I always enjoy the day after NAMM. My good friends Malcolm Doak and Jerry Kovarsky drove out from Anaheim to spend a few hours with me.
Malcolm, many of you have met if you attended Frank's Jam at his store in Conecticut several months ago. Malcolm is the Product Manager/Marketing manager for arranger and digital piano products. Jerry is Korg Technology Senior Product Manager.
At NAMM, Korg showed a new version of the PA500 which I sadly didn't get a chance to see. This model features all of the styles, sounds and features of the current PA500 but also includes 32 MB of new middle eastern sounds and styles plus dedicated quarter tone tuning on the front panel.
A few were shipped to New York to Korg's warehouse and I will be receiving my first one later this week.
After visiting with Jerry and Malcolm, I can tell you that Korg and their style team will be continuing their efforts to bring us upgrades and products that will keep Korg strong now and in the future.
I thank them for driving the long way to see me before returning to New York after a long NAMM show.
I also got a good lesson from them as to why the PA588 keyboard is a bit more expensive than I would have thought it should be. Unlike Yamaha which has different levels of 88 keybeds for their Motifs, S90, and down to the DGX635 and P85 keyboards, Korg only has one keybed and this keybed is a high quality used in Oasis as well as the SP250 lower priced digital piano. So, because of this high quality keybed and their best sampled piano sound, the PA588 has to sell at the price it currently is. As Korg stated to me, "first, the PA588 is our best ever piano sound and feel and then it's a top quality arranger keyboard as well".


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com