Distribution is to begin around the second week in December here in the USA and Korg has been kind enough to ship a single unit to my store a bit earlier so I might have a chance to evaluate the new styles and features and give some feedback to Korg. For my California customers, it should be arriving by Monday of next week. It will be on the floor for demoing. It will not be for sale!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566

Great news George....thanx for the constant updates..........many people are waiting to hear your PA800 reviews for sure.....

Here are some demo mp3's from the PA800. Theese are from a Norwegian music dealer.
http://www.sound1.no/lyder/korg/pa800/

Doc-Z

Doc.....nice stuf for sure....I wanna try one asap.

Hi George,

...and the first OS upgrade arrived with your keyboard:
http://www.korgpa.com

Best regards,
Paolo

Paolo,
thanks for the heads up. Do you think the one Malcolm shipped will have this upgrade or will I have to download and install it?
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene

I'm wondering how much quality and volume those 10" internal speakers will put out..will this be the 1st kb usable for jazz and standards and vocals w/o externals in a bar/restaurant up to 50 people? Or am I dreaming?
Miami Mo

George,

Hard to say, even if I guess Malcolm did receive the new OS in advance. As soon as it arrives, please press the MEDIA button, and go to the Utility page. The OS version number is there.

Best regards,
Paolo

Id really like to know that also.....
george can you comply and test the speaker volume while playing styles etc etc at max volume../

Hey what do you guys think of the PA800 demos some are very impressive.

Very impressive. HankB was over borrowing some of his stuff back (not the G70) and we listened to some of them. I particularly liked the Steel Guitar mp3 and the Organ Blues was great.
They even had a decent country one. I hope the variety is as good as G70.
DonM

Hey, George..... could you test something if you have a PA800 AND a PA1X in the store?

Something I noticed as a drastic 'under-the-hood' improvement in the G70 over the G1000 was the incredible improvement in latency, especially noticeable when you start to stack voices (layer them). I used to be able to hear a barely discernible 'flamming' when playing big block chords repeatedly, as the Sound Canvas engine of the G1000 tried to play dual voice sounds stacked.

But not on the G70. I can stack up to six sounds under one key, and bang out big two handed chords and hear no flamming AT ALL. Obviously, the new Fantom-based engine has improved latency drastically.

Is there any way for you to test whether the new Korg engine has made a similar improvement?

I've played jazz piano at dinners with 50 - 100 people using only the speakers of my DGX-350 with great success! And people still asked me to turn it down, maybe it's my playing? But that was only using it as a piano, if you use full autocomp it's a different story offcourse

Doc-Z

what's with the communications at Korg and Roland????
2 weeks ago I spoke to a rep at Korg who told me the
pa800 would ship in 2 weeks (which it seemingly has
unless G.Kaye gets everything way before others), but I
later spoke to 2 others at Korg, and they both told me authoritatively that Mid-December was the earliest it could possibly ship. Last month there was a notice here
that someone on SZ contacted Roland and was told the E line would be delayed from original November estimate
until mid-January. Now it's at George's. doesn't the left
hand tell the right hand anything at these companies???

oops, just re-read G.Kaye and realized he does get stuff
1st to sample before general distr.......never mind...LOL

I think that PA800 has 10 cm not 10" speakers.
How could they put two 10" speakers in a case similar to PA1X???



[This message has been edited by o3bor (edited 11-23-2006).]

oops, you're right 10cm,not 10" guess i am dreaming..
but still looks like a lotta spkr in that unit...maybe,
just maybe, will this be the one that has the goods?

Definitely some impressive sounding demos. Got em on my iPod and have been listening to them the last day or so.....it's got my attention.

Hi,

I've tried the PA800 in the store where I work (voluntarily).
Since I own the PA1X I was very curious what was changed/updated in the PA800.The first thing I noticed when I turned it on, was that it took pretty long to boot up compared to the PA1X, and the PA1X isn't quick either.

When I played on it after it booted up I noticed there's a brand new Grand Piano voice inside the PA800.
A big improvement to the PA1X, far more natural sounding than the rather harsh and electronic piano sound of the PA1X.
Actually, I find this piano sound quite dark sounding, and would be excellent for jazz.
I do think brighter pianos sound better through the PA800's speaker system, this is also true for the PA1X.
It also sounds much better than Yamaha's Live! Grand Piano, Which is used in the Tyros 1/2 and some lower end models.

In the electric piano section they've also added some additional voices, but I haven't really looked at them, and there seems no huge improvements in that section.

Organs, Plenty of new organ sounds, very nice!.
On the PA1X, there is this fantastic organ sound named "Gospel Organ Vel", which is an organ sound with a sampled Leslie speaker (velocity switched slow/fast) as opposed to most organ sounds where they use a leslie effect (using the internal effects of the keyboard).
The PA800 has many more of these "sampled leslie" sounds, which sound much nicer than the regular organ patches.

I haven't really seen huge additions or improvements in the guitar section.

Strings, A lot of new string & orchestral sounds, quite a bit better than the PA1X, has a really nice solo violin, and some great new string section sounds.

They've also added a lot of new/improved solo intruments, such as trombones, (muted) trumpets, saxes, flutes etc.
They are also a really nice addition to the PA800's soundset, and a big improvement over the PA1X.

Now, Styles , Lots of new styles, and some new categories.
For instance, they've added the Unplugged & Contemporary section, which both contain lots of new styles.
Also, many of the styles included on the PA800 were also released as downloadable sets for the PA1X on http://www.korgpa.com .
Yet, there are also quite a lot of really good brand new styles, lots of modern styles based on todays music, and also quite a few additions in the familiar sections.

For the rest, the interface has changed a little, the polyphony has been increased to 120, the sliders have been removed in the middle , and probably some other things.
Keyfeel is a little less (imho) than the PA1X, but still quite good.

To sum things up, its a really nice keyboard, but not a huge improvement over the PA1X, which is pretty obvious since the PA800 is not meant to replace the PA1X, but to replace the PA80.
If you already own a PA1X its not worth investing in a PA800, its pretty much the same keyboard with some new styles and sounds, but a solid choice for people who want to upgrade, or want something different.

Now, its getting really late here in Holland (its 1:30 AM...), So I'll have to get some sleep .

Greetz ,
Marcel

Thanx Marcel

It's really starting to sound more and more interesting. Better and more than the PA1X, light in weight, speakers for those that like that, better piano than before, etc. I'm going to try one as soon as I get the chance.

Will I sell the Tyros 2? I kind of doubt it at this time unless this this just blows me away, but it might be fun as a second instrument rather than the boredom of have 2 of the same, I could see switching around once in awhile to keep it fresh or maybe even taking 2 to the gig,it's not that much more especially compared to the old days when I used to fill an entire station wagon except the drivers seat with Hammond organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, trumpets, etc, etc.

[This message has been edited by Scott Langholff (edited 11-23-2006).]

pa800= 29.3 lbs
pa1x= 48.8 lbs
at almost 20 lbs lighter, if all else was equal---
reason enough to make a switch, no?
unless you just sit home with these or
have a roadie or love weightlifting....
Miami Mo

Miami Mo,
My sentiments exactly. Actually, If Korg came out with a PA based module, I'd be first in line.
Ciao,
Jerry