People,

The pa 500 has just arrived.

I'll have it set-up in a couple of minutes.

Frank

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frank,

can you clarify something for me please...?
the pa50 i previously owned, had a very anoying high level of white noise on the main outputs (actually the headphones too) which was related to the main volume slider. low volume, low noise and viceversa.

for this reason, without a heavy noise reduction, all recordings were terrible.

what is the case with pa500? is it any noise on outputs?

and secondly, is there a three band eq for style's tracks, as pa800 has?

thanks!

[This message has been edited by adimatis (edited 01-28-2008).]

All program features, minus the vocalizer and mp3 are in the PA 500, the noise might be due to the pa50 powersupply set-up?

I don't seem to have it here, but I have not hooked it up for recording

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thanks!
well, the noise i am talking about was so obvious that if there is on pa500 too, you can not miss it, even thru onboard speaker!


so, you think this keyboard is comparable/similar to pa800 sound and style wise?

From what the techs have told me, is that the guts are basically the same.

They cut corners where they could, the entire board is made in china , instead of Italy.

The sounds and styles are identical to the PA2xpro and PA800.

The screen is different, the buttons and feels are different.

The layout is not as pleasing as it's bigger brothers, but for the cost savings, I think it will be a big hit

Synthzone members get special pricing, email or call me

Frank

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Frank, do you know if you could save a song with all the settings on a Pa2X and then transfer that to the PA500 and retain the settings?

Taht way you could use the Pa2X in the studio/ home setting and take the lighter cheaper board on the road.

Just wondering.................

Graham

Adi, did ALL the PA50's you tried have the same noise floor, or perhaps was the unit you played faulty?

thanks frank!

diki, that is the big question indeed! i dont know, because i only played one unit - mine, and that i ordered from an internet store, no chance to test before hand.

Yes, if you have a PA2xpro/800, you can save your settings to use with the PA500.

Korg Tech has just told me that the sound engine in the PA 500 is not on par with the PA2xpro or PA800.

It is more of the Triton on steroids type sound, so this is another difference in the PA 500 to the PA2xpro and 800.



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For what it's worth...I had a PA50 for 2 years and it was quite as a mouse regarding noise levels.

I listen to the 500 again, and I think the sound engine is the same,

I think it was mislead from the tech, but i could be wrong, it sounds identical to the PA800.

I haven't recorded both to see exactly,

The key feel is not on par with the 800, it had that cheaper key feel,

all other functions are in there, I would say if you gigged with a PA 800, and went back the next day with a 500, i don;t think a sould would hear any difference other than the vocalizer missing


BTW the 500 is very light, you would probably need weights so it doesn't blow away



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maybe it's just as roland's E series.
E60/50 have the same sounds as E80, but the quality is not quite on par with it... the quality of sounds can be quite a tricky issue.

but pa500 is supposed to have the same rx-technology as pa2x and pa800.
does it mean the same sounds? or just the same way of producing sounds?

that's worth getting a straight answer from korg.

Adi, how could you?! The E60/50 have SOME of the E80 sounds, but of COURSE not the same...!

The E80 has a lot of sounds and drumkits the E50/60 doesn't have at all, and then MUCH less ROM for the sounds, so those samples that ARE in common are FAR more compressed, shortened, looped earlier and played back through MUCH less high quality D/A converters and associated electronics.

This has ALWAYS been Roland's (and just about everyone else's, too) way of making the instrument affordable, and not scavenge sales from the TOTL at the same time. Just listen to a G600 next to a G1000... Supposedly the same sounds, night and day in comparison.

The PA-80 & 60 had the same sound engines and the same sounds and styles except for organ drawbars, aftertouch, the additional connections in the back, flash card and hard drive kit. the rest was the same. So the pa-800 and 500 is most likely the same minus the extras.

Pa800 has 120 voice polyphony, Pa500 has only 80 voice polyphony.

Pa800 has 240 MB of sound data, Pa500 has only 128 MB of sound data.

Kind regards,
Tommy

[This message has been edited by TommyF (edited 01-29-2008).]

Ok, some more info,

it seems the PA 500 is also missing the FAV locations, and is missing some style also.

Hmmmm, If thats the case it seems that maybe the pa60 was a better deal compared to the pa500, as far as little brother vs. big brother.......

