I spent 1.5 hours at the George Kay's store today test driving the new arranger and I am still excited and eager to go back for more...

The first impression was very positive and for the following reasons:

1. Wide, long, not shiny, good feeling keys with aftertouch. After playing with this action you will be hard pressed to find anything better.

2. Much more musical sounding fills and breaks. This was my biggest complaint with the PA80 but it looks like Korg worked hard to fix it. I was trying to use the fills on every beat within the measure and was happy 99 % of the time. Of course, I tested only a few styles, but the improvement over PA80 was obvious.

3. Easy and intuitive operation due to a clean layout, sliders and the touch screen. I was expecting the touch screen to be awkward but it turned out to be easy and fast to use.

4. Style variations sound more realistic because the differences between them are more subtle. Some people actually looked at this as a negative, but for my ear and taste this keyboard sounds more like a real band and makes the performance sound more musical while moving between the variations.

5. Improved sounds. I don't know whether the size of ROM was increased or it's just the programming but there is more variety within the groups of instruments and a lot of the patches deploy several layers of samples which makes the sounds much more playable.

6. Nice additions over the PA80 like built in hard drive, XLR mic input, music finder database, better vocal processor.


As much as I wish that the price was more affordable, I think that the vast improvements over the PA80 plus 76 keys are definitely worth the difference in price (about $1200). Bottom line , Korg has come out with a much improved version over their last arranger and now we have another new toy to consider...

Thanx for your review of this unit.....
I'm sure we'll be hearing much more from people as it comes to market. Did you ry the vocalizer ?

I did not try the vocal processor myself yet, but I've heard PA80 and TC Helicon Voice Works perform, so I know the difference.

Oleg7 ... Are you a PA80 user! What did you think of the Grand Piano? Thanks.

I do not own the PA80, just a Yamaha upright piano. The piano on the PA1X did sound different from the PA80 but I did not really compare them side by side. For me, the sound of the acoustic piano within the context of an arranger keyboard is not very important as I tend to use electric pianos, guitars, woodwinds, brass or synths for the solo parts. Besides, piano is the hardest instrument to emulate and we all know just how little of the sample memory is devoted to each instrument. So, any so called "review" of the acoustic piano sound is really a moot point to anyone who is used to playing a real thing, unless we are talking about a huge sample library. But, you have made me curious and I will listen carefully to the piano next time...

Hi Oleg 7,

I agree with you ...I said the same things a month before on this forum..with others words , naturally

I own a Yamaha 9000 pro and a SD1. Both are very good keyboards, but the Pax1 pro has something else , I thing he is more versatile, and more realistic in general...My two cents (of euros..)of course

For DNJ, the harmonizer sounds like a TC Helicon (I own a Voice Prism) and for my part is very easy to use.
Best regards

JJ

PS : I want to repeat , I'm NOT a fan or a follower from Korg !! I just love to make good music however the name of the KB..

Merry Xmas from Belgium to all
JJ

Immediately new software for Pa1Xpro available!!! The software producer Styles & Music offers immediately the first two Pa1Xpro Styles & Music boxes (Entertainer 1 and Entertainer 2). Each box contains 8 Midifiles and 8 Styles. You receive more information with your specialist dealer or on the Styles & Music homepage.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 12-25-2003).]

I am sure Korg won't give you the best grand piano sound on Pa1X since they offer an optional grand piano board. If they give you a good piano sound who's going to buy the optional board??

EXACTLY!!!!! Soon as I seen the Piano BD. Option you knew!!
As has been said here a MILLION times before the "Sound" of ANY program is subjective.

Hey Donny,

refresh my memory have you tried Styles and music in the past?
If yes what do you think?
I own quite a few for my 9000Pro and I must say some of them are outstanding.

Eric

Sorry I havnt tried any of their styles....I just saw that on the German Korg site and thought it was an interesting item to talk about.....are they any good?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 12-25-2003).]

I only had a few minutes to examine the PA1X because it arrived at noon yesterday and I was really busy at my store. It looks really good and I agree that the keyboard feels the best of all the 76 key arrangers I've had in my store. It reminds me of the Roland VA76 feel and size of keys. The sounds for the most are the most realistic sounding I've heard. Take the Yamaha Mega voices which are all guitar and bass and on the Korg add the brass and woodwinds and you get mega musical instruments! A real plus. I also really like how easy it is to play the Korg version of Mega voices. The interface will be very easy for those used to the PA80. I thought the Grand Piano was a bit disappointing at first try, but after finding the Classic Piano along with other acoustic pianos, I decided I liked the pianos more and more as I played them. I thought the styles were very good. I really like the use of the mega type guitars in ballads and I thought the Latin and Jazz are great. There is a built in vocoder with presets in the performance bank and these were the only mic options I've tried. I looked into the Hard drive and I see 3 additional sets to load in. One is "World", one "music box" and I don't remember what the third was. I'm at home right now and don't have the keybaord with me. Jim P. who posted here today about the intro's and endings called me and I played him some styles over the phone (he's in Ohio and I'm in California). He would like to have a simple intro and ending. Korg gives you a third intro which is called count in but I don't see a simple ending. Sometimes you get a very quick ending on number 2 but this depends on which style. Tomorrow, if time permits, I will examine more thoroughly this new keyboard.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566

Hi Donny,

S&M Styles are mostly song specific.
Sometimes only the Intro, sometimes the whole style.

