In addition to the normal fill-ins, another line of fill-ins with only one or two user selectable parts leaving the other parts of the variation played unchanged.

I have sometimes wanted to make fill-ins in which only drums and/or bass change but the other parts of the style remain as they are in then current variation. When I use the normal fill-ins to do this it's not only a waste but also sometimes -if not most of the time- I can notice the change in the overall sound even if the same lines are copied or rerecorded.

BTW, I was surprised when I first learnt that PA80 has only two fill-ins while carrying the "Professional Arranger" tag with it.

Shiral

I would like to see more dynamic randomization of the style patterns. True, you can push buttons to get variations and fills, but I would like to see a keyboard with FEWER styles, but where each style has a much greater number of patterns. These patterns should change depending on (i) chord type (already implemented in principle on Korg and Roland) - e.g. major, minor, 7th chords have different (but musically related) patterns with subtle diffferences. (ii) root chord - the old Lowrey MX1 played subtly different patterns depending on the root chord; there were 4 chord root groups with different patterns (iii) randomization of the above as in synths like the Korg Karma. The Karma does NOT have arranger like styles for many types of music, but it has capabilities that allow for the patterns to dynamically develop in time with some (but musically correct) randomization.

I look forward to a combination of these capabilities of the Karma with a basis of the fixed styles that already exist in today's arranger. That is, the keyboard would begin with the fixed pattern but as time goes on,the pattern would change in a musically interesting and correct manner. I think that this type of combination is already feasible with a Karma/arranger combination and it is a marketing decision on the part of Korg whether to combine the two.

Roland has a style morphing feature that allows two styles to be combined. Perhaps this could be implemented in a more dynamical manner so that for a few bars you would hear some of the patterns of one style and a few barsllater, the other style. The key here is DYNAMIC variation of the patterns in real time.

Today there are literally hundreds (and with the CD Roms of converted styles that are available or style conversion software, there are thousands) of styles for each type of keyboard. But many of these styles are similar with only subtle differences. It would be very useful if these similar styles could be "combined" into one style that would automatically vary between the different original styles. In addition, one should still have the "variation" capabilities to shift the intensity, texture etc. of a given style from the "original" (usually simpler) to "variation". But even within each group -- e.g. within the "original" or within "variation", the styles should vary dynamically and maybe randomly between several different patterns.

All the patterns needed to do this are available today -- just look at the number of similar but subtly different bossa novas or 8 beats available today on CD or with style conversion programs on on the net. What is needed is a keyboard that will dynamically vary between the different patterns.

I have tried to make ultra-long patterns for my Roland G1000 by combining styles. I get 32 bar styles that are much less repetitive. But it is not necessary to do this; one should be able to just call a few similar styles and instruct the keyboard to randomly vary the patterns between them, perhaps with some more control over which tracks get varied with which, and optimally with the "smarts" of the Korg Karma.

Any comments or further suggestions?

Sam Safran

I would like to see the following features:

*XLR balanced outputs
*better yet, give us digital outputs
*on-board speakers for 76 keys models
*lighted buttons
*option for joystick instead of wheels
*more flash memory for sounds
*ribbon controller

Henry

surely the most important and immediate aspect is to change the media of the keyboard. As files become larger, eg, .WAV etc, we should really be seeing a CD-R in our keyboards. Floppies should be a thing of the past, the are so unreliable and become damaged so quickly.

Lastly, I think the keyboards should also have internet access, so you can download stuff directly to your machine without constantly transferring it from once place to another. Just think, an online help manual would be great, or even replying to threads using your keyboard!!! But realistically, as the operating systems in keyboards are getting more advanced and require upgrades, the natural thing to do is to make keyboards net compatible. Also, as mentioned, file sizes are getting so large that its making the floppy so redundant and unreliable.

Here is a coupe more suggestions:

* short frame (joystick/mod wheels ABOVE the keyboard, not on the left)
* externally accessible user interface, to facilitate setup & configuration of ALL the instrument parameters from an external device, e.g. PC. I believe Emu does that with their samplers, allowing connection using the SCSI(?). IMHO, USB would have the sufficient bandwidth to allow both external user interface, AND 2 streams of digital audio.
* breath controller input, to help make more realistic wind sounds. Better still, allow another voice to be selected for when breath controller is active. Gooseneck stand for the breath controller, and a separate one for the microphone.
* integrated, but detacheable speakers.
Regards,
Alex

Gem has it, others need to be able to read commercially available sample disks, like Akai format.

Karma has it, other could use real-time control of style parameters such as rhythmic complexity and swing factor. The Karma also has programmable chord buttons, and these might make sense on an arranger keyboard.

How about a USB port that allows any game controller to be plugged in and used as a midi controller? I am thinking mainly of the fighter aircraft joysticks, but heck, why not a steering wheel ?

How about mid-range keyboards with SmartMedia slots to hold 128 MB of styles and samples. Two slots should do. Floppies should be excluded or at least connected only via USB.

Instead of CDR, DVD-RW.

Hi, I have gigs often in outdoors, and in the X1 Hd, the screen (never fail on my), but is hard sometimes to see because of the sunligth, of course never direct.....but could be nice to be able to change the angle, so you can ajusted and see clearly the screen......that´s my wish......

------------------
mdorantes