Hello awesome forum,

Firstly and most importantly, I hope I am finding you all well.

So perhaps a little late to this but maybe someone out there may find some interest to my initial experience of the PA1000 from using my PA900.

I bought the PA1000 over the weekend and it arrived this afternoon and Ive spent half the evening on it with very mixed reactions.

So I will start with I feel what's good.

Cosmetically it looks lovely and slick, the lighting of it oddly reminds me of my GEM WK8.
Amplification is certainly more powerful than the 900.
New and improved sounds in some categories.
Drums feels like they have more of a "punch" than before.
The screen display is more flexable with the rotation thing.
Plays Pa3x styles quite flawlessly.
Midi files sound really good, I tested a few and not many needed a lot of tweaking, but when tweaked with the keybaord primary sounds they sound even better.

OK so to the cons, and oh dear there are so many, this is only after a few hours on it.

Keybed is slipperly, seems to have a light feel but with some weird weight balance to compensate. Nowhere near the PA900 feel.
Display although you can rotate it, the resolution seems lower compared to the 900. The 900 is in colour compared to the 1000 looks low res with an ugly monocrome yellow to me. Really dissapointing.
Touch screen is very inaccurate. I am finding myself having to offset my finger lower or higher than what's on the display to accurately select anything. This has really caused me grief today. Never had this experience before on the 900 and even the Pa1x.
Styles selection. Oh my gosh. Korg have completely butchered this. Yes the PA1000 has new styles - but I feel that a lot of them are awful and confusing (sorry but they are). Dance styles, wtf!?? What is that about.. my PSR S975 smashes this category.

Also to make it worse, the fantastic styles from the PA900 have either been badly updated (80s Dance does not sound so 80s anymore) or removed altogether, so many lovely styles from the 900 are gone. Why have you removed the lovely Celtic styles!!!! They have also removed what I felt was the best thing about the Korg styles which was the Unplugged Category - totally gone.. Shocking....

Listen to this demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYWtYdi3rYI

This is a style from the 900 called Unplugged Slow, in my opinion one of the most beautiful styles of the 900 and yet its not in the 1000. Yes I know you can easily load user styles to the keyboard to play past styles but for someone whos first experience of a Korg keyboard are going to miss out on some truly great styles.

There's probably more but I'll leave it here for now. I would honestly say the PA900 is the better board so it looks like I will be keeping both.

Danny sorry to hear that... I hope that the store has a good return policy do you think you'll go to Yamaha, Roland or Ketron? Sometimes upgrades are not the best move forward I've had that happen to me many times with buyer's remorse anyway good luck to you whichever direction you go after all you have to be happy that's the first thing....

Take care

Why not return or try to sell the Pa1000 ? ...
I don't think I could keep a board if I were that dissatisfied with it ...

Be sure you calibrate the screen.

^^What Don said. There is a calibration routine in the menus to normalize the extents of the touch screen.

That being said, it's widely known that Korg "stretched" their old 320 x 240 display, instead of going to a native rectangular resolution (which would have been clearer and sharper.) So it's bigger, but not necessarily better than the old Pa3X, etc.

Danny...

Thank you for taking the time to write this. I was in Guitar Center a few weeks ago and thought I'd buy the EK-45 for pocket change....until I read Dave and Fran's remarks about it.

Above that tier they had the PA-1000 which I thought I'd try the next time. My PA3x (76) is too heavy to carry around.

So YOUR review also just saved me 2K.

The styles....that's been my biggest stumbling block for the last 10-20 years and the reason I hang on to my 20 year old Roland E-300. The nature of the beast...they can't keep putting the same styles into every keyboard. So they "enhance (?)" each generation's styles...to the point you can't even recognize them anymore.

Either kids are making these styles up nowadays or the company just doesn't care...as long as they advertise the keyboard has a gazillion styles. Newer is not always better and in this situation, it DEFINITELY doesn't get better!

Mark,
I would not count on it.....

Danny,

We have been in touch and your first appraisal of the PA1000 sounds quite familiar to me. My initial reactions 18 months ago were pretty much the same. Now, after a lot of programming, adding external stuff and buying the Musikant extension ( which I should have done much much sooner) I think the only criticism left for me would be the absence of the Performances, which Korg cancelled in all of the current range, and which is stupid, very stupid, but let's not go there again.
Soundwise it is better than the PA900, personally I much prefer the keybed to the PA900, amplification as you pointed out is excellent, etc.etc. AS to the styles, I agree that they have screwed up quite a few but that can easily be remedied. As to the unplugged styles, they are still there but scattered among the other style banks.And for the few which might not be there they can easily be added. Notice by the way that Korg have just released style set 36, for free download.
What is lamentable about the PA1000 and most PA keyboards is the factory default settings of the total registrations ( formerly Performance Mode)is overall crap. When I added the German extension last month I was stunned by the quality of the Songbook entries, their pads, their styles, etc. It does add kind of half a new keyboard to the existing one imho. But it also shows that Korg itself opted for the easy way out in progamming the default Songbook and sounds. Why, you only have to listen to my ( fairly basic) JS Resources for the PA1000 to already hear the (substantial) difference between crappy default programming and some more detailed and careful indepth programming imho.
Anyway I hope the next few days will bring clarity for you as to whether hang on to it , or not.

