Quote:
Originally posted by rikkisbears:
Hi AJ,
nice to hear from you again.
Miss our chats. Unfortunately we headed in different directions since the good old softsynth arranger days, you to T2 as your main arranger keyboard , me to korg PA800.

If you ever decide to swap, I can fill you in on some of the nitty gritty details on the PA800, I think Korg's improved since the PA80 days. Currently I'm learning to program style tracks in Guitar Mode. Pretty interesting stuff. haahaa.

best wishes
Rikki



Hi Rikki,

Thanks. I still use Soft synths quite a bit btw. If anything, I might be a future candidate for the PA2x pro. I played both the PA800 and 2x and I like both boards, but I really liked both the key feel and 76 keys on the 2x. Still, neither would be replacing the Tyros 2, only complementing it.

A good portion of what I do live these days consists of acoustic playing, with sometimes little or no backing. That's why I want to keep the T2. The SA guitar voices, especially when I layer them with a mega, give me a pretty good live guitar feel. In the case of the megas, when you play at lower velocities, the effects become more prominent. I've practiced a lot and learned to adjust velocity pressure when I play so that I can incorporate the mutes, scrapes etc that accompany the megas along with the articulations from the SA voices. If I had to rely more heavily on style content, I'd say the Korgs ( even the Pa80 ) would satisfy me more than the T2.

I discussed purchasing the PA800 and PA2x with my dealer's kb manager, and also took a look at the M3, with the Karma 2 functions. I spent a few hours there, and even he agreed that for what I do I'm probably better off with what I already have, and that the PAx2 is a great board but might be best for me only if I wanted a secondary board. I like talking with him because he never tries to pressure a sale. We also agreed that we both like the M3 a lot but that it isn't the best rig for players like us that don't want to spend a ton of hours trying to learn and customize it. Great songwriting and jamming tool, but precise live play isn't a strong point.

The korg ( and Roland ) guitar modes seem to be very similar ( albeit less complex ) in design to what I have in Music Labs Real Guitar and Real Strat software. With some programming and effort, I can definitely get more realistic sounds than I can with my layered Yamaha voices, but.. in a live setting it's a bit simpler to load and simply play the T2 voices. For studio work though, the Music lab softwares are the way to go.

Cheers Rikki.

AJ
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AJ