I spoke with the product manager at Korg today and without telling me a single thing about the new model, which I expected, even though we are good friends, the keyboard will be shown at the July USA Summer NAMM show. I am dissapointed I will not be able to attend the show but I am sure we will get reports as soon as it is unvailed. He thinks the product will show up before the end of the year. Don't expect to see the PA80 discontinued because this new model will be an addition to the line and not a replacement.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Hi,

The new pa1-x is going to be like this, this was told to me by a KORG engineer, i also saw the full picture of it :

- big colored display
- 8 sliders(functions as volumeslider or drawbar or Master EQ)
- USB interface
- All new ROM sounds based on the new RX sampling technic.
- 16 MBRAM standard onboard, expandable up to 32 MBRAM(simm modules)
- Support for playing a MP3 track synchronised with the styletrack(the MP3 can be streamed right out of the Harddisk, no need to load it into the RAM memory first)
- Support for loading MP3 sample sounds
- CD writer
- 4 bus STEREO effects onboard(pa80 has 4 bus MONO effects) + ability for resampling sounds, so you have more then 4 effect busses
- 2 expansion slots for expansion boards
- first release will be 76-key pro version with same touch and feel like the triton
- ability for loading 128 sound patches(.pcg files)
- ability for loading 48 USER styles and direct disk loading
- FULL sampler onboard with Variphrase function
- multitasking OS, so you can load sounds while playing
- backwards compatible file format with pa80 etc.

- TC HELICON VOCALIZER ONBOARD!!!

this is all i know for now folks...

Sounds like it will be a nice board, we'll see.
Terry

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

It sounds like Korg is listening to what musicians want in a keyboard. This latest offering should be very interesting and IMHO say good bye to the arranger keyboards as we know them in the past. Technology is soaring so hop on the train my friends it should be a fun ride into the future! I expect the others to follow too very soon. I'm glad I weened myself off 61 keys to 76 and having no onboard speakers ...[wink..wink]

George any Idea on the street price?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-28-2003).]

Good news indeed! Thank you George for updating us on the PA1-X and for 'sisi002' for filling in some of the cracks for us. I was almost certain it would show up at Summer NAMM and I am glad to hear that it will be for certain. If there is anyone from the SZ that is going to Summer NAMM please don't forget to stop by the Korg booth that has the PA1-X/Pro and fill us in on all the first hand details. I realize that the General Arranger Forum consists mostly of Yamaha Arranger owners but there are many here that have other Brand Arrangers or those that are open to possibly getting a different Brand board, me included. And although it would be great to have a 76 Key Arranger I will most likely hold off from purchasing until the 61 Key version with speakers appears before I make up my mind. Donny made the move to a silent slab and apparently he has no regrets. I doubt it would be that easy for me; practically unthinkable for me to tell you the truth. And if Korg includes an Octave Switch on the 61 Key version that will probably seal the deal for me. Onboard speakers PLUS having external Monitors like I get with my Yamaha MSP5's adds so much more "dimension" to the sound I get when I play, listen to midi's, and in recording my music. I just get a better Mix and feel all around and it makes it that much easier to edit a Mix imo and to achieve a more accurate Mastering. Plus the added benefit of not having to lug external speakers each and every time you want to play somewhere other than your Studio. To each his own though. More power to you guys and gals that don't mind that added burden and potential obstacle.

Also I heard the price is going to be steep! At least for the PA1-XPro. The MSRP price is rumored to be whopping $5,400. I am not sure if that is from a European price perspective as opposed to the American market value price or not. But if that is the price on the American market, then we will all have to dig deep into our pockets to get one. Even after an "actual" price point of lets say a $1,000 off the MSRP your still looking at an awfully large amount of cash. Another reason to get the 61 Key version if at all possible.

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by Idatrod (edited 06-28-2003).]

Hi Mike,

Glad your excited. But, I always played with "NO" onboard speaker KB's M1, i3, i30, thru the years until I got a KN5000 which for a while I plugged off the speakers also. Then I tried the speakers "ON" and started to ween myself off "NO" speakers which I liked for a while also.
But now it doesn't matter to me either way.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 06-28-2003).]

Variphrase ?? Umm like Rolands ? lol

It sounds superstrange that it will have only 8 sliders that also can be used for the drawbars. There are 9 drawbars and there should have been 9 sliders.

tHE PSR9000 TRIED THAT APPROACH WITH 8 DRAWBARS.(damn caps lok)
They linked the 16' and 8' tone to ONE slider, that had a toggle switch. It was a pain, but it did offer independant control.

I'd love to see a few programmable sliders and knobs ( ala the Motif ) so that I could control some midi data in real time. I know .. I know.. this is going to be an arranger, not a workstation..

AJ