Hi folks, had a great telephone chat with SZ member buddy Frank Ventresca from Audioworks earlier today and wanted to fill you in on a couple of things regarding the Korg Pa3X. Many of you may not be aware that the Pa3X currently being demoed at Namm, though pretty much cosmetically and physically completed, on the software side, its still in the final development stages, as the release date's not until April/May.

The reason Korg's showing the Pa3X now is because they want to give it exposure at Naam so Americans can see & hear it and provide input to help make the Pa3X a keyboard that truly appeals to Americans, in addition to the European & Middle Eastern markets.

I for one really appreciate Korg's genuine interest in listening to its customers, which includes us here, as clearly evidenced by Korg's implementation of the Rootless Chord recognition feature, and now with the Pa3X, the Chord Sequencer. One of the Korg reps I spoke with assured me this was not merely a coincidence.

With our continued input here, and I know for a fact that key people from Korg read our forum regularly and are more than familiar with many of us and what we post, especially the active participants, and keep up with pretty much everything posted, so I'm confident that they're working hard to release a Pa3X, of at least to some degree, with us in mind.

With Frank Venstresca's permission, I posted to my YouTube channel. this short YouTube clip he shot of Steve McNally demonstrating the Pa3X yesterday at the Namm Korg Booth. Thanks Frank:

Thanks for this update Scottyee.

At last Finally, here's the latest 2011 Namm Show video demo of the Pa3X (with decent audio quality) presented by KORG

Wow, this 'sounds' a lot more like what I had initially hoped for in the Pa3X ! cool new features + rich full sound !

Thanks Scott...Yes a much MUCH better demo...Maybe I am swinging back a bit after this one....Dunno yet. I would really need to see the manual. But I don;'t think that will be available until MusikMesse.

Dennis

That board has some amazing goodies. I see a foreboding trend of the machine doing everything and the musician very little - with the pitch correction and the dual mp3 player. A great showman/dj with very little musical ability could probably put on an impressive show with this board.

We're starting to see features that were normally only found on softsynths arriving in a keyboard.

I'm very impressed.

Everything you say sounds very good but speaking for myself, I and many players would agree that we don't need more bells and whistles(like vocal remover), the year is 2011 and a few things are not acceptable, we need bread a butter features, for example 128 polyphony(shame on YAMAHA also)why not 256 voices? USER RAM we need 1 GIG or 2 or how about 16?,unreliable switches,and a PC program to edit the keyboard, and after market support like updates to fix the main glitches in their operating system. I don't care if they have the best Piano out or the best Steel Guitar KORG's biggest selling area for arrangers is Europe and the Oriental markets so they should consider some more drastic changes in order to convince the current owners. I hope something changes by the time the PA3X hits the market.

Biggest improement is they went back to black!!!

Thanks Scott,

[/quote]

Biggest improvement is they went back to black!!! [/quote]

I don't see how that's a major improvement, unless we are in a beauty pageant competition or the other thing is you have some problem vision wise, speaking in general, I guess that might help?

Biggest improvement is they went back to black!!! [/quote]

I don't see how that's a major improvement, unless we are in a beauty pageant competition or the other thing is you have some problem vision wise, speaking in general, I guess that might help? [/quote]

I was only joking as to imply they could have done much more internally, eg: Ram, Poly, etc, at this point I'm a weak 50% sold on it... vs 85% on the Tyros 4......when I get a chance to actually play each I know opinions will change.

In case you guys are not aware of it, KORG will be presenting FOUR new PA arranger keyboards at Frankfurt in April, the PA-3X
standard in 61 and 76 keys , COLOUR Black, and the PA-3Xmusikant (especiallly designed for the German speaking market, that is Western orientated like the pa-500 musikant) also in 61 and 76 keys and in the colour IVORY or off-white, whatever you call the colour of the PA-2X.....
sorry Donny...

JOhn

And yet another Naam showroom floor Pa3X demo:

is he kidding?... his first line is that
"Korg arrangers are the most popular Professional Arrangers in the world" ....I think korg is playing follow the leader Tyros 4 with some of their new Features...autofill, dnc button control, etc..?

