I am taking the KMA on it's first gig today. I'll post some pics and maybe a few songs this evening. Should be a lot of fun.
Wonder if the crowd will miss the T4?

Deane

Hi Deane

It should be interesting, and I bet they will like what they hear.

Bernie

Remember, it's not the keyboard- it's the keyboardist

Good luck Deanne

I hope it clears up by the time of your gig- it's no fun to load in/out in the rain. I suppose the KMA will make things that much easier on a day like today.

Played my gig today with the KMA. Here are my observations:
1. The buttons need lights - very hard to see in poor lighting on a gig.
2. The screen needs an adjustment feature for contrast and brightness.
3. Very easy setup - and startup time is fast.
4. With my 2 Bose L1 Compacts it sounded pretty strong and there is enough
output levels to hurt your ears if that is what you want.
5. Most of the KMA styles/performances need tweaking for gigs - RH lead sounds are not always what you expect and accompaniments often are not balanced with the RH lead voice.
6. Big Band Styles are not very good - see #5 above.
7. Waltz styles are lacking - simple waltz styles are needed.


Overall I like this keyboard and it will keep me busy on rainy days playing around with things until I get everything sounding like I want for gigs. I will use it again on Monday for a gig and will record the full gig. I forgot my Zoom recorder to day. I added pictures of my setup today.

Deane

Nice setup Deanne love the Rock n Roller rig.....like I always said, you have to be willing to put in the time & spend at least 40-50 hrs+ editing & tweaking on KORG arrangers styles & sounds, sts, etc..thru your own performance Pa system also at stage volume to get them to sound the way you want,.....you will also have to convert styles that you need from other sources also like Ketron, Roland,.
Yes, it's a lot of work, yes, it takes a lot of time, & yes, when your done with your home work you will be totally satisfied with what you have done & the way your rig sounds..
Good luck to you Deanne.

Hi Deane,
What do you use for vocal processing on this setup?
Regards

Jimmy if im not mistaken Deanne is an instrumentalist no singing ..

Very nice tidy setup.

Regards
James.

Very nice setup. How is the top attached to the Rock 'n Roller cart?
Probably better you didn't record this gig. We can wait till you have had a chance to tweak the keyboard to better suit what you want.

Deanne if you moved the Bose compacts up a few inches could you attach the tower extension speakers also?

Nigel,
I have two clips on each end of the table that clips on to the rails of the
cart. Works pretty well. I have two places I play where they have me play in different locations for an hour each. This makes it real easy to unplug and go.

You are right, I have done some customizing but not much because I am still in a steep learning curve with the keyboard. I'll give it a go Monday and see what I get. I don't mind sharing - I'am not trying to make a professional album - just helping others get an idea about the keyboard.

Donny,
I usually use the towers - thought I'd try without today. Monday I'll use both towers because it was a little hard to hear myself today - I had the built-in speakers turned off.
Deane

5. Most of the KMA styles/performances need tweaking for gigs - RH lead sounds are not always what you expect and accompaniments often are not balanced with the RH lead voice.
6. Big Band Styles are not very good - see #5 above.
7. Waltz styles are lacking - simple waltz styles are needed.

Hi Deane,

Does the aforesaid include having incorporated any amount of my 2012 Resources which you received and were very positive about ?

regards,
John

Oh, ok thanks Dnj.

Hi John,
What I have done is load all the factory presets and replaced some of them with your resources. It is indeed a work in progress and far from complete. I wanted to give it a try on a gig and I am very pleased with the gig results. And as I have mentioned before the work you have done through the years has produced a very good product. For me it has been a major step forward in just learning how to get some performances setup, saved, and then used on a gig.

Because I entertain only at places where people's ages range from 60ish all the way to 100 the type of music I play demands a certain "flavor and styling" which the more modern keyboard styles don't fit. Another way of putting it is they like the "old fashioned music" where the melody stands out and the sounds are realistic. Just about anything that contains distorted guitars or gets extremely loud sends them running for the doors. So, I am constantly in search of quality styles, for any keyboard I own, that have a nice "swing" to them without becoming to loud or busy.

The Big Band styles are much to busy and the accomp interferes with the melody lines. So far I have not found any big band styles or performances, including the factory stuff that I can use. Perhaps as I learn more I can adjust them and get what i need from them - that would be great.

I listen to all kinds of music and have auditioned ALL the various genres of styles. There is a lot of VERY GOOD stuff both in your resources and in the factory stuff. For my gigs I can't use a lot of it though. But - that is not meant to mean I do not think they are good.

