Hey guys,
I had to chance to sit at the pa800 for a few hours.

Here is my old review from 2007 when i tried it while on vacation. It had the 1.0 operating system. As I reread my review I came to realize I was a little immature. I think I was quick to judge it as unfairly as I did.

Maybe a combination of people messing with settings while on store display and the fact of having the initial operating system and being uneducated on the korg pa caused my haste.

I have to say almost every complaint I had after spending a couple hrs with it are pretty much gone. I'm am strongly considering buying either the Pa800 or the PA2x. Any differences pros and cons would be helpful.

I pasted by previous review below to read. Again, I feel silly for talking out of my butt on some of these things as I reread it.

My biggest hesitation would probably be lack of 3rd party support. I'd love to hear some mp3 samples of some of the 3rd party avail.

Any other feedback would be great!


[QUOTE]Originally posted by mikey_maestro:
[B]Hey guys,

I on vacation here in sunny orlando, home of mickey. With all the great emails received I found a dealer (Discount Music)who has korg, yamaha arrangers. I finally was able to get my hands on a pa800 to try. I, as many of you have read recently bought a T2 last month. I bought it on just reviews and previous history with yamaha navigation and sounds.

I arrived at (discount music) was happily greeted by a manager, his name was Roman.
I told him I was visiting from boston and I was a T2 owner , contemplating purchasing a possible second board to use in conjunction with my Tyros2. He told me he had a PA800 and a PA1x pro. He immediately went and connected them side by side through a nice pair of powered studio monitors.

First impression, The Pa800 looks like a toy.
for some reason the blue color mixed with white buttons, silverish accents and grey speaker covers takes away from it looking like a pro board on the exterior.
before anyone thinks I'm bashing korg, I am a proud owner of a blue Korg Triton Extreme 61)The triton is a dark metallic blue with subtle grey accents.
Back too the pa800 we go. The one touch setting buttons took me about 20 seconds of hard looking to find. Thet are about the size of white tic tacs located right under the display screen, Which is smaller than the T2 screen and not even color to boot.

the style and sounds buttons are really cheap feeling and each button shares 2 styles or sounds using like an a/b button option. Yuck!!

The Keys, in my honest opinion are no better than the s900 key bed (not as nice as the triton extreme even) not sure how they would last over time.

The Styles:
Oh boy!!, this is where it gets worse beside the T2. My friends and fellow Musicians. the good styles are average at best!! The bad ones are just bad!!! A few of the rock styles offer a different feel than some of the T2 and wer ok, but the big band, pop, ballads, R&B, FUNK, are some of the worst and bland I've ever heard, I think my old Psr540 could hang with them. Anyone who said they were Punch and in your face may have been paid off by korg.

The songbook feature was very dull, not many factory songs included,they wer'nt decrypted, like the yamaha but i'm sure the correct names are out there. I know others have stated that the options on saving transpose and other stuff were nice but I didnt utilize them in my experiment.

There were a couple nice drum fills and a 3 count break button,. which was ok.

The Sounds/voices;
I'd love to know what voices korg was to outshine the Tyros 2 on. I tried some of the ones I use most often.

Piano - so so
organ- yuck and thin
sax- not even as nice as a $300 casio
brass- weak, weak , weak
guitar - try again
synth sounds - were descent
woodwinds- flute was fair, that was it
Sorry Korg Lovers!!

The speakers were ugly but sounded comparable to the S900.

There was no separate modulation wheel, the korg has one stick that does both. I want 2, sorry

Wrap up:
I tried the Pa1x pro shortly after. From reading the comparisons of people saying the pa1x pro was older technology, after the disappointment with the PA800. It was gonna be breif. However in my short time with the pa1x i did notice it's build quality was much better, the keys were a lot closer in quality to what i have on my T2.
The speakers were much louder and punchier than the PA800 they styles seemed similar for the most part.