They could start by licensing Yamaha's whole style library I'll take "Boom, chick chick" over Korg's busy mishmash any time. If I *really* wanted to compete with other musicians, I would join a band

Still all the same-old same-old....No new info on the actual operations....

style editing and importing/sorting,

how the effects structure is incorporated,

can the chords recorded in the Chord Sequencer be saved to disk, or is it a strictly live tool and do the variation'fill changes get saved along with the chords

can two engines be used simultaneously - play a style AND a midi at the same time

audio output configurations

user ram configuration and sound editing/creation

just what IS Guitar mode II and what does it do/allow

You see what I am getting at? All we are getting in these demos is all the same fluff..The same demo of the new toys (although the CS is a great tool!!)

Looks like we will have to wait for MusikMesse to get the FULL skinny.

Actually there is a hint here in his opening preamble (the demonstrator) where he says they are extremely popular in Germany especially with the Musikant series, and of course MusikMesse is also in Germany...Korgs (maybe)biggest market looks like it will get the biggest preview.

It certainly appears this was not a well orchestrated launch on Korg's part for the PA3x. But at least they made the effort!! If they did not everyone would be "Bitching" about it for sure! The answers will be forthcoming as we all know ... and predictably everyone will fall in line behind their "Favorite" nameplate!!

Interesting lots of activity and talk/demos regarding Korg Pa3x and Tyros4 at NAMM. Just getting back into the loop looks like I've missed quite a bit. Maybe I didn't........ my wife and I just spent 3 great days skiing in Northern New Hampshire, talk about a winter wonderland. For those of you who ski, conditions were excellent.

That Korg is sharp looking, I'll be really curious to demo it at Frankieve's store once it's released. When talking Tyros4 and Korg Pa3x, as usual Yamaha knows how to "sell the sizzle, not the steak." Did you ever stop to think if marketing teams were reversed?

The only difference Steve is that YAMAHA Talks the Talk & WALKS THE WALK!

An interesting difference between the Tyros4 and the Pa3xpro Super Articulation / Defined Nuance Control voices is that on the Tyros4, you do not have to use the ART 1 & 2 buttons to get Art voice effects. The "Breath Sax" on the T4 is Sooooo realistic. I just did a wedding gig and played the SAX on Smooth Operator, and Everyone was looking on stage for the SAX player!!!!! I had several people come up to the stage and ask and then I saw the lead vocalist point at me!!

The Yamaha voices are THAT good. And it's really hard for Korg to compete with that. The new SV1 Piano's and Rhodes sound awesome, but did they upgrade the rest of the sounds as well? Let's see.

It must feel great to get that kind of response. I'm sure some credit is due to the musician as well.

I must say that the PA3x vocalizer sounds really good in that demo, a demo which overall was not up to the same level of professionality as Yamaha is.

The thing with Yamaha is that they have come out with so many fantastic styles. The T4 has 500 onboard styles and the PA3x has something like 400. Plus the Yamaha has developed a great library of professionally done styles.

I'm glad that Korg came out with auto-fill. I'm surprised they ddidn't have this years ago.

This is what I don't get...The PA2 already has auto-fill, just not assigned to a particular button.

You can set it up so that when you hit a fill button it automatically goes to whatever variation you choose, even to a break....It can be linked and saved within a Songbook entry, so your "fill-mode" can be different for EVERY song if you so wish.

I just don't see how having a dedicated button on the front panel is THAT much of an upgrade to be honest.

Dennis

This would make the upgrade worthwhile. With two sequencers, I could never understand why Korgs couldn't do this before. Yamaha lets you do this with ONE sequencer!

mmmmmm wont be caught out again,, waiting to see first the whole story, and if they are listening, where is the larger poly, and what about styles? once Korg were the leaders here, now Yamaha have blitzed them, and the drums still sound too compressed. What amazes me is that this board will probably be appromimately the same price as the new synth, if not more and yet has less to offer. If they really wanted to wow the market why wouldn't they have incorporated the pa3x with the Kronos, now that would have been something!!

And the Korg bashing continues Have you people nothing else to do?

