 13-switch pedal for $85.
The harmonizer is strictly a Vocoder, and I'm having to learn new techniques to use it. The jury is still out. I am able to access volume and sustain by attaching pedals to my controller kb.
I have found several other quirks that I want to be improved, such as: there is no light or indicator to tell you when the vocal harmony is on or off. Also, if you lock the VH settings so they don't change with registrations, then the footswitch won't turn them on or off. If you don't lock them, each must be saved to registration. You should be able to lock all the parameters but still be able to turn it on with the footswitch.
Like you, I wish you could choose whether to use mic effects when using the line out.
Again, thanks for your input.
DonM

thanks for your thoughts rikki ........
no worries don, and i agree, those things you mention were also a bit of a nag, unfortunately living in australia, we dont have the breadth of choice you enjoy there..and is this is a small market, most thigns have to be retail, or a negotiated price close to retail...for eg the harmoniser board here is just over $400, and the pedal is $456..... the vocaliser really needs to add chordal and scalic harmonies to be of any real use...maybe ketron will be able to do something from a software p.o.v..
dennis