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.

------------------
God Bless,
Mikey

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

Mikey, what OS was it..Was it the current one?

Fran, I'm honestly not sure. I didn't dig that deep. But the sales rep told me it just came in, Whatever that means, maybe korg hasn't updated their new boARDS YET!

------------------
God Bless,
Mikey
www.mikeymaestro.com www.balloonanimal.com www.1000colorcards.com

[This message has been edited by mikey_maestro (edited 09-16-2007).]

Although I cant agree...Was it OS 1.51?

again, i'm not sure donnie, but jury seems to be out on the factory loaded stock software. BTW nice website Donnie, enjoyed your demo songs, I used the midi file Buble rendition of summer wind, It's great. You used some really nice midi files, do you have any web links for them.



------------------
God Bless,
Mikey

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

Thanks for the honest review, Mikey, it is eye-opening at best.

Ian

Mickey........email me we'll talk.

Donnie,

Just sent you an email, call me anytime

508-558-3500

------------------
God Bless,
Mikey

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

I don't think Mikey likes the Pa800!

My Dad always says "that's why there's chocolate and vanilla!"

Man - are we at opposite viepoints, huh? Just shows to go ya ...... you GOTTA play these things for yourself. Find out what works for you. It's funny - Mikey posted as a gentleman, and spoke his mind, but boy, oh boy ..... I cannot agree with ONE thing he said. I do understand him though ..... I wouldn't play a T2 if it was given to me. Funny thing - likes and dislikes!

Just to be fair to those who believe everything they read - I MUST share opposing viewpoints ! Mikey stated his case with grace and candor. I will do the same, so you may hear all voices speak from experience. Thanx, Mikey !



**Funny, that's how I see the psr line. Seriously. Give me the PA anyday.


** I found the layout to be very easy to navigate. Buttons are right under the screen, and have touch-screen counterparts as well...and they show the NAMES on screen!


** Well, that's simply personal opinion. I disagree. Chocolate? Vanilla?


** I believe they are much better. They have a longer throw and a solid feel. Let's not go there!


**We've been over the style wars so many times. Yamaha is simple and direct, Korg is Flashy and ornate. I'd prefer a balance between the two. The second part about payola ... I'm sure was a joke.


** I think the songbook is superior to everyone I've seen so far. It even remembers to switch between song and style mode for you.


**Too subjective here. Listen for yourself. I sound better with the Korg voices, but that's just me!Here's my list:
Piano - on par with T2 - sounds great Mono
organ- great expressive control
sax- tenor sax - one of the best growls
brass- tweak, tweak , tweak they're great
guitar - soooo sweet
synth sounds - everyone does this good
woodwinds- flute and clarinet - Mmmmm


** Ugly? Hmm..... never saw THAT one coming. They "sound" better to me than any others, including the PA1x. Compared to the yamaha ... well, they are in another league as far as my ears tell. The Yamaha speakers do not handle my singing as well with the music. I'm a strong singer, maybe everyone else sings quieter. The psr speakers are very well suited to psr sounds. no so much for external voices.


** I prefer this method - easier to do both tasks without removing your hand. Saves space too


** OK, OK. This one is a personal judgement and should be taken as such. I offer the exact opposite viewpoint, so add that to your research folks. I'd actually rather have a psr-s900 than a T2 because of the "silent-slab" syndrome.

I like a fair amount of the PA800 voices against the T2. Particularly the synths ( huge edge to Korg there ) and to a lesser extent the organs and strings. That said, I think the reason I preferred the T2 against the main competition is that I make sparse use of the style parts, and I tend to place a lot of emphasis on the panel voices, especially the guitar sounds. I also often prefer to flavor the styles with the multipad pieces and turn most everything else off except the bass and drums..

For whatever reason for me, when I play it, I can get the T2 to sound more like the real thing I guess.... articulations vs Roland's guitar modes and whatever tricks Korg uses .. etc. Since I got my T2 a little over a year ago, even though I still bring the laptop to the occasional job I do, I no longer feel the need to plug in the VST instruments and sample sets I have in it.

