While on the second half of my Florida vacation, I visited a Sam Ash in Clearwater. First of all, this is a great music shop and its huge. In ma/RI the only big store is GC since the demise of mars music.It was a treat to visit, with walls and walls of gear.

Back to my main reason for this post.I saw a PA800 begging me to try it again.Wow 2 pa800's in one week.

Most of you reading this post read my review last week. I gave it poor marks.some agreed and some didn't.

I thought I'd give it another whirl.

Let me start by saying I missed some things the first time. For whatever reason the one I tried last week had a B&W screen. This one was infact color.

A great salesman named Roberto was nice enough to hook up a nice mic on a stand for me.

Folks after standing by my tyros 2 like a little brother. I must admit the Harmony function by TC helicon kicked the crap out of the T2. It was amazing!

I did look for the software version and it was using the old one.

I disconnected it from the store monitors to hear the on board speakers more closely. They were actually pretty good sounding nice and boomy with no distortion at max volume. But still not attractive looking the silver color clashes with the ugly blue board.

The buTtons were not as bad as I initally reported. They were much smaller than I like but at least they were hard plastic unlike the S900. The heavy duty clear hard plastic light up T2 are still king to me.

I Gave the styles another try. My complaint is two different genres share the same button with sort of a A/B select button.
This is also how the voices are set up as well.

The intros are mapped out pretty intuitively.

1st one is a long quite busy intro.they echo some very popular tunes from past years.

2nd (I like this one ) It allows you to play the chords in whatever progression you want while it adds all the fluff.

3rd. A quick intro similar to that on the. Tyros 2 intro 1

The only styles I really liked that could compete with the T2 were most of the heavier rock ones .

I liked the gospel ones and would love to add these to compliment the ones on the T2.

The pop and ballad styles were very very weak.

A few soul, funk., doo op and a couple others were actually very good. I am not by any means saying they were better than the T2 but I'd like to compliment. And build on my current styles.

Onto the voices. I retried the organ but this time I edited it and used the drawbars and like donny said it made a huge difference. The Organ was nice and full sounding. A thumbs up.

Onto the strings
My salesman Roberto.is a really great strings player on the keyboard so I asked him to demo that voice so I could stand back and listen. He played a few selections and wowed me
Just as good as the T2.

The scat voices were very good. Some of the brass was better than I reported in my previous review.
But that sax is so horrible as well as the acoustic guitar.

Overall the T2 voices are better overall.

I didn't get to fool with all of the mp3 features, the smf capabilities. Using faders and such.but you Korg players seem to swear by it.

So here is my overall opinion after giving it a second try.

The harmony is amazing!!! I'd trade the T2 harmonizer for it in a second There are a few styles iD love to add to my T2 arsenal
If love to take the scat voices and add them to my T2.

And take the mp3 and smf features as well

With all that said Id still keep my T2 anyday over the Pa800.
But afte my second audition of it. I can respect it a little more.

Again I have no intentions to upset anyone on the forums

Just my honest opinion


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God Bless,
Mikey

www.mikeymaestro.com
www.balloonanimal.com
www.1000colorcards.com

Hi Mikey
Paragraph 8 kills the review; anything less then version 1.5 and you might as well be playing a Wal-Mart special
BTW I have compared the Sax sounds on the T2 and PA800 (V1.5) to a real Sax and while both are left wanting, the PA800 takes the lead.
Regards

Bill

Thanks for another enlightening review, Mikey.

Ian

Yes.. OS 1.51 is required why cant these stores install it........it also includes the GUITAR Mode too.

To be fair listen thru headphones since the T2 lacks on-board speakers.

The PA800 is definitly More flexible with features the T2 doesn't have......

Its you the player the must say
"What do I need More" for my playing style.

There is no winner here lets face it they are both excellent Arrangers for sure....both have different strengths.

The DUAL Mp3 encoder card Player is wonderful...you can also attach Lyrics Text to Mp3's besides styles & Smf.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 09-23-2007).]

Hi,

this report looks much more close to the reality and to my vision. Nice for you finding the time to revise your first opinion even if the version 1.5x will have probably get an higher rate (but this of course it's not your fault). I also try to
test different model and brands more than once, mostly changing some opinions at the second/third attempt: it's quite normal.

As I said in my previous post I don't want to discuss sounds and styles because it's a matter of taste. Taste is taste, no words to add. But a things comes to my eyes: you mention as one of the best banks the rock bank that for me it's the weakest in Pa series. This difference tells all about our final judgment in the musical "area".

Just my thought.

Best regards.