Same here. Problem is, I haven't turned on my PA1x Pro in about a year.....which is my main problem with Arrangers, after awhile heavy-duty boredom sits in. By contrast, after 50 yrs. I still get a buzz every time I sit down to a B3. On the other hand, I'm still a gadget freak and there's nothing better than a MUSICAL gadget, especially one that sounds good (for the first three months anyway ). We'll see.

chas

Is that true? When reading the Korg website specs I did not see any mention of a Kronos Piano voice/patch/program in the Pa4x. I'd be interested to see any reference to that. All I saw from Korg was this:

"Included is a new multi-layer stereo grand piano (with damper and body resonance), plus electric pianos from the acclaimed KORG SV-1 Stage Piano."

Kindly let me know where I can verify that the Kronos piano is in the Pa4x. I would think that a Kronos piano voice would be a spectacular selling point, particularly as I was disappointed in the piano sounds that I heard come from the Tyros 5. It's all subjective, of course. Just my perception. It would be absolutely amazing if the new Pa4x could be had with the amazing Kronos Grand Piano sound. Hal

Actually, it is my impression as I know the Kronos/Krome German Grand quite well, I analyzed its sound compared to the M3 expansion piano. I'm pretty sure this PA-4x piano on Soundcloud is the Kronos German Grand, but it might have fewer layers or be looped and thus be reduced in sample size. In my comparison between the 2 GB Krome German Grand and the 128 MB M3 expansion piano I found that the sound difference is very, very small and only audible if single tones are sustained several seconds or a scale is played slowly to detect jumps in the timbre.

So from that description you quoted I think you are right that it is not 100% of the Kronos German Grand with its unlooped decay, but I guess it is somewhere between the Kronos and the M3 expansion piano, still with several hundreds of MB at least. This is the comparison I made between the two, the M3 piano even sounds better than the 2 GB Krome piano here because no sustain pedal was installed in the store where I line-recorded the Krome, otherwise the recording settings were equal. You can really tell from this recording that both pianos go back to the same sampling session some years before the Kronos was released. For the M3 they had to make a compressed version, for the new technology of the Kronos they were able to implement the full amount of data.
https://soundcloud.com/rorosetree/piano-comparison-korg-krome-vs-korg-m3-xp-2013

Actually I would even be glad if the PA-4X version was a reduced version, because that would mean that there are a lot of other excellent, large samples, as the total waveROM is stated as over 2 GB. In fact, the easiest way to fill the 2 GB would have been to just take one of the Kronos pianos and leave the rest unchanged from PA-3X.

Some people tend to think a 2 GB piano must sound 10 times better than a 200 MB piano, of course that's not true as most of the 1.8 additional GB are spent for very long loops or even a loopless decay of 20 seconds and for maybe 8 velocity layers instead of 4. But the actual full-bodied sound of the piano is usually already in the "first" 200 MB, the other characteristics are only audible in very specific situations. And even a 2 GB sample can be screwed if the original sampling session is not done properly. This is why the old Roland expansion boards have wonderful sounds despite their ridiculous waveROM of 8 MB. They were sampled by Eric Persing

I don't see the importance of the Piano when your gonna play it "in a mix" with a styles etc,......yes a good piano is needed to a point,.....
but, if I wanted a PIANO I'd Buy a Piano of some kind to play solo.
But we all have our preferences,.....it's just that Piano was never mine.

Good luck.

If we were good piano players,,,we would understand the importance of a great piano sound and key response..
Personally, I want the best piano sound and key feel, the arranger can offer..I do play piano mode, when I play styles..
It is the sound I demo first..If the company doesn't do a good job on piano...not interested in the other inferior sounds...

If the piano were the only reason to buy an arranger, I would have never purchased one.

Gary

See above

Just to repeat what I said above, I don't like it either if most of the waveROM is spent just for one grand piano, It is a pity that the Krome has less than 300 MB for brass, strings, woodwinds/reed etc. So I hope it is distributed more evenly in the case of the PA-4X.

Ha Ha. I’m really surprised that some players would not want a better sounding piano if they could have it anyway, without giving anything up in their arranger. I never said that the piano sound is the only reason I would buy an arranger. Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. I like some things I’m reading and hearing about the Pa4x from Korg’s description and videos and if the arranger comes with a better piano at no expense, then it seems to me like a no-lose, win situation. I was just getting excited (based on rosetree’s comment about a better Grand Piano in the Pa4x), that an excellent current arranger might actually be getting an improved piano. Yes, the majority of my leads are piano, but I would hate to play a jazz or pop piece on an arranger (with a jazz or pop style backing) and have the lead piano in the arranger sound sub-par. Thank you rosetree for describing some of your Korg piano sound experience. What you say makes sense, and I agree that a better piano without overconsumption of waveROM is a good thing in an arranger. From the limited info I see so far from Korg’s materials, It sounds like the Pa4x will be able to accomplish that. Fran, I think you interpreted what I said the way I meant it. Bottom line, if Korg says, I can have it all, great arranger features and styles, continued nice selection of voices, good allocation of memory resources, plus a wonderful sounding Grand Piano, I’ll be very interested.