Yes I still have it....

Yes I'm loving it.....

Yes It sounds so "LIVE" it ain't funny.....

Yes I'm glad I switched back to KORG again....

Yes I love the keyfeel & songbook....

Yes the Musikant styles are a big plus & sound great....

Yes you have to REALLY Dig into the OS and make it YOUR OWN if you don't know how to do that buy a Yamaha..

Pa500 is a great instrument,especially for the money you pay.I used to have pa800 and loved it.Small,light,sounds great.

Hmmmm, many thanks for your friendly advice.
I honesty really don't know how to do it, so I have to forget about Korg and buy something else.
Never had any PA, and now I understand that I never will.... since I cannot dig into something I don't know anything about.

Life ain't easy.

A definate cas of Korg love, which means that after the PA500 there might be a PA3X.

Could of had a PA3x no need for it to many useless features for my needs.....

Like 15 useless keys on the 76 version, right?

For me I would have to say yes 61 is fine...I only use what I need to perform...same goes for the CS...I would never use it.

OH NO - NOT AGAIN! NOT ANOTHER 76-KEY DEBACLE!



Gary

Interesting and true observation. You have to really dig into most keyboards to make them your own and get the most out of it. My newest addition is a Roland VR700 for band work and out of the box I didn't like it all that much but after tweaking it I'm really starting to appreciate it. It has a very easy interface as its meant to be a gig friendly keyboard and not a workstation or whatever. Note I said tweaking and not full blown re-programming.
My question is where do you learn how to "REALLY dig in to the more sophisticated boards" There are parts of my G1000 I still don't understand and you know about the owners manuels -forgedaboutit. I've asked in music stores, advertised on Craigslist, and asked some personally, offering to pay for programming lessons to no avail. What manufactures need to do is provide more resources such as DVD's to learn the finer points and how to get into all the things they put in these keyboards. I think more info would boost sales considerably as people would realize what they could do besides hit the presets. They provide little info other than mostly poorly written manuels which I find very boring. I'm a hands on, see and do kind of learner. Buy a MAC computer and they offer 50 hours of free lessons. How about the big three keyboard makers follow Apples lead?

Sorry for the soapbox but the real question is how did you really get into your new board after changing platforms?

Thanks
Bill in NJ

Very well put Bill. I could go on a long rant about this too, but I'll just say that I agree 100% with what you said.

Thanks, its good to know I'm not alone in this quest

Bill in NJ

Well, for Korgies, there's these on the Pa3X:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=71633

And a few years ago, a few guys from the Korg Forums produced a three-DVD set explaining the Pa1X in some depth (I think Spalding was involved on that one).

Everything you need to know is in the manuals, though I agree it's a bit of a slog to go from top to bottom on them. Half the questions you see on forums could probably be answered if people bothered to read through the manual, but most don't unfortunately.

Nothing wrong with the 'press the button and see' method, but a read through even the 'quick start' part of the manual will save at least a bit of frustration.

Oh, forgot to mention a video tutorial for the Pa800, also:

http://www.korgpa.com/en/support/tutorials.html

Thanks. I know I'm lazy in some ways so I'll just have to focus on the manuel.
I would love some DVD's though. But it seems Dons post hinted at deeper things than most manuels provide.

Same thing when I started to learn Piano Tuning. Called the local PT Guild for help and they told me to buy a book ! Now I get emails wanting me to attend their conventions--yea right! I couldn't find anyone to teach me and I looked for a long time. Finally I hired one guy who I knew from the organ business to tune my piano and let me watch. He was very patient and didn't charge me extra. That one session moved me miles ahead. All I can say is I don't think he was afraid of competition in the business because his main focus was on rebuilding theatre organs. He also gave me a very old VHS tape on tuning and it also helped a 100 times more than the book.
I was a teacher for 35 years and I know that explaining something to a bunch of 8th graders lasts about 2 minutes before the eyes glaze over so you have to get them involved and create an interaction. Worse is telling them to read it in a book!! I guess I'm the same way.

Bill in NJ

Hi Bill,

Having been a teacher, you'll know that people learn in different ways. I like Will Rogers' take on this and I guess most arranger players fall into the third category.

He said, "There are three kinds of men:

1. The ones that learn by reading.
2. The few who learn by observation.
3. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

Hi,
wouldn't it be great if they released these type of video's before they released the keyboards themselves.
I remember when I went in to buy my PA800, the salesman didn't have a clue. Knew how to turn it on , that was about it.
I asked him for a copy of the manual, & I managed to figure out what I wanted to know.