....The Big Band styles are much to busy and the accomp interferes with the melody lines. So far I have not found any big band styles or performances, including the factory stuff that I can use. Perhaps as I learn more I can adjust them and get what i need from them - that would be great......

Hi Dean,

Glad to hear things went pretty well on your first Micro gig and that my resources have contributed modestly towards it. As to your remark above, I always wonder why folks simply do not turn one or two accompaniment tracks off, or lower the volume of two or more, I mean you can get as basic as you get. Doing things vice versa, as you had to with Yamaha in the past is a lot more complicated !!!

kind regards,
John

Hi Deane,
found the same thing with my PA800, I didn't like the waltz styles.
I think I did a couple or so for my PA800.
I'll try converting them for you. Likelyhood of them being useable is probably ZILCH, butI'll give it a go. Only takes a couple of minutes, as I have no way of tweaking them for you.
Worst case scenario ,if they don't work, just chuck them. haahaa

Hi Deane,
sorry, please ignore my offer.
M current version of EMC won't convert PA800 to PA50/80 format.
My data just dissapears. Don't know if it's a bug or just not backward compatible.
Up until I updated last week, converting to PA3X, my data was doing same thing, just dissapearing. Looks like that bug at least, may have been fixed.

[quote=john smies]
.. As to your remark above, I always wonder why folks simply do not turn one or two accompaniment tracks off, or lower the volume of two or more, I mean you can get as basic as you get. Doing things vice versa, as you had to with Yamaha in the past is a lot more complicated !!!

kind regards,
John[/quote). The problem some times is in bass line in variations (in some cases) and turning off/lowering the volume doesn't help.we need more simple styles (3rd party or well converted ones) support in Korg arrangers in 8/16/ballad/dance /swing catagories and less on hip hop /modern catagories.another examples that I found is (like I said above) dance category(over done/busy bass lines thru variations) which are more apparent when you do chord changes related to that particular styles and they don't go well. Some are very song specific with riff repeating acc track ( 1/8 note simple piano / or bass line backing becames very busy in 2nd and 3rd variations doing extra riffs in 7th and 8th bars.There is also MAny song specific styles -with MJ' Billie jean, Santana's Smooth, Macarena,Lambada, etc, ).what I see with KMA is since it's affordable ,it will follow Psr's path,( many users, more people writing styles ,covering better ones, more 3rd party styles later even though it's the technology from 2001.

Hi Jamman,
found a number of the styles too complex for what I wanted on my PA800. So I converted, or edited them down ie replaced a style track with a simpler one. Muting doesn't simplify a busy track. One thing that did help me for a couple of the styles, was actually cutting the pattern short ie by the time the pattern got to just say bar 7 & 8 it had changed, and no longer suited the song I was trying to use it for, so I simply cut it back to the 4 bars that did work okay. It was something that was easily done in the PA800, by just changeing the Rec Length & CV Length from 8 to 4 in style record mode & saving it as a user style. It just cut off the last 4 bars of the pattern.
Maybe also doable in the KMA??

Deane, thanks for your email the other day. I just picked up a micro, but I got it mainly for the trip over and back....something I can work with to plan/ write film tracks.

I can see putting the Korg over the Yamaha piano for variety, but don't think I would use it as a "stand alone" for gigs.

Good luck!


Russ

I wanted to respond to a few questions here. Like Donny said - I don't sing and don't need the vocal processor. I will wait awhile before I take the KMA on it's next gig. Here are the points that stick out for me about using the KMA as a stand-a-lone keyboard after using it on two gigs now.

1. Make sure you are in good lighting or take a light with you because it is nearly impossible to see the buttons otherwise.
2. Be sure to get the setup you like before playing gigs. If you don't you might get some unpleasant surprises when you change STS voices or variations.
3. Yes, the little KMA can function as a stand-a-lone gig keyboard.
4. Don't expect it to sound like your PA-Whatever or your T3 or T4 -- it doesn't.
5. I liked the three sliders that allowed me to control the master vol, accomp vol, or lead voice vol. That is nice feature.
6. The intros and endings are not bad and once you get to know the keyboard you know which ones to use.