Dear Korg, I would put more effort in the sounds rather than this 8 effects, dual sequencer useless stuff. We need one good sequencer, not two. As for effects, it's a thing of the past, nowadays people rarely bother with more than eq and reverb.

The sounds of the PA3X don't quite cut it, even compared to my Tyros 2. The violin that I have heard is significantly weaker than the one on my Tyros 2. The clean electric guitar in the funk style, can't stand a chance with the Megavoice and super articulation clean guitars.

How much ROM does the Tyros 2 have ? 300 mb , if I am not mistaken. That's more than the PA3X and it's from an older keyboard.

And please implement a chord track like the Yamaha, because it really works well for writing a song structure really quickly.

You seem to have done a very good job with the Kronos, but the PAX3 is no match for it.

Regards, AYPN

That would have been awesome. I was very, very impressed with the Kronos...certainly it would be a great gigging instrument for someone in a band...all the essential sounds, and then some.

So far the PA3X hasn't moved me a whole lot, although it does have some neat features, especially the chord sequencer.

The dual MP3's aren't anything I'd use, but they do have some pretty cool tricks like the voice canceling, harmony triggering etc.

More demos are needed, for sure, and more in depth ones, at that.

Ian

Ian

And again the Korg bashing continues. I thought we wouldn't do that anymore on this forum. That things has changed and we respect each other instruments.

I also can start again bashing Yamaha but I won't in respect to Yamaha users who don't write all this crap.

mmmh....looks like I have pushed some of your hot buttons, and they weren't the ones on your keyboard.

This is a forum....if you don't like it, find yourself something better to do, homie... don't go around telling people what to do. I have enough musical expertise to freely express what I think of a new instrument.

Get a life, Mr Dictator .

Frans, I don't see any "bashing" in my post.

I wasn't impressed with what I have heard from the demos...were you?

I think Korg could do a much better job of showcasing this new instrument...so far it doesn't sound any better than the PA2X; that doesn't mean the sound is necessarily bad....hardly.

The PA2X impressed me. This one is too much the same; at least from what we've heard so far.

Ian

You know knothing fool. Get a life and stop writing about things you don't understand.

I am not talking about you Ian. You are one of the smarter people and don't judge an instrument on some lousy youtube videos.

I don't understand the point of it, either. The Tyros has a less developed sequencer but the sounds seems to have had more work done on them.

Have you heard that funk guitar? There was no expression in it. It didn't sound like a clean guitar from a latest generation arranger. I have heard the one on the Tyros 2 right now and it blew it away. Fact

ah ah....

other than getting a life, I also suggest you grow up. You seem to have a lot of pre-teen pent-up anger inside yourself.

ahah

Well call me a dictator and you can expect this kind of reaction from me. So grow up yourself

Dear Korg,

please also implement sampling from disk-streaming, like the Kronos. Get rid of the ROMpler. 256 mb is nothing to write home about in 2011.

Actually, how about just making a Kronos with styles?

That would be smashing.

ahaha....now THAT would be something to worry about. Oh my.

AH AH....!

Dear Korg,

I have found the PAX3 very unimpressive up to now.

No offense, but it's almost as if you had made that keyboard, developed for 2009. It has a lot of turbo-effects and double sequencer stuff, but it seems to me that it just tries to have unnecessary novel ideas instead of catering to real needs. Who uses two mp3's or two midi files at the same time? Who's going to waste time setting up 8 effects on one sound? Personally, I just use EQ and reverb. If the sounds are impressive, that's all the effects I need.

The sounds first of all, they can't be just ok.

They have to be impressive.

Regards, AYPN

WOW..someone on the forum here is showing there ignorance and arrogance.....
But most will simply ignore the posts.
Lee S.

Quote FransN "And the Korg bashing continues Have you people nothing else to do?" end quote

and quote

Arranger Yes PC No "Dear Korg, I would put more effort in the sounds rather than this 8 effects, dual sequencer useless stuff. We need one good sequencer, not two. As for effects, it's a thing of the past, nowadays people rarely bother with more than eq and reverb.

The sounds of the PA3X don't quite cut it, even compared to my Tyros 2. The violin that I have heard is significantly weaker than the one on my Tyros 2. The clean electric guitar in the funk style, can't stand a chance with the Megavoice and super articulation clean guitars.

