Anyone have any experiences with the following (and your opinions):

pick one (3 for $1.....4 for nothing):

Roland BK-7m module
Roland Integra-7
new Casio portable pianos
dating a busty blonde

I don't like the styles on my PA3x. I DO like the styles on the BK-7m but I'm not sure of the sound quality...can't find them in the stores. I'm considering MIDI-ing it to the Korg and using those styles.

Roland BK-7m

The Roland Integra-7 sounds darn good. And the things you can do with it! Again I'm thinking of a MIDI connection and using those sounds. Heck, I can't even get a good flute or piano on the PA3x.

Roland Integra-7

The new line of Casio pianos....I took a couple of hours and played a few of them in Sam Ash. They all sounded good....especially the home model with built-in speakers. Nice keyboard feel too.

Busty blonde....I looked all over Ebay and can't find one! Should I call Gary?

Mark

The BK7m has been discontinued by Roland but essentially gives you all the BK instrument sounds and styles, with an easy to setup Midi function. (It’s been very popular with those wishing to add new styles and sound flexibility)

The Integra is more of the sound section of a Roland Workstation in a box and includes so called super natural sounds which add sound modelling to improve realism, however it is more of a pain to setup with the limited Midi specs of most arrangers. (Korg is pretty good in this respect though)

As you seem to dislike a lot of the PA3x sounds and styles it may be cheaper to just trade it in for an instrument from another manufacture, or if you wish to stay with Korg have a look at the PA4x which is a big jump up in quality from the PA3x.

I have compared the TOTL arrangers from Yamaha and Korg fairly recently and unless your into ensemble or classic organ sounds then the PA4x is tops for realism (When compared to real instruments and players) with the T5 some way behind. (However the T6 can’t be too far away which will probably upset the mix once again)

Hope this helps

Bill

You probably don't need any of these.
Pa3x has a sampler and you can get pretty much any sound you want. You just have to research it little bit.

The BK-7m has a lot of good sounds, AFAK mostly identical to the E-80, about 1,100 tones altogether. Its pianos are really good! Strings and acoustic guitars are not its strength, the acoustic guitars in the styles lack realism. There are some really good saxophones. Nevertheless, the BK-9 offers substantially more (better string sections from SRX 4, supernatural acoustic strumming guitar etc.). How the BK-7m sounds compare to PA-3X, I can't say explicitly.

Regarding the Integra, besides the 256 (!) SuperNatural sounds, which are NOT spectacular in all cases (artificial vibrato etc.) and don't cover any section sounds (except string section), the orchestral sounds I particularly rate best are those from the expansions SRX 04 and 10 (all 12 SRX are included, but only up to 4 can be used at the same time).
The Integra always works in "Studio Set" mode, i.e. you have 16 parts, which you can assign to theoretically up to 16 keyboard zones or 16 midi channels. So in that way it is easy to combine it with an arranger via midi - only there is the restriction that you can only call up 64 different studio sets (=registrations), the Integra has no more storage locations for studio sets. Workarounds for this restriction are iPAD apps, controllers or patch bays which can store different midi sets to address different midi channels with the push of a button, or send midi patch change messages.

Go find a busty blonde that plays a Yamaha ..

I have a BK7M and its now a backup for my BK9. I'm very happy with it. Great pianos and strings, drums and bass are excellent too. I tend to choose a few sounds and work with them so I don't need hundreds. Very easy to set up. Prices on the used market are holding .
Privia Pianos .I have the 350. Keyboard feel and Piano sonds are excellent. Some other outstanding tones also. Rhythms are just OK and usable. Have it midied to the BK7M so I don't use those at all.
BTW I'm selling it at a good price if your interested. I want to get a cabinet model for the house.

The casio piano's styles are below pa3x in my opinion...

The integra 7 has the best sounds of Roland, all in one box...

The BK7m has some nice styles, yet in my opinion, the pa3x sounds better...




May i ask what part of the Korg styles you dont like, they are very very tweakble? Why keep the pa3x, if you dont like the styles?

In the end i would go for the integra 7, and use that in combination with the Korg styles...





Outside of your box, did you consider adding Varranger in combination with a windows tablet? It playes all the styles of Roland, Korg, Ketron and Yamaha.. Espescially with the upcomming soundupdate... There is just no multipads with Varranger..

A) BK7m is still available new and use in every music store.. Also Roland has some in stock themselves

b) i think Yamaha's Tyros 6 is still two years away, this got confirmed by Michel Voncken when i asked him when to expect T6, yamaha is stretching the time between updates. Motif is a good excample of this..

I loved the styles and sounds on BK7m. Just a lot of peripheral gear needed for a one-man show.

I agree Don....funny how Roland has all the pieces but has yet to put together a TOTl arranger kb since the G70...unless they know the other big companies Y&K have that all locked up and they are trying to find a little niche and that too bad. Roland lost alot of arranger KB fans and from what Ive seen the BK9 doesn't even come close to the others in many ways...but what do I know?