A good friend talked me into playing my Korg more, so I started digging in tonight. I forgot how the new improvements really make life easier in the new OS 1.60.

The biggest thing that affects me is the on/off toggling that the pads now do. You can call up pad one ... let it run for 4 bars and then simply hit the button again and it stops. Much better than the old way of hitting the master stop button - now you can add 1-2-3 or 4 pads in any order and change them up on the fly without shutting them all off at once. Very cool.

The transpose for the Chord sequencer is another - lay down a 12 bar blues change early in the night and it's there for you to call up as a filler whenever you may need something to kill time with. Change the style, change the key - always sounds different. Very cool.

They also fixed a glitch that lost your lyrics when changing rhythm patterns.

I'm enjoying my second honeymoon!


This was taken at last years graduation - that's the only reason I'm reading. We had almost NO time to learn the songs we needed to perform for the ceremony. My boss always picks just the "right" theme for each class, and she springs it on us last second. The iPad came in handy that day!

Great Picture Dave .....

Dave, I requested the fix for the lyrics bug, and they did it!
DonM

Don - you ARE DA man!
I remember telling Steve D (Yamaha) a few pet peeves along time ago, and I believe there were some "Uncle Davie-isms" incorporated soon after that too!
The more I play this beast - the more I'm sure that I love it....just wish the speaker thing was incorporated. Right now, I wouldn't trade the action, C/S, and overall sexiness of the layout for the speakers, though. With all it HAS ... the compromises are pretty workable. Especially with the Bose - it just sounds so good - It's not what I'm used to, but there are so many other pluses ... I'm working with it again.

Fixing the transpose CS bug was a positive step in turning the feature into a really usable one.

Next, I suggest you get on Korg's case, and ask for the sequence to be saveable and linkable to a Performance (or Songbook entry).

And a page where favorite jam riffs could be stored and quickly selected on the fly wouldn't be a bad idea either.

UD ... how do you 'save' the CS pattern for later use?...

Tony, you don't save it. Once you record it, it is there until you record over it, or power off the keyboard. Can't be saved.
DonM

What a shame...I guess the G1000 chord sequencer is still the one to beat..

Okay, thanks Don ... while it might not be as good as the G1000, it is still a good feature ...

G1000 CS couldn't link the sequence to a Performance, so in gigging practical terms, not all THAT handy (I never used to use it).

But linked to a Performance, the possibilities are endless.

G1000? What museum is THAT in, again please? The one to beat is the one IN USE, on stage.

Yep 100% agree - and why the hell Korg did NOT write this into the OS is beyond me and many other users!! After all one CAN link a MIDI file to a Songbook entry (sysex - insert effects and all) so why this VERY simnple function was not is a mystery...

Dennis

Fair chance it'll be on one of Korg's famous free updates - if they hear enough noise about it.

My thought is this:
If something is so specific and important to you ... make a midi file or mp3 and play along with it. the c/s is SO easy to trigger in real time ... you hardy have to think about it. I think it's best used as intended, as a quick record ... sort of scratch tool.

Sorry UD, that (while being a valid operation and one that I do use as well) is beside the point...which is Korg should have already had it in the OS.

They were asked BEFORE the PA3 was released, well before.

Dennis

UD, you are kind of missing the point. If you want to stay primarily in arranger mode, the CS allows a certain part of your performance to have the LH chores taken off your hands for a bit. But not the entire song.

Add to that, while the chords alone are recorded, what you DO with them is not. So you still have the option of kicking fills and variations wherever you want, even changing the style itself... something that no SMF, even with Markers, allows. And you can stop it and regain control over the chords at any time, and return to it easily, or even quickly record a new CS with altered chords. Again, something hard to pull off with SMF's.

It basically IS a 'Third Hand', not a complete crutch..!

And this is the bottom line... the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

There were a LOT of entreaties to Korg priorto the PA3 release Diki, private as well as public!!!

Now they have released the update, with still no change (apart from a bugfix)tends to make me believe they either don't get it, don't care, or are just ignoring the request...

Maybe it will find its way onto a PA4.....who knows, maybe Roland have something around the corner

Dennis

Dennis,
You're describing the role of a sequence, not a quick scratch pad for instant freedom of one hand. I can't imagine why Korg would think it's something needed. They have the Backing sequence recorder, the MP3 recorder ... they're set in the sequence department. The c/s is a different animal entirely. I suggest trying to use it as intended and see if the advantages become clear. if not - it may not be for you.

Dave I have used it - for what it does it is fine. But the ability to save any particular CS to the same Songbook entry as the song is a very valuable and useful thing...

I mean the chord progression of any song is still going to be the same, and why should one need to bother to constantly re-record a CS every time that song is chosen.

Not much point you suggest me trying to use it - I was using it WELL before you were on the PA3 (I never used the Roland one)...I know this as I bought the second one into Australia, and Korg Italy had not even released it in the USA at that time

Dennis

dbl post

Dennis,
I've had the early Roland ones for years before I had a PA arranger, but I fail to see why you don't just record the song as a sequence if you're not going to play it anyway. To clarify ... you want to call up a tune and then just let it do the changes for you ... how's that different from playing a sequence? My opinion is that the c/s is there for when you want an extended solo, or a quick track that requires lots of pitch bend or something like that. I remember a friend who used an early Casio with a similar record feature and he'd play the whole tune as he sang or played the melody, then he'd hit the button and pick up his trombone and walk around the room playing over the changes. That's a great example of how to use it smartly.
I mean no disrespect to you ... but it sure sounds like you want a sequence. Why not just MAKE one?
Like Denzel said to Tom ... "Explain it to me like I'm a six year old..."

