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#424079 - 07/31/16 01:44 PM
First impression Korg PA4X
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Senior Member
Registered: 05/26/99
Posts: 9673
Loc: Levittown, Pa, USA
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My first impression of the Korg Pa4x. Attributes: All editing and panel selections available in real time Play. Easy edit for style or song, every edit possible via touchscreen. All edits and parameter routings saved to individual user program, not just global.. Easy detail edit for drums and tones, and easily saved in a user program. Song mode, chords automatically shown for any SMF, and read a measure ahead for easy realtime playing with file. Smart harmonizer, auto detect of chords, and easily select different harmony method. Song, style, vocoder, etc. Easy control of mic, effects, harmony.... Playlist feature, easy with full functions, like next song,etc. Can store unlimited playlist and number of songs per list. SMF markers easy to use, even in real time. No surprises, glitches, and OOPS!!! SMF playback, selection,cue, and sound....BEST in the business.. Access to SMF and Style from external media,,, Audio input has volume knob control and you can assign effects .. Mic input is separate from audio inputs, with it's own controls. D-beam works well and in sync with clock.. OOPS....wait a minute......All of the above are advantages the G70 has over the PA4x...  To evaluate a product, you need to compare to another... Okay... Let me talk about the PA4x. The PA4x is the best Korg offering...ever. I do not see a big overall improvement, compared to the PA3x, but there are improvements. Sounds are better, styles are better, The touch screen is better, The OS...not too much, still similar to the PA800 I owned. When I compared the Korg to my Roland above, the G70 is superior, but not to say the PA4x was bad..in fact it is a great keyboard. Head to head against Yamaha, hands down better..Touch screen the biggest difference, Sounds overall on Korg are better, a couple exceptions. Drums are definately better then Yamaha. Head to head against Ketron SD7,,much closer, SD7 has edge in sound department..Bass and drums are better in the SD7. Styles are a mixed bag..Korg has great jazz, blues, and funk styles. SD7 has great latin and ballroom styles. I prefer the touchscreen on the SD7, but not by much.. I found quirks on the PA4x, mostly in SMF play. It suffers the same problems I had with the PA800. They both locked up when they aren't happy.REBOOT time.. I am guessing..the processor is not very powerful. I believe the G70 handles multitasking much better.. For dependability, G70 for me..  I wonder if Roland has patents on all their great features. They must...No body else is copying and they know Roland is better.. By the way...I was checking out the Roland E-A7 on you tube. This $1,200 board sounds great and has great features. Critics have giving the E-A7 good marks. They have compared the sounds to Tyros5 and PA4x,very favorable. Search youtube..Dynamic Audio has a couple videos, demonstrating the sampler (they sell bass and drum samples). They are high on the E-A7. I will be returning the Korg on Wed. I have tested and compared in detail,but if I find something interesting..I will post it. I wish the Roland BK9 had a touch screen....... 
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#424089 - 07/31/16 03:47 PM
Re: First impression Korg PA4X
[Re: Fran Carango]
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Senior Member
Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
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#424102 - 08/01/16 01:08 AM
Re: First impression Korg PA4X
[Re: Fran Carango]
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Senior Member
Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
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My first impression of the Korg Pa4x. Attributes: All editing and panel selections available in real time Play. Easy edit for style or song, every edit possible via touchscreen. All edits and parameter routings saved to individual user program, not just global.. Easy detail edit for drums and tones, and easily saved in a user program. Song mode, chords automatically shown for any SMF, and read a measure ahead for easy realtime playing with file. Smart harmonizer, auto detect of chords, and easily select different harmony method. Song, style, vocoder, etc. Easy control of mic, effects, harmony.... Playlist feature, easy with full functions, like next song,etc. Can store unlimited playlist and number of songs per list. SMF markers easy to use, even in real time. No surprises, glitches, and OOPS!!! SMF playback, selection,cue, and sound....BEST in the business.. Access to SMF and Style from external media,,, Audio input has volume knob control and you can assign effects .. Mic input is separate from audio inputs, with it's own controls. D-beam works well and in sync with clock.. OOPS....wait a minute......All of the above are advantages the G70 has over the PA4x... To evaluate a product, you need to compare to another... Okay... Let me talk about the PA4x. The PA4x is the best Korg offering...ever. I do not see a big overall improvement, compared to the PA3x, but there are improvements. Sounds are better, styles are better, The touch screen is better, The OS...not too much, still similar to the PA800 I owned. When I compared the Korg to my Roland above, the G70 is superior, but not to say the PA4x was bad..in fact it is a great keyboard. Head to head against Yamaha, hands down better..Touch screen the biggest difference, Sounds overall on Korg are better, a couple exceptions. Drums are definately better then Yamaha. Head to head against Ketron SD7,,much closer, SD7 has edge in sound department..Bass and drums are better in the SD7. Styles are a mixed bag..Korg has great jazz, blues, and funk styles. SD7 has great latin and ballroom styles. I prefer the touchscreen on the SD7, but not by much.. I found quirks on the PA4x, mostly in SMF play. It suffers the same problems I had with the PA800. They both locked up when they aren't happy.REBOOT time.. I am guessing..the processor is not very powerful. I believe the G70 handles multitasking much better.. For dependability, G70 for me.. I wonder if Roland has patents on all their great features. They must...No body else is copying and they know Roland is better.. By the way...I was checking out the Roland E-A7 on you tube. This $1,200 board sounds great and has great features. Critics have giving the E-A7 good marks. They have compared the sounds to Tyros5 and PA4x,very favorable. Search youtube..Dynamic Audio has a couple videos, demonstrating the sampler (they sell bass and drum samples). They are high on the E-A7. I will be returning the Korg on Wed. I have tested and compared in detail,but if I find something