I have both these boards, and yesterday we played a gig in NY for an Italian police celebration,

I have been using the PA1 more and more, because of the vocal processor and the Songbook mode.

Well I played a couple of midi files between both boards, and the results from the other band members and some of the audience that I knew was that, ( they didn't know which was which) but the styles and midi files playing from the Korg had the bottom end and high end that really shined through, and the Tyros was on the dull side,

I never really a/b when at a live show but it was very interesting,

I would play a gig with the Tyros only or play a gig with the Korg only, but wow what a difference when you stack these guys back to back,

I'm sure with the proper eq and messing with the internal settings the tyors could come close to the Korg's out of the box sound but wow.

In the Tyros defense I do like the styles better than allot of the Korgs.

BTW the sound system was 4 18" EV QRX's 4 EV Sx300's driven with 2 PLX 3402 through a A&H GL2200

PS

did the G70 land in america yet?

Thanks for comparing the two. I wonder what you think about the vocal harmony in the PA1X compared to the Tyros? Are they equally good or is any of them much better than the other?

What do you think of the drums and basses in them? I think the PA1X has good drum and bass sounds and I wouldn't be surprised if you think the PA1X wins by a little...

But nothing beats the electric pianos in the Tyros, right?!

The Harmonizer and vocal input of the Tyros in my opinion is not at all a professional quality.

The Korg's is very good, uses and XLR input, very high headroom, no distortion, very clean.

As for the drums and basses, the Korg is a more live sound, meaning, you could mistake allot of it as a live drum sound recorded,

The Tyros is a very highly polished studio version, sounding very compressed and almost too polished.

I think Tyros uses their on board effects much better than Korg does especially in the electric pianos

After playing the Korg Pa1XPRO recently I concur that it is a great Arranger Keyboard with the sounds ranging from good to excellent in nearly every category.

At only $600 more than the Tyros' retail price IMO it is worth the extra bucks. The only thing(s) that have held me back from getting one is the lack of Polyphony (62 vs 128 for the Tyros), the weight {ouch! my back }, and the lack of its ability to recognize rootless chord voicings and many other intricate Chords in arranger mode.

I agree that the Drums on the Pa1X/PRO are very good and have a great real live sound to them. More so than the Tyros' in my opinion. Although the Tyros Drums are more than sufficient and are possibly more accurate sounding than the Korg's are. By that I mean they reproduce in 'detail' (in a realistic sense) the sound of the real thing, i.e. a real Drum set. The Hi Hats, Snares, Bass Drum, etc. are very realistically reproduced (accurately mapped) on the Tyros. The Korg's have that real 'live' Band sound (presence) to them more so than the Tyros'.

Although the Drums on the Tyros II may astound us all. We'll have to wait and see.

>> Now if it only had 76 Keys and weighed in at around or under 30 lbs.. The Tyros II should, in my opinion, sell like hotcakes when it debuts.

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 03-07-2005).]

Dear SZ members;

Keybplayer--don't hold your breath for 76 keys. It looks lke the tyros 2 will still only have 76 keys.

I have used the TC helicon unit and it is pretty good. I have been told that the Tyros is not up to par with it. The tyros 2 is suppose to have an improved vocal harmonizer.

Frankieve--how do you compare the styles between the Pa1x & Tyros. Are the tyros styles busier? more in your face? What about quality/realism of style. Do the variations between 1 to 4 change much , or are they very similar?


PS--Korg has free downloadable "Live drums" section, which I think is suppose to be more "live" sounding then the drums already present on the KB. Frankieve, have your tried them out yet?

Also, I believe the G-70 is in the US right now. I hope to try it soon.

Regards;
BN

The Tyros styles have a more thick sound to them, like there is double the instruments being played, not much room for soloing or a place for vocals, very thick, which is not a bad thing but just an observatrion.

When I use the Korg arranger it seems my solos are at the top, they seem to blend or get lost in the Tyros styles.

The varations on the Korg doesn't seem to change that much from 1 to 4, I tend to use mostly 3 and 4 , on slow stuff with alot of build I will go through 1 to 4.


The Korg styles are more in your face, the Tyros are more of a wall of sound.

