Korg PA1X pro will this remove the stigma?

[Dan O]

Has anyone played this high end arranger keyboard from Korg yet ?

 

Pretty interesting features such as, dual midi sequence playback, 5 oscillators, TC helicon voice processor and a action ( weights can be felt under the keys)that is different than the Triton series and this keyboard is Made in Italy .

Arranger keyboards have always been associated with the term "one man band", but in a recording

atmosphere, a high end arranger keyboard can be a great tool. Fruity Loops,Reason, Virtual Guitarist and many more, all provide loops and reminds me of the styles found on arranger keyboards. However when you use a preset or original loop on an arranger keyboard, the loop responds to chord changes in real time.

Which is better in my opinion,than manipulating a loop from a computer program.When you create drum loops on arranger workstations, you can record fill in's,variations,break,intro's and endings (like a drum machine), but you can not make drum tracks on a Triton,Motif or Fantom like you can on this newest arranger from Korg .

 

If you look over the features Korg PA1Xpro, maybe this will be the keyboard that remove's the "one man band" stigma associated with arranger workstations, what do you think ?

 

Dan O' arranger guy

 

From Korgs website:

The first thing youll notice is the huge 240 x 320 full color TouchView display, taking Korgs intuitive access of multiple parameters to new heights. Next, the sleek aluminum panel and 76 semi-weighted keys (with aftertouch) will catch your eye. Eight assignable sliders, four assignable switches, a joystick and two fixed function faders are all designed to put the amazing power of the Pa1X Pro at your fingertips. Hidden inside, the hard drive can store all your sound, song, sample and performance data for easy recall.

 

It All Begins With Sound

The Pa1X Pro is the first Korg product based on our new RX Technology, designed to produce a detailed, sophisticated natural sound. The Pa1X Pro delivers a generous 62 notes of polyphony, 760 Sounds, plus another 512 you can program yourself. Add to that 48 preset drum kits and 128 programmable drum kits! Sweeten the sound using the four Master Effects (featuring 90 effect types), plus a set of Vocal Effects borrowed from the legendary TC-Helicon.

 

The Pa1X Pro is also an accomplished sampler, able to read .WAV, AIFF, Korg and AKAI samples/multisamples. Sampled sounds can be sliced to create new grooves and kits, assigned to Sounds, or filtered, modified and processed by the internal effects. Standard sample memory is 16MB, expandable to 32 MB.

[coyote]

You know, the Casio WK1500 was part of my rig til I outgrew it - it sat atop a console Hammond. To this day I'm happy to say I owned it! Some idiots might disparage it but who cares?

 

I feel sorry for anyone who would forego a device which exactly meets their functional requirements just because of some silly stigma. If what you really need is an 'arranger' keyboard but you refuse to purchase because of what someone else might say about it, you're right back on the kindergarten playground worrying about whether the other kids approve of your lunchbox. Anyone like that needs to grow the hell up and develop a backbone.

[Dan O]

Originally posted by coyote:

You know, the Casio WK1500 was part of my rig til I outgrew it - it sat atop a console Hammond. To this day I'm happy to say I owned it! Some idiots might disparage it but who cares?

 

I feel sorry for anyone who would forego a device which exactly meets their functional requirements just because of some silly stigma. If what you really need is an 'arranger' keyboard but you refuse to purchase because of what someone else might say about it, you're right back on the kindergarten playground worrying about whether the other kids approve of your lunchbox. Anyone like that needs to grow the hell up and develop a backbone.

I've been using arrangers for years. No "stigma" would change my mind, but chain music store's could care less about arranger type keyboards and finding a mom and pop store that accually carries an arranger is difficult in today's world. All manufacturer's have a tough time selling these products, so something's not being translated to the keyboard buyer .

 

Keyboard magazine reviewed the KN7000 and described term "one man" in their review.

 

Dan O

[resigned]

It's the "generous 62 notes of polyphony" that kills the PA1XPro for me - 128 seems like the minimum now and the Korg's polyphony is non-expandable. I still prefer my discontinued Yamaha 9000 Pro with the PLG-150PF and DX expansion cards - 208 notes of polyphony with 64 notes dedicated to Grand Piano alone. Arrangers need that kind of polyphony, especially if you are doing a lot of instrumental work with them. Yes they also work great for studio and band work. They are the more versatile than workstations in that sense, and keyboards like the Motif ES owe some of their features to the arranger format.

 

I recently went on a cruise where I saw arranger-based musical acts everywhere. There was an assortment of soloists, duos, trios, quartets both on and off the ship. So the market for pro-level arrangers is there and I hope the 76-note PA1XPro is an indication of things to come. There is no successor to the Yamaha 9000 Pro yet but I'm hoping there will be someday.

[Dreamer]

I have been using arranger keyboards for years; for people like me, who play at home for their own enjoyment, they are about the only choice available and I agree with Dan'O in that they are not different from sampled loops, so -if there is a stigma on arranger keyboards- there should be one on sampled loops as well

It seems to me that arrangers are not different from keyboards like the Clavinova: they are even more versatile, but it's true that the sampled piano is not on par with a Clavinova

Speaking of the Korg Pro1-X pro, I have played one and, while I liked many of the internal styles, I did not like some of the sounds (namely the saxophones and the woodwinds in general); I know that it's just a matter of taste, but I think that both Yamaha and Roland provide better emulations of acoustic instruments, especially in the high frequencies, where Korg seem to lack some sparkle (IMO, of course)

Furthermore, if you visit the Irish Acts Forum ( www.irishacts.com ) you will see that actual Pro1-X pro users complain about a lot of bugs in the OS; this, coupled with the 62 notes issue and the high price, makes this keyboard less desiderable to me than it could have otherwise been.

Regards.

[MrVegas]

My main beef with arranger boards is the lack of weighted keys

[Dreamer]

Well, the Korg PA1-X pro at least has semi-weighed keys, just like the Roland VA76 and G 1000. I had a Yamaha 9000 pro and my guess is that it has the same keybed as the Motif ES 7, but I couldn't swear on it (never tried a Motif 7).

If you want really weighed keys you have to go for a Clavinova, I am afraid...

[Dreamer]

Originally posted by Dreamer:

Well, the Korg PA1-X pro at least has semi-weighted keys, just like the Roland VA76 and G 1000. I had a Yamaha 9000 pro and my guess is that it has the same keybed as the Motif ES 7, but I couldn't swear on it (never tried a Motif 7).

If you want really weighted keys you have to go for a Clavinova, I am afraid...