kind regards
John

You have just demonstrated why it is of vital importance to try before you buy.
Regarding the PA900 then like Yamaha these were aimed at the more mature home hobby player/OMB who play older more traditional music, unfortunately this market is in serious decline as users in this category are quite simply dying off, most of the younger generation do not want traditional styles and sounds as they don’t meet with the type of music they enjoy and play, thus if Korg want the arranger line to continue they have to adapt them to a younger audience. (Give it another 5 years or so and the arrangers we know today wont exist as there will be very little market for them (Manufactures moved their workstations/synths over to a younger generation donkeys years ago, as they knew the traditional users were dying off (They also made much cheaper models as the wealth of the young has declined compared to the previous generation)
Another thing to remember is that Yamaha Arrangers came from their home organs, (So where more friendly and traditional) whereas when Korg started producing arrangers they were simplified versions of their pro keyboards (Hence they had a reputation of having a difficult OS as the terms they used came from their pro line of boards, and were completely alien to the home player)
If you are going to have two boards, then try and exchange the PA1000 to the Yamaha PSR975 and use both together via Midi on a 2 tier stand and you will have a combination that no single arranger will be able to get close to. (If you have the room and time to add and learn bass pedals do so, as the arranger doesn’t know what chord you are going to play next (Unless you modify your playing style, but why should you need to) thus the bass lines are not a good as they could be)

Bill

I Have gone from a S975 to PA 1000, my opinion remains the same: Home use, the S975. The Pa 1000 if you are playing out. Both keyboards offer a lot, and they are different. Out-of-the-box the S975 wins. The Pa 1000 gives me what I want as a Pro, but it needs to be personalized to WHAT I THINK is good. It is a great tool.

True happiness (contentment) in my opinion is to have both keyboards. My plan is to trade the Pa 1000 for a Pa4x, and buy whatever is replacing the S975.

John C.

Hello all,

Firstly thank you very much for all the responses, many suggestions and comments to take on board here so thank you.

Reading my post again, it probably gave the impression that I really dislike the PA1000 which in fact is quite the opposite. A lot of my thoughts were off the cuff without understanding why certain things about the keyboard are what they are, for example the reason for removing a number of PA900 styles to make room for a bunch of new ones, which in really is quite a refreshing approach. Not all categories though, I can see certainly from the Latin's Korg haven't drastically changed those sections too much and that's a big plus for me since it's one of Korg's strongest categories.

Donny, so many times I've thought about another Ketron especially with how fantastic the Audya sounds but with the horror I experienced with the X1 back in the day, I feel I can't trust it again. And this would go for GEM as well if they still existed, and it's a shame because they are incredible sounding instruments. I still have a GEM WK8 but it can't be used due to it's serious faults, sound is crackly with distortion, sounds mono then it cuts out completely . I've had countless or Korg's and Yamaha and not once have any of them failed or showed faults. As for Roland I've never seen one before whether in a store, through a friend or family, we've never had them for some reason so that would be something completely new to me.

Tony, I agree with you not keeping something if you're not going to be happy but I think I would be able to customise it enough to then let the 900 go eventually but not just yet.

Don, thank you for that. I need to find out how to calibrate the screen because there was no way I could use it as it stands, it's so far out! But I am glad this can be achieved.

Ted, as you said I think you can certainly tell the display has lost some clarity and sharpness but even with that I was more disappointed that when you select tracks they all show in yellow rather than in colour as per the 900, it just looks and feels like it's at such a low resolution. Of course its not a deal breaker but the colour clash looks a bit ugly and cheap.

Mark, I get what you're saying but I would still give it a try if that was your intention. Don't be put off by impressions or feedback because it may not always apply to the next person, they are just comments after all. My comments were in direct comparison to the 900 because I'm looking to replace it eventually and offload the 900 so for me it has to at least match some of the 900, and as probably expected, anything out of the box is going to need a few tweaks. The PA1000 still has a huge amount of styles available though and some of the new ones are quite nice, especially the ballads, I just found a slight issue with the Dance styles they sound just a little too overbearing but I'll just copy over the 900/PA3x ones anyway and use them. But I'd still give it a try so at least you've covered it and satisfied your own thoughts.

John, everything you said makes sense and it sounds like you felt similar to how I did. As you say, the keyboard can be significantly tweaked which means for the most part it will be fine in the end so I will be keeping it. But yes the absence of performances is a strange one. I am going to look out for that Musikant expansion, but do you have any more info on it? Is it brand new content or reworked existing content?

