I tried the PA800 again for a few of hours at the GC and these are my thoughts:

Overall its a great board, its a step up from the pa80. The voices are very nice, guitars, sax, organs, etc. I saw that they also have the guitars that sound like the yamaha mega voices. The styles sound good also. I did find many repeated styles from the pa80, but with the new voices the styles sound better. The board layout is a little confusing, I think it could have been laid out better, button placements, etc. I would say that if you own a pa80 and is looking to stay within the korg family, this would be a great upgrade.

I found myself again walking away not making the purchase for the following reason:

1. The touch screen, I dislike touch screens very much.

2. Being that I use a lot of latin styles, I didn't find the latin section up to par with other brands. One of the reason why I sold the PA80. Also the latin styles are all most a carbon copy of the pa80.

Like I said before it is a great keyboard even though it does not suit my current needs. But I will not discount any Korgs in the future. With every brand there next release hopefully is better then the last.

interesting thoughts...

I thought the Korg keyboards really shined in the latin department?

most of the buzz about korg is the strength in its latin sounds and Style selection...

I personally prefer them as more authentic over the yamaha styles I have heard from the tyros 2. not sure about Tyros 3 though...

this only shows us this: there are different needs, different taste and different expectations.


i like my E60's touchscreen, but i couldn't live with it for changing the right-hand sounds, as i noticed it is with PA800. roland has phisical buttons for that, also yamaha, and for me, changing the solo instruments very fast and alot of times, this is essential.

enjoy whatever you play!

i like my E60's touchscreen, but i couldn't live with it for changing the right-hand sounds, as i noticed it is with PA800. roland has phisical buttons for that, also yamaha, and for me, changing the solo instruments very fast and alot of times, this is essential.

Adimatis, You made a excellent point, that I have not giving thought to, I just considered a touch screen another way to go. The touch screen will be part of my thinking when I go for a new keyboard.

Wow, how we get lost in ourselves.

John C.

That's where everyone has different tastes and likes. I personally, found that korgs latin styles over the years like: cumbia, merengue, salsa and now the bachata to be child like styles and have no real depth.

The merengue 2 on pa800 is a lot better then the last few merengue's. The cumbia style, which I find so shameful has been copied over for 10 years, since the ix300, which I owned.

The Brazilian & the cha cha styles aren't too bad.

If your performing a lot of Latin mixed with your other styles of music, there are many different keyboards out there that will give other choices than the korg. I won't say that there better since everyone has different tastes and what sounds great to me may sound bad to you. That’s what makes us all different. But I will say that I always found Ketron to have a solid Latin section that was great.


[This message has been edited by mc (edited 11-07-2008).]

Ketron is the Champ for today's sounding latin styles.

Korg's Latin styles are more authentic to more of their original sound, more along the lines of when they were very popular let's say in the 30's 40's 50's.

Yamaha's take on Latin is more Ballroom type latin, with more lets say guitar parts played by ocherstra parts.

I guess it's all about the type of music you are creating and the crowd you are playing to, and what you can afford

I love the touch screen...especially when entering text...I hate to play the game with those mult-button presses to get what I want!

Also, there is some really good Latin styles for FREE on the PA Bonus page on-line.
Lee

The 800 has hard buttons to change instruments on the fly - no problem at all I love the touch screen too.

Thanks, I had down loaded some of the latin styles on th Korgpa.com site back when I had the Pa80. They didn't do the job for me. I think I'm going have to pick up a midjay plus after the new year to get those banging latin styles.

mc,
Yes...the Ketron has some super Latin stuff...I am looking at getting a MJ+ as well to add on to my PA2XPRO.
Lee