If I was looking toward the styles themselves for more substance, then I suspect that for me the T2 would come in dead last.

I'm in what appears to be a huge minority who likes the overall Korg OS better than Yamaha's, but I would very much miss the way Yamaha's multipads work. Along with the T2, I still have and use both my old but very customized PA80, and my MZ2000 for it's superb synth engine, and I think that's gonna do it for me for quite some time.

AJ

I find myself agreeing with both Mikey and Dave's "negative" comments..

I personally do not like the PA800 or Tyros2..for several personal reasons..

Mostly because I do not find either to compete with features I think are superior[for my needs] on the Roland G70..

Acoustic pianos are superior on the G70..

Organs are superior on the G70..

Scat and choir voices are superior on the G70..

Vocal harmonizer is superior on the G70..

Key feel is superior on the G70..

Effects and routing is superior on the G70..


The above ..is reason enough for me to pass on the PA800 and/or Tyros2...

Features I find interesting on the PA800 and Tyros2..

Recording capability to record audio with in the instrument..Korg to USB device..and Yamaha to hard drive..

MP3 capability on the Korg[optional]..

Particular sounds from both Korg and Yamaha..

Don't get on my case for stated my opinions...You do not have to agree with me..Donny and Dave are my friends..so if they can live with my opinions, I can't see why others can't accept difference of opinions..

Hi AJ,
I've actually had some issues with the psr multipads ( the repeating ones like piano phrases etc)ie if I don't hit them at the right time , I get them playing catchup or I even end up with a blank bar ( maybe I've got some sort of setting wrong) anyway , how do the way the korg pads function compare to the Yammie pads.
Don't mean has the yammie got better pads than the korg, but moreso the way they're triggered & perform.

I'm trying to find out if they work in a similar way to the kn's.


best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bluezplayer:
[B]

I'm in what appears to be a huge minority who likes the overall Korg OS better than Yamaha's, but I would very much miss the way Yamaha's multipads work.

I've played the:

Ketron SD1+
Korg PA1X, PA1X Pro, and PA800
Yamaha S900, Tyros2
Roland G70 & E80

Though I agree with Mikey on some points, but not on others about the PA800, I feel ALL of the above keyboards I've played are terrific keyboards in their OWN right, and capable of sounding the way you want (if only you take the time to because master the OS, navigation, sound editing capabilities of the board, of which then gives you the ability to make the keyboard your own and sounding just the way you want. Unfortunately for some, this is'nt possible in a week, or even a month, and full mastery may take much longer.

You can nit-pic about this feature and that, but the bottom line is, like the techique & art of keyboard playing itself, it's all about putting in the time (woodshedding) to master the many features of these powerful technilogically advanced keyboards. If you don't have the time to do this, dedicatication to a single solo instrument may be better suited. Just my opinion. - Scott

Hi,

not seeing a difference in quality between Pa800 and Pa1X (that I own personally) seems to me strange. I judge their construction far better than any Tyros or Yamaha arranger (especially Pa1X of course). And the new Pa2X is arriving.

Want we compare Korg keybeds with Yamaha products (especially Pa1X) ? Do we really need ?

Regarding sounds: I respect any opinion. It's a matter of taste and we can spend thousands of words without coming to an end.

Regarding styles: compared with the "kind of plastic" Yamaha styles (for sure used as reference) they seems to me much more musical, alive and inspiring. Anyway I respect opinions also here.

IMHO in this report there is not too much open mind against non-Yamaha instruments. Fortunately a lot of other post here in SZ seems to point out the quality of Korg arrangers. I don't want to say that Korg is the best (even if it's my choice), but the market has a lot of good arrangers from different brands, not only Yamaha.

I've tried them all (Yamaha, Roland, Ketron), as kindly suggested from Mickey, and found my choice. Thanks for the warning, anyway.

Just my thought.

Regards.

Possibly the most important thing you ever said, Scott! If someone grows up playing Yamaha, then all oif a sudden gets a Korg - it will seem like the whole world is different. Same for all brands.

