No wonder Korg show no interest in fixing this...
All their users are tap-dancing around desperately to trivialize or outright deny it even exists. Why should Korg bother with something none of their users seem to care about..?
Obviously, those users MUST not worry too much about timing and strange jumps, because they decided to buy it anyway! Of course, perhaps Korg might consider all the owners of other arrangers that PERHAPS have decided against Korg because of this one issue...
And zuki and NickG, take a chill pill! All we are talking about is this ONE issue... it has nothing to do with all the other GOOD points that make the arranger into the one you love above all. But, just as you MIGHT have decided against other arrangers on an operational point that IT'S owners aren't too worried about, it doesn't mean YOUR concerns were of any less value, does it?
The option to HAVE to trigger ALL fills in advance is completely unacceptable. REALLY! Who amongst us triggers the fills by ANY other way than calling them EXACTLY when you want them? To HAVE to completely change how you have been using an arranger for decades, to avoid a glitch like this is not a solution... it's a tiny band-aid on a gaping wound!
And, to be honest, I STILL feel this issue is mostly related to the lack of fills. Roland's, Yamaha's, Ketron's, just about ALL arrangers would have this issue to a certain extent if they only had two fills to make twelve possible variation changes (not counting fill-to-same).
A busy variation needs a fill that is busy at the start, to transition well into it... use that same fill on a MUCH less busy, loud, frenetic variation, and as soon as you jump into it, you WILL get an anomaly no matter WHAT you use... There is just no way around this.
To be honest, I would prefer AJ's test to be more 'real world' and see what happens when you ask for the fill on the 2 or the 3, rather than just trying to be fractionally late on the 1, but I have a feeling it's about the same, maybe slightly less noticeable.
So, all in all, I'm not sure whether this is more a problem with the way that Korg actually MAKE styles (they certainly put in a lot of variation, very distinct variations from each other) and the problem with not enough fills to transition smoothly from these very disparate sections, or whether there IS an OS problem about sending all those different patch change, volume, effects, etc., in IMMEDIATE response to a call for a fill, where it might be better if it waits for the next whole beat....
But you can pretty much guarantee that Korg will continue to come out with OS after OS with no fix, because it's owners are more concerned with APPEARING to be better than other arrangers by denying any problem (now WELL explained and demonstrated - for shame none of you were willing to try this!) even exists, than actually demanding it's repair, and MAKING it into the 'perfect arranger' they merely CLAIM (in the face of evidence to the contrary).
That tactic is now working AGAINST you... Do you have the strength of will to change this knee-jerk reaction, and finally get around to demanding that YOUR manufacturer do something about this? Maybe some more of us would finally join you in arranger nirvana if you did (many are CERTAINLY not going to until they do). But continue to trivialize it, and the problem will remain.
Time will tell...
In the meantime, please, all you Korg users... hands up if ANY of you always cue your fills a bar in advance? Nope, didn't think so...