Lets look at it this way..Under a $1000 instrument.Like Ian said too bad for no sequencer but still,it's made for live.Tyros 4 and Pa3x are in 4k Audya even more.Are they 4 times better than BK5..I think not.Roland misses some things in this unit but the prize is so low it doesn't really matter.Even these big guys miss things and they are 4x more.
Tyros 4 is missing whole synth engine.I am not saying it is bad, but we all know it's dumb down version in 4K instrument.Even midi set up is terrible.Any regular older synth has better one..Can you make your own SA voices? I don't think so..Drums are still so compressed it kills everything else for me..And I am talking about LIVE playing.
Pa3x has these things but it's OS is terrible to set up and too primitive.It should be simpler..Audya I don't even want to start what's missing.
And these are still at least 4x more money "professional instruments".
So I say BK5 should be a winner..I played with BK7m's styles and I love them.They are not better, but they are also not worse than T4 or PA3X.And still a lot cheaper.
At the end I will ad that I have Pa3x and T4..T4 will soon go.
Glad that you like the BKs.
But in my $950.00 PA500 I can do more.
Great arranger LIVE PLAYING for me is to able to modify/mute/change/select what ever I want when I am playing.
Can I do that with the BK7m? No
In the "primitive" Korg PA500 I can at the touch of a button or on the screen:
- add PADS to a style (The BKs can't)
- Mute/un-mute instruments (The BKs can't)
- Change the volume of any of the instruments (The BKs can't)
- Modify the STS with diff performances (The BKs can't)
- Change the Drums mappings, kick and snare to 7 diff options on each VAR (The BKs can't)
- The SongBook in Korg is far superior to anything that the BKs can offer.
The BKs are adecuate to play what ever they bring from the factory and MP3, but to modify settings you have to hit that Big round button (Select) quite few times.