I remember the first time I heard a drum machine with real PCM samples....I HATED the cymbols, because they didn't sound like the ones I was used to in my Korg analog machine. After a while, of course, that feeling went away and I can not go backwards anymore.

We have a saying at my school:
"You have to GROW, or you have to GO".
Stretch a little - get out of your comfort zone and explore the magic that lies in all these new instruments.

Well said, Scott.

Dave great post.......fair & balanced

Fran.......we know the G70 is on par in quality ....if they can only get the weight & size trimmed down is the only way I'd consider one again for my gigging needs..plastic doesn't necessarily mean lesser

Mickey I was a bit surprised at your review also not knowing what OS was in the pa800 it shows when it starts on screen....I hated the T2, design too wide & those sharp corners ripped thru one of my keyboard bags.
The vocalizer is sub par at best in quality. The Music Finder doesn't retain & save Transpose where Korg's is so far superior & editable. There's more but Im sick of mines better then yours scenarios its too early for that

I will admit the Pa800 NEEDS a heavy dose of tweak/edit initially regarding the master mixer, also I have found that the fantastic on-board speakers need to be shut off when playing live with a PA because they are TOO GOOD and real block out the mains in a tight situation.....if your mains are way up front then as a monitor the speakers would be fine or alone in a small gig situation "more then enough" .

Booby nice post I agree.

You're right about the timing issue Rikki, but on the T2 I only notice it when no style is playing, ie I use two or more pads at the same time. When a style plays, the pads seem to pick up the cadence fine. Then again maybe I've just gotten used to deploying them at the right time when I'm playing.

I agree with those who are from the school of thought that no one arranger is the right choice for everyone. I also agree with the folks who say that we see little discussion about folks digging in and using some of the power that all of these boards have. It would seem that we tend to want to look to what might happen a year from now instead of using what we already have. I still, however, have my 2 dinosaurs and use them often.

The PA80's multipads are good for use as on / off controllers, not much else, but the styles sound great, and I made adjustments to some of the fills and they seam together with the main variations much better. Some of the panel voices are excellent, unfortuantely for me, the guitars and pianos aren't ( so subjective tho.. ). I've spent a good deal of time customizing the board for me, and have dug deep into it, and probably because of this, I didn't feel the need to run out and get it's successor.

The MZ2000 has no multipads, and it's styles could be better ( a lot better in some cases ), but it does have a great synth engine onboard and some surprisngly good panel voices, ( nice synths, guitars, saxes, and organs w/ sliders for the drwbars )given the amount of sampling rom, along with a chord sequencer that other folks would love to have on their modern boards. It also has an onboard style conversion utility ( Roland and Technics format ) that works pretty well. Mine has quite a few good sounding converts in it.

Still, both boards were approaching 6-7 years old last year, and it really WAS time for something new. When I went looking and ultimately chose the T2, I had a few specific thoughts in mind. Multipads that I could actually create and modify, and use in real time, and excellent panel voices so I didn't feel compelled to use VST's for live play. For me, the T2 satisfies both needs, and I'm gonna stick with it for quite a while. Also a key factor was all of the third party stuff provided by very generous folks like Michael P Bedesem and Jorgen Sorenson, along with many other resources. These utilities were among the past positive experiences I had with my earlier PSR's that led me toward a Yamaha, but this is the first TOTL Yamaha arranger I've ever owned ( I did have a PSR 9k for a brief time in the studio on loan ).


I'll also admit that I do get some kind of a gear lust thing going on every time I see the G70 and E80 at my local music shop. For the current year though, my gear lust hasn't cost me quite so much. My main purchases were a relatively inexpensive acoustic guitar and soon to be the Software RealStrat app from Musiclabs. The latter sounds ( and looks ) awesome on the video demos and I hope I can master it enough to get the same sounds.

I think the old cliche is true though, about one man's junk being another's treasure, although none of the current boards are junk, but I guess some might perceive them that way. Because of the priorities I stated above, neither the PA800 and the G70 would have worked as well for me, but that's an individual thing because of what I felt I needed in a board. Everyone else's priorities will differ, so I think it's best to keep an open mind to that when we ( sometimes so rigorously )explain our purchases here.

