I've been using the x1 for a while now and been very happy with it but at the same time I feel that there are a couple of features that should've been included such as touch pads and tap tempo, I wonder if there is an external device as small as 5x5 inches that has multi pads on it that could be hoocked up through midi ?.
eddy

I think it is also missing volumn sliders and mute buttons for the different Acc parts. I'm not sure about how good the sequencer is either. What about Retard?
What about Fade in/out? The i30 has these features.

I also compared the voice recognition with my Korg i30 Vocal Harmnonizer and It sounds as good as the PSR 9000, and also on particular tunes like the intro to "Old Man River" I like the voicing better than on the PSR 9000. Just my humble opinion.
Boo

Brickboo,

X1 has buttons for volume and mute control with two columns of buttons to the very left of the button panel or next to the left speaker. Pressing both the "+" and "-" parts volume control buttons acts as mute. Pressing single button increases/decreases part volume associated. I agree with you that the hardware part volume sliders and dedicated mute buttons like the ones I30 has are much better. I also agree with Eddy that Solton needs to learn from other brands for multi pads, tap tempo button and rotary data dial for speedy tempo changes instead of just "fast" and "slow" buttons for tempo control on X1. Those are important features that X1 is missing.

I30's chord recognition speed is noticeably slower than other brands as I discovered it the first day I played it. The timing of left hand chord playing with I30 is much more critical than other brands because I30's accompaniment patterns react with some noticeable unwanted sounds before changing chords accordingly when the left hand's timing is off a little, especially when it is too fast, but if the timing of your left hand is accurate, you will not hear the extra sounds. Yamaha PSR9000 and Roland G1000 are more subtle in chord changes and do not have the same characteristic as I30.

I30 does have longer and more complex intros and endings than other brands of arranger keyboards. Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage depends on the styles of music you prefer playing. I personally prefer to have as many intros and endings as possible (at least 3 intros/endings per style, 4 even better) from short simple ones (for immediate continuation to songs so the audience or singers do not have to wait for the long, sometime boring intros/endings because they care more about the singing continuity than perfect intros/endings) to long and complex ones (suitable for an opening/warm up situation or a designated end of session). I30 has one longer and one shorter intros/endings per style. However, for my personal preference, most of I30's shorter intros/endings are still a bit too long whereas the long ones are excellent but could become boring when used repeatedly. A workaround is the use of arrangements (registrations/memory) to associate multiple variations of similar styles to effectively achieve multiple intros/endings and subtle style changes to diversify and avoid boredom.

I own and use several top of the line arranger keyboards from different manufacturers, research and enjoy each of them, but have not found any one that has perfect features that can totally satisfy all my needs. I am glad that you are satisfied with I30, that makes your life much easier.

Regards,

Paul Ip
from Texas

[This message has been edited by Paul Ip (edited 01-11-2001).]

Paul,

The longer sophisticated intros, endings work perfect for me as I need time to pick up and get ready to change to play my sax with some sequenced tunes. So, the complex styles and such for the Jazz stuff I play is suited well with my style. I can't stand the simple repetitious stuff other than to do some old time Rock and Roll, Country etc.

Nothing takes the place of real musicians. I like Piano Bass and Drums. That is essential in Jazz. A Trombone or Trumpet for Jazz or another Sax if you're going to do the R&R stuff is preferable in that order.

A good Jazz Guitarist is also good with a rhythm section. I'm not to crazy about the string bending and wah wah peddle guys. A little of that goes a long way with me. I prefer Guitarist who can do more then bend strings.

Everyone has different needs. I can't stand to think of someone talking another into a keyboard that is suited to do the popular stuff and the person wants to do Jazz, Swing or Big Band. Some of the Swing and Big Band styles on some popular keyboards are a joke.
I mean they are very amaturish.

I wish we could get arranger keyboards with nothing on them with thousands of styles on a disk that we could choose and load ourselves.

That's what I wish,
Boo

[QUOTE]Originally posted by brickboo:
I wish we could get arranger keyboards with nothing on them with thousands of styles on a disk that we could choose and load ourselves.

Boo - we're THERE already! There are so many styles out there - just make a collection of the stuff you like and start saving whole blocks of them in your keyboard. Even my lowley i5S has 64 custom memories that I can constantly reload with new styles if I choose to. On my old G7 - you could wipe every style that you didn't need and replace it with a new one! There are others too, that do this.
I don't believe that there is ONE keyboard that is best for jazz, and one for rock etc. they all have a taste of all genres and most are pretty competant - it you play them right. There is a science to "arranging" on the fly and simply playing the right chords doesn't cut it. The very nature of jazz is improvisation, and it doesn't lend itself to "machine like" rigidity very well.remember - it's all a compromise. We're all just trying to sound as good as we can, but the machine is still the weak link. Learn how to exploit the weakness.....and you'll create a great product!

