While on the second half of my Florida vacation, I visited a Sam Ash in Clearwater. First of all, this is a great music shop and its huge. In ma/RI the only big store is GC since the demise of mars music.It was a treat to visit, with walls and walls of gear.

Back to my main reason for this post.I saw a PA800 begging me to try it again.Wow 2 pa800's in one week.

Most of you reading this post read my review last week. I gave it poor marks.some agreed and some didn't.

I thought I'd give it another whirl.

Let me start by saying I missed some things the first time. For whatever reason the one I tried last week had a B&W screen. This one was infact color.

A great salesman named Roberto was nice enough to hook up a nice mic on a stand for me.

Folks after standing by my tyros 2 like a little brother. I must admit the Harmony function by TC helicon kicked the crap out of the T2. It was amazing!

I did look for the software version and it was using the old one.

I disconnected it from the store monitors to hear the on board speakers more closely. They were actually pretty good sounding nice and boomy with no distortion at max volume. But still not attractive looking the silver color clashes with the ugly blue board.

The buTtons were not as bad as I initally reported. They were much smaller than I like but at least they were hard plastic unlike the S900. The heavy duty clear hard plastic light up T2 are still king to me.

I Gave the styles another try. My complaint is two different genres share the same button with sort of a A/B select button.
This is also how the voices are set up as well.

The intros are mapped out pretty intuitively.

1st one is a long quite busy intro.they echo some very popular tunes from past years.

2nd (I like this one ) It allows you to play the chords in whatever progression you want while it adds all the fluff.

3rd. A quick intro similar to that on the. Tyros 2 intro 1

The only styles I really liked that could compete with the T2 were most of the heavier rock ones .

I liked the gospel ones and would love to add these to compliment the ones on the T2.

The pop and ballad styles were very very weak.

A few soul, funk., doo op and a couple others were actually very good. I am not by any means saying they were better than the T2 but I'd like to compliment. And build on my current styles.

Onto the voices. I retried the organ but this time I edited it and used the drawbars and like donny said it made a huge difference. The Organ was nice and full sounding. A thumbs up.

Onto the strings
My salesman Roberto.is a really great strings player on the keyboard so I asked him to demo that voice so I could stand back and listen. He played a few selections and wowed me
Just as good as the T2.

The scat voices were very good. Some of the brass was better than I reported in my previous review.
But that sax is so horrible as well as the acoustic guitar.

Overall the T2 voices are better overall.

I didn't get to fool with all of the mp3 features, the smf capabilities. Using faders and such.but you Korg players seem to swear by it.

So here is my overall opinion after giving it a second try.

The harmony is amazing!!! I'd trade the T2 harmonizer for it in a second There are a few styles iD love to add to my T2 arsenal
If love to take the scat voices and add them to my T2.

And take the mp3 and smf features as well

With all that said Id still keep my T2 anyday over the Pa800.
But afte my second audition of it. I can respect it a little more.

Again I have no intentions to upset anyone on the forums

Just my honest opinion


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God Bless,
Mikey

www.mikeymaestro.com
www.balloonanimal.com
www.1000colorcards.com

Vacation? What's that? Enjoy yourself in sunny Floriday (we're still trying to dodge the heat in the midwest

Harmonizer? You know, when I used the harmonizer in the 900, it sounded adequate. To be honest, harmonizing is so overpowering anyway, it's really hard for me to believe there'd be any real distinction between boards. I suppose if there is a 2-part selection where you could do some awesome Everly Bros or like, then it would matter. Anyone else feel the same?

I guess I'd have to hear it myself.

Thanks for the analysis and be safe coming home.

Thanks for the nice comments zuki

Coming home tomorrow let's pray for a safe flight

I'm beat, vacations are suppose to be relaxing

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God Bless,
Mikey

www.mikeymaestro.com
www.balloonanimal.com
www.1000colorcards.com

Took me Two X before I bought one

I approach my sound as if I were amamber of a vocal group, like manhatten Transfer. The harmonies are required, not fluff. Check out the nightengale song on my website and you'll see how a good harmonizer can be used in a different way. Not as a backgroung, but very much in the FOREground.
The trick is knowing when to turn it on and off.
My advice on harmonizers is this:
If you can't vary the blend between lead and harmonies in real time ... you're missing half of the effectiveness. I have a slider set for lead voice and harmony voice, and I adjust constantly. Vocal dynamics are not enough. Sometimes the percentage has to be modified.
The PA800 is getting me back to MY sound. I'm so happy !