I did try the live drums but they were out for the PA80, the drums on the PA are great, you can make millions of adjustemnts with the drums so you can get as close to that polished Tyros sound as you want

Dear Frankieve;

That is a good description of the differnces. You have confirmed my own opinions of the two keyboards.

How would you compare the voices of the two KBs( RX technology vs. Mega voices)? What are the strengths & weaknesses of each, if any in terms of the voices?

PS--are you going to try the G-70? Are starting a keyboard collection. One KB for everyday of the week.

Regards;
BN

Thank you all for contributing with answers to my questions.

To refresh my memory I listened to a few sound samples of the PA1X pro:

First of all I think the PA1X doesn't have anything noisy about it! A few korg synths/keyboards have been a little noisy in the past, I have not yet felt any such with the PA1X. It has a soft punch and what I want to do with the sound is to just raise the volume and add a lot more mids to it alternatively add a good compressor and set the low and high a little higher, simply just to uncover the quality potential of those sounds! In my opinion several voices sound too dark in my taste, which makes me longing for a compressor with it.

I adore the slap bass and the kick drum in the PA1X, very useful in my opinion and I think you are able to get some sweet pad variations from it as well. That's also very useful!

Now I have to check out the TC helicon products.

LOL

Well you know, the mega voices are great but they are only useable in the styles, the Korgs rx technology is completely playable, and as for the darkness types sound of Korg, your right, I noticed that too\

As for the G70 I'm thinking of getting rid of the Tyros for it

Mike,



This is under testing. It might appear in the next version of the Pa1X operating system, due in a few weeks.

Best regards,
Paolo

Paolo
Anthing new about the Mixer lock.

Also I know I've mentioned this before and you said it was being looked at, when switching between styles, if you hit a FILL IN then you switch from one style to another and you change to a different variation, it changes the style but it doesn't change to the desired variation, instead it keep the current variation playing, any news about that?
Thanks
Eddy

[This message has been edited by eddy awada (edited 03-09-2005).]

Hi Eddy,



Under testing.

Best regards,
Paolo

Tyros II is only 61 keys, not 76!
The 76 note models are:

Roland G70
Korg PA1XPRO
Ketron SD1plus

George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Dear George;

Do you know for sure that the Tyros II is going to be 61 notes? Also, do you have an idea of when it is to be released in North America?


Thanks
Regards;
BN

Dear George;

On having possesion of a G-70 in your store now, have you changed your previous opinion concerning the G-70?


Regards;
BN

Mike,
The polyphony issue is very often no issue at all! It just depends how much multilayers each board needs to achieve same sound result.
It could be that the Yamaha needs double or more multilayers for a particular sound compared to the Korg.
If that's the case your double polyphony is lost and you are better off with the Korg as this also means that the basic sound rom is better and therefore better tweakable as well.
I don't have the Korg or the Yamaha but if someone could compare this A/B you have the real result.

Fred

Since I have both I can agree with that statement.

I have notice that the sounds of the Yamaha are very good, but seem very thin, almost all of the Yamaha sounds in thier base form have at least 2 wavesamples layered, which would mean the Polyphony would be be half just by that comparison,

The Korg sounds are much fuller, In both defense I never had a Polyphony issue on the Korg or Yamaha.

So I don;t think the Polyphony really matters that much, I did have a problem with my SD1

The reason you need high polyphony on the Yamaha is bc each voice is made up of up to four waveforms. That means that holding a four note chord with R1,2and3 would take up 48 sounds before we start dealing with the accompaniment waveforms. Also the polyphony counts all the way until the release fades out.

On the Korg are the voices that complex ie do they have 4 waveforms for each sounds?

The PA1x voices I feel are the most realistic sounding on a arranger ( my opinion) They will use up to 2 oscillators when needed but, the single osc(wave) is mostly used.

either or I still haven't lost notes on the Korg, or maybe I have but the way they do it I don't notice.

When I had drop outs on the SD1, you would hear it!!!

A friend of mine just bought my Tyros, don't get me wrong, I'll probably buy the Tyros 2, but right now I'm leaning toward the G70,
I think mostly because alot of people don't like it, makes me want to prove them wrong,
ha ha