Hi All,

Thanks for all the great replies. I'll try to answer some of the questions that popped up:

I didn't get an opportunity to put the Roland to the test unfortunately. It would have been interesting to pitch all three together and see how they faired.

With regard to the 76 key issue, yes it factors into my final choice but it wasn't relevant for the purposes of comparing the Tyros 2 and the PA1X as both are 61 key. Historically I've had to live with 61 keys as bigger keyboards have always been in short supply and this would seriously narrow down my choice. I'd rather concentrate on the overall sound and functionality than to buy a "second rate" 76 note board just because it has more keys. I'm not saying that using octave shifts and sound edits doesn't bug the life out of me but at the end of the day nobody can physically hear how many notes are on my keyboard. For me the sound is more important than the number of keys as I like to think I'm musically skilled enough to "work" around a smaller board. Fortunately with the Korg I have the choice of the Pro should I choose this option.

I didn't experience any problems with polyphony on the Korg. I didn't perform any specific tests but I did try to create drop out situations by layering several sounds over detailed backings and playing some full chords up top. As I said - didn't notice any drop outs. I must admit to being a little bit skeptical about bare statistics these days as my Technics KN7K is 128 note polyphony and I can get it to drop out easily. I guess until someone comes out with a 512 note poly board we'll always be bantering this poly thing around (and even then someone will probably come up with a killer arrangement that causes drop outs).

The comments about the endings were interesting as there were a couple of occasions that I thought that the intro's, ending's or fills didn't quite fit with the overall style on the Korg. It didn't bother me a great deal but it was there just the same. In relation to the short endings I'm happy to use the fade out or play out my own ending if a short one is required. I guess this comes down to personal opinion as I'm sure that someone else would say they wanted longer endings if Korg produced shorter ones

All of the feedback was much appreciated as in one way or another it's all helping towards making my final decision. I'm hoping to make up my mind sometime soon but I guess it all hinges on whether I need to have another play of a few more great machines

David.