I got a phone call today from Korg USA's district sales manager here in California. It seems that one or more of the components needed in the PA1X are not available right now and so Korg is now saying that delivery will not happen until at least some time in November. I'll keep you all posted.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Does anybody know how much the 76 and 61 note versions are going to weigh?

Scott The Korg Rep told me 76 note version was 40lbs.

Graham UK

George,

Do you know beyond the shadow of a doubt if the new Korg will or will not play the Backing Sequences of the i30 without having to convert them into a midi file?
Thanks,
Boo

I downloaded the manual for the New korg from new site (awarenessengine.co.uk) after just glancing through it. I feel that there not much diffrence from pa1x and the pa80. I did notice some new styles and sounds listed that I haven't seen on the pa80. but not much. I did pay close attention to the latin list of styles and the styles listed in the manual are exactly the same as the pa80. They may have possibly modified the styles. but nothing like the Ketron styles (bachata, diff. merengue's and cumbia). I was told that it's a longer pa80 with the real drums card and some new toys, (cd drive vocalizer, etc). I guess we will have to wait and see.

MC,
I spoke with friends at Korg and I've been told that the realism of voices on the PA1X will blow us away. Korg is using a version of the Yamaha "mega"voices which are going to be easier to play live then Yamaha and I know two of the style programmers hired for this job and they say their style making is completely different from the PA80. I've not heard it myself, but I trust these two friends judgment and I can't wait to hear this keyboard.
I also spoke today with the product manager at Korg USA and the keyboards are in production and should arrive next month (november).
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, california

Very interesting George. If they're using Yamaha's version of the Mega Voices they might be infringing upon some patent without realizing it?? Or do you mean "Korg's" 'version' of Yamaha's Mega Voices? To be much easier to play in a live situation is a big plus. Possibly Yamaha's software Engineers could come up with some type of algorithm and provide a 'fix' for the Mega Voices on the Tyros by way of an OS software update so they too can be more easily played in a live context. According to Yamaha they publicly stated that the Mega Voices on the Motif ES were playable. They never said that publicly about the Tyros. To fix that fatal flaw would sure be a tremendous way for Yamaha to show their support to loyal Tyros/Yamaha owners and at the same time stem the tide of current Yamaha Keyboard owners from breaking ranks to purchase a competitors product. Just think, to be able to play the Mega Voices in a Live! situation without ANY hiccups. Now THAT would be something.

Best regards,
Mike

PS: 62 note Polyphony doesn't get me too excited about the Pa1X/Pro regardless of how good it might sound. Especially at that price. But the Mega Voice's being able to be played live, that interests me.

The mega voices did not seem to be very playable when I demoed the Tyros.... but... they work very well on the Motif ES once you work with them a little and get used to them.

I don't know about this new PA1x.. guess I'll have to wait to see if one becomes avaialable to demo before I canm make any judgements or try to evaluate it, polyphony and all. One thing I can say is that with my PA80 and 62 notes odf poly, I rarely if ever have noticed any note drop offs. This was not the case with my original Motif or my 2000. It's all in the way it's allocated too I think. It seems to me that when I've made 4 layer or sample voices with the PA80, it still only counts as one unit of polyphony. This was not the case with the Motif. With 4 layered voices I easily ran out of poly many times.. We'll see I guess....

AJ

Mike,
Really the megas can be played live real time fairly easily by adjusting the velocity settings on the Tyros. The problem as I see it in playing them is that the voices have double or triple duty, meaning one velocity it plays, next slide, next mute. So the problem is more about us controlling our velocity in our playing style. With unweighted keys I think that is more difficult, but if you dial in a consistent velocity on the Tyros the megas are readily playable. Of course the downside is that then some of the "effects" i.e. slide may be harder to get out of it.

Also, I'm sure Korg is talking about "their" version of the megas...not actually the same sound engine etc. Basically they're just using some of the steam Yamaha built up with the megas.
Terry

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

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 10-22-2003).]

Hi Mike could you elaborate please what you mean with "flaws" ? Is that what trtjazz said (wrong velocity mapping curves etc) or are there other issues I'm missing ?
I'm not a Tyros owner but I'm curious anyway.

Regarding the Mega/Live technology, I was wondering if it can provide better quality (for natural instruments) than let's say Gigastudio which streams the samples from disk and permits a myriad of articulation styles which makes for very realistic instruments. I hardly doubt it because keyboards do not have this large sample capacity. Ok they can compensate with tricks like modulation etc. but the results are often not as realistic as the natural instrument sampled in a large set of playing styles.


cheers,
Benno



[This message has been edited by sbenno (edited 10-22-2003).]