Because that is not how I use it Dave.

I have plenty of sequence files, which with markers are fine for pop, rock, country et al

But for my jazz stuff, I like to have the chords for the main head recorded so I can drop back into it anytime and do solos.

A lot of the time I can get away with full piano mode (which is my preferred chord entry method), but there are just too many tunes that do not fit well with this method, hence the need to save the recorded CS (again ONLY the head, or a selected chord progression specifically for soloing over).

I am not talking about a CS for whole songs. I agree, that would be pointless as a smf can cater quite well for that.

Dennis

PS: and I do make all my own smf backings and MP3 backings too, not on the Korg, but on the DAW...

PPS: No disrespect taken

I think you guys are STILL missing the point. Even if you have the chords for an entire tune down and saved (which is pretty unusual unless it's a pretty much ABABAB type structure) you still have control over those changes, just as if you were playing them.

You can build and drop down the energy at will. You can fill or not fill. You can select which variation you want. You can add multipads or not... You can change the entire style (I like to keep several swing styles all next to each other in the style list, so even more variety can be added as the song goes along).

Try doing ANY of that with a sequence!

My point exactly! So, why link them to a particular song in the first place, unless you wanted the specific arrangement?
I'm a fan of all the tools at my fingertips, and I think this particular one is best used on the fly. Chocolate and Vanilla ... maybe!
Nothin' but love for ya, guys.

Leave me off that Diki, I get it as well as you do

And that is the essence of it It is a tool to be utilised for the users needs.

A broad chisel may be perfect for what you want to do, but I do need rather a "finer" chisel...

The CS on the Korg is for me, at best, handy - and I have used it once or twice but I do think it should be saveable to a SB listing just the same as any other MIDI sequence ( vis-a-vis midi file) , or not saveable. I really cannot understand why it has not been addressed.....UNLESS there is an issue in the differences in modes on the Korgs.

What I mean is the modes (style song sequence sound) can only be run individually and are not really linked at all at the OS level.

So what I am thinking is that a CS (which is used ONLY in style mode) gets written to a volatile area of SSD memory set aside for it, but this cannot be saved as the PA is not in "sequence mode", which is where midi data CAN be stored to hard disk permanently...

Now if that IS the case, all Korg need do is advise this and it would stop all conjecture. Meaning the CS is what it is and can be nothing else!!

It is far better to have it as is, than not at all.

Dennis

I think the scenario where you would like to have the chords for a section already linked and ready to go would be for a section of a song that you HAVEN'T already played, but need to start soloing on it immediately... Or, for instance, you want to play guitar or horn over the tune, but still want control over the structure.

But I'm still a bit confused by the above post. I'm still not sure you get that the CS is the chords ONLY. NOT the fills, NOT the variations, NOT the changes to different styles. JUST the chords, and nothing BUT the chords.

So, each time you use it, you can still make it utterly different from the last time, you can still respond to your whims or the crowd's mood, and you can go into it and out of it on the fly seamlessly, so there is absolutely NOTHING the same from one performance to the next.

It is so utterly different to an SMF, I fail to see how you don't grasp this.

Sorry Dennis. Should have addressed the post more specifically. Of course I realize how YOU 'get it' perfectly!

All good m8 - I am just hoping against hope, that whatever Roland are putting on the next arranger release, that it has a CS, and is save able to a UPS or whatever it is going to be called (maybe a Performance??)

I have to say that after near ten years of Korg PA Arrangers, I am getting tired of the very constrictive OS. That it is the most powerful I do not have much doubt about, but I am more and more of the opinion its power is for sound programmers not players..

And that the "power" of the Rolands and even Yamahas IS more geared to players, which is why, I think, there are far more 3rd party resources available for both of those.

I do prefer Roland because of the style structure and its closer adherence to MIDI principles.

Anyway if the MusikMesse in March reveals a ho-hum release from Roland ( although I doubt it very much ) I might go back down the path of trying a software approach, BUT radically different to what you might assume....just a few ideas and concepts I have been mulling over ever since the "retirement" of the Corfu Rack Project.

But it DOES involve using VST instruments exclusively, and is not "style" based as we know it, but will allow a similar (though not the same and not as good) freedom to style play...

Not sure if it is going to work in the real world yet, so I cannot say too much, and in any case it might be moot depending on Messe....

Dennis

Roland, from my perspective at least, seem hell bent on dropping every single feature that is not only unique but useful.

They dropped the CS. They dropped the Dynamic Arranger. They dropped any MIDI Recorder or sequencer. They dropped Mark/Jump for SMF's. They dropped decent aftertouch control. They dropped the Cover Tools. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

You could build a totally unique TOTL arranger simply on the features they have dropped.

I hate to say it, but Roland's arranger division are morons, one and all...

Dennis sounds interesting good luck with this new project...
keep us posted.

This is a nice 'straight' version of Misty played on the pa3x

I LOVE that version! Well done!
(as a clarinetist - I am impressed with your interpretations!)