interesting..I will post it. I wish the Roland BK9 had a touch screen....... I think the G70 holds it own very well for an oldtimer... However, one must admit sound and style quallity of the newer units pa4x, audya and tyros5 is much better.. I think the fact that you been using it for 10 years might make it hard to addapt to something newer, with a different operating phylosofy... Where G70 gets old is the fact that you can not load any samples for new sounds.. And that you can not easilly browse external styles, they are just a long list on alphabeticall order.. I tought browsing hundrds of styles on compact flash felt really awfull Also the G70 doesnt have multipads.... Which are a nice thing to have... And in my case have become a very much used tool to add more diversity to a style.... When selecting a style, you cant see the Tempo.. Browsing user programs is not user friendly.. Everything is just in a longlist.. You can not load samples... You can only have a single expansion board.. All of them are very specific in nature... You can not change nor see the instruments on the style tracks, when changing track volume you allways are guessing which track holds what sound....cover and make up tools often dont give the wanted results.. The number of effects is really really low, a single insert effects for the 6 main Voices does not cut it. I dont like how they implemented midi access, Except for the style and sound quallity, ( i highly disagree with you on the pa4x drum quallity) the pa4x has a lot moee to offer, there is so many lovely direct access features on thepa4x that puts it ahead of the Roland when it comes to direct access, and it just works more intuitive...also the touchscreen is way better... However for a 10 year old instrument the G70 can still hold its own... I have access to a G70 two times a week when teaching my nefews, and its indeed still a high quallity instrument.. What i like most about it is its keybed, probably the best 76 action keybed ever made.. And this makes it very well suited for teaching.. Best thing of the G70 is its price, its going for 700 compared to a 3500 pa4x, as a used instrument overhere in Holland, and because of the keybed and great piano sound, its probably the best keyboard for starters and semi pro's under 1000, just because there is nothing that even has 76 keys in this range... You can teach your kids playing both piano style as well as arranger style on it.... This keybed is the right way to start, even for piano if you dont want your kids to become concert pianists... However, if i needed to make a choice between the two as my single keyboard, i would allways choose the pa4x, because its a way better instrument... one more remark on the ea-7 its got a very flimsy and cheep feeling keybed, which makes it a no go for anyone serioulsy involved with making music. however, i can not find those dynamic audio reviews on youtube, could you please link me to them... (never mind, just found them, its dynamix Audio, with an X, to bad i cant understand them vids)
Edited by Bachus (08/01/16 04:32 AM)
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#424106 - 08/01/16 08:19 AM
Re: First impression Korg PA4X
[Re: Fran Carango]
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Senior Member
Registered: 05/26/99
Posts: 9673
Loc: Levittown, Pa, USA
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Bachus,Here are a few answers.. The g70 has one of the best search designs. When you select a song, style, or user program..touch the finder tab and select the search only tab.. The d-beam has to take the place of pads..and other features of d-beam are a plus.. Style volume shows what you need ..drum, bass, acc1 etc. Select style make up, and all edits and info are shown. Where do you need a quicker access than the g70 design.. With the right exp board, you have sounds covered.. I use the Studio board... Don,at 46 pounds it could be too much for you old guys My Gator case with wheels, loaded pocket with stuff...doubles the weight.Now that is heavy for us fit guys 
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#424108 - 08/01/16 10:45 AM
Re: First impression Korg PA4X
[Re: Fran Carango]
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Senior Member
Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
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Bachus,Here are a few answers.. The g70 has one of the best search designs. When you select a song, style, or user program..touch the finder tab and select the search only tab.. The d-beam has to take the place of pads..and other features of d-beam are a plus.. Style volume shows what you need ..drum, bass, acc1 etc. Select style make up, and all edits and info are shown. Where do you need a quicker access than the g70 design.. With the right exp board, you have sounds covered.. I use the Studio board... Don,at 46 pounds it could be too much for you old guys My Gator case with wheels, loaded pocket with stuff...doubles the weight.Now that is heavy for us fit guys I am sorry Fran.. But i was talking about multipads.. Not pads as in pads and piano.. Maybe its me not being entirely used to the search function on the G70, i will try next time i sit behind it.. You missed my point on the style volume... When i want to edit the style quickly it says acc1 to acc5 on the volume tab.. And no reference what the instrument in each of those 5 acc is.. Thats a pitty... Espescially since its almost a requirement to finetune every style to sound best for a performance... Keep in mind, that i do love the G70 still after all those years... Its one of the longest living arrangers of its time, because who is still playing a Tyros1. An sd1 or a Pa1x pro? Because that was its competition when it arived at the market... Yet still plethora of people playing G70 and E80... Maybe because Roland slacked? Tough BK9 ( chord sequencer, super natural sounds, audiokeys) and E-A7 ( multipads, lots of direct access, sampler) also have a lot to offer for their much lower price... Cant wayt to see Roland finally make a ToTl arranger again... Just add the Integra 7 as the soundsource.. The e-a7 as the arranger part(but with 2 colortouchscreens).. And the JP80 live sets for the keyboard parts... And a bit of the newer ACB tech... Autumn 2016 would be as good as any time to release such a thing.. Oh and the keybed of the G70.
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#424204 - 08/03/16 03:32 PM
Re: First impression Korg PA4X
[Re: Dnj]
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Senior Member
Registered: 09/21/02
Posts: 5520
Loc: Port Charlotte,FL,USA
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Between old friends, that ain't nothin.
_________________________
pa4X 76 ,SX900, Audya 76,Yamaha S970 , vArranger, Hammond SK1, Ketron SD40, Centerpoint Space Station, Bose compact
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