After reading some of the posts here today I called the Product Manager at Korg USA to find out for certain what the sound engine is. Malcolm told me that his tech was mistaken. He was probably comparing the PA500 with a PA50 engine which is based on the Triton Sound Engine and not the RX sound Engine from the PA1X keyboard line. Except for the modeling draw bar organs in the PA800/PA1X/PA2X keyboards, all the sounds and styles are the same as the PA800.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

I knew they sounded really close, I guess I should always go with my first impression.

I do know there are styles missing and some sounds. The pa2xpro and pa 800 are the same but the 500 is missing a couple of things

oki, i admit it!
i exagerated just to make my point!
diki, you're right - i only wanted to point out that cheaper instruments from the same series, E or PA for that matter, MUST have something missing...... maybe some features, maybe some sounds/styles, maybe both.

if pa500 proves to be the same as pa800, sound wise, i think i could live without having the complete set of functions..... hopefully the situation is the same like it was with pa50, having the same sounds as pa80, minus some features.

i think i could play pa500 happily.......

Me, I'd want to A/B them next to each other before I assumed that just because the data tables look the same, or the style list is similar, that they will sound the same.

As I said... there's always a reason why one keyboard is less expensive than it's sibling, and often it isn't JUST features. Take a look at the amount of stated ROM in MOTL arrangers compared to TOTL (or BOTL compared to MOTL). Often there ARE the same number of patches, or fairly close, at least. To get that many sounds in that much LESS ROM, something is being removed from the sample data. Either it is compressed harder (data compressed, not audio) or looped earlier, or fewer multisamples.

And there's only one way to find this out. The manufacturers sure aren't going to tell you! You MUST A/B them at the same time. Or you aren't getting all the facts.

correct!

i'd much prefer half NUMBER of sounds than half QUALITY for MOTL arrangers.
and if they still can not match that, i'd even prefer 1/4 number of sounds, but full samples quality.
now, of course that does not happen, because this ratio would bring less customers for TOTL - i noticed many players, even for recordings, use rather fewer sounds they are confortable with than... 800-900 they almost never use.

maybe next time some manufacturers will do this: put very few sounds in, keep the price low, full set of features, then release tons of "expansion" sounds for whoever needs them!

oh, i believe i just made the best joke for this morning !(in this part of the globe).........

[This message has been edited by adimatis (edited 01-29-2008).]

Here is one small difference

Merenque 2 on the PA800 is Merengue on the PA 500, there is no Merengue 1 equivalent on the PA500

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The Pa2XPro-Pa800-Pa500 Comparison Chart

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Larry
SynthZone Frapper

Adi, I sure am going to be unhappy if you jump ship...

Better play the Korg thoroughly before you sell the E-60

My ears tell me you would be making a mistake..

Or ..are you keeping the E-60..even if you get a PA 500-800..?

I still like the E-60 piano over the PA-800, and other tones too {like Scat}..and the drums are no contest...Roland sounds better to me...

Also keep in mind the edits/covers/and make up tools you will lose...

Of course there are always some nice things on other products...but...at what cost?..

fran, as i said before, i am probably gonna skip this series of "cheap" arrangers. i cant buy an expensive one, so i would probably stay within the 1000-1300 euro price range. also, if i buy a second one, i must sell the one i have right now.

anyway, the new pa500 might be interesting to me, as i previously owned the pa50. sometimes i get frustrated with the fact i dont have some very useful little things on my E60, as easy on/off style's track or assignable pads for instance, and also i remember many of the sounds were better on pa50... at those times, i wonder...
still, if i'd have to let E60 go, i'll certainly cry for it's keybed!
another thing to consider is that right now i could get a good price for E60, actually i wouldnt loose more than 50 euros. but later on, might be harder to sell it for such a price...
it's alot to consider, but i think i'll keep the E60.

why cant be there a ko-rol-amaha!?

Adi, I'm totally agree!!

If only we could pressure the arranger manufacturers to either standardize, or at least have flexible MIDI enough to connect our arrangers together, and control all the arranger functions (not just send keyboard info), you could make your own ko-rol-amaha, or Yama-land, or Ketrorg, or Korgaha!

Mostly, it is the Variation, Fill, Intro, ending, break/fill and clock stuff that needs to get sent, along with maybe codes for OTS, Fade in/outs and Bass Inversion (On Bass) that really make the difference. Many of our arrangers CAN be setup to respond to certain codes, but none (or few) can be set up to transmit them. So you CAN play two arrangers, but making them think as one is currently impossible.

