I love the songbook feature for live performance as it is so easy to list your songs and get to them quickly and it save everything including transpose unlike the Yamaha units I have..Tyros S910 etc...

Im a little rusty on setting up all my songs on the songbook can you guide me step by step as to the easiest way to create a performance,.... once I set my song up, tempo, key, sounds, sts, etc, ...then how would you go about creating a custom list?...I read the manual but is there any shortcuts or things I should know to do this fast.....?

Also lets say I create a song performance........do I have to SAVE IT TO A PERFORMANCE Slot FIRST? or
CAN I BYPASS that save & JUST SAVE IT TO THE SONGBOOK CUSTOM LIST without the Perf user save also..?

Donny, off the top of my head.
My method:
1-Set up the song you have selected:
1-the style,
2-instruments in the style and tempo.
3-the STS of your choice.
4-The pads
5-Key transposition.
6-If you have lyric save them simple text and attach them to the song you are working on.

About the Performance; there are 3 right hand sounds – and one left, plus the editing that can be done. Now this is a lot of work just for one song but when it is done you have Donny’s creation. A short cut I am using is to create a group of performances that I can call on when I am playing live or when I am working with Song Book. Example: Piano Rt1 vibes Rt2 guitar Rt3 left Piano. Set the octaves, volumes and possible EQ for each one. Set the type of ensemble I want and which parts will receive it, and the intensity.
Most of the factory Performances are good but I needed some that were me. I started with a page of eight, always ready to make changes in them as I learned more about the keyboard.

Now when I am adding a new song in song book I can use some of the performances I created or what the factory created saving a lot of repetitive work. To answer your question; no you do not have to use performance with song book, but it makes life easier. With Korg there is always more to learn; I imagine that this time next year my song book will be much better than it is now.

I am now starting to add some midi files with their lyrics in song book. My next step is to add some Mp3s. Given time and some work the keyboard will be able to do a more in depth job that none of my other keyboards I have owned.

I use my laptop for lists of songs to match the venue. The same song can be used in different lists; each song has a number, a sort of code; Scott Yee is great with this kind of thinking.
Examples using Genre. in song book: A1 = 30’s and 40’s up. A2 = the same in medium tempo A3- the same in ballads. ZZ = Ethnic music. WW = Polkas. For music sets I use different codes. Your imagination will not be limited with song book.

Hope this helps, John C.

PS, Keep in mind I am new to Korg, the keyboard is amazing.

This is the way I used to do it on my Pa800 maybe it can help some off you....make sense?




1) Select the style you want to use. Set up the four STS's if you can't use the default ones. Do any necessary modifications to tempo, transpose, volume, eq, balance, effects etc just as you would be doing it live.

2) Go to Book Edit Page 1. Fill out the fields (Genre, Artist, Key etc.) Make sure that you check marks in the following boxes:
Write Current Resource
Write STS
All Current Style STS

3) If necessary make further changes on Book Edit Page 2. Give the song an unique "Song Selection Number" (301, 302, 303,...).

4) Press Write

Do 1) to 4) for a number of styles. Now you can put these styles into a custom song book that only shows your own styles:

5) Make sure that "Enable Book Edit" is activated from the menu in the upper right corner.

6) Go to List Edit and press New List.

7) Go to the main Book page and press Add To List for you own entries.

8) Finally go back to the List Edit page and save the list.

You can choose which list that is shown on the Custom List page. You can continue adding more entries to your custom list by repeating 1-8 above, just do the following instead of 6)

6) Select your own list on the Custom list page.

This might seem complicated at first but is actually quite logical when you have done it a few times. And the custom list feature also allow you to have the same song in several lists, i.e. Sleigh Ride could be both in "Donny's Songs" and in "Christmas Songs".


Make sure that you check out page 297 in the manual. It contains a lot of shortcuts that will really help you in a live setting.

It is also important that you understand how "locks" works to get transpose etc. to work like you want it. Go to Global/General Controls/Locks. If an item is locked it will not change when you select a new songbook entry, style or performance. It will always retain the value of performance 1 (Grand Piano eXp). If you want another locked value just modify performance 1 and overwrite it. If you don't want the value to be locked you should open the lock in Global/General Controls/Locks and then do a Write Globals from the menu in the upper right corner.

Donny, thanks I've learned a few things from your post.

Take care, John C.

John the songbook is a very powerful navigational tool and is what makes Korg arrangers stand out amongst the pack. For each Kb I own I make a folder and keep all info, help files, styles, smf, etc in it for later reference as you never know when you might need it again down the road. I hope to hear more tips on using the SONG BOOK Feature...especially using the Songbook Editor program because i have never used it and wondering is it worth it vs doing it "onboard the kb"?....

Donny, You wrote;
“especially using the Songbook Editor program because i have never used it and wondering is it worth it vs doing it "onboard the kb"?....

Is there a Korg Song Book Editor program for a PC?

John C

Sure is:
http://www.korgpa.com/en/support/products/arrangers/pa3x/pa3x-software.html
DonM

Don, Can this program be used with the Pa800?
John C.

Yes.

John C. and Donny,

Great explanation of the how to on the Korg Pa series. When I had my Pa2xPro and Pa800 I always used Songbook,it's a great tool no question about it. With Donny's instructions it all came back to the how to save to Songbook.

John, very interesting in the just about 2 years that I played and gigged with the PA800/2xPro I never used the peformance modes, but after reading the threads regarding SZ members using the PA series, if I do buy another Korg I will definitely have to dive into using performances I missed it completely the first time around but since Songbook did the job there wasn't a real need to.

The value of the Performance mode is just below the Song Book. For example when saving a song in Song Book you have 4 OTS which can add a great deal of you into the song. Korg has created some beautiful performances which I use in the OTS. Saves me a lot of work and truthfully some of them are better than I might create. John Simies has graciously sent me many of his performances; again I must say the same about saving work and the quality is excellent.

Can you imagine playing a Big Band Swing and using the OTS you have prepared; it would sound great. Then you select a trumpet Performance and the song goes downhill. This is the reason I have set up three performance areas for Big Band; one for Big Band strong, another for Medium and one for soft.
When you hear Count Bassie (spelling) and the brass is playing the sound changes completely when he plays the piano. The same happens when someone sings, the band changes.

I love sharing my stuff, it give me pleasure, John C.