I'm just starting to come down from the enjoyment I've had playing this keyboard all day today.
The PA800 is one great new board! In a year where nothing has really made me really excited, this keyboard is the medicine I think the music industry needs right now. The past several months have been rather dissapointing in as much as nothing really new has arrived on the scene.
The PA800 delivers on all points. First, the build quality and weight is spectacular. It looks really good (dark Blue) and the keys feel very good. Not like the PA50 and PA80 but better. They are not semiwheighted but still have a very nice feel. There is aftertouch, which korg uses really well with voices that need the extra touch of volume, vibrato, effects or tonal change. The speakers are really loud! and clean with very good bass.
The inputs, outputs, USB host and 2 USB 2.0 ports, one up front and one in back are all you need. No hardrive comes with this model but you can add one but I don't think anyone will need to. You can use a usb flash drive or any external USB hard drive.
The vocal harmonizer is the TC Helicon which works great. There are two mic/line inputs with trim pots for both. Only input 1 can be routed through the harmonizer and effects. Input two passes through and comes out the right output. I love that the harmonizer now has an on screen equalizer that pops up when you access the harmony mode from the main page.
By the way, every part of this model has it's own EQ settings so you can eq just the bass style track, etc.
One of the new features is having 16 oscillators per voice so you can stack up a huge amount of sounds on one key for incredible realism using velocity crossfades.
The polyphony is 120 and the sounds are just incredible. In speaking with a friend at Korg today, he explained to me that the sound engine in this keyboard is more similar to the oasis than to the triton now.
The new acoustic piano is first class. Nothing like the PA1X which although I think is good, this is more like the Roland G70 now. The guitars are great with lots of expression. Trumpets, Strings, actually, I can't find any sounds that aren't up to the highest levels.
The styles are in my opinion where this model really shines. Although there are many from the PA1XPRO, there are so many new ones and although you could load these into a PA1X, they won't sound the same because this model has so many new sounds that just would loose some sparkle if not played in this model.
There are so many unplugged styles and when used with the pads (4) additional guitar strums and picking patterns as well as additional drum loops are added for really great add ons to the styles. As far as styles go, there are nothing but great styles in each catagory and Korg has added a third "quick" ending to the 800.
There is also now a dedicated vocal harmony on and off button and a dedicated vocal harmony effect on and off button.
One of the new features which many who liked to load sets into their PA1XPRO's will be happy to hear about is that after you've loaded a set from a drive into the internal memory and let's say it takes 3 minutes to load 16MB of samples or up to 10 minutes to load up all 64MB of included memory, when you shut of the keyboard and have selected "autoload PCM" mode in the preferences section of the "media" button, when you turn on the keyboard the next time the same samples load up when powering on in a fraction of the time it took before. Middle eastern musicians who need their own sounds, loops and styles will love the quickness.
The best part of all this for me, is that this keyboard sells for just a little bit over the price of the discontinued PA80. What a bargain!
Lastly, for now, and I could go on forever, there are two modes for those unfamiliar with Korg products. There's a drop down menue which allows you to check the box called "easy mode". When done, the screen has larger icons and less information to make navigation for some easier until you want to go into full navigation and then you can change back.
I made a phone call today to the product manager of the arranger keybaords at Korg USA today and thanked him for providing me with a keyboard to examine and play and show my customers and to also thank him for bringing such a smile to my face for developing something so enjoyable to play!
Don Mason, are you reading this...........If you get one of these I know you will be very happy!
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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com
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