A buddy of mine has a chance to buy a Korg PA-588 arranger...88 weighted keys, 320 styles, speakers...most of you know what it is...a little heavy at 51 lbs, but he plans on studio use mainly.

Anyone have any actual hands on experience with this instrument? Not much info on Harmony Central, so, before he makes a very long drive to check it out, can anyone give the pros and cons?

Thanks in advance.

Email StephenM He tried one that his friend owns.

How are ya Ian? Hope your well!

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

www.mikeymaestro.com
www.myspace.com/kidconcert
www.balloonanimal.com
www.jokevid.com
www.youtube.com/kidconcert

Hi Mikey,

Doin' great, buddy.

I imagine Steve will pop in sooner or later, and it would be good to see his comments posted here, in case anyone else is considering this instrument.

My buddy is concerned about the 80 note poly, and how the keys feel.

He just bought a G-1000, and the action is not quite cutting the mustard for piano, and this 588 became available at a very decent price.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 05-19-2009).]

It's a piece of cake to MIDI into a G1000 (had two independent sets of MIDI ins and outs). If he already likes the G1000, how about a nice 88 to add to it? Combined weight, if he goes for your Yamaha 88, Ian, might still be little more than the Korg. Sadly, the 588 is based on the PA500, not the 800/PA2X, so a lot of the goodies (and polyphony) are missing...

I think he'd still keep the G1000 if he could get something with weighted keys and styles in one unit, as most of the people who use/rent the studio, usually want a piano...he thought he could get away using the G-1000 but, he gets a lot of fiddle players and their piano accompanists want both 88 and weighted...they like having that low "A".

The PA-588 is at a great price, but he is unsure about the 80 note poly, and the quality of the piano...would it be better than the G-1000's? He's not entirely pleased with the piano in the latter.

Ian

Ian,

A friend of mine,as well as a long time pro musician, purchased one thru Frankieve. He bought it for playing with his quartet or big band. He won't take it to smaller 1 hour nursing home gigs ( too heavy).

I went to his studio to play the board and give him some pointers on setting up Songbook. I spent about 15 minutes playing it as a piano, the rest of the time was walking thru some of the basics of the OS. Not sure how much valuable info I can give you based on playing it for such a short amount of time.
Anyway here's what I thought. The action is a terrific weighted action. If I were mostly playing piano solo gigs but wanted features of an arranger this is the one I'd own. Not sure what your friend is going to use it for but the polyphony seemed a non issue, again 15 minutes playing it wasn't enough to put it's thru it's paces. It has many similarities to the PA800 and Pa2xpro. At it's price point the pianist gets a lot of bang for the buck.

I would not trade my Pa2xPro for a PA588.

Pros of the PA588:
Great 88 weighted keys
Dual sequencer
Songbook
Built in speakers

Cons:
Monochrome touch screen
No USB host
Proprietary power adapter
No input jack for use of the EC5 pedal

Hope that helps. One last thing, I think it certainly is worth a few hours drive to try it.

No OS2 and DNC (plus all those new voices) for the 588. No sampler to load in a better piano (Korg has a great four-way as a load for PA2).

Oh, and no Chord Sequencer

G1000 also has FC-7 input, great for the pianist arranger player to do the main stuff hands free (playing in piano mode leaves little time to press buttons).

I am surprised you haven't talked him into a P85, Ian...

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 05-19-2009).]

Is the Piano sound (or indeed are ANY of the sounds) fully tweakable as in the PA1x/2x???

I don't like the factory Korg Piano in my PA1x but then I just load up a whole set of great sampled pianos and take my pick - you don't have sample options in this board, so I hope you get the same kind of control over sounds that you do in the other PA series.....

Thanks very much, Steve.

I think he'll go and test it after your review...it's about a 4 1/2 hour drive to Halifax.

Diki, the G1000's piano sound wasn't quite what he wanted...he's got a sure sale for it if he goes for the Korg...I'd have sold him a P85 but he doesn't want two keyboards, and he still wants arranger features.

Steve, if you've played a G1000, how would you rate the style quality compared to the Korg's? Are the 588's as good, or nearly as good as the P-800/PA2XPro styles?

Ian

You see...? There you are, looking at Korg's, because Yamaha don't consider the needs of the advanced pro piano playing arranger player...

SURE... they've got toy DGX's, and REALLY heavy Clavinova's, but there is this huge gap in the line for what I imagine most pro's (and even the same 'unwilling to use a heavy arranger' PSR home users, too) probably actually WANT. How easy would it be to sell him an 88 weighted (at P85 standards) S900..?

But nooooo...! You've got to jump camp to Korg to find anything even CLOSE to what he needs. The action of a P85, the innards of an S900... how easy would it be to sell a boatload of those?