That must be Martin Harris crab hands sat 12" below the KB, how they play like that I will never understand.

OK, to me, I guess the 'demo' showed THAT he used the chord - can't be perfectly sure of that - but shouldn't it also show HOW he did it???

He points to the buttons (lower left of the screen) that trigger the CS record, stop and play functions when he uses them.

So it's pretty easy to hear how he starts with the arranger just running the Em chord, then he hits CS record and plays the Em///Bm pattern and hits CS stop (although he could also have hit CS Play and the loop would have automatically continued), the Em plays until he hits CS Play, then the two chord loop starts. He then uses the loop to play up until the bridge, when he hits stop, plays the bridge live, then hits play on the CS again.

Personally, I might have recorded a longer loop including the bridge and the last 'verse' section, then looped that for a hands free full 2nd verse, then overwrite that with the simple 2 chord loop for the extended solo section, but that's the beauty of the CS... plenty of ways to skin a cat!

But the real trick about the whole feature is, at no time, with all the CS start, stop and Play, does the arranger ever stop. It's all seamless, where you are chording, where the CS is chording, whatever. You can perform fills, breaks, variation changes, even entire style changes (although I think with a 5/4 loop, you will need to change to other 5/4 styles otherwise things could get weird!) while the 'Third Hand' keeps playing those changes for you.

This simple one bar chord loop is the most simplistic use of the feature possible. You can use it for much, much more (up to entire verse and chorus structures, for instance), you can use it for extended vamps and solos, whatever you need.

If you think about it, a vast amount of songs are basically a simple 'head'. so if you tend to play a structure like Intro-Head (1st verse)(2nd Verse) solo1, solo2, Head(last verse) and outro, all you need do is record the first head you play, then hit CS Play, and that's the last chording you need do until the outro!

For more complex pieces, record the verse and chorus, play the bridge yourself, the hit CS Play again, and that may be most of the song. Especially as the first verse (for us singer types) is generally just us chording with minimal RH input, this makes it easy to CS Record the changes, then they are ready to go for when we want to get down and solo...

The only caveat with the Korg CS is, I highly recommend a Korg EC-5 multi-footswitch to do the job, as for some ungodly reason, Korg made the front panel controls a multi-button press for each function, trickier to do right that a single button press (plus anything that allows you to trigger important, time critical things AND keep playing is a good thing in my book!).

Nice explanation there, Diki. And you're so right about assigning the function to the EC5. Split seconds count.

Looking at the Pa600, I figured that's what he was doing ... I just felt the camera shot could have been better ...

I have never understood the reluctance to use this feature, or scream loudly for it to be added to their arranger, as this function perfectly bridges the worlds between normal keyboard players (who either have a band or a sequence playing the rhythm changes) and arranger players, who control their own chord and song structure, but pay the price for that freedom by having their LH permanently tied up endlessly inputting often repetitive chord changes.

All of the two hand freedom of SMF's, with none of the structural rigidity of SMF's.

If you think about it, the CS on the one hand, and SMF 'Markers' on the other, and BOTH systems' shortcomings and limitations have been pretty much removed. We've come a long way from either arranger mode OR SMF mode. Both are far more flexible than they used to be, and some arrangers may be able to mix and match in the same song as needed. Some arrangers allow you to go seamlessly from arranger mode to SMF and back...

It's a much more flexible world than it used to be. All you have to do is drop the thinking that 'unless I'm actively playing the chords, it's not arranger playing' purism. Whatever allows you to play at your best is what works best...

Well said...

Quick question

To use the Chord Sequencer, do you have to press 2 buttons at the same time on the PA3x or the PA600 or both?

on the Pa600, yes 2 buttons at one time to start, 2 buttons at one time to stop...

I just tried the CS and it is the easiest thing I have done on the board yet ... I just did a blues progression and it worked like a charm ... I had to make sure I pressed the 2 buttons to 'record' the chords the measure BEFORE the one I wanted the sequence to start at, and I pressed the 2 'play' buttons at the beginning of the chord progression ...
it was really easy ...

The two button press is the same on PA3x and PA600.... but who knows? Perhaps Korg will come to their senses and either put dedicated buttons for it on the PA900 (coming soon) or figure out a way to do it with a single push on a screen 'button'.

I've tried it on the PA3x, and it is, well not easy, but not impossible to mess up using a double press (you have to be extra careful to not press one button fractionally before the other), which is why I recommend the EC-5 so highly.

The other problem with button pressing is, you have to press for CS Play/Record/Stop in the bar BEFORE you need it (it starts on the next measure, kind of like asking for a Variation change) and with most popular music, that means in the transition, or 'lead-up' bar to the new section. This bar, unlike possibly many before, often contains several chord changes (a II-V, a II-V-I7 or maybe a VII-III-IVm for example) which makes timing the button press tricky. Too much to do just with your hands...

I would not dispute what you said, Diki ... my little test was done with just a four beat V7 as the lead - in chord, so I had plenty of time ... it also was not done 'in the heat of battle' ... a foot pedal assigned to this function obviously is the best choice ...