No-one wants to talk much about these mundane, technobabble things on the various fora, but trust me, if they could be implemented, they could go a LONG way to making the perfect arranger, and the manufacturers would benefit by selling arrangers to people that already have one, and want to add another. Or it could spark the revival of the arranger module...

Me, I think I would be in heaven with an S900 slaved to a G70..! Or even better, an S900 module (I'd never play those keys, anyway!).

I saved the' Orch.Bossa 2'-style from the PA800 and tried it in the PA500.
It says something like : 'not the right file, can not be loaded'.
Is it possible that this PA800-style isn't able to be loaded in the PA500?

Thanks for an answer!

Ronny.

Sorry for my poor English.

Hi Frank,
would luv to know if the Korg PA800 styles will load into the PA500??
I had a friend save an internal style from the PA800, & then tried loading it into the PA500. I beleive the PA500 wouldn't recognize the style.

I tried loading the file into my PA800 & it worked, so it wasn't a faulty file.

Don't know if the PA500 owner was loading it correctly or not.

best wishes
Rikki

Whoops,

Hi Ronny,
sorry, just noticed you asked the same question.





[This message has been edited by rikkisbears (edited 04-28-2008).]

I'll give it a try today

Just got off the phone with Korg Technical, they said the data should load no problem, but the sounds are not all identical so you would have to do some programming to get the sounds to work correctly

please look here: http://www.korgpa.com/pa_root/en/extra/bonusware.html?de

Hi Rikki and all,

this is very strange. I'll try it myself when I visite that friend one of these weeks but normally he is capable to load a style in the correct way. He had a PA800 before for a few months.
Is there nobody with a PA500 who can also try the Orch.Bossa2 from the PA800 to load?

When I know more I'll let you know too.
The list we can see from Korg says indeed that it must be working. Very strange to me.
I had send my friend the 'Orch.Bossa2-set' and the 'style apart'.
The very same attachment works on Rikki's PA800...

Best wishes,
Ronny.

I just copied all the styles that weren't included in the PA500 from the PA800 on a flash drive, then transfered them over the an SD card and loaded them into the user style area of the PA500 and they all played. The only ones that sounded bad were the factory middle eastern styles from the 800 because the 500 doesn't have the same arabic drum kit.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Hi George,
thank you so much for clearing that up for us.

Hi Ronny,
maybe your friends data got corrupted somehow during download.
Has he tried loading any of the other PA800 styles or some of the user styles from the net.

best wishes
Rikki


[QUOTE]Originally posted by George Kaye:
[B]

Hi Rikki,

I visited my friend today.
Seems his SD-card was corrupt.
We used another new one and all is fine and works perfect with the styles we've tried.
Thank you Rikki for the always kind help.

Thank you all and also George for helping.

Best wishes,
Ronny.

Hi Ronny,
happy to hear it all got sorted out.

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ronny:
[B]Hi Rikki,

Ad,

If you could play a PA800 live for a week, you would not believe how incredible the live sound is. Trust me, I have a good handle on its capabilities now and use just about every style and sound I can get my hands on. Here is what I notice:

1. Wonderful instrument separation in the mix (via my stereo Mackie speakers). This is above all the very best feature.
2. Incredibly useful PADS - awesome.
3. Unbelievably great sounding and easy to use harmonizer on the fly.
4. Great drums.
5. Great defined bass.
6. A superb Songbook feature for live use and arranging your work.
7. Lightweight to carry.
8. Great keybed (at least to me).
9. The intros/endings/variations and fills are very intuitive in live play and there are some very neat tricks that we Korg users have talked about earlier.

The audience reception since I've used this board has been fantastic.

Hope this helps.

zuki

zuki,
it's been so long since this topic was started, that i had to re-read it, to get your advice in the context!


unfortunatelly, i did not have the chance to try the pa500. i played pa2x, but that tells me too little about pa500 (my price tag) and so, i decided to stay with the E60.

but that is for now...

i am really happy for you, that you got to be so excited about your pa. indeed, it takes a while getting used to one keyboard, and if there are not real "show stopper" issues, the effort is well worthy.

thanks!

Zuki,
you sound like a true convert. haahaa

How's the website going?

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by zuki:
[B]Ad,

Hi Rikki,

Not going to gloat again, but yes, a true convert

The web is about complete. I have to put some demos together and a few pics and I'll release it to the forum - I need a little abuse anyway