Regards,

AJ




[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 09-17-2007).]

Thanks AJ,
I'm wondering if maybe the PA800 pad system has improved since the pa80?

They have some really great pad creation functions like midifile to pad, style track to pad (& vice versa)etcetc

I beleive you can also play more than 1 pad at a time ( a bit like the psr system) except that you have the option of a looping pad syncing from the next bar or from anywhere within the bar immediately.

I beleive you can also trigger a pad via a foot pedal? not an option I have on my psr, or at least not that I've found in the settings.

I suppose the only way I'll satisfy myself as to whether it suits, would be to try & check one out. The manual makes it sound perfect for someone like me, for likes to delve into a keyboards functions. haa haa

Might try & get a hold of a pa80 manual & do a comparison on the pad functions.

thanks AJ

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bluezplayer:
[B]
The PA80's multipads are good for use as on / off controllers, not much else,

Hey Mikey,

Thanks for the review:

No color display / Bad key feel / Sound not any better than the S900 ?????

Maybe it`s time to give the S900 another try.

I thought for sure that it had a color display , and I would have thought that it would have shared the same key-bed as the M3 ??

Guess not

Now I really need some help !!

What about the Tyros you have ?
Do you have the Tyros Spkr system? If so , sound good ? Metal Grills or cloth.

Minor details , but @ 4K I need detalis !!

Many thanks,
Gary

Rikki,

Yes, the PA80 pads are useful as controllers, but there is very little that I find to be musical about them, and for me on the Yamaha gear they can mean the difference between a style sounding somewhat dull vs quite a bit more alive.

It would be interesting to see how the PA800's pads work. I hope someone will give them a good workout and then tell us. Without good multis, for my needs, the PA800 would come in 3rd place for me vs the T2 and G70. Not because it's a bad board.. not at all, it's a nice step up from the PA80, especially the harmonizer, but at the same time, from the time I spent playing it, it does share more than a few similarities with the PA80, especially sound palette and style wise.

Still, I wouldn't give up the T2. There is nothing quite like it hardware that I've played to this point. I can get some pretty convincing guitar sounds by layering an articulation voice with a megavoice, and sometimes adding a third ( not enhanced ) tone to alter the sound a bit. What takes some time and adjustment is to practice working with velocity pressure as I play to get the right sound at the right time, but as I get more used to working this way the sounds get better and more realistic. Other times you can get some very unnatural sounds as well, and sometimes that can even be a good thing. I've been actually toying with the idea of resurrecting my Hotz midi translator ( an old Atari version ) or something like it to see if I could remap some of the keys and make the megavoice functions become even more useful in real time

I suspect that RealStrat will take it to a completely new level for me, but I'll likely only use that at home or in the studio, unless it's so good that I absolutely feel compelled to use it live too.

Regards,

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 09-17-2007).]

Thanks AJ,
I'm just pleased to hear the T2 has worked out really well for you.
Well, if I end up with a PA800 , I'll let you know what I think of the pad system.

Meanwhile I'm tossing up between replacing my psr1500 with a psrs900 or just adding a pa800 (it's back to the good old days, the more the merrier haa haa).

I had a brief look at an e80 a while back, but couldn't justify the price quoted.

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bluezplayer:
[B]Rikki,

thanks for the kind words



it's since the launch of the Pa1X (2003) that Korg pads behave like Yamaha ones, so there is need of a good refresh procedure before making conclusions about last models .....



the Pa800 HAS a color screen, for curios there is a screenshot available in the official Korg web-site (www.korgpa.com).

There are a lot of wrong informations considered and also discussed here ...

Just my thought.

Best regards.

I was saying that to myself alot of Misinformation....its a wonderful arranger for sure.....

I'm not out to start any platform wars, here (in fact, this is the first thread we have had for a while that HASN'T degenerated into mudslinging), so perhaps, in this civilized atmosphere (!), Donny, would you mind just giving us a quick rundown on WHY you dropped the Ketron, and why the move to Korg?

You obviously had good reason to do something that would cost you money, and chew up a fair bit of time re-organizing for the Korg. So, no 'bashing', just a quick rundown on why the change was made.... OK?

