KEYBOARD FESTIVAL UK. October 2003

YAMAHA. No new products. Demonstrations & Tutorials were generally well attended. The Yamaha team is enthusiastic and very forthcoming with answering all questions.
Glyn Madden who runs the Yamaha Club UK produced a very well performed first evening concert with layered Tyros & PSR9000. All tunes played were sequenced by Glyn and played live to.

ROLAND. New Module version of the DiskCover 5 the 5M. This was demonstrated through out the week by the demonstrator singing very nice harmony with Midi Files.
Two New Midrange Keyboards EXR-3 £369 & EXR-5 £469 these will replace the lower EM models, but the EM55 stays. Only the EXR-4 was on display and offered very good value. When I prompted the Roland Rep for input about the forthcoming top end new arranger. He stated that the only taster he could give me was, it was well into design progress and should be available 2004.
Roland New entry level organ AT15. This two manual 20 note pedal board although of limited facilities contained excellent voices and styles. It has 2 keyboard quality speakers, but when played through external amplification it produced some very nice sounds. This was used by the Roland demonstrators on two separate evening concerts and proved to be a winner at only £2,499.

HAMMOND. Demonstrated lunch time & evening jam sessions on the B3. These were very enjoyable and gave us an alternative from the evening concerts. Also on display were the compact organs XE1, XE2 & XE200.

TECHNICS. Demonstrated the KN7000 all week, but the separate product tutorial room was locked whenever I tried the door. This company does not give the customer help or support at these festivals to the standards that Yamaha & Roland do.

WERSI UK. Are marketing a software package called OCTAVIAMIDI. This enables you to connect up to 8 sound modules or soft-synths. Nice easy to use PC interfaces and priced at £49.99. Details can be obtained from www.octaviamidi.com

KORG. I have from my view saved the best till last. I spent more time around the Korg display than any other, purely because I (personal opinion) rate the PA1X Pro the best arranger board now available at the present time. Overall it was difficult to fault and John Pacey the Korg demonstrator played his socks off 8 hours every day. It was interesting to note that a number of competitor demonstrators were all having a play at different times. This 76 key version had very good quality semi weighted keys. The 61 note version with speakers will be available January 2004. Some of the touch screen pages can contain a lot of information meaning you had to be accurate when selecting some program features. I know that this is disliked amongst a number of pro players. The answer would be to set up all your gigging requirements in the performance memories. John Pacey certainly handled playing it live very well.
Korg had set up a low priced speaker system to demonstrate the PA1X. Altec Lancing 621 Satellites & Sub Bass £80 Mail Order. I thought these were better sounding than the ones provided with the Tyros. I am not going into detail about the different voice sounds from the PA1X because this is very subjective to different people. They certainly sounded right to my ears.

CONCLUSION. My final comment is, If anyone is about to buy a Tyros, SD1 or similar price arranger, first check out the PA1X before parting with your money.

BILL HORN USA. Bill provided very interesting music tutorials and produced a funny evening concert on the Wersi Scala with the help of a couple of puppets and fancy hats.
Bill did not bring a party from USA this time. Check Cruises & Tours at this link. http://www.billhornproductions.com/
BILL IRWIN also does Keyboard Festival Tours to UK, so if interested check this link. http://theatreorgans.com/uk/irwin/


Graham UK





[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 10-11-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 10-12-2003).]

Graham,
thanks for your interesting report.

What is your feeling about Roland new midrange arrangers? Good sounds?
You say EXR-3 and EXR-4, but in Roland website, they say EXR-3 and EXR-5, not EXR-4.

"I spent more time around the Korg display than any other, purely because I (personal opinion) rate the PA1X Pro the best arranger board now available at the present time."

You own a Tyros, right Graham??? Something shook your feathers enough to place the Korg Pa1X Pro above the Tyros and any other high end Arranger out there for that matter. I'm impressed!! Apparently after listening to the Pa1x you noticed no note drop-off at all I suppose, right? A person can usually tell when there's note drop-off because it's usually hard to disguise especially up close. PS: I've heard Korg only does up to 3 layers on the Voices. Have you heard different? If that is the case then it would be harder to run out of Polyphony while using the Style backing. And 76 Keys makes the Pa1X a heart throb for sure just for that feature alone. And you say the Key action is outstanding which is another big plus.

"John Pacey certainly handled playing it live very well."

It looks to be an excellent Live performer! We'll know more of course once we get our hands on it but I take it from your remark that that is what you meant.

"I am not going into detail about the different voice sounds from the PA1X because this is very subjective to different people. They certainly sounded right to my ears."