Abacus, yes you're quite right to say that one should always try keyboards out before you buy, but in this situation I knew there was a strong chance I was going to keep the PA1000 and I also knew with some tweaking I will eventually make it the instrument I want it be, I just didn't realise it would take a bit more work and tweaking than I envisaged. So yes I gambled a little, but I certainly would never of gambled with my T4 over say a Genos or PA4x, that would be a bit suicidal!!. With everything else you said, the decline has been evident over the years, I don't know of many who bother or care to use keyboards when they can compose most things using software. My sister for example used keyboards in the past but has now since bought a piano for the living room and uses her iMac to play / compose. As for my four children, they saw me play and have keyboards whilst they were growing up, the girls showed some interest but that soon died off. There are still a few of us in my circle that would buy keyboards but it's getting smaller.

Bruno, 100% agree with all you said and that's why I always also want to own both a Korg and Yamaha as I know I will always find what's missing from one in the other whilst also being different enough in their own right.

Take Care,
Danny

Danny I went from a 900 to a 1000 also. a little disapointed at first then copied missing styles to 1000. problem solved. some of the sounds on 1000 were not as good, just a few so I replaced them with the same sound in legacy or gm sounds. Now all the other things you could not do before are there and you can build your own keyboard just the way you like. I love mine because I took the time and built it like I wanted it not over night but a little at a time. the compressor will make a big differance also by the way . Just keep working it and don't give up It is a great keyboard.
Good luck
MEL

Question for DonM and others who have owned both. Why do I get the feeling that the PA4x didn't require all of the 'customizing' to sound good 'out of the box' like the PA1000. Is that true (and if so, I wonder why - given the same manufacturer)?

chas

That's easy $1800.00 difference in price there is a reason for that...
so many internal sound differences between the two.
They are definite different in many ways ....
at least that is what I heard when I had the
Pa3x, Two Pa4x, Pa900, Pa1000...
with KORG units you need to "Do YOUR Homework"
it takes a bit of time and seriously make it your own and hope in the end will bring you joy and happiness.

How about an observation from someone that didn't own a PA4x or PA1000... by choice (I did play both).

But I am in position to compare another manufacturer's mid and high end models..

Roland E80 was much richer sound than the E60 .. I am sure the difference is the digital
converters.. Better quality (higher cost)..

In some cases the samples themselves are more detailed (same sounds are larger samples than the lesser model, and I think they are compressed more on the lower models.

Even today, I know the Roland G70 sounds better than the E-A7... for the same reasons I mentioned already.

Yeah, but if you can correct the deficiencies through EDITING........

???

chas

You compensate by using EQ and change velocity to a more acceptable sound. Also the arranger backing is edited with level changes that actually covers up the lead sounds a bit.

You get what you pay for bottom line..

I did buy a PA1000 and gave it a pretty good chance. I was spoiled by the PA4x though and didn't keep it long. I particularly like the vocal processing the 4X.
Our friend Scott Yee, after MANY years of nothing but Yamaha, bought a PA1000, and he absolutely loves it. He loved it right out of the box and as far as I know is still loving it.
The PA4x also has the MAXX e.q. system so it is really easy to set e.q. they way you like to hear it. You can certainly change and edit e.q. on the 1000 but it is far more simple on the big brother.
One good point about the 1000 is that you can play styles from the PA4X, since the 1000 is the newer model. Korg lets you go backward but not forward in using styles from the other models. You may have to change a sound or two around for them to sound best of course.
Without being too crude, the PA4X has more "balls".

Yes... $1800.00 worth... Just sayin'

I had three Pa4x keyboards, and now a Pa 1000. If you put in 10 hours to make the Pa 1000 sound good, the same amount of time on a Pa4x you will get much more.

(Donny) “You get what you pay for”. Buy the best that YOU can afford, you’ll have less regrets. Both the Pa4x and the Pa 1000 are great keyboards. The Pa 1000 will serve you well.

John C.

At any rate this will all be Water behind the bridge soon as the new models come out very soon....

Dream on Donny !

Sure there will be a PA5X no doubt and possibly even late this year, at least a possible introduction. But before effectively hitting the stores we will be almost a year on. As to a follow up for the PA1000, note approx. 2 to 3 years......

But both you and Don have summed it up quite nicely, the difference with the PA4X is "balls " and 1800 bucks.
Still as mentioned before with substantial tweaking, adding some external samples ( free or paid for) and possibly the addition of the Musikant stick ( which I did and to the best of my knowledge so did Scott Yee) the PA1000 goes a long way to making one happy. AFter all it does have the added advantage , even over the PA4X of internal speakers and quite a good amplifciation , only slighty inferior to the much acclaimed amplification on the best PA ever, the PA800......

regards
John

Personally I think the next wave of technology regarding arranger kbs
styles driven etc, etc, and more will be broken and we will see something totally new,.....when and from who know one knows.....
but it will happen.