KORG PA4X
John C.

IMHO, ya can't beat Ketron, especially drums ...
Ciao,
Jerry

With your invitation, I will give you my thought from a different angle. I imagined myself as part of the audience; I couldn't care less whether you used a midi file or the most expensive arranger keyboard. You voice and singing techniques made even the backup shine! In this perspective, it didn't matter whether you played a single note on the arranger or not; you voiced "played" the melody beautifully anyway. Your vocal ability will work with any arranger out there in my opinion.

I think it gets boring, tedious, and mechanical when a performer just "hides" behind the backup accompaniment and doesn't do much musically whether it is singing or playing.

"Your vocal ability will work with any arranger out there in my opinion."

My ex korg pa600 sounded more lively than tye s970.

Thanks guys...In some ways we’ve become a little spoiled. I know Ihave. I’ve had so many keyboards throughout my career, that I’ve become caught up in the search for perfection.

I thought live drums were going to be Yamaha’s next big thing, but as Fran pointed out, they sounded a little dull in need of eq. The fact that Yamaha dropped the live drums from Genos, shows they didn’t believe it was the future either.

I got some great advice from someone that everyone respects on this forum. It got me thinking about what’s important. Some of the feedback I’ve received seems to support that as well. I’m a singer first and foremost. The keyboard provides me the backup band I no longer have.

For my needs, Yamaha and Roland provide the best selection of styles I like. If Roland had continued to develop a more feature rich board...I may have stayed with them (I stopped after the bk5). I love aspects of the Korg as well...but from the advice I received, if you can’t swing the 4X, I might be disappointed.

So the bottom line is...I can’t afford the Pa4x or the Genos, so I’m probably stuck with the 970 for a while. I don’t mean to sound smug either...the 970 is a good board, I just wish it was easier to edit and mix with.

Thanks guys for listening to my long winded...pain pill induced rant.

You all are a special group. Luv you all! (The pills kickin’ In)

If you like the Roland styles and sounds, you should consider the E-A7. It has lots of editing features and real-time controls. It has some new styles and there are tons of legacy styles around for it.
And it is quite inexpensive.

Don,,,are you keeping yours? Might be an interesting backup.

I am about 90 percent sure I'm returning it. It's just hard to justify, even though I do like it. I wanted to have it as a backup to the PA4X, but it isn't essential. I have a close friend with a PA4X, and he doesn't even use it, so I could get it to use in an emergency.
It will cost me a little to return it, as I will have to pay shipping both ways, as it was initially shipped free. I got a good price to begin with, so if you are interested in it, you could save a little money.

Or try a Pa900 or Pa1000 ?