Hi there guys and gals.

That will conclude the demo's for now.


Thanks!

[This message has been edited by Wings (edited 01-13-2004).]

Very Nice...thanx for the effort...
I hear a bit of PA80ish in there also, otherwise great job!

PS:Ja man. Les smoke some Gangja...
and sip "Red, red Wine". ...........?

LMAO

Hi Wings,

First of all thank you for the effort, I am a little surprised that there has not been more feedback yet. I know others have submitted their new testruns of the PA1Xpro but yours is very comprehensive, and,as you admit yourself, done with little or no window dressing. What's more all these 17 tracks give us a fairly good idea of what this new Korg monster sounds like.
Having just sold my PA80 after two years of faithfully serving me I must admit that again there's the shadow of a doubt in whether I have done the right thing in ordering the Ketron SD1plus and not the new Korg. Mind you the prices of the KOrg in Europe , as I mentioned before, are really staggering. Besides I would prefer the 61-key+speaker version, which is supposed to hit the market late february. But on to your efforts and the sounds of it.
Inevitably there is a close resemblance with the PA80 no doubt about it, but overall I must say it strikes me as well superior. The acoustic piano ( a real pain in the ass on the PA) is definitely much better (witness your version of My Way) and overal the sound impact ,to me at least, is bigger. Personally I do not fancy the touch screen and all that goes with it but surely one can get used to it.
Still in doubt I will first give the Ketron a run for its money (it has not arrived yet) but should it somehow fail to come up to my expectations I will definitely turn to KOrg again............
thanks again for sharing.

john

Good job Wings! These are some nice demos. I really didn't hear any issues with fills that some people have mentioned here before. It seems like the styles and fills flow much better than PA80

Have you noticed any issues with fills?

Hi there all!

Dnj...Yes, it was ment as a joke... :-)

Thanks John, yes I also was planning to get the SD-1, but now I'm glad I didn't...

Harosha, thanks for kind words. No, can't say that I have discovered any negativity. And yes, I also feel that the transitions flow better. Hope the new OS is released shortly, 'cause mine hangs too often... :-(

Wings.

------------------
If you act, create or compose - you live.

Why do they realese these KB's if they still have problems like the ones stated?

Excellent Demos, I really liked Red Red Wine with that groovy reggae style.
Thanx for making these demos, I really enjoyed listening to them.
And I think the PA1X (pro) sounds very good, there are definitely some substantial improvements regarding the sound quality, much better than my PA60 .
Do you how much waverom the PA1X has?
I couldn't find this anywhere...

Greetz & Thanx again ,
Marcel

Good question, not easy to answer.
I guess that demand is more powerful than pride...
But OS 1,5 are only days away, so...I'll live.

I have no clue, but I can always try to find out...

Thanks for nice words...
Wings.



------------------
If you act, create or compose - you live.

Hi Wings,

thanks for sharing your demos.
Great job.
I'm very impressed with the drums and the horns. Great Live feel to it.

Eric

Wings.
As you know, I posted a through review of all your demos at AE....great playing on all.
Terry

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

is there a link to that review...curious, I enjoyed the demos myself nice "live" sound ?

Yes sir, here you go....
http://awarenessengine.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=390


Wings.

------------------
If you act, create or compose - you live.

Mr. Marcel...

To answer your question, I must first say that I'm not too sure what you mean by "waverom", but here is an answer I got from a contact in Germany:



Did that answer your question?


Wings

------------------
If you act, create or compose - you live.

Thanks Wings,
nice demo's, love "Pop corn"
best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Wings:
[B]Hi there guys and gals.

There are no specs on the Pa1X PRO Wav ROM that I could find anywhere and Korg does not list them on their site either. Here is my observation concerning the Pa1X/PRO Wav ROM. The Triton Studio which is Korg's top of the line non-Arranger Keyboard has 48Mb PCM = (Pulse Code Modulation) ROM which is Korg's 'Hi-Synthesis' Sound Engine. The PCM ROM on the Triton Studio and the Pa1X/PRO is similar to Yamaha's WAV ROM format though they use different methods to acheive their results. Since the Triton Studio is Korg's Flagship non-Arranger Keyboard I would doubt very much if the Pa1X/PRO has more PCM ROM than the Triton Studio. With the Pa1X/PRO you can add additional ROM (up to 32Mb more) which is good.

Now here are my impressions of the recordings made by 'Wings':

I didn't like the Sax all that much. I didn't like the Distortion Guitar much at all. The Acoustic Grand Piano is better than the PA80 but still leaves something to be desired. The Violin is 'okay' - better than some other high end Arrangers. I really liked the Strings in the song "Fagre Stryn". They were rich and beautiful in tone IMO. I didn't like the Organ in Whiter Shade of Pale but the other Organ was pretty good. The Drums sounded good although their accuracy, ie., Tom's, Snare, Hi Hat, etc. were not acutely accurate IMO. They had a live sound but again the detail, ie., 'accuracy' was not up to how a real Drum Set sounds. I think the Tyros has more accurate Drum sounds than the Pa1X/PRO. My opinion of course.

