wanna buy my T2 Jim?
Maybe I'll buy a T3 from frank



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God Bless,
Mikey

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We're ALL proud of you, Donny...

Beating an addiction THAT deep is an achievement of the highest caliber

Maybe you could mentor some other's here with the same disease?

Diki thank you so much for your concern..
I would love to help the other addicts but first they need to come into teh office and let me listen to the symptoms.. but alas many here are still in serious denial Until they come to grips with sharing their problem I can't do anything there is where the real problem exists...

The T2 weighs almost exactly the same as your PA-800...if the latter has audio/line inputs, you could use them to monitor the former.

You should be able to get a Tyros2 for a decent price now that the T3 is out.

Ian

I just want to add soemthing to this thread in terms of synth and arranger in one...

I recently swapped my PA 800 clean for another motif XS6. (I made a mistake by selling my motif XS last year) - here are my reasons for chosing korg and for dumping it:

I wanted an arranger keyboard that had a synth engine.

A Korg PA 800 DOES NOT have a synth engine!

It has synth editing capabilities (still no where near as good as the Motif XS and probably the korg M3 / triton series)

After going from a Yamaha Tyros 2 to a Korg PA 800 you think - wow so many tools and editing options. But what use are these tools if the basic sound set is no where near up to your needs?

i am comming from a perspective of synth sounds - dance hooks, pads, leaders, synth basses, ambient sounds etc etc. The Korg PA highly lacks these voices. there are not many, and the ones that are there are extremely weak.

I gave my korg a lot of patience, i spent time and time tweaking and talking to people on the korg Forums - lots of help - no doubt the korg users are friendly and highly knowledgable.

I constantly was posting on the korg forum asking for more synth sound banks (dance hooks, pads etc etc) to load into my PA 800 and i was given some examples and custom user banks that were from the Triton series BUT still the sounds were not very different from the standard sounds onboard the PA 800. I was very dissapointed by it.

I honeslty beleive the tyros 1 and 2 had a better synth and pad sound set than the Korg PA family. the PA definitely has awesome drum kits, great solo instrument voices - nice live uncompressed sound BUT it just wasnt enough for me. going back to the motif just makes me realise what i was missing.

there is a lot of marketing crap that gets put out there as well as just stories people tell about "an arranger with a synth engine" and people automnatically think they are getting an arranger keyboard that has the same exact sounds as the synth line eg: a korg PA 800 with Korg Triton voices... i have yet to lay hands on a triton, but from what i heard from the PA 800 i highly doubt the Triton would sound the same as the PA800. i imagine much more punchier sounds etc etc.

I even have my doubts about the same comparison between a Roland G70 and a Roland Fantom X. the G70 may have some of the fantom X sounds but really? how many? and are they that useful?

anyways i am much much happier now i have gone back to motif XS land.

i didnt want to stir any trouble by my post, i just wanted to clear the air for some people who are considering buying a PA 800 or a Roland arranger thinking they are getting a Synthesiser with arranger functionality...

cheers,
Nick

Enjoy that XS6 Nick! It's a great synth for sure..., great keybed too! I was rockin out on one a few weeks ago. Sounds to me as if you hit the wall of reality when it comes to arrangers and their capability of doing anything MODERN and kicking out up to date synth/pads. Yeah.., these arrangers typically fall behind in the synth area in the sound department. The PA line does however have good patch editing options comapred to the others


In regards to the Triton as it relates to the PA line...., I'm not too sure if the current PA line really owes it voices to the original Triton series. However..., The earlier PA models (PA-80) had Triton based sound engines.., and I think (with some limitations of course) they were even capable of loading Triton programs.



[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 02-27-2009).]

Nick,
So it sounds like you really did not NEED an arranger. If I didn't want an arranger..I would go right out and but a Kurzweil PC3X...no questions asked...But I play arranger not just synth.

I had a K2600 synth (kick ass for sure) but it was not an arranger...and that's what I need to play the way I want.

I plan to add a M3 to the PA2XPRO...and have the best of both worlds...or, maybe even a Motif XS RACK.

Lee S.

Go for the XS rack man! Great patches in that box for sure... I guess it also depends on what type of patches are important to you as well. I know it's subjective but IMO Korg has amazing string and orchestral patches. Many of their orchestral patches have some killer velocity switching goin on Plus Korg puts some great Combi's together too.

I really like the Yamaha XS.., but I would have to say I think Yamaha softened up a bit and with this particular Motif model they catered A LOT to the acoustic emulation this time. It's got some nice synth patches.., but Yamaha took a big "acoustic" approach with the XS line. Not a bad thing either because there are some very nice acoustic patches in it.

I think I got sucked in from the looks and features before I submitted my infamous statement that Diki can't seem to let go.

One clarification. Don't confuse me with the wafflers. I have the 800 as the CONSTANT, remember - no changes here. What is wrong with exploring a 2nd board? I still am and here are my thoughts:

1. Back to a backup (2nd) 800 - makes the most sense (similar to what Diki wants now on the G70).
2. T2 - The seniors would love this sound, as they do the 900.
3. AX-Synth - a definite in late fall.

(3) days off finally and it gets crazy the rest of the year

Yeh, maybe. I'll call ya