I always enjoy the day after NAMM. My good friends Malcolm Doak and Jerry Kovarsky drove out from Anaheim to spend a few hours with me.
Malcolm, many of you have met if you attended Frank's Jam at his store in Conecticut several months ago. Malcolm is the Product Manager/Marketing manager for arranger and digital piano products. Jerry is Korg Technology Senior Product Manager.
At NAMM, Korg showed a new version of the PA500 which I sadly didn't get a chance to see. This model features all of the styles, sounds and features of the current PA500 but also includes 32 MB of new middle eastern sounds and styles plus dedicated quarter tone tuning on the front panel.
A few were shipped to New York to Korg's warehouse and I will be receiving my first one later this week.
After visiting with Jerry and Malcolm, I can tell you that Korg and their style team will be continuing their efforts to bring us upgrades and products that will keep Korg strong now and in the future.
I thank them for driving the long way to see me before returning to New York after a long NAMM show.
I also got a good lesson from them as to why the PA588 keyboard is a bit more expensive than I would have thought it should be. Unlike Yamaha which has different levels of 88 keybeds for their Motifs, S90, and down to the DGX635 and P85 keyboards, Korg only has one keybed and this keybed is a high quality used in Oasis as well as the SP250 lower priced digital piano. So, because of this high quality keybed and their best sampled piano sound, the PA588 has to sell at the price it currently is. As Korg stated to me, "first, the PA588 is our best ever piano sound and feel and then it's a top quality arranger keyboard as well".


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

George, thanks for the Korg review. I hadn't realized Malcolm was a friend of your's. As a Pa2xPro owner I enjoyed asking Malcolm's lots of questions at the Arranger Jam at Frank's store.

BTW, after reading your comments re: your son's Blackberry Storm. I took a chance and got one. Nice device for sure, I think the google G1 has the edge on the Storm, but............T Mobile service is not so great where I live. Meanwhile, Verizon coverage is!! I'm on an overnight trip to a remote area of Maine and Verizon coverage is better than I expected.

Does Korg realize that a PA500 with 32MB of sounds tailored towards young hiphop, rap and dance music players in the US, and backed by styles that featured these kinds of musics, would do as much to revive sales in the US as any OS2 DNC 'me too' Yamaha copying?

Surely, by now SOMEONE would have noticed that legacy sounds and styles are only useful to a slowly diminishing market, not a growing one?

Diki,
They read everything on these forums! They also have to gear their product content to what will sell in different areas. Here at my store, I have so many middle eastern musicians buying Korg where in Florida, there might be mostly seniors buying high end arrangers.
We will see what they bring out next.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

They won't know it will sell until they make it...

What amazes me is no-one even TRIES. Other than the original DJX (a budget product, at that), who has even made a decent hiphop and dance oriented arranger (and please don't go on about the awful styles in current offerings )?

Current WS's, while good at CREATING modern musics, are pretty awful when it comes to performing it. An arranger makes the better live instrument, IMO. But without the styles and soundset, they are relegated to cha chas and bossas and other legacy music. But that is a dying market segment (in more ways than one!), whereas urban music and dance music is fast growing.

If Korg can come up with the wherewithal to develop sounds and styles for the Middle Eastern market, why not the vastly huger American dance market?

Diki.., I agree with you man (100%), but to be honest when it comes to arrangers it's a green thing. The price on some of these things is really high when you compare them to WS's. All the arranger makers have grown quite comfortable with the profit margin on these boards. We often hear crap that the prices are high because sales in the US are so low for them (which is really just BS because they more than make up for that with their global sales as US sales are just a really small part of the overall numbers).

The market for arrangers (and it's no secret) has often been the mature crowd who have clearly been more willing to pay those higher prices for these things. You would think that by now someone would have caught on that an arranger with some modern flavor would take off...., and at one time it did happen. You mentioned the DJX. That was a HUGE seller for Yamaha.., and that board was very popular. It did exactly what many speculated..., and it cut into the sales of higher end gear. The DJX was an arranger designed specifically for electronica and it sold for $299.

I've been saying the same thing you have.., and that's simply do what they're already doing.., make an arranger (something like the GW-8 line) that has all the traditional western styles that appeal to the older buyers.., but why not add another model to the line up. Instead of having Latin, Euro, or Middle-Eastern..., why not have one with a "special style section" in modern music.

I still say they're not doing it because in the end they'd have to drop the prices these things sell for. Hard to convince a younger person to spend nearly $4,000 for a Tyros 3 when they can get a Motif XS6 for $2,199 or even a M3 for less than the XS.

Look at closeout prices right now on pro gear. Did you guys know you can get a Roland Fantom X6 (BRAND NEW) for less than a PSR-S900!!!!!!!! Why don't we ever see these pro arrangers close out like this?????



[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 01-20-2009).]

You do, I bought my Roland EM2000 when it was discontinued by Roland for 1/2 the retail price. My buddy also purchased the Korg PA80 at a great deal when it was discontinued. There out there but I guess the board has to be on it's way out. You can probably pick up a T2 now for $2000 or less now.

squeak... the PA500 is Korg's budget mid-line, not TOTL model.

And I'm sorry, but I think that when urban musicians see how much EASIER it is to perform on an arranger than a WS, they will pay the premium, just like we do! But not until the CONTENT matches today's charts. They have achieved this for WS, so there is NO reason (other than market division) that it can't be done.

I could perform on a WS to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of arranger style mode, tying up your LH the way it does. I prefer to make an SMF FROM the arranger, and then play two handed over that. But I still pay through the nose for an arranger, because at a live gig, it is easier to use than a WS even at WS type playing, and has the arranger section should I need it.

I think this rationale would be used by urban music performers too...

But not until someone actually MAKES ONE that doesn't SUCK...

I know the 500 line is the mid-range model. I'm well aware of that. The 500 is in the midrange price.., but the 588 sure aint I still think it'll be a hard one to swallow for WS players if their keyboard price suddenly jumped to nearly $4,000 though.