I'm very interested to see a review or a comparison with the Tyros.

I guess the only people to have both keyboards side-by-side would be a shop owner like Dan01 or George (hint, hint).

Al

As far as I have understood, any 2,5" IDE-based hard-drive will do.
I've personally used both Fujitsu's and IBM Travelstar with the PA80, and they both work.
Price will be approx. US$ 140,-/20Mb here in Norway.

Wings.

In the USA the price of the 61 key with speaker version is $200.00 less then the 76 key model without speakers. You can use any laptop hard drive in the 61 key model.
Just today I sold a PA1Xpro to a regular customer of mine who couldn't come into my store because he lives a few hours away and so we did a comparison of the two keyboards right over the phone. In the end, he bought the korg, but for a few important reasons.
First, the Korg has a much nicer feeling keyboard in my opinion. The keys are not only larger but also feel better with the semi weighted keys.
Next, the guitar sounds play more naturally from the keys of the Korg when trying to play the "mega" type guitar voices.
The Yamaha is still easier to navigate on but after using the PA1Xpro, you get used to it very quickly. For midifile playback I like the Tyros better. Songs start instantly and you can revoice your midi files to play the sweet voices rather than the XG voices.
The polyphony on the Tyros is 128 compared to 64 on the Korg but I'm not sure if this will be a big issue because Korg never uses voices with more than 2 wave forms and Yamaha can use up to 4.
The Yamaha is still lighter to carry around.
The styles are very good on both. Some of the Korg styles might be a bit more "beautiful" and the Yamaha a bit less romantic sounding. The Korg has better Rock and roll styles only because Yamaha left some of these off the Tyros. If they had some Stadium type rock styles I'm sure they would be very good as well but there just missing.
Sounds are a personal taste thing for both but I think both are very good to outstanding compared to most arrangers.
I like the way Yamaha lets us control and adjust effects in the mixing console better than the way Korg does theirs.
I think both have very good vocal harmonizers but the Korg does have a balanced low Z input and Yamaha only has the 1/4" high Z input. It is easier to turn on and off up to 4 voices on the Korg because these are boxes you can check and uncheck right from the main front screen.
In rating the two keyboards I would give them both equally high marks but would suggest that the number of keys and user interface would help one make the decision as to which one to buy.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,

You talk very highly of the Tyros vocalizer, but yet I can not get mine to sound even close to the one on my SD-1, it sounds very chipmunk and fake, is there something I am doing wrong or am I expecting too much from the processor?

Frank

Frank,
I have the SD1, PA1X and Tyros all at my store. I'm not a keyboard player or singer but I do demo these products alot just by playing a few chords and simple ad lib melody's. I use alot of tune 1000 songs to demonstrate the vocal harmonizers or I just play some chords on the left hand and sing using factory preset vocal setups. On Yamaha I usually use country men or some jazz preset and on the Korg I just use the factory default or I'll select the preset called I believe "blues in C Major" which allows me to just sing and not have to play chords on the keyboard. I have not noticed any major differences in the three. I don't notice chipmonk sounds, but again, I'm not a singer and maybe I don't put the harmonizers through their paces as some do.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,

Of the three you mentioned, if you had an option of owning 2 of them, in your opinion, which 2, what order and why.

Please no double spacing, grammer counts

First Choice would be Tyros because of the total package. I like everything about this keyboard. There isn't one feature set that I don't like. I like playing the sounds, the styles, I like using the sequencer, the vocal harmonizer. I like using the mixing console. I like the way I can balance the voices, mute the tracks. There's really nothing I dislike about the Yamaha.


Second, I like the Korg PA1Xpro. It would probably tie with the Yamaha if not for the touchscreen. I find it occasionally frustrating. I think I'm touching the nylon string guitar demo but instead I get the one below it called accordian. Or, sometimes I push a certain vocal preset and I get the one above or below it. Sometimes when this happens I find myself trying to hit the right spot by changing from my pointer finger to my little pinky.......this is just not a great way to change things. I just prefer Yamaha's way of moving around better.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George, have you calibrated your screen?

I'll agree that it seems as if one has to hit the button of choice at the most upper sector, but this is due to the angle between your eyes and the tilt of the screen. Couldn't be more than 25-30*
It works fine for me anyways.

I did try a Tyros, unfortunately a week after I received my PAX, and based on the voices (mega or no mega) and the styles, I'd never get a Yamaha. It seems to me that there still is a lot of transistor-sound to it, and the layout leaves a lot to be desired.
You all remember the "Sharp" -stereo's during the early '80s? Looked really high tech, but when you touch the buttons they implied they were loose, and might fall of at any time. And they did...

Wings.

I've calibrated the screen thinking this was my problem. It's funny, I've stood at the keyboard with potential customers or those who have bought the keyboard and are back for some explanation of features, and when I try to touch a spot and nothing happens the other person here touches it and it jumps perfectly for them. I've been told by the Korg demonstrator at NAMM that one needs to touch the screen right at the point just below your fingernail because of my problem getting the screen to change. I don't know if my having dry skin can have anything to do with this or the fact that I have very short fingernails can have anything to do with it.
I once had a customer come in to try the Suzuki Omni Chord (an electronic auto harp) and no matter how hard he tried to run his finger over the touch bar to make the machine sound he couldn't. Everyone else could do it. Perhaps it was something in his skin, a lack of oils or something, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't produce a sound.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,
FWIW - I own both a Korg D1600 and a Triton Studio and I've been subject to this phenomenon at times too. More frequently than I probably care to admit, but yes, same problem with selecting the item UNDER or ABOVE the one I want, on BOTH units......

Using the slide bar to scroll down thru the file list on the TS was a hit or miss thing for me. Sometimes works fine, sometimes not at all. I thought it was a screen bug - you think it would work OK having spent some $2500+ on it !!

Yet, I have a friend who plays my TS at times and he has no problems at all with the touch screens. Works every darn time for him, but not for me !! So, you may have something there about skin type, oil content, etc.

Either way its darn frustrating having to back up and do it again. I don't use the TS for gigging so I don't have to deal with this problem on dim stages, but I can imagine it must really annoying for some....

I've not seen this come up in any other forum, and was curious if Korg (Jerry) had any other input on the topic other than what you already mentioned ?

PS: I've actually started to use the spare pointing device from my iPaq to tap the screen selections, and the problem has gone away.

Regards,
Steve

[This message has been edited by S0C9 (edited 02-01-2004).]