How much ROM does the Tyros 2 have ? 300 mb , if I am not mistaken. That's more than the PA3X and it's from an older keyboard.

And please implement a chord track like the Yamaha, because it really works well for writing a song structure really quickly.

You seem to have done a very good job with the Kronos, but the PAX3 is no match for it.

Regards, AYPN

Can I say FransN this has nothing to do with Korg bashing, in fact in the hope that someone listens to the buying public, this could be advantageous to Korg. We know that it's not final "PC3X" so some of the really wanted basic needs may be further addressed, and some of the so called bells and whistles could be dropped, I'm inclined to agree with Arranger Yes, I think I'll be very happy to sit and wait to see what it will bring, but Kronos features would have been I would have thought a necessity against the Yammy and Audya to scoop the market so to speak

"They went back to black"

For me, that IS a big improvement. When I have a board in front of me, I need it to be pleasing to look at (for me). I didn't like the design OR the colors on the PA2XPro. Same with the Ketrons. And the same with the Tyros 4 (though I liked the styling of the 3). Loved the G-70 and that LED display...that being the MOST important...a colorful LED readout. The Casio 7500 is a pretty machine too.

Coloring is so important to me, I'd consider NOT buying a particular board if it's not right.

That said, that PX3XPro is some mean looking machine. And the Kronos too. If the 3 sounds as good or better than the 2, I'm going to go with that. And the Kronos too....which I understand is the follow-up to the OASYS.

Lucky

Oh please

I think those who were looking for the Korg Holy Grail are the same ones who really don't appreciate the PA series anyway. It really doesn't need to improve on sounds and styles.

But the addition of more styles, enhanced vocalizer, optional speaker (pretty cool), and many other new features makes it a 'want' for me. But this statement is coming from a pro performer who utilizes the greatness of the PA series.

Play want you want, bash who you want and I'll gladly be the sole PA player around these parts.

I agree with you Zuki. the sound quality on the Korg PA 2X and PA800 was already top notch. It just needed a few additional voices which it looks like they have addressed. I am still hoping they have upgraded the synth department but so far all the feature enhancements are a great compliment to an already amazing pro level arranger keyboard.

we now finally have a 61 note arranger build like a Synth that does have speakers and isnt bulky! ...and its black

Nick

But it does need to improve on operational aspects...Style Management is one that comes to mind, amongst others.

But no bashing, or holy grailing here I am perfectly happy with my PA2x + some extra stuff come MusikMesse time

Dennis

I know the specs say it is compatible with the old styles, but does it say if they have retained the old "set at a time" loading procedure?
DonM

I am impressed by

1) all the buttons and sliders on the board
2) the great vocalizer
3) the speaker system
4) the addition of auto-fill
5) pitch correction
6) piano and acoustic guitar voices

If I were in the market for a TOTL arranger, I would still probably go with the T4 because Yamaha has more styles that take advantage of auto-fill. I say probably, because I would love to get the opportunity to play the PA3X.

I hope not Don.....that was a major pain in the A$$ ...& one of the things I really disliked about all my PA units in the past.
I hope we can get a definitive answer on this folder OS procedure asap.

Too much blue-skying going on, still.

How many of you are disappointed in only 128 voices? Out of you, how many currently HAVE a 128 note arranger? And out of THAT minority, how many of you have EVER heard any dropping out during play?

128 voices is PLENTY. For starters, there's no arranger with MORE unless you count the MS, which CAN have more, but also, depending on what VSTi's you use, can also have a LOT less... If you like Yamaha's, then you like 128 voices. Period.

8 different insert effects doesn't mean 8 effects on ONE sound (although it could if you were insane!) but it means 8 different effects divided up between all the Parts. THAT'S pretty significant, IMO

And Jeez... Black or not as a 'feature'? If it sounded great, who wouldn't buy it even if it were only available in plaid? Or polka-dots (for the schlager market!)?

