I only ask (anxiously) because I'm about to upgrade from my Roland VA-7, and the PA1X Pro Elite is firmly in my sights (I can get a great price).

I was also considering the SD (I agree, seems like a great board) but it looks like the Korg is for me (unless the damn Audya actually makes an appearance sometime this century!! lol)

So to hear you sold the PA1X made me pause...

What was the worst aspect of that board if you don't mind me asking?? - was it just the weight?

(Yes you did explain your decision well, I just thought an ex Korg owner might be candid about this board for a potential new owner...)

Thanks for any honesty you can give re this!

hi again,
umm, nothing really was bad about it, apart fro the big imbalances between the main variations and the fills/intros/outros...some of them, particularly outros, were just so not in keeping with the style variation you were playing..example if you are playing variation one, and want to end using variation one and the select an ending the volume and instrumentation was way over the top compared to the variation (usually okay when playing variation 4 though!!)....apparently this has been fixed on the op system and on the pa800 (which i also tried) but i didnt see a great deal of difference, there probably was, i just didnt notice it....thats one thing with the sd the intros/outros and fills seem to match whichever variation you are playing.....the harmoniser on the PA, whilst very good, was very fiddly to set up properly, but when setup worked well....to be honest if i could have got the same deal on the pa1xpro elite, and the sd1 it would have been close...probably the limited polyphony of the pa would have swung it for the sd as the Plus package and OS has actually increased the polyphony, so on the sd this could be further added to as it must be a software thing, wheras on the korg it is a hardware limitation....
hope that helps some...ask anything else you can think of before you buy if you like, i will try to answer it as best i can...bottom line? the pa1x is a super keyboard and in the elite form is even better...i really doubt if you will be disappointed....if you do buy one let me know(no i dont know if you use them or not) but i have about 200 midis set up for the pa1x that i am quite happy for you to have a copy of...all tweaked by me, and in some cases completely re-written...(whihc i have now got to do on the sd, and so far its proving to be rather complicated )
cheers
dennis

You know, that's a criticism LONG been leveled at Korg arrangers - sort of disjointed fills and intros and outros. What is Korg's problem...? If most everybody else (at least, all the majors) can figure out how to do smooth, integrated fills, etc., why can't Korg ever get this one right?

i have the Pa1x with the latest 3.01 OS . The fills/intros and outros are fine . Hasnt been a problem since version 2.52

I agree. About the only thing I don't like about the PA1xPro is the non-realtime (ie. file handling, tweaking, etc.) part of the OS. The T2 (which I also own but rarely use) is much more user-friendly. For the type of music I do, the Korg is the hands-down favorite for me. The Ketron styles would be a problem for me, but that's just personal taste. I'm not a big fan of the European-oriented styles.

But.......you know the drill; try before you buy. Personal opinions are just that, PERSONAL.

chas

just curious, what sort of music do u do Chas?

I'm rather eclectic musically but everything is pretty jazz oriented. What I write, what I play, and what I listen to, are sometimes quite different. I spent a good deal of my early musical life as a poor man's Jimmy Smith and a would-be Oscar Peterson if playing piano (never had his chops, of course). These days I mostly write (and arrange) with most of my stuff sounding like the background music on the weather channel or a Honda commercial (despised my many, ignored by most, loved by very few). I guess it's somewhere between contemporary jazz and what used to be known as jazz fusion.

So in answer to your original question, nothing of any musical consequence. It's more about not playing stuff I don't like (love jazz waltz, hate waltzes; love blues, hate "Mississippi Delta" blues; love jazz and rock organ, hate theatre organ; love classical, hate opera; love Willie Nelson, hate Country; etc., etc.). Is it getting clearer? Not to me.

chas

"Hate" is a strong word for a Musician....
I rather use "not my cup of tea"

Actually it's no stronger than love; besides, as long as it's not directed at people........for instance, most jazz guys absolutely worshiped Sinatra; but aside from admiring his track record with the ladies, he just wasn't my cup of tea. I much preferred Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae, etc. Guess there's just no accounting for taste.

chas

Unfortunately Chas, I can't try before I buy as all the music stores I've tried around here don't have the PA1X.

I wanted to use the more contemporary styles of the PA1X instead of Roland's idea of Contemporary if you know what I mean...

Dennis -

One thing I want to bring up (again):

Is the polyphony really THAT much of a problem on the PA1X???

I work almost totally with SMFs and I'm prepared to pare them down even more instrumentation wise if I have too...

As long as, say the drums (specifically the kick drum) don't suffer from note drop out I'm ok with it - even the VA7 dropped out very occasionally and it had 128 note Polyphony (although how Roland come to their "polyphony note conclusions" has recently been up for debate - along with all other Manufacturer's formulas for calculating same...)

Also the other 2 big drawcards for me with the Korg are:

1. Sampling (drum loops etc) and then using said loops in SMF's and Styles - easy to do?????

2. Dual sequencer cross fading in between SMF's/MP3's to keep everyone on the dancefloor - works good?
Note drop out not a problem there????