I feel SD-1 is better than G-70, so if Korg is better than G-70 as well, it most be great to play at.
Not easy to find any near by to try out, same shit happens here as many places, shops are too far away and trades being done via internet.

If you do not connect for a year, your account is no longer valid, I think. So you have to contribute a little fee again. But it is worth the cost

It might help, rather than a blanket "I don't even play my PA3x because the styles are so bad...", you elaborate as to WHY you feel them so bad. Not everyone's musical tastes are the same, not everyone plays the same music as you, or the way you do, and many people LOVE the Korg styles (or most of them!).

So a little bit info might help us understand your position (far removed from most Korg players) about the styles.

I have always said, it is probably best to define WHAT you mostly want to play, then look for the arranger which does THAT the best, then put up with whatever that forces on you. Yamaha excel at Broadway, orchestral and bigband, Korg have smooth jazz nailed, Roland does great rock and pop, they all have their strong and weak areas.

Plus, some players tend to want to play a lot themselves, some just want to peck out a melody and have the machine do everything else. The wrong choice here can also color your impression...

So, before a blanket "Korg styles are bad", it helps to lay out WHY...

....the WHY is: many of the styles sound like they were made BY kids and FOR kids. Others are so "busy" you have to fight against them to play a song the way YOU want to play it and NOT the way the style wants you to play it. Then there's that awful cha-cha that sounds more like a cross between a bolero and the French can-can. Additionally, there is no Strauss waltz (like Roland used to have). The Latin styles are OK, but not real authentic. And they're so much in your face, that you get tired of hearing the same riffs.

Other styles too, but I can't remember because I haven't touched that thing in six months now and that's the reason why.....the Styles.

I think we all know that "styles" are neither good nor bad. It's all about perception. But had I gone through all the styles on that machine before I bought it, I would have opted for the Tyros instead.

I bought the Korg because of it's many editing features. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough foresight to see there's not enough hours in a day to work with them. Just to make my own drum rhythms (forget the "accompaniments" and "fills") I'd have to take drum lessons. How do you do all this when you also have to get the oil changed on your car, get your teeth cleaned, mow the lawn, and maybe once in a great while take in a movie?

Roland had great styles for years, and they still do, but when I bought the PA3x the only choices were Yamaha, Korg and Audya. I liked the Tyros styles, but the machine was too big and clumsy. Same with the Audya, too big, pitch wheel in a bad position, and way too undependable with no support other than AJ.

The PA3x is a great machine, just not for me. I like Rocky Road. If you like butter pecan, that's OK by me!

Mark

]

Funny how our perceptions differ: I fell in love with the PA3X after listening the latin styles, and especially the brazilian ones. The Bossa Nova style is a joy to my ears: finally a real bossa nova a la Jobim, smooth, laid back and relaxed the way it's meant to be.
And what about the sambas? There is even one that starts with a simple cavaquinho in variation 1 and then builds up gradually variation after variation, just like a real brazilian band would do.
If you fancy a cha cha cha I suggest that you buy or download the so called eBay styles: there are enough cha chas to keep you happy for a lifetime.
To sum up: to my ears the PA3X has the best latin styles among all the big three and -as far authenticity goes- I consider them on the same level as the Audya audio styles.

I dont see the need for special versions of arrangers... everything done to the Musikant could have been sold in an expansion pack available for all

Nice detail, if you buy the Tyros expanion packs Entertainer and Alpen, you probably get the same things that Korg put in the Musikant.

IF arranger keyboards would support playing samples directly from an ultra fast and large SSD then everyone could finally get all things he wanted in his arranger, withouth the need of changing expansion packs out and in because of the limited memmory..

Oh... and an ultra fast 500Gb SSd (Samsung EVO 840)costs less then 300 euro and is way way faster then the current Yamaha flash memmory..


The first arranger taking the step to standard PC hardware, like the Korg Kronos did, is the big winner..

I hope this will be the PA4X-Pro.

Or Kronos 2 adding PA style features..

Frankly, this seems less likely, considering the number of Kronos users that are asking for this feature (more or less = 0, if you look at all the posts on KorgForums.com)

I know.... But then 80% of the Pa3x users on the same forum are screaming they want all the K has to offer in their Pa4x. In the end it would give the same results..

And as the rumors say allow korg to concentrate on a single software design line...