I guess it depends on what kind of music you are playing.
The midis are really good.

I personally prefer them over internal styles when a specific guitar riff is played
like in: "The long train runing" or "Le Freak"
Oye como va is also really good.
I used to play it with a Rock cha cha, but isn't the same.
The demos on line are in XG or general midi and don't do the style really justice.

As you can see I really like them, but you got to be selective.

A lot of their styles are made for the german market though.

Let me know if you have more questions.
I know that Andrea (Dreamer) has bought some too.

Eric

George, you might try hitting both Ending buttons at the same time to see if that will give the short ending, ie. "one measure" ending. Also you might try hitting the first Ending button twice to see if that helps or try hitting the second Ending button 2x to see if that will do it. It may be addressed in the Manual too.

Best regards,
Mike

PS: I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

As u said u have tried fill-in's no. of times can u tell me weather the fill was starting from First measure or from inbetwwen?It is starting from inbetwwen and irratically on PA-80 and is useless for me since i use almost all the available measuers for Fill as i put Music Pcs. of song in Fill.So it was embarassing on PA-80 as i was not sure when I press fill button from where the music will begin.It was useless for me.
Thanks.
Hitesh.

Hiteshs1 ... When I played the Pa1xpro I heard the problem that you descibed. When you press a fill on the off beat it does not adjust for where you are but starts the fill from beat 1. I hope I explained that correctly???

As far as the fills go, I did try to use them on the off beats with good results (see my original post). I think that Yamaha's or Ketron's implementation of fills is much more thorough and transparent but PA1X did improve a lot over the PA80 IMO.

I played with the fill ins today at my store and I do see that they only finish the bar where I hit the fill button. I do not see them start at the beginning of the measure.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George I will check this again when I play the PA this week. It does not add or subtract anything, it just does not sound right?? BUT before I make any future statements I will make certain I can articulate them accurately.

How can you expect to hit the fill button on beat 2 or 3 and expect it to start a beat or 2 earlier on beat1?

Or if you guys are talking about hitting the fill on beat 2 or 3 and having it start on beat 1 of the next measure wouldn't that drive you nuts?

If I hit the fill on beat 1 it starts on beat 1. If I hit the fill on beat 2 it starts at beat 2 and so on and so forth on my i30. I can't believe this is wrong. I can't think of any other way it would work.

Someone help me out here eh?

My Dear Friend,
Here we are talking about from which measure the fill will start not the bate tick.Suppose the fill is say 12 Measure long and variation is 8 measure.Now if i press fill button when variation is on say sixth measure then in case of I-30 it will match the beat tick but the fill will start from the first measure.In Pa-80 it starts sometimes from 6th out of 12 sometimes on 8th..... harddly any time from the first measure.I want to know what is there on PA-1X????????????

Hitesh.

Hitesh, If you have a style with 8 measure variation and an 12 measure fill-in, try hitting the fill-in at the 13th measure after starting the variation (that is, in the fifth measure of the variation when it is looping for the second time). I guess the fill-in would start to play from the first measure. As far as I have realized, on PA80, fill-ins and measures all seem to roll together, but only one actully plays on players demand. e.g. If you have 4 measure variation and a 2 measure fill-in, if you hit the fill-in in the first measure or third measure of the variation, the full two measure fill-in will be played. If you hit the fill-in at the second or fourth measure of the variation, only the latter measure of the fill-in will be played.

I normaly don't put anything longer than one measure to PA80 fills, because it becomes almost unpredictable unless you calculate it which is impossible to do while playing. If I need fill-ins which are longer than one measure, I put them in intros.



Boo, this has come handy at least for me sometimes. Suppose your right hand is busy playing something and a chord change is going to occur just when the fill-in starts.
At such time, you can hit the fill-in toward the 4th beat of the previous measure expecting it to start playing from the begining of the next measure and take the left hand off for the chord change.

on PA80, I use fill 1 & 2 for one measure fills that I can get going at any beat I want and intro 1 & 2 for one or multi measure fills that I want start playing from beat 1 of the next measure. End 1 & 2 for intro and end. It's wierd, but it has worked for me pretty well.

Shiral