HI, would appreciate any info on how the 4x compares w/ the 5x. I know there seemed to be a lot of problems w/ 5x when it was released. Thanx

I think the majority of issues with the 5x are from people who migrated from the 4x. There’s still a lot of 4x features that haven’t been added yet, and considerable trouble migrating data from the 4 to the 5. Plus some of the innovative 5x features are not well integrated into the Songbook yet.

Opinions are almost universal that the sound quality of the new arranger is a very big leap forward (the big increase in the number of insert effects and quality of the D/A converters have imho achieved this).

If you don’t need to import a bunch of legacy sample data from a 4x (or 3x) and if your arranger experience is fairly basic, you don’t use a lot of custom samples or do a lot of bespoke style creating and editing, you may find yourself very happy with the 5x. That’s the reports from most first time Korg arranger users… most of the dissatisfaction from people who got used to the 4x’s features (like style creation from SMF’s) and used a lot of the more advanced features.

No doubt you’ve been to Korgforums.com, the main PA arranger users group. There’s definitely two factions, those who mostly got a 5x by getting rid of their 4x, and most of them aren’t happy campers, and those that came from Tyros or Genos or from Roland or Ketron (and a few that the 5x is their first arranger), and most of those are ecstatic…

I guess you need to define pretty carefully what you want to do with your arranger - Turn it on and just play with the ROM styles and sounds, or if you want to use or create custom styles and sounds. You may have a very different outlook depending on these.

Diki

That was a fair and honest reply to "Guardman2001".... I have a DGX-670 and I think that the PA5X would be an excellent Board to pair up with .

The PA5X is a killer board and I sold my 4x to get it, although a lot of the 4X features are missing a lot of people are scared to buy a 5x because of the negative opinions of different owners which I feel that will change as soon as a major upgrade will post.

Trouble is, it's about 2 YEARS now... that 'major upgrade' is sure taking a long time..!

Finally!

Let's just hope it's not another 2 years before the next one. There appear to be a few bugs, and there's still quite a lot from the 4X yet to make it back, from what I read. This thing is a beast, sonically, biggest leap forward in a decade or more. Hopefully this update is the start of Korg getting back to form, it has been a tough time for 5X users that traded up prematurely...

The new pad triggered chord sequencer is a solid step forward, quite akin to Yamaha's 8 Part CS. Hopefully, the bugs and poor integration of the '2 styles at once' feature have been addressed. These two things alone make for an incredibly flexible arranger!