One last observation: A lot of arranger players are not techie types and don't really have an interest in fooling around with any keyboard they buy - they just want to sit down - pick a style- and play. That is really the group I belong to. Many of the available ways to tweak the KMA require a knowledge of what the parameters mean and how they effect the overall sound. Where does one learn about these things? It would be nice if there were tutorials from the various manufacturers that helped users to get the most from the keyboard. One other thing - Korg should provide a computer program to not only convert styles but to help organize them once you get your setups in mind. I understand Korg users have been asking for this for years now and Korg has yet to provide much of anything.

All said and done I am very pleased with my KMA and for the amount of money it cost it is a very good deal and I will continue to enjoy it.

Deane

One last observation: A lot of arranger players are not techie types and don't really have an interest in fooling around with any keyboard they buy - they just want to sit down - pick a style- and play. That is really the group I belong to

I entirely concur with what Deane says here. As such Korg is not the first and best choice that comes to mind. Tecnhics was one of the first to introduce the Songbook feature and Korg was the last to implement it.
And even their factory entries are very "superficial " in that they have simply combined a factory preset style with one or two righthand factory preset sounds, without any substantial tweaking.

I agree with Deane that the Micro is very good value for money but one does need to get into some tweaking at the very least. And yes there should be demos or a DVD from Korg to give support in this area as well as an editing program. I would not hold my breath though..........

regards,
John

Deane, I have a Pa800 and it’s a Korg. I gave it three weeks on off I went to it’s first job. I did that three times and came home upset; I did not have the same problem with any of the Yamahas I owned. I wanted to sell the Pa800 but intuitively I knew the keyboard was offering something special; something I had not yet experience.

I do not want to do a lot of thinking when I am on a job – I want to play, as the saying goes, “on-the-fly”, second nature. I am also very particular about which styles I use for a song and what instruments are being with the style. The worst thing that can happen is to be playing a song and have the next selected instrument something that does not fit.

I have said all of the above to say I took the Kork after three months and left my job with one big happy smile. I was playing like I never played before; the keyboard and I were one – That is what Korg offers its owners but only after they put some dedicated time in. Give the KMA time Deane.
I am not a take-it-out-of-the box player; I am also not someone who looks for the best instrument sounds. I am a player who looks for the most realistic band sound and allows me to use the keyboard as I want.

John C.

Hi Deane,
I really enjoyed seeing your KMA gig setup.
The Kma is my first Korg as well, and I'm still having a lot of fun with mine.
I'm finding it relatively easy to tweak performances and styles to sound just right to me thru my PA system to match my own personal music genre, repertoire, and taste. Though I certainly appreciated checking out John Smie's resources (thanks John ), of which included a few specific song setups I might use myself, even those, thru my Pa System would require further tweaking on my part to suit my individual taste. I continue to take the Tyros 4 out as my main gigging axe and reserve the KMA for casual grab and go get togethers and parties. I love having both the Yamaha and Korg sound, both different yet terrific in their own way. - Scott

".....I love having both the Yamaha and Korg sound, both different yet terrific in their own way...." - Scott

The essence of what I have been saying for a long time Scott. There is no longer any need to bash whichever make as they are all terrific in their own peculiar way. As I mentioned many times before a Korg -Yamaha is a winner in whichever price range you decide to get it. And of course the Micro on top of a (rather bulky) Tyros 4 is ideal. I am glad you have been able to use parts of my extensive programming for your own purposes even if you had to add some personal tweaking here and there. I have never maintained that it was perfect. After all it is a very personal approach but it does show much more of the potential of the keyboard than just the factory settings imho. A lot of folks have simply started using my set as their basic set , mixing it with elements from the factory registrations, which goes to show it serves its purpose.

For first time Korg players the learning curve is pretty steep, I know and many have asked why Korg has not (yet) released an instruction video for the PA50/Micro. Probably because it being based on 10 year old technology they assume that most folks will be familiar with it to some point and besides they' d rather sell the more expensive and recent models I guess. However Donny's suggestion to check the PA800 video tutorials on youtube is a very good one I think. Admittedly the PA500 and PA800 are a different kettle of fish compared to the Micro, but the structure of styles, sounds and their editing is a very similar one. I also wonder why so many people would complain about the extensive manual that comes with the Micro and I am not referring to the flimsy starters manual in the box. On the CDrom and on the web as well there is a hefty indepth manual. People should read it cover to cover before they start asking questions how this and how that. Accompanying my 2012 package I have written some manuals that deal in detail with the loading,saving of data as well as the structure of the Micro storage, as those who have got my software will be able to confirm.
In conclusion I can only say to you Scott and all those who have added the Micro to their existing (Yamaha/Roland) set up : a very wise move !!

regards,
John