i went shopping for a case for my PA1X today in Fair Deal Music in birmingham and to my complete surprise they had the Tyros 2 there. I couldnt wait to play it. What follows next is just my opinion and a lot of it is based upon personal taste....

If you have the tyros 1 then you will be very familiar with the yamaha sounds. I have to be honest. Apart from he SA sounds the keyboard is virtually the same as T1. The aranger patterns again are virtually the same . The original Tyros was an exellent keyboard but now hey have added more mega voices to the existing arrangements and to my ears i could not tell any dramatic noticeable difference.Thats just a testament to how good the T1 was in the first place. The SA sounds are brilliant , dont get me wrong, but if i were a T1 owner i would seriously consider whether it was worth he extra £2000 for about 40 new sounds and a recorder. I have just purchased the PA1X after being a life long yamaha fan ( and i still am). I got the PA1X for £1400. If the T2 came down in price immediately to £1400 i would still buy the PA1X without blinking. I am one of the few people that have had the opportunity to listen to them both.

Let me first state that i am not a pro player and i play for my own pleasure and arange contemporary gospel music for my church choir. I like modern music and black soulful arangements. The korg is really geared towards this with truly exciting backing. The yamaha is geared more towards the more traditional styles of music and aimed i guess at the more traditional type of aranger musician. The arrangements on the Yam are nice but too close and in some cases exactly like the T1.The programmers have not really pushed their imagination on the styles and played very safe. This maybe good news to the pro arrangers here who know their clientell and what styles they like.

All i can say is that i have had he PA1X for 3 days now and have not gone to bed before 2.00am every night since. I have forgotten to call my girlfriend several times because of the PA1X ( not an easy thing to be forgiven for once let alone 3 times!!!). Its simply such a well put together board. The sounds are simply breath taking. the arrangements actually inspire you to play and jam with what feels like half a dozen professional studio musicians and it really lifts your playing ability.

To my mind and ears and soul the PA1X is the bst kept secret in the arranger world and if Korg were to market this board properly they would quite simply dominate he arranger market and would attract a whole new market of song writers and composers

Remember this is just my opinion and i would still be happy to own a T2 but i would never swap it for he PA1X !!!