We're just curious....

Thanks Booby,
I've been reading the part in the manual on PA800 pads, & to me it sounded like they worked similar to the psr pads. Happy to hear it confirmed.

Obviously a major upgrade on the pa80 pads.

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Booby:
[B]

Just my thought.it's since the launch of the Pa1X (2003) that Korg pads behave like Yamaha ones

Diki....

There are many things the Korg PA800 offers me that many of my previous arrangers didn't, I will name few that I really enjoy & make my life a whole lot easier.

1- The Songbook data base that retains ALL setup information including Transpose, Styles, SMF, MP3's with easy access to them just scroll & click to play from the main list OR the Custom Set LISTS you can set up any way you like in any order Great foe LIVE playing ....integrated with a DUAL Sequence player.

2- Nice loud on-board speakers 22W each for those intimate small gigs eg: cocktail hr, wedding ceremony, small NH, etc ....when you dont need an amp. Otherwise great monitors.

3- Two 2.0 USB ports

4- KILLER TC Helicon Vocal harmonizer & Mic processor...soooooo Nice

5- 61 keys I can live with to have these features.

6- DUAL Sequencers play SMF, MP3's at once w/ slider between songs to segway

7- TEXT Linc with styles

8- Ability to lock Keyboard TRANSPOSE Globally as to not effect Sequencer playback.

9- Only 29lbs

10- Record & Play MP3's with optional MP3 decoder card installed.

11- Accepts up to 2 Terabytes HD

12- FULL COLOR Touch Screen DISPLAY

13- Assignable Sliders & Buttons.

there are more things Im discovering & with time I can get it sounding very favorable to my liking I'm sure. These are a few things I longed for in the SD1+ & Yamaha's Ive owned for my needs.....The SD1+ has Killer sounds & quality but lacked a few things as listed above for my personal navigational concerns.



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-19-2007).]

a few people have responded to my initial review stating there in fact was a color screen on the pa800.

I'm not sure why the one i tried had a indigo lettering with no color.

could be the os or the way it was tweaked by people in the store. or maybe i'm going color blind

I apolagize for anyone i may have turned off by being inaccurate. The last thing i want to happen is for this great forum think i'm not a reliable poster.

Thanks for all your support, I've been blessed with some great friends i've made here. The knowledge base has been better than any dummies book I'll ever find.



------------------
God Bless,
Mikey

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

Out of curiousity, I went ahead & called Discount Music (Orlando, FL) and asked them to check the OS installed. The nice salesman I spoke with (Keith) checked and confirmed that the PA800 on their showroom floor is: 1.01. I'm wondering now if the new 1.51 OS update might have improved the quality of the PA800 'styles' and/or 'instrument voices' to offset Mikey's negative review of them. Anybody know exactly what improvements, enhancements and/or new features OS 1.51 includes.

Scott

Pa800 newest OS 1.51 ver & music resource is like night & day compared to the older one OS 1.01 ver.
I just ordered the DUAL Mp3 encoder card & most likely will ween myself off the need for the Laptop.....on many gigs.....making myself more all in one.
I'm slowly falling in love day by day

Donny, SMART move !

Our keyboard's ability to automatically call up lyrics/chords via Reg/Songbook effectively eliminates the audience distraction that a standalone device (music sheet stand, musicpad pro, and/or laptop) presents. I could never go back to the days when arrangers didn't support this now. - Scott

My last shipment of PA800 has been I beleive 1.50, my demo board has been updated to 1.51

Korg ships them out as they come in, so if they are still shipping 1.01 that means the new batch hasn't arrived yet

Thanx Frank....your the best !

1.51 makes a BIG Difference.

Yamaha would hopefully in future models include what the Pa800 has also....
MFD that saves ALL info including Transpose & the ability to play styles/smf/mp3s also....plus be able to have a KEYBOARD transpose LOCK feature that currently Yamaha doesn't incorporate .....on You can set it for the current songs but when you change reg it reverts back to a default OFF setting Argggg! These transpose features come in very handy when people sit in to sing in different keys.

