... the PA600 would show up ... all this 950 talk is KILLING me !!!

I expect my PA600 tomorrow

... good for YOU !!! ... can't wait for a review ...

Me too.

All in due time Tony, mine has been on order since day one,.....probably KORG is hoping for the Xmas rush for BIG sales....meanwhile my PA500 is doing mostly all I need on stage for now.

Yeah, but they have to get them OUT THERE to sell them ...

All I'm waiting for is the big 'Play-off'..!

Style play only, similar genres, factory presets. No lead voices. Let's hear what the ARRANGER does for you.

I got a feeling that the Korg is going to come out head and shoulders over the Yamaha for 'live' feel, as always. And then, as the Yamaha will be what, about $800 more than the PA600, let the debate commence!

FranS ... did you get it??? ...

I got mine,and I can tell you it is great keyboard...It is almost better than pa800.I like design of this keyboard..And black is also plus.I have not tried onboard speakers.I just plug it in my PA.It reads samples from pa2x and pa800.It doesn't read pa3 samples.Probably because pa3 compresses it.It reads styles from pa3 which is a big plus.I loaded some new drukits in ram and it sounds like live band sounds..
I love it.

Diki,
I'll do just that when my PA600 arrives. A direct comparison of styles only between the PA600, T4, S950, and if wanted I'll even through in my MicroArranger.

If anyone can tell me how to balance the volume levels before I post the recordings I will also do that.

Deane

Deane ... I hope the East Coast gets them before Texas!!! ... but if not, a sample of the styles as you've been doing for the 950 would be great ...

PS ... I cant believe I'm getting thus excited over a kb OTHER than a technics ...

Best way to even out the volumes of different recordings without actually changing the recording (like compressing or limiting which will make the recording sound a bit different) is to take your MP3's, and 'Normalize' them all. Some kind of mp3 editor will probably be needed (I'm a Mac man, so probably of no help).

Normalizing makes sure that the loudest peak of each recording hits 0dB. If they all hit 0db at their loudest, this should make for a pretty even comparison.

Hi mirza

Its great to finally hear something about using samples , it could decide if I buy one or not, could you tell me where did you get the samples that you loaded and in which format are they?, I also would like to load my own percussion kit and my own accordions and trumpets if I bought one, have you tried loading any .KMP or .KSF or .WAV files , please share anymore you find out about the sample feature, thanks!

Hi Deane

Record as a WAV file with the levels peaking just below the red, (Some of you previous posts have exceeded this and caused distortion/ compression artefacts) then transfer the files over to your PC and use Audacity to normalise them http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and also convert them to mp3. (Use 256K settings when converting to mp3 to minimise the losses incurred when converting to mp3 or alternatively convert to FLAC as this is a lossless compression format)

Hope this helps

Bill

for Daniel
I used to have pa800. And all samples from pa800 I loaded with no problem.
I do not kno about kmp or ksf ..I haven't had time to try that yet.For good drum samples go to dynamix audio.They make a big difference in sound .

Thanks for your answer mirza , I guess I´ll have to start looking for PA800 samples , I really hope there´s a way of using my own samples of my acoustic instruments that I play.

When I have some time I will try kmp..
What kind of music you play Daniel??

I´m from the north of México and play mostly regional music , Colombian style cumbias , and norteño music ( which is similar to the polkas ) , also cha chas , danzon, etc. I play the piano and button diatonic accordions and the sounds I use the most are pianos, accordions, trumpets, saxes ,guitars and sounds from other Korg and Roland synths ( M1 , D50 , Fantom X), and i´d like to use my own set of latin percussions, congas, cowbells, guiros and timbales, here are a couple of videos of me using the One Man Band Originals arranger software using Kontakt samples for the sounds , this is what I would like to achieve using only the PA600 instead of the laptop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLX73EFwaH4&feature=g-upl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtUxHNAUwFM&feature=g-upl

Yes I have him but haven't had time to play it yet. Will play it tomorrow and let you know what I think of it.

... waiting ... IMpatiently ...

This comment was uploaded by the user charlie67 on korg forums regarding sampling on the PA600 , I hope it´s ok to share it here

"I’m not well up on PCM files but to answer your questions in part, I went to Korg Forums, downloads, PA1X section and downloaded some files. The pa600 would load and play, Sharp,s Irish Fairytale sound(157KB), the set of sample based sounds created by Alex(29.7MB), the Roberts Piano(7.3MB) and the Enigma set(649KB). All these files the pa600 would load and play well. I also downloaded the 01W Piano(2.68MB) and the Global Muisc(7.4MB). When I opened these two files, I found KSF files inside. The pa600 would not load these KSF files. Others may know better than me why these KSF files would not load. I searched the PDF pa600 manual and KSF is not mentioned at all. Plainly, the files that I could load were not created by Korg, so yes, pa600 will load PCM files (but not KSF). "

It´s great that you can load some samples, but a pity that they limited that feature , I´m sure they limited it on purpose so you have to upgrade to the probable PA900 for full sampling, I hope as people keep getting the PA600 more samples become available , thanks for the info to charlie67 , and everyone please keep sharing your findings with this machine, greetings!

As many of you know I have owned a Korg PA50, PA500 and a PA3X. Because of financial problems I had to sell the PA3X and now own a PA600.

Well comparing to the PA50 and PA500 it is a big improvement not only because of the many more features but also the sound has improved. The PA600 just sound great. I have listened through the speakers of the PA600 and through my headphone. It has some sounds of the PA3X but overall the sounds of the PA800 and PA2X.

Korg have optimized all the styles and sounds on the PA600 and sound very good right out of the box. Ofcourse as on every PA you can edit everything.

The sound of the PA600 comes very close to the PA3X but as I expected the PA3x just sound better. Not really surprising seeing the price difference.

The keys are OK. I only miss the sliders of the PA500. The PA600 only has 2 knobs while the PA500 has 3 sliders including 1 assignable. But the PA600 has 2 assignable buttons to control the DNC voices.

The touch screen is the best I had on a Korg. Yes even better the PA3X screen. Very big, clear and responsive.

Also the GM2 voices have been improved and the midifiles I played sound much better then on the PA500.

For 1000 Euro you get a very good arranger which in my opinion sound better then the PA500, PA800 and PA2X.

Thank you very much FransN ... now I am getting more IMpatient than ever ...