I've been patiently waiting for the new Korg products (PA3x Pro...Kronos) to appear on the market. I've been in touch with Korg, music stores, numerous web sites, and checking the talk here on the SynthZone since the NAMM unveiling. I'm not buying anything until I see these keyboards. Does anyone know for sure when they'll be in the stores? I really don't want to go through the "Audya situation" (announce it today, but wait a year before you actually put it out there).

Mark

Hello Mark,

The PA-3X will be properly presented at Frankfurt, early April.
After which there will be a fair amount of proper demos I would guess. The first ones to arrive in the shops at least here in Europe are expected in June. I think it safe to assume they will be more widely available by August/ September.
The chances of it going the same way as the Audya are about zilch imho.

regards,
John Smies

June?...That probably means by years end in real terms....

BTW which way did the Audya go? I'm confused?...

America wont see them before August.

You were the first to be on the moon, you can't win them all mate !!!

regards,
John

Sweetwater (USA) in their site says that they expect the first shipment of PA3x on 03/27 and they are taking orders counting to have the arranger available that date.

Wind up alert! Wind up alert!

FWIW, the 61 key version Pa3x will also arrive very soon at the Sweetwater.com warehouse according to their staff. Here is the blurb from the website..

"It's Arriving Soon! We've confirmed this item will ship soon from Korg and should arrive in our warehouse the week of 4/10. Go ahead, place your order now. We will ship it immediately, the very same day we receive it from Korg."

Korg PA3X 61 key

All the best,
Mike

Third/fourth week of June to the distributors, in Oz PA series and the Kronos.

I telephoned Sam Ash in Manhattan this morning. They advised me the new Korg keyboards won't be available for "months." Also, they have enough orders for the Kronos (from previous Oasys owners), so that the "first wave" of them to come in will be sold immediately.

BUT....at least Korg is going to demo their keyboards at Sam Ash around April 7. That's one I'm not going to miss. Maybe I'll even get a reliable answer to "when they're coming to the stores."

Mark

Well...you make sense.

Sweetwater are providing a moving target. First it's March, then it's April, what next? You can't set any store by what people trying to SELL you something say. They want your money, and if exaggerating arrival dates so you don't buy something currently available helps, then that's what they do.

My best bet would be no later than June, but that's just a BET, and anyone telling you anything they say is anything solid is just lying to you. Factor in the turmoil in Japan right now, and all bets are off. It will get here when it gets here.

Now you can see why I'm confused.

* * * * *

I called Sam Ash again today. The Kronos 2 hour demo is on April 7.

http://samashmusic.com/events/view.asp?EventID=1332&StoreID=79

Korg representatives will be there. Sam Ash said THEY (Sam Ash) will get the first wave of Kronos machines and they will be available for sale beginning on the day of the demo (April 7).

Demo's also in other states:

http://synth.me/music-gear/korg-kronos-all-access-party-hands-event-prizes-and-free-gift-pre-order

At 09:25 (EST) today, received a call from Sweetwater.com, notifying me that the PA3x will be available at their place next week. I signed a week ago to be notify when arrival was confirmed.
They are taking orders.

I have a good friend who is the owner of Prodigy Music in Toledo, Ohio and a Korg Rep. was at his store on Weds. and told him that the Kronos would be in stores in June. He is a good reliable source and I think June will be it. I'm getting the first 73 key that comes in , He didn't say anything about the PA3x but I'll ask him the next time I talk to him, Later today or tomorrow.

Just got off the phone with Korg, the PA3x and the Kronos have not landed in the US, Korg is not sure yet of when they will have a shippable order. I've had PA3x-61, PA3x-76, Kronos61 and Kronos73 on order since NAMM. So if the Big Box stores have some magic 8-ball or some magic connection with Korg that's great. But I just talked to them and it was a different story, hopefully they are not trying to get people to get excited and place pre-orders, collect money then deliver when-ever.

If something changes I will post. But they are still shooting for late April and on

Yeah, because we know how rare that tactic is...

In their defense, Sweetwater doesn't charge your card until they ship the product.
DonM

Sweetwater tells me the PA3X 76 is coming in on first full week of April. I have one reserved to go and play.
We'll see!

They tell you whether they are backordered on it already?

Diki,

Are you going to take the plunge this year and buy a new KB, technology has moved on a bit since you bought one.

Regards

Tony

Yesp,
One guy old me I would not get one of the first group, but my regular sales guy said maybe....
Keep in mind, I reserved one, that does NOT mean I'm buying one there, if at all. The only way to get one for a day is reserve one, go spend the day with it (Kind of a date without the sex. They just put it back in the box, if you don't want it.
Daniel Fisher wants to get his hands on one for a while too, so he said he will be there as well, at least for a short time. He's always fun to talk with! He is a legend in sound design...so we will see how he feels about it too.

I have a friend who has already ordered a PA3X, so I'll get to try it when he gets it. TBH, there STILL isn't anything out that really gets my juices flowing. I am intrigued by the Kronos, and think that looks like some of the first new technology (hardware streaming samples of an SSHD) I have seen for quite a while.

The Audya's audio slice arranging is a good idea, but remains to be perfected and expanded. Perhaps if they adopt the Kronos SSHD streaming technology, they can finally do it properly. You know, like audio for EVERYTHING, and all the chords, too! But they need to work on having the tools available so the user can quickly and relatively easily assemble and edit those audio styles, too, so far very lacking, IMO.

Everything else in the arranger world is simple incremental advances, and often sadly tied to a 'home player' mentality, which I am NOT!

The only thing that is tempting me in the slightest is the PA3X's chord sequencer, which is a welcome return of the most useful arranger function EVER, but whether it is enough to tempt me away from the G70, remains to be seen...

TBH, I have yet to hear a better arranger than my G70 with regard to drums, bass, and piano, which is the meat of what I do, nothing else has come out with significantly more variations and fills (which would be useful!) or any of the other things I could really USE, and for live use in a full band (the majority of what I've been doing for a couple of years or so), there's still nothing that even comes CLOSE. So much so that a friend of mine who plays ten gigs a week or more in a live band round here, and who has been a heavy Korg user for the last ten years is buying a nice used G70 to play in the band instead of the Korg's..!

I honestly WISH there was something in an arranger to fire me up, but I've always been very patient, waiting until things have REALLY changed before I make the move. Had the G1000 for over ten years before I made the move to the G70. I'm waiting until I get that 'OMG! I simply HAVE to have this!' feeling.

So far, nothing yet...

Some Info from Korg Italy (taken from the Korg forums)

"Thoraldus wrote:
Wonder who is ultimately responsible for the PA marketing, must be the Italians, they're pretty laid back."


Response from Paolo (Korg Italy)

"Actually, marketing for Korg is at our central offices in Japan. We are very sorry for this delay, but we have had a series of problems due to a series of bad events you might have heard about on the newspapers. Activies are however back at their full pace now, so you can expect to see the Pa3X delivered very soon. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Best regards,
Paolo"

*************************

Hi Paolo, good to see you are still alive and kicking Smile

Dennis

"Thanx Dennis. I must add that the Pa3X has already started shipping to the distributors, so it should be on sale very soon in the shops. Demonstration tours will be announced in the official web site of the Pa-Series (www.korgpa.com).

Best, Paolo"

tramannoni
Korg Italy

TBH, I am surprised that as a general practice, any official Korg public presentations (or anybody's, TBH) don't run a little Zoom pocket recorder on the PA's direct outs. That way, if a user makes a video, at least they can replace the camcorder mike with the audio from the board, and re-post the video (with the owner's permission) with direct audio...