I have a Q or 2 (or more) about the PA80 I'm hoping you'll help me
with. I don't know if it's the PA80 or a Motif I will be spending my
paycheck on soon. (I've narrowed it down almost to these two.) I'm
sorry for asking so many Q's but the salesman didn't really know how
to answer me. I will be purchasing something very soon. I wish he'd
have just given me the manual to read. I'd be grateful for any
answers you can provide me. These Q's are not capricious I really
need certain features for the kind of gigs I do. Soooooooo... to you experienced users...
ok, here goes...
When playing live with a band can I use the auto accompaniment but
mute or deselect any of the backing instruments included in the auto
backing? (for instance just have bass and piano but NOT the drums and
others so the REAL drummer can play along)
Or... are these instruments fixed and allow no editing?

Can I send out to the drummer (on a separate output so it can go to
his headphones) ONLY a click or metronome of the song tempo while
still sending all other sounds out to the main speakers?
If so will this click I send to the drummer be a single drum sound of
my choosing ( i.e.. a cowbell) or... is it just a click or... will it
have to be the whole drum set?

Can I "turn off" the auto accompaniment feature and just use the
keyboard as a regular synthesizer?
If so can I then split the keyboard in this mode and ..let's say..
have bass on the left and organ on the right?

Is the jogwheel the only way to choose the patches in this kind of
mode?
(When I demo'd the PA80 I could only choose patches when in
the "Program" mode [ i think]. In this mode I could only play the one
patch I had dialed up on the screen.. with the jogwheel.)

When playing a Standard MIDI File can I also play along with it and
can I choose the patch I want to play with it?

and finally...

Can I use the PA80 in my home studio, when not playing out, as a
master MIDI controller (MIDI out to other sound modules and sync it
with my computer sequencer (Cakewalk, Digidesign, etc...) just as I
would with an Roland XP-60 or a Yamaha S80 etc...?

I'd better stop there! I don't want to be greedy.
The next store I went to showed me the Motif and seemed to think it
could do most of what the PA80 could do for me... but in a differant
way.
I DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE TO GET (can 0nly afford one)!
I thank you for trying to help me out. If I end up with the PA80 I'll
be active in this forum.
Carlo