I still would like tyone know who try a G70 or E80 anyone know where there might be one on display in the ma/ri area?

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God Bless,
Mikey

www.mikeymaestro.com
www.balloonanimal.com
www.1000colorcards.com

I wasn't aware Yamaha had a harmonizer/vocalizer in their arranger keyboards or workstations? Unless of course you call that lackluster pile of digital dreck they claim to be a harmonizer competent. There's a reason companies like TC and Eventide make harmonizers, so other companies like Yamaha can try to mimic what they do but do so very poorly at best. It's nice that Yamaha and other companies offer harmonizer abilities in their keyboards but if you're going to put one in that's worthless, why not just forego it altogether?

From a professional standpoint I agree. Obviously, the home hobbiest is a big part of the market and,consequently,a selling point nonetheless.

While the onboard harminizer is marginal at best, it can be tuned to a usable form, then the information can be readily saved in a setup registration. One of the major problems with any harmonizer is the person using it. Most folks have the tendency to use way too much harmony, which results in a lousy-sounding, distorted vocal. In all cases, even with the TC and Digitech series, they should be used sparingly. And, the person using it must be able to at least sing on key.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Ditto.

One of the first things I did with my T2 was figure out how to turn off the harminizer when on a gig. As previously stated, it should be used very rarely, almost never. I went with never.

Since the new PA2X has the same sound engine as the PA800 I would guess that Mikey's review of that keyboard would be pretty much the same.

I agree that the clear buttons on the T2 are great.

Sounds like, from Mikey's review, that the PA2X is an evolutionary step for Korg, better stuff but not significantly different concepts. Unlike the Keton Audra.

Come on Yamaha, you can do it. Shock us at the next NAMM with something really cool with 76+ keys. (don't respond, just dream)

UD -

I listened to your song and the harmony is truly FANTASTIC. OK, question: Was it done through a keyboard (PA800).

I must say, my voice is probably my showcase and the S900 harmonizer is truly crap. I need what you have and then I'll have some fun doing Ambrosia, Bee Gees, MT, all of them - wow....this is MY missing link, including the stupid PA I'm dumping too.

zuki

zuki

Zuki cant wait to hear you play & sing thru the Pa800 when it arrives......soon I hope?

Zuki,
That song was recorded with a Yamaha 9000pro, no auto anything. I played manual bass and piano chords. The harmony came from a digitech Vocalist VR....the TC unit in my PA800 is better to my ears.

The trick is really more in technique, rather than product. You need to sing lines that are favorable to 4 part harmony. If you simply turn it on and think like a soloist, you will not get the result you want.

Some little things I try to remember when using harmony in a vocal group style:

1: Do some unison intros and spotlights. Makes teh harmony stand out more - think Lettermen
2: Scoop and bend up to notes when desireable ... it really sound great
3: Get the proper blend. This is PARAMOUNT. The lead needs to be perfectly balanced in oroportion to the harmonies..... that balance point may change MANY times per night. I have used volume pedals on my harmony voices at times, but the PA800 has those pregrammable sliders ... SWEEEEET.

I have lead, harmony, effects....all on sliders to make on the fly adjustments.
4: LISTEN to vocal gropus. Learn their nuances, their phrasing. You have to learn to think like 4 instead of 1 !

UD -

All that sounds great, but way over my head for now. I basically have dabbled with keyboard harmonizers in the past, but have used the left hand chords only. I suppose I'll have to branch out and use my right hand for harmony too?

Zuki some people play left hand bass & need to use the RT hand to trigger voc harmonies.
Either way it can work out real nice, if you THINK like backup singers when you play besides your lead vocals & of course playing like a band.

Zuki,
If the arranger is playing, then a LH trigger is fine for simple harmony, but if you require ( desire? ) a more flowing, custom sound, then the right hand is the way to go. Unfortunately, most arrangers link the harmonizer to the auto-chord track, so if you want to stretch your harmony dollar...you also have to modify your playing style.

If you switch the chord recognition to the RH, and play bass, strings or whatever in the left, then you may hear too much movement in the chords from the arranger. Vocalists often use passing tones and "blue" notes to get somewhere....these tones may NOT be quite as subtle coming from a canned arrangement.

Zuki,

Keep in mind that Dave can do things with his right hand that most of us only dream about. He has at least 7 fingers on his right hand, which of course, give him an edge over us 5 fingered performers.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Yes, Gary is right. I am able to trigger a chord, play a passing melody and still have two fingers left over to SOMEHOW find the cracks, between the notes !