Aah, come on Graham!?! Sure sounds are subjective but coming from the lips of an accomplished Keyboard player like yourself with a trained ear, your comments would be most appreciated as to the 'caliber' of the Pa1X Pro's sounds. Not only by me but I would guess 'everyone else' who co-habits this Forum!!! Or are the rumors really true that you are indeed tone deaf thus you wouldn't be able to give us an accurate report anyway? Just kidding of course. You can tell I'm trying to Egg you on old pal. Wadda you say, pretty please, with sugar on top!?!??!!

I respect your comments, really I do. You better believe if I was at that Music Festival you would know my mind as to how it sounded that's for sure. No holds barred either. I would tell it like I heard it and hopefully because of it, give our fellow members a little inkling and insight as to the Pa1X's true worth; at least in my eyes. Then let them decide for themselves; which they will do anyways eventually.


"My final comment is, If anyone is about to buy a Tyros, SD1 or similar price arranger, first check out the PA1X before parting with your money."

Now THAT'S subjective Graham! When will we even SEE the Pa1X Pro? If the PA80 is any indication it could be "maybe" NEXT Fall. LOL

Let's hope not!

Best regards,
Mike




[This message has been edited by Idatrod (edited 10-11-2003).]

Graham,

sounds like you had lots of fun, and from all outward appearances, spent a lot of serious time looking carefully at the aspects of the various manufacturers boards. Hope you took some photos to post.

Thanks for the rundown on the latest equipment,

Gary

Hi: Graham
Do you still have the 9000 Pro ?
It sounds like you rate the PAX-1 over the Pro & the Tyros.
How user friendly is the OS ?
How about that touch screen ?
Thanks for the report.
Denny

The BIG critical question (at least for me) is whether the Korg PA1X Pro's 'chord recognition table' goes beyond just basic stock variety chords or whether (because it's model name includes the word 'Pro') include the more advanced 'Pro' style chords such as the jazz influenced 'rootless' chord voicings made famous by legendary pianist Bill Evans, as Yamaha, Technics, & Ketron keyboards ALREADY do.
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/005983.html

Pro style 'rootless' chord recognition is required before I'm willing to consider the Korg PA1X Pro. I'm hoping someone here can confirm whether the Korg PA1X Pro supports jazz style 'rootless' chords or not. Thanks, Scott

Artaher. you are correct it should read Roland EXR-5. This new board only arrived on day 6 of the 7. But the short time I had, mainly letting it play the demo button I thought it excellent value for £469. The layout is quite pretty also.

Idatrod \ distarry. No I have a 9Kpro but play a Tyros twice a week. John Pacey on the PA1X was playing with styles full left & right hand chords. At no time during the 7 days did I detect polyphony note drop out problems and I know about that from my 9Kpro. I tend to be a little reserved about stating sound quality because you have not got my ears, but OK then these two ears of mine say the PA1X voices are excellent. Trumpet roll of with after touch. Trombone slide with after touch. I thought the guitars & basses were similar quality to the Tyros Megs Voices playing different samples depending on key pressure and yes you can play these voices live unlike the Tyros.
My only concern was that as I have already stated some of the touch screen pages contain a lot of icon information and I can see in a live performance missing the icon required in a fast playing situation. The answer is to set up requirements into the Performance Memories which then change at the press of one button.
PA1X in UK is 6 weeks delivery. 61 note version with speakers Jan 2004.

Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 10-12-2003).]

Thanks Graham
Denny

Thanks for the report Graham. I have listened to the MP3 demos of the Pa1X Pro and thought they were very good. They have a real 'live' sound to them quite like you would hear a real band on Stage playing whilst you're in the audience about 10 rows back listening. That is a very encouraging sign. But mp3's are different than hearing it in person which you've had the opportunity to do. So expert opinion from a a seasoned Keyboard veteran like yourself is highly regarded. So thank you for further enlightening us on the 'excellent' sounds and vital features 'nuances' incorporated into and in regards to the sounds themselves.

You Brits and those in other parts of Europe will likely see the Pa1X/Pro months before we here in the States do. But I hope I'm wrong.

Also it's very interesting that the Pa1X (with speakers) was not at the Festival. If they're not even showcasing it yet I am a little suspicious of their "in the stores by January 2004 spiel."

Best regards,
Mike

Thanks Graham,
Did you notice about styles: There are 3 fill-ins is that right? Did they always sound natural? Do the styles play overall as smooth and usefully as does the Tyros right out the box (inc OTS).
Thanks again,
Zalmi