I use keyboard in live settings so I need quick access. I don't know how Uncle Dave can cope with this beast day in and day out !!!!!!! I HATE THIS THING already.

I had this KORG for 2 weeks already and about to get rid of it in couple of days.

My gripes

1. Everytime I changed to different style, the transpose setting would change to C even though I had it set at different keys previously. BTW I change the master transpose to OFF but does not help

2. To use the registration memories from the power up, I have to press several buttons so that the settings would come up correctly such as transpose, style settings. First, change to manual bass, turn off OTS, turn on STYLE change and finally, change master transpose to OFF.

3. To recall registration memory, I have to push at least two buttons. The bank and then the actual selection.

4. Not intuitive: talking about operations of basic functions.

5. The fill-in are not smooth sounding.

Pros:
Sounds are good but not awesomely much better than say Yamaha PSR2000.


Any comments ?

lukitoh,
I sold mine. I do not think it was a bad keyboard, but I do like others that I've had better.
Terry

Lukitoh: Sorry to hear of your disenchantment with the PA80. I also auditioned the PA80 and noticed 'some' of your same issues. That's WHY I had recommended the PSR2000 when you asked for kb suggestions earlier. - Scott

Hmmmm heard a lot about the fill ins regarding the PA-80..... What's the issue with them... When people say they lag to they mean the tempo and everything just gets all crazy or slows down? To me that sounds pretty serious.. If you're using a board for live play, having the fills lag on you can really get in the way of the mix..... Has Korg fixed this problem?

squeak,
More then anything else, the fills (only 2 of them)do not match or blend well when going from either one variation to another or even back to itself. So they sound like they don't belong with the style that is being played.
Terry

Geez, that can't be good.. Does the PA-60 suffer from the same problem?

trtjazz is exactly right in this respect... and yes it also happens on the PA60... and as for the break key, why is it even there? its probably the most useless thing on the board. Back to the fill ins issue, something i find very annoying also is when you press fill in early so that it gets ready to come in time, it actually fills in at the wrong point, then when you change variation, even though you pressed the fill in button it does not even carry the fill in 100% unless you press the variation LATE in which could disturb your accuracy in playing because your worrying to much about getting the fill ins right... On the bright note though, i like the idea where if you press fill in 2 times in succession, it fills on all the time in loops which sounds nice, say for example your playing IN THE AIR TONIGHT by Phil Collins, the song actually has multiple fill ins and you dont have to worry about continually pressing it... Same with Intros... so with the bad does come good....

Will KORG ever fix these problems? I have written to KORG USA a few time with one such problem or the other, but they either ignored my email or said something that did not help. I am not happy at all about being ignored after spending more than $2000. The break button IS an absolute joke. Has anybody ever used that in a song?

Shiral

1-That does not happen on mine. The transpose stays put.
2-Registration memories just work that way... I'm used to that part, but I only use a few registrations. I mostly just change drum styles.
3-Many arrangers have the same approach ... two buttons per reg.
4-I agree, but you CAN get used to it. I did.
5-The fill ins leave a LOT to be desired, but I've learned to only use the ones that seem to work. Sometimes only oneis appropriate.
The "break" button can only be used if you are ABSOLUTELY sure you can hit it on the EXACT downbeat. Otherwise - it's horribly out of place and loud.

Fran was in tonight and said the same thing to me .... "How can you play that night after night?"
The answer is: I don't really like ANY of the current offerings, so I'm just sticking with this till something better hits me.
I customized my "easy 8" patterns and that's my staple group .... everything else is either sequenced or live without rhythm.
The easy 8 patterns include:
1-8/16 beat(multi pad turn on the perc to add the 16th feel to an 8 beat)
2-50's ballad 12/8 style
3-Motown - also good for 4/4 rock and some disco in a pinch
4-Shuffle - AKA louie Prima
5-Latin - basic bossa - EXTREMELY useful
6-Swing - a 16 bar pattern that really swings
7-Waltz - like a 3/4 country feel
8-Polka - works for Hora's, bluegrasss and polkas .... as a starting point

That's how I get around it. My 4 OTS buttons are set up as follows:

1-manual bass-NO arranger
2-silent LH - arranger on - rhodes RH
3-silent LH - arranger on - sax RH
4-silent LH - arranger on - organ RH

That's the basic setup and I modify on the fly as I need to diversify. Sometimes I keep the same Rhodes/bass sounds, and just keep switching drum styles all night. Like I had a real band ..... me on Rhodes & Bass and a Drummer. Love it.

I almost got rid of mine within the first two weeks. That was a year and a half ago and here the board sits. lol. The learning curve was steep coming from the Yamaha OS, but I stuck with it and still haven't seen or tried anything I like better to date. If I may comment on your points...

Point 1. Transpose stays put until I change it no matter what ( maybe yours has a "bug" luk ? )

Point 2 . Agreed, but since it's only at power up, no big deal to me

Point 3. Ok, but it isn;t any easier on the 2000 ( or any other board I had before ) unless you're only using the first 8 registrations .

Point 4. I think in a lot of areas it's a lot more intuitive than the 2000 once you learn the OS and memorize the screens. Remember it also has a lot more functionality, so it is going to be a steeper learning curve. Too many submenus ( and subsequently buttons to push ) to get to a lot of the functions on the 2000 as I remember it.

Point 5. Agreed. 2 fill ins that don;t always match are the worst part about the board. The good news for me is that the styl variations are excellent and many have "mini fills" at measure 4 or measure 8, so I don;t use the offending ones either. The better news. I can replace ANY style in the board. Mine has about 60 pct of the original styles and 40 % converted and user styles. Several of my "replaced" styles are combinations of the PA80 styles and Yamaha / other styles ( particularly the Yamaha / other drums - better fills and less frills ). Style morphing capabilty made this easy to do.

Sounds: I think in almost every area they are as good and some better than the 2000 ( subjective for sure ). A few are even better than their counterparts on the Motif.

I always thought of the PA80 as the best arranger for the composer, ( closer to a workstation by far than any other offering out there ) and maybe not as good for the live player, but Uncle Dave seems to do well with his in live play, and so have I.

Like UD, when someone comes out with something substantially better ( for me ), then maybe I'm a potential customer. There are some things that can be exasperating about this board, but so far none of the offerings I've tried are better for me. The 384 ppq style resolution isn't always quite good enough for me for composing ( fine for live work ). The 2000 has better resolution, but the styles don't reflect it ( they are apparently done at lower resolution than the board's sequencer is capable of and I don't care for them on the whole ) . I've now tried about every brand and current or recent model except for the Ketron stuff ( I'm intrigued by the SD1 and XD9 .. very intrigued ), and I'm waiting to see the Tyros, but none of the ones I have tried to date have some of the functions or sounds ( and edit capability ) that I would miss if I parted with my PA80. The PA80 isn;t the easiest to play out of the box ( maybe the hardest even ). What I like is that I can customize so much of the board to suit me. Nothing else I've tried gives me that kind of flexibility. That's a HUGE plus for me, but it can take a good bit of work to do it. I often see folks saying that they prefer to just play rather than tweek. I prefer to do both. I love to play. I also love to tweek and customize as I see fit. When someone gives me a board that allows me to do both better than I can now, I'm there.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 10-19-2002).]