Hey guys,
I on vacation here in sunny orlando, home of mickey. With all the great emails received I found a dealer (Discount Music)who has korg, yamaha arrangers. I finally was able to get my hands on a pa800 to try. I, as many of you have read recently bought a T2 last month. I bought it on just reviews and previous history with yamaha navigation and sounds.
I arrived at (discount music) was happily greeted by a manager, his name was Roman.
I told him I was visiting from boston and I was a T2 owner , contemplating purchasing a possible second board to use in conjunction with my Tyros2. He told me he had a PA800 and a PA1x pro. He immediately went and connected them side by side through a nice pair of powered studio monitors.
First impression, The Pa800 looks like a toy.
for some reason the blue color mixed with white buttons, silverish accents and grey speaker covers takes away from it looking like a pro board on the exterior.
before anyone thinks I'm bashing korg, I am a proud owner of a blue Korg Triton Extreme 61)The triton is a dark metallic blue with subtle grey accents.
Back too the pa800 we go. The one touch setting buttons took me about 20 seconds of hard looking to find. Thet are about the size of white tic tacs located right under the display screen, Which is smaller than the T2 screen and not even color to boot.
the style and sounds buttons are really cheap feeling and each button shares 2 styles or sounds using like an a/b button option. Yuck!!
The Keys, in my honest opinion are no better than the s900 key bed (not as nice as the triton extreme even) not sure how they would last over time.
The Styles:
Oh boy!!, this is where it gets worse beside the T2. My friends and fellow Musicians. the good styles are average at best!! The bad ones are just bad!!! A few of the rock styles offer a different feel than some of the T2 and wer ok, but the big band, pop, ballads, R&B, FUNK, are some of the worst and bland I've ever heard, I think my old Psr540 could hang with them. Anyone who said they were Punch and in your face may have been paid off by korg.
The songbook feature was very dull, not many factory songs included,they wer'nt decrypted, like the yamaha but i'm sure the correct names are out there. I know others have stated that the options on saving transpose and other stuff were nice but I didnt utilize them in my experiment.
There were a couple nice drum fills and a 3 count break button,. which was ok.
The Sounds/voices;
I'd love to know what voices korg was to outshine the Tyros 2 on. I tried some of the ones I use most often.
Piano - so so
organ- yuck and thin
sax- not even as nice as a $300 casio
brass- weak, weak , weak
guitar - try again
synth sounds - were descent
woodwinds- flute was fair, that was it
Sorry Korg Lovers!!
The speakers were ugly but sounded comparable to the S900.
There was no separate modulation wheel, the korg has one stick that does both. I want 2, sorry
Wrap up:
I tried the Pa1x pro shortly after. From reading the comparisons of people saying the pa1x pro was older technology, after the disappointment with the PA800. It was gonna be breif. However in my short time with the pa1x i did notice it's build quality was much better, the keys were a lot closer in quality to what i have on my T2.
The speakers were much louder and punchier than the PA800 they styles seemed similar for the most part.
My synth zone friends, "I wouldnt take 3 pa800's for my Tyros2 unless I could resell them on ebay rebuy my t2 and have a party with the leftover cash.
I hope i havn't upset any of you korg players, potential buyers please try them for yourself first, you may have a different opinion.
But I would like to give huge props to roman and his staff at discount music in orlando for being so friendly and helpful.
Another Dealer is Frank from Audio works in CT. I've spoke to him a few times, he is a great friendly smart guy. and his prices are excellent.
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God Bless,
Mikey
www.mikeymaestro.comwww.balloonanimal.com
www.1000colorcards.com
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