Though I don't utilize smfs or mp3s when performing, I do need to ability to in auto accomp mode, QUICLKLY call up songs (from a large database 300-500+ songs) with appropriate style, lyrics, and settings (transpose,etc) automatmatically called up.

Assuming Korg's Songbook feature allows you to easily scan & search & (on the fly) call up song titles similarly as Yamaha's MFD does, but allows you save ALL saveable REG saveable settings (including trans), this is indeed a feature avantage of Korg vs Yamaha. I acknowledge the Yamaha MFD feature pretty much useless in actual performance because it can't store anything but the style and tempo. For that reason, I created 30+ banks of REGISTRATION BANK FILES (8 songs per file) and able to scan them and call up song with proper settings on that fly that way. Donny: perhaps you can share more information (detail) about the way Korg's "Songbook" feature works for calling up songs 'on the fly' in performance compared to the REGISTRATION BANK memory system I outlined on Tyros2.




Donny. Can you please provide more detail on the Korg PA800 TRANSPOSE LOCK feature? Tyros2 supports this but simply checking the Tranpose checkbox in Memory Contents and then activating the REG Memory "FREEZE" button.



Sit in to sing what? along to SMF playback or you providing live arranger mode accompaniment keyboard playing? Though, like I said above, don't utilize SMFS myself, I would expect that the Yamaha Freeze button would work with SMF playback as well, no? Thanks for your insight.

Scott

http://www.korgpa.com/pa_root/en/support/tutorials.html


http://www.korgpa.com/pa_root/video/Pa800/Pa800_video_tutorial.wmv


Two Pa800 Tutorial videos.



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-19-2007).]

I would expect that the Yamaha Freeze button would work with SMF playback as well, no?

I'll try to remember off hand....

try this on your 3K/T2....


Play a SMF song push both transpose buttons at once to make sure your in key of C

While the SMF is playing push the Transpose button down a few times you will hear the song key transpose Down

Now in order to Stop this from happening you need to go into the menu & out of your choices and click Transpose "KEYBOARD" only NOT SONG

This will now allow you "While the SMF is playing" to transpose up/down without effecting the SMF song

when the song is over go back to a registration and play a few songs with style........

Stop & go back and play a SMF song press the transpose while the song is playing & it will default BACK TO SONG MODE ....correct?

The Pa800 has a GLOBAL LOCK Keyboard only Transpose feature you can write.



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-20-2007).]

Donny,
you CAN tell Yamaha kbs to allow the transpose to affect KB, song or all. I keep it to KB only on my setup so I can fool with different keys during a sequence and the song doesn't change key.

Sometimes, for example, if the song is in E and I want a bluesy feel - I can do slide offs better in F. I get a better feel without scacrificing vocal comfort.(my #1 priority at all times)

IT is A matter of taste!

for me - a professional player for the last 33 years- the PA800 is a BOMB ' the best key board i'v ever had. but it took me about 3 months to change sounds 'to get good samples from the netand friends, to make a few drum sets 'and to change the styles to my needs.

friends and audience notice the quality' and I 've got a very light and compact bomb in my hand.

Yep, the time frame you gave sounds pretty much 'in the ballpark', especially with so many features & tweaking/editing capabilities to discover, learn & then finally adjust to just your liking. Though I was certainly able to take my keyboard (Tyros2) out the same week I bought it, I too didn't experience its full sound potential till many months later after finally learning about & mastering the pleothera of adjustments/settings available to further improve the sound & styles, as well as create custom regs for my entire performance repetoire. It's up to us to take the time to learn & master the full potential of our keyboards, as their out of the box sound is typically only a starting point to work from. Dud, looking forward to perhaps hearing a song recorded by you on your newly tweaked BOMB!. - Scott

dave do excactly what I stated above ....and let me know .

My 3k was set up so that the transpose was locked out of teh sequencer. This function did not change when I changed registrations, but I suppose, it's a GOOD thing that you can write a registration without the lock-out...just for flexibility.

Anyway - no question, you can make a sk lock out either keys, seq or both.