My synth zone friends, "I wouldnt take 3 pa800's for my Tyros2 unless I could resell them on ebay rebuy my t2 and have a party with the leftover cash.

I hope i havn't upset any of you korg players, potential buyers please try them for yourself first, you may have a different opinion.

But I would like to give huge props to roman and his staff at discount music in orlando for being so friendly and helpful.

Another Dealer is Frank from Audio works in CT. I've spoke to him a few times, he is a great friendly smart guy. and his prices are excellent.



------------------
God Bless,
Mikey

www.mikeymaestro.com
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www.77bucks.com Affordable web design

I came to the same result as you did when I tried the Pa800. Not much better than the PA80. Good luck finding what you need.

Unless your entire repertoire is based around the ROM styles that come with your initial purchase of an arranger (and how many of us here are big schlager players? ), how well any arranger works for you is going to depend on two things... How much third party QUALITY styles you can get, and secondly, how easy it is to quickly edit ROM and third party styles to fine tune and create different styles.

Especially for us Americans, there are large musical areas either completely ignored or very under-represented in the style selection. Personally, I believe that this, rather than any cultural bias against arrangers, is what drives US sales so low compared to European levels. I mean, four PAGES of schlager and ONE Caribbean style? I don't know about you, but I don't use ONE schlager style. But I play a boat load (banana boat? ) of calypso, reggae and pop reggae tunes. Or same thing for country, zydeco and cajun, tejunto, folk, alternative, emo, and don't get me started about hiphop, contemporary R&B and rap

Without top notch third party support, and easy style editing tools, I would be lost trying to use an arranger. Beware of those that sound initially impressive, but have a low level of third party support, and arcane and unintuitive editing and creating tools. At least in the US, you are going to need them...

Either that, or find a schlager gig somewhere!

Mikey Maestro, Don't buy the PA800 it's awful. I thought I'd use it as a boat anchor after I used it on 1 gig. but it wasn't heavy enough. So I got me a G70 it's a much better boat anchor nice and heavy.

You won't get two separate controls for pitch bend and modulation on the Roland arrangers either...they use a bender lever that performs both functions and is no better (but no worse) than the Korg's joystick.

I prefer Yamaha's pitch bend and mod wheels for my style of play.

Ian

Hey Mikey, try here:
http://www.irishacts.com/ezypal/index.php?do=catalog&c=korg_triton_%2526_pa_series_libraries&i=style_pack_volume_1

Never mind the naysayers on here so far - you play what YOU like.

I have a Pa1XPro and guess why I play it. Yep, you got it.

Mikey,

You and I have talked enough to know my feelings on the 800.

1. Yes, 3rd party styles are limited. My contention is 3rd party styles pretty much are boring and suck anyway (with the exception of 124's site - very nicely done - goes to show how musical its engine is). There are PLENTY of ROM styles to suit any type music. Don't let others' comments cloud your head. Believe me, I play them all and they are all fantastic. I say this over and over - it's the musicality/sound design of this instrument that separates it from the rest - nothing compares. If you're looking for 50,000 rat-a-tat styles, then this is not for you.

2. The 80 is a joke compared to the 800 - do the comparison and upgrade features. Songbook, Helicon, OS, etc (please).

3. I would sell my boat first before the 800.

I am so very glad that the field of 800 users is narrow - it gives me the competitive edge. Also, I play 600+ gigs a year and the comments about the board are OVERWHELMING - including remarks from musicians and qualified critics in the crowd.

The 800 is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I played them ALL. Like 124 said, DO NOT LET A FEW NAYSAYERS SWAY YOU - decide for yourself. Come to Cincy - I'll make you a believer

[This message has been edited by zuki (edited 04-17-2009).]

Mikey.....what made you change you mind since this PA800 review a while back....
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/016202.html

Hey guys,
I on vacation here in sunny orlando, home of mickey. With all the great emails received I found a dealer (Discount Music)who has korg, yamaha arrangers. I finally was able to get my hands on a pa800 to try. I, as many of you have read recently bought a T2 last month. I bought it on just reviews and previous history with yamaha navigation and sounds.