Dave,

I can only do 48 user styles. And to me it is pretty time consumming. I spend most of my time learning to play the keyboard with what is on board and practice singing. I have loaded a dozen or so Piano Bass and Drum styles for my needs. I also have added some Big Band stuff from Korg off of a disk.

Remember I'm a Saxaphonist trying to learn to play keyboard and sing so that I may be able to do a solo gig in the not too distant future.

So my needs are very special. I can get by on sax. But I don't think playing sax to sequenced stuff all night will work. I'm going to have to learn to sing and play and smile like you, DonM, Scotty and DNJ. Then if I can accomplish that, I will need to get you guy's to teach me some of the bull to spread between tunes etc. HA! HA!
Boo

Boo,

You are very right about Korg I30's 48 user styles. However, if your I30 has an internal hard disk installed, then you can easily resolve the limitation of 48 user styles. The trick is to do a global save of all of the following data:
.ARR: Arrangement data
.PRG: Program data
.BSQ: Backing sequence data (this is one of I30's speical strength and for you this is why I30 is the best because you can sequence the chords (your left hand portion) in advance so you can free up your hands to play sax when needed, much easier than sequence a whole song minus sax)
.ARG: Arrangement global data
.GBL: Global data
.SNG: Song data
.ARK: Arrangement keyboard data
.STY: Style data (All: for all user styles in bank C, C11-C64)
as a particular set, say, Jazz_1.set. This method is mentioned on I30's Parameter Guide in the "Disk Mode" chapter, P. 73. Make sure you make a directory/folder named "set" to store all these different sets in a managable fashion.

Then you can load another 48 user styles in bank C and fine tune each instrument and arrangement and repeat the process and save another set for these and you can repeat it for however many sets you need for all your future performances. Every time you need a particular set, you just load the set and you are all done with your preferred arrangement and style settings. If you want something else other than the current 48 user styles, you can load a second set and you will have 48 extra ones within a few minutes. So Dave is also right that you have unlimited styles available to you in the sense of skillfully making use of memory swapping with disk space plus some patience while the set loading is in progress. Newer keyboards has more flash or user style space but this trick also applies to most of them. Some of the new ones can read directly off floppy/hard disk for immediate style loading, adding convenience to real time playing.

Paul Ip
from Texas

[This message has been edited by Paul Ip (edited 01-12-2001).]

Paul,
I just got the keyboard 1 year ago. I just started learning about sequencing and Midi stuff at that time. I was out of music since 1975. I started back last year.

I don't have a hard drive. I guess I could have a friend install one for me. But it would take time to learn what you are trying to explain to me.

At present I work with floppies but they take time to load and I thought I read somewhere that the hard disk is not much faster. Is this so?
Boo

Boo,

To me, a hard disk for a keyboard (assuming that the keyboard model supports hard disks) is a necessity, not an option, and it is much much faster than floppy disk drive. There should be no excuse not to have one unless the hard disk is extremely expensive (as in the case of Technics KN6000).

Korg I30 uses 2.5" format laptop E-IDE disks and it can only recognize 1 GB out of the disk installed. You can get one of the following disks from your local used computer store (you can hardly find any of these new) at very low prices, probably about US$50:

Toshiba MK1401MAV 1.4 GB
Hitachi DK224A-14 1.4 GB
Fujitsu M2723TAM 1.2 GB

When I bought my I30, my supplier did not have I30-HD in stock, so I ordered a hard disk through mail order and installed it myself. There are some vital information available in the Korg I30 Discussion Forum about hard disk installation of I30 (it is a little bit tricky even for experienced computer technician if instructions not obtained first, it is easy with the instructions):
http://disc.server.com/Indices/24426.html

Nowadays a laptop hard disk's typical rotational speed is about 3600 RPM to 5400 RPM. The ones that I30 uses are between 3600 RPM to 4200 RPM. The average access time of this type of older laptop hard disks is about 12 to 15 ms and the average access time of floppy disks is about 70 ms. The transfer rate of floppy disk is around 55 KB/sec, whereas transfer rate of older laptop hard disks is about 10 MB/sec, about 180 to 200 times faster than floppy disks.

From the above information, you will definitely want to upgrade your I30 with an internal hard disk because stuff gets loaded from hard disk 200 times faster than floppy disks, even though you may still feel that hard disk is not fast enough while waiting for loading in progress, and the price you pay including installation probably will be no more than US$100 plus you have to dig out the hard disk installation procedure/tricks from I30 discussion forum. With the hard disk installed you should be able to enjoy your playing much more since it vastly extends your style and song capability, provides good means of backup, and reduces your anger of having to wait for the slow floppy disk drive to load your styles and songs.

Paul Ip
from Texas

[This message has been edited by Paul Ip (edited 01-12-2001).]