There are some that are dancing in the streets about the Korg's new features, but most still scratching their heads. Well, let me inform you... The Chord Sequencer is the most significant addition to the arranger feature set since, well, since Roland dropped it, to be honest! Only those that have never learned it would miss the significance. It's a whole extra hand, that does what YOU want to do, when YOU want to do it. Tired of having to tie up your LH inputting the same chords over and over for a repeated section? Maybe like to play a solo using BOTH hands (piano, anyone?), or like to use a bend lever for an expressive solo, or like to play another instrument (sax, flute, even another keyboard) for a section of a song?

Chord sequencer.

But the COLOR...? Do any of you guys actually PLAY?!

Most of us wouldn't have been all THAT impressed with a T4 if we had heard it in beta, before the sounds and styles were dialed in. This was a sneak peek at an unfinished product, but the spec sheet alone promises significant improvement in Korg's old system (auto-fill finally! Yay! and five fills instead of three... Yay!).

Once again, the old fanboy rantings appear... You criticize the Korg for having a smaller RAM section from the T4, but don't give the T4 a hard time for having an entirely closed, proprietary sample format that precludes actually USING that RAM for anything other than the measly few sample sets they sell themselves. What's the point of a GB or 2 of RAM, when Yamaha don't sell enough sounds to even fill it a quarter full?

Let's all just take a deep breath, get off our fanboy horses, and treat this as a sneak peek at a future product, and while we wait for the fully realized PA3 to appear, start to take notice of the features on our OWN favorite arranger that are less than stellar themselves. You know, so we don't get this arrogant attitude repeated when Musikmesse comes around.

Boy, I've missed this place! I don't get around children too much in my regular life....

I was agreeing with everything you said Diki, until you just had to throw in the insult in the last line. Was that necessary? Seems you should have OTHER children.
DonM

so diki you got your all important CS feature back does that mean your selling your 2 G70s now and buying a Pa3xpro 76?

Sorry, Don... go back a bit on this thread, and you'll see exactly what I was talking about. Why, if you AREN'T acting like a kid, lump yourself in with a comment referring to said behavior? YOU know you aren't doing it, why let a comment about it affect you?

And Donny... I've already posted about the Korg and me. Primarily, I am not doing a lot of arranger work right now, mostly live bands. Should the situation change, I'll definitely be looking at it, but at least I have a friend who will be getting one, as his whole act revolves around the CS. You KNOW how long I take to move on to new things! No rush, at the moment...

Well then Diki, with respect, you should be more SPECIFIC about to whom you are referring , instead of these BROAD-BRUSH comments you (and many others) sometimes make.
I don't believe any of my posts were int that vein??
Were your comments directed at me, for example?

I have made this comment before on this forum. If there is a post that folks have an issue with, identify it (or all the posts that offend in the same way) and the poster, that way the rest of us do not feel disparaged, and we do not need to make comments such as Don's. Which I agree with.

Dennis

Older I get the more I can act like a kid and get by with it! Why all I do is play golf, fish and play music, and occasionally wake up the baby's mama.
Oh, I know what you're talking about, I just don't know why you seem to have a chip on your shoulder so often. What really ticks me off is that you are usually right. Don't worry, I forgive you.


DonM

Well said Dennis...miscommunication inevitably ends up causing undue issues...if one must poo on another...at least aim.

That said, thank God I've just grown older, and have not grown up.

Ian

I have a tendency to read an entire thread before I comment, especially if it is one I've been away from for a day or two. I guess those that only read the previous post find it easy to forget some of the shenanigans that might have gone on earlier in the thread, especially if from the previous day or two...

I'm sorry, but I feel this is very much a case of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'... Single out the offenders, and address them specifically, and now you have an enemy for life, make a broad comment and hope that those who WEREN'T involved in said shenanigans have the good sense to realize it isn't THEM I'm referring to, and you get the same...

I don't know about you, maybe I just have a thicker skin, but someone makes a comment about something I haven't had anything to do with, it doesn't affect me in the slightest..! If the cap DON'T fit, don't wear it!

Well I think you are all acting like children so your immature behavior has just stopped this thread dead. Don't make me have to do this again or I will simply ban all involved and let you cry about it on some other forum. I don't give a ---- how thick your skins are I will poke a hole in them.