I arrived at (discount music) was happily greeted by a manager, his name was Roman.
I told him I was visiting from boston and I was a T2 owner , contemplating purchasing a possible second board to use in conjunction with my Tyros2. He told me he had a PA800 and a PA1x pro. He immediately went and connected them side by side through a nice pair of powered studio monitors.

First impression, The Pa800 looks like a toy.
for some reason the blue color mixed with white buttons, silverish accents and grey speaker covers takes away from it looking like a pro board on the exterior.
before anyone thinks I'm bashing korg, I am a proud owner of a blue Korg Triton Extreme 61)The triton is a dark metallic blue with subtle grey accents.
Back too the pa800 we go. The one touch setting buttons took me about 20 seconds of hard looking to find. Thet are about the size of white tic tacs located right under the display screen, Which is smaller than the T2 screen and not even color to boot.

the style and sounds buttons are really cheap feeling and each button shares 2 styles or sounds using like an a/b button option. Yuck!!

The Keys, in my honest opinion are no better than the s900 key bed (not as nice as the triton extreme even) not sure how they would last over time.

The Styles:
Oh boy!!, this is where it gets worse beside the T2. My friends and fellow Musicians. the good styles are average at best!! The bad ones are just bad!!! A few of the rock styles offer a different feel than some of the T2 and wer ok, but the big band, pop, ballads, R&B, FUNK, are some of the worst and bland I've ever heard, I think my old Psr540 could hang with them. Anyone who said they were Punch and in your face may have been paid off by korg.

The songbook feature was very dull, not many factory songs included,they wer'nt decrypted, like the yamaha but i'm sure the correct names are out there. I know others have stated that the options on saving transpose and other stuff were nice but I didnt utilize them in my experiment.

There were a couple nice drum fills and a 3 count break button,. which was ok.

The Sounds/voices;
I'd love to know what voices korg was to outshine the Tyros 2 on. I tried some of the ones I use most often.

Piano - so so
organ- yuck and thin
sax- not even as nice as a $300 casio
brass- weak, weak , weak
guitar - try again
synth sounds - were descent
woodwinds- flute was fair, that was it
Sorry Korg Lovers!!

The speakers were ugly but sounded comparable to the S900.

There was no separate modulation wheel, the korg has one stick that does both. I want 2, sorry

Wrap up:
I tried the Pa1x pro shortly after. From reading the comparisons of people saying the pa1x pro was older technology, after the disappointment with the PA800. It was gonna be breif. However in my short time with the pa1x i did notice it's build quality was much better, the keys were a lot closer in quality to what i have on my T2.
The speakers were much louder and punchier than the PA800 they styles seemed similar for the most part.

My synth zone friends, "I wouldnt take 3 pa800's for my Tyros2 unless I could resell them on ebay rebuy my t2 and have a party with the leftover cash.

I hope i havn't upset any of you korg players, potential buyers please try them for yourself first, you may have a different opinion.

But I would like to give huge props to roman and his staff at discount music in orlando for being so friendly and helpful.

Another Dealer is Frank from Audio works in CT. I've spoke to him a few times, he is a great friendly smart guy. and his prices are excellent.

------------------
God Bless,
Mikey


Amazing..How things change eh?.....



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 04-17-2009).]

Mikey,

I know you're a bit undecided what to do. I've been thru it as you know. You may want to consider selling either your S900 or Tyros2, then pick up a PA800. It will give you the best of both worlds. I have the Pax2Pro and an s900. Works for me, ot took a while to find that combination and be happy. But I don't see myself changing in the near future. But like the New England weather wait a minute and that could change

Donny I'm not trying to speak for Mikey, but he recently had a chance to hear my Pa2xPro/Bose combination and liked what he heard coming from that combo while he was in the audience.

DITTO on Korg arrangers except I don't have a boat to sell