I am not sure how 'Wings' recorded his demos (what equipment he used to record them) but I thought overall the sounds were missing something. It was almost as though I was hearing not 128 bit 44.1kHz Samples but maybe 64 bit 22.50kHz Samples. Sorry, but the demos lacked something to me. The quality was not what I had envisioned and expected them to be from Korg's Flagship Arranger. But that is no fault of 'Wings' because his chops are pretty good. The fault lies with Korg's Sound Engine IMO. When a Manufacturer makes a new Flagship Arranger/Keyboard they usually are very upfront as to what the Wav ROM is. The Tyros has 96 Mb's and Yamaha plasters that fact all over their web site. But Korg does not even mention it once anywhere on their entire site as to how much PCM ROM the Pa1X/PRO has. Sounds a little suspicious if you ask me. Have they got something to hide? Maybe it only has 32 Mb's of PCM ROM?? Maybe only 24 Mb's??? Sure, you can add up to 32 mb's more but how much do I have to start with? That is the question. It is apparently top secret information and Korg has made no attempt to 'declassify' that info. Much to the chagrin of the Music World.

Best regards,
Mike

I think you did a great job on these songs Wings. Nice to hear some ( very good ) real time playing as opposed to just playback of standard midi files or stock demo's.

I think that some of the stock sounds surpass what I have in the PA80, while others sound pretty close. I think the drums are very good and I don't find them to be "off" at all. Rather, they give a live feel. I spend a good deal of time programming drums in my own tunes, and the PA1x gives a nice rendition and doesn't feel mechanical like some of the other arrangers I've played. I'd actually USE some of the drums coming from these styles on my own compositions, albeit with a bit of editing in some places. I can't say that about many other arrangers, including sometimes my PA80. Too much editing is required to get a good real performance feel for my tastes.

The piano sounds like a Korg piano to me. Either you like it or don't.. ( It's ok for me ). The guitars sound good and the basses sound more realistic to me than most of the other arrangers I've heard. I've always liked Korg strings. I think the organs have potential, but some editing may be in order. I have them sounding a little more to my liking on the PA80 ( after a lot of editing, as I'm a little fussy about organ sounds in general ). I still wouldn't use them as my first choice in a studio production ( but only because I have other organ sounds I like better at my disposal ), but they make me happy enough for live work.

Synth sounds are vintage Korg, which for me is about as good as it gets without using the "real" thing ( real thing for me being an analog synth ). For all the great sounds on my Motif ES, I still think that my PA80 beats it on synth sounds ( that is until I factor in the Motif's add on an150 analog modeling board )

I don't think Korg always does the best job in certain instrument groups on some of their presets. It's always been this way ( for me ) since my days with the M1. On that note, I might make one suggestion if it's ok. I found that I could get a lot more out of my PA80 by editing some of the stock sounds. . In some cases, I didn't do a lot of "synth" parameter editing. Simply combining two ( or more ) similar ( but different ) sounds to form a combination ( performance ) , and / or adjusting effects. Sometimes simple editing of performances .. maybe changing the cutoff freq a little, tweaking the resonance just a tad... etc One thing I'm sure of is that the PA1x will have plenty of editable parameters to tweak. I know that beautiful sounds come out of that PA1x and the potential is likely there to get better ones as well.

Yep, I like it. I'm still not tempted at this point to upgrade from the PA80. I think it's likely a nice improvement over the PA80, but I'm not sure ( for me ) whether it's 3000 USD worth of improvement ( minus what I could get for my used PA80 ).

If I was going in cold and getting a new arranger though, the PA1x would certainly get my attention and would likely be a tough choice for me vs the Tyros. I suspect the PA1x would probably be my choice in the end.. but I'd have to play it.

Good work Wings,

AJ


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-12-2004).]

Nice work!! I specially like those guitar sounds. They sound very good. Keep up!!

Thanks for kind words all!!

A few additional info's;
No quantizer or other effects added...only played straight, except the techno-track, where only standard is the drums. The rest I've made realtime...(utilizing sequencer, of course.)


As to the negative remarks concerning the voices, drum-accuracy and recordig-quality I'll have to agree to a certain point. Drum accuracy is in some arrangers too good, meaning you can actually hear that it is a machine playing. In the PAX however, you get the feeling that there's something human to the madness. As far as voices go, I don't even want to debate such a topic, 'cause that varies soooo much according to whomever you talk to. Personally I fell in love with the sounds/voices in my PA-80, and the PAX has taken the same voices to the next level, according to my head.

The recording was made using a stationary CD-recorder from Thomson, and for some reason the quality is 132kbps at 22kHz (lowest) in some and 257kbps at 22 kHz in some (highest).
After converting to mp3 the quality is 128kbps at 44kHz... (which I choose.)
Now I'll have to admit that this is not my strongest area, recording/converting, but can somebody please tell me why this is?

I've tried Easy CD-creator (stinks), CoolEdit 2.0 (that won't read my CD's) and Nero (who'll give a max of 96kbps).

Help!!!