Hi again, I hope for the last time.

> from some users (complaints about arranger function)

I generally disagree on reporting other's opinions. What I'm talking about it's my personal opinion, tested, proved and played :-). This makes difference. I would like you to do the same, not just adding someone else's opinion just to increase your list of complains to overcame mine. Anybody can do this simply checking this forum (and we know that your beloved Yamaha has a list of them available here), while putting hands, comparing, playing, using in studio or live a keyboard is a completely different exercise (that I had sometimes the opportunity to experience with my friends). I understand that you are angry with Korg for somewhat reason, but this is not a good reason to say "my friend told me that he don't like ...." or "from the forum xxxx mr. yyyy told me that .....". This prove nothing, it's not your opinion and it's just something added to make a big unuseful list. This make also people without his own experience reading this saying "Korg is rubbish, while Yamaha is perfect" that's not the spirit of the forum. I always replied with facts, of what I'm sure. Are you ?

> poorer chord recognition(compare pa 80/1x and a cheapo yam psr )or 1500 side by side.

as stated in some other topics here in SynthZone, starting from Pa1X os 2.50 Yamaha and Korg are absolelutely winners, no doubt. Have you ever tryied this ?

> speed the tempo up around 150 & up.trigger the LH chords fast and list how they react.when in yam it's smooth,on pa you'll hear hiccups or timing problems (acc instruments/bass to acc trks)within the measure/bar.

I never experienced this problem and never seen this complain here or in Irish Acts, at least recently. Have you ever tried this ? If yes tell me the exact steps to reproduce it so I can test and confirm (if any .... and report to korg accordingly ...), otherwise these will remain only words and not real facts.

> sample ram up to 32 mb only(for some)

ok, a little amount but at least it was always here with pa series (and not in ....), offering the possibility to work with Akai library convertion, or free Triton data (a good library is available on the net). Do you know what I mean ? ;-)
A little off topic comment here: sometimes I prefere small memory but well used, since I've heard sounds of gigabites (into a computer of course) sounding really bad: not always bigger is better. Sampling is an art, and I had good opportunity to load some akai samples (not so big, really) from good library working really well (to replace some "so and so" internal sounds I did not like).

> The 'user-interface' is confusing because of the double/triple functions of many buttons. e.g. One button is used for selecting intrument group Piano AND Saxes.... it depends on another 'select' switch (with LED) what is selectable.
(in yam most under 1 button to select-style or sound- and one to choose).
Big time problem (when you are in performance mode and want to change preset program eg.piano to sax(go out of perform mode to program mode,select switch,choose sax catagory,choose alto sax ,etc-multiple buttons to press).

interface is a matter of taste. I found much more intuitive the touch screen and cannot explain you why (I often found myself pushing the display of a ...., with no lucky). Regarding sound selections I made everything in the SongBook and I can prepare my STS for styles, and also SMF or mp3 (do you know about this not available in .... ?). If sometimes, to change things or for some reasons, I've to select 2 buttons (instead of one that's not always, this must be clear) it's not a problem for me, since my already programmed STS works in 90% of cases.

> same problems with style select.can't go from 8/16 beats to jazz/latin without pressing the EXTRA select switch.(remeber shift button on PC keyboard ?,(though you don't have to hold it down)it's very irritating for most.

same story with the SongBook: I'm not playing single styles, I'm playing songs, (while looking for "xxxx bossa" instead of playing "Desafinado", it's stupid) especially live where there is need for fast selections. While live I select a song in the songbook and the correct style/smf/mp3, sts (with clear names - no blind buttons like in ....), arrangement, fx, txt file w/chords and lyrics, drum kit, volumes, easy sound edit, drum mapping, kick&snare designation, fill mode, ....... everything is ready with just 1 (one) single selection. Did you know about this ? Where are all these functions in your favourite arranger ?

> The touch-screen sometimes has tiny 'buttons' that are hard to touch because they are close to another button.

Not a problem for me. The real problem is that sometimes the touch is not so precise using fingers, and this must be improved.

> Access to styles during seq playback is forbidden. You can locate them, but you can't change one, or have or ready when the seq is done. Same in reverse if you are in acc mode...you can't access the sequencer in live mode.(you can do this in yam).

wrong, you can select (but not play) styles in song mode and viceversa and having it ready when the previous song is completed. This is why in the display you can always see what's selected for styles and 2 seq. Have you ever tryied this ? But also in this case I use the songbook so I've not the problem to deal with style mode and song mode that's sometimes annoying in Pa1X. Songbook make the transition transparent and you have only to play, that's my first interest (not selecting buttons). It is the real plus of this instrument in my opinion, it's better than in any other instrument so far, even if still largely understimate. Some features like the txt link (I've short memory), the intuitive sorting feature (like in a pc - you click the top of the column to get the order for it immediatly without rotating the selections until you find the right one - get this after your counting button pressures for selecting sounds or styles ?), genre & artist fields, key info, and the pc editor are incomparable. Check it out this while using it in a real situation. If you like to play, and not pushing buttons, this is a real winner: plays all (SMF and mp3 included!), fast, customizable and plenty of useful informations (description fields, key info)like nobody else.
Another killer feature is the marker handling: they are unlimited (not just four) and can use real names (eventually imported from SMF that already have them programmed). You scroll the list, showing the measure and the real name, you select it and you can totally rearrange a whole smf live, jumping here and there. Have you ever tried this live ? It's not so funny as playing with the arranger, but much better than the common smf player (like those with 4 blind markers).

> Sounds shut off when new ones are triggered. This is only a problem if you switch alot in the middle of a phrase, or
with the sustain pedal down to free up a hand for navigational purposes. If you switch between Program and Performance
mode the current sounds shuts down for a second during the switch.

Yes, agreed this is annoying also for me and must be improved.

> No option to add live drum beats to a seq like Yamaha and Ketron do. I've come to love that feature. I like to "modernize" some older sequences by adding some new, hip beats to them

I hate this feature. Changing only the drum and not the whole rhythmic parts accordingly(bass, rhythm guitar or piano, etc) is only a joke in my opinion. I've made a lot of arrangements, using my computer and sometimes I needed to rewrite a lot of tracks for a stupid rhythmic change that I found necessary to improve the song.
Sorry but I found this feature completely unuseful, for me rearranging a song is something different than changing a simple drum track. For simple similar "games" I make use of .... [see the following]

> ....even a multipad adds alot

you can use the pads as you want. In Pa1X there are a hundreds of sequences pre-programmed, much more interesting of ... multipads where you have sometimes to trigger two pads just to have the guitar strumming + noises (so the best sound available), not a clever solution since this can be done with just one like in Korg. Also in this case have you ever tried this ?

> Some drum fills are still a bit unconventional, and busy compared to the style. (Volumes, instruments etc .....).

Yes, sometimes this is true, anyway all is editable (like a do where needed - but also competitors styles are NOT always perfects for me, that's clear) and this is largely surpassed by the inspiration that you get from some Korg styles, than in other "zum-pa-pa" arrangers. Have you ever used one of these "wonderful" styles to rearrange your song (in Quick Record mode), instead of changing only the drum part mixing a smf with a style ? This, as always in my opinion, has much more sense.

> Effects mixer is pretty cryptic with only 4 sends. I prefer the Yamaha design where I have control over each sound's EQ,

no probs even here with the fx sends (cryptic !! why ??), and "nice" having the eq even if I don't have a real need actually, frankly speaking, it's not something changing my life considering the Pa1X sound.

> FX, Vol etc in a separate window. Nothing shared like the FX buss in the PA series.

the fx buss in the pa is in one page (mixer - FX Send tab). Have you ever checked this ?

At the end, as previously said ,we see the story in two different ways, and also this story must come to an end. Will be this the right time ? :-))

Cheers.

[This message has been edited by Booby (edited 09-26-2005).]