Pa3x for 3 days

Here's a link to my thoughts on the Pa3x after a demo 2 weeks ago.
My visit to Audioworks demo Pa3x

I took delivery of the Pa3x this past Wednesday. 2 years ago I had both the Pa800, then the Pa2xPro and pretty much have preferred Yamaha arrangers. After playing it the first day I thought what was I thinking? Unlike the demo in the store, nothing felt right and I thought this could have been a mistake.

WRONG after 3 days and quite a few hours everyday , I'm really enjoying the Pa3x. I'm digging in and have started the tweaking process. The operating system and how it works is starting to come back slowy and in the process reading some posts here from Bruno123 and help from Rikkibears is bringing it back.

Congratulations on the new Pa3x Steve! Can't wait to hear your full review.

Sounds like the Pa3x is the "sleeper" board of 2011/2012 as many have come out of the woodwork to suddenly fall in love with this board after everyone bashed it when it first came out. You rarely see that happen. Usually, first impressions are lasting impressions.

Al I believe it is a "sleeper" I had no desire to even demo of when it was released , I went to demo it mainly out of curiosity. What I heard made me a believer. I know you had a Pa2xPro and in my opinion this is quite a bit further ahead than the Pa2xPro was (and the Pa2x was a great arranger).

So what are the strong points, over say Tyros 4? (I am really curious, I don't have tyros 4)
Also what was that thing that put you off on the beginning - you said it felt wrong first you got it? Was it sound, or choices of styles? Or was it too complex?
I listened to many samples of pa3x on youtube, but nothing really "worked" for me.
I have PSR 910 and looking perhaps upgrade it to to TOTL so I was eyeing the tyros 4 for some time (but it is 4500 here... auch)

I trust your judgment Steve. It must sound awesome, because you like it and we seem to have the same tastes in everything (what color is your wives hair - mines blond. lol)

I just can't tear myself away from the plethora of high quality styles available for the T4.

Al,

Funny you would ask about the color of my wife's hair she is a natural blonde!

The board does sound awesome. I'm blessed I'm in a position to keep both, if I had to give up either or I would have a tough time deciding. I don't believe one is better than the other, they are both fantastic arrangers. I do think that the T4 may over a little more versatility for the same reason you mentioned "the plethora of styles". There are just some tunes that work better with the T4 "free styles". The SA2 voices are hard to beat as well, but then there are some killer organs and guitars on the Pa3x too.

Oscar, When I demoed it at Audioworks I played Frankieve's 76 key model, he already had it equalized and tuned to sound at its peak. When I unboxed it and started playing it it really needed to be equalized for my sound system. Once I dug in a bit and started tweaking I was very happy with what I heard.

The strong points? I don't have a comprehensive list because I haven't owned it long enough.........but........here's a couple. there's nothing like the keybed! My training was on piano and I believe the action is better suited for someone with piano background. The physical layout of the board is better suited for live play. Vocal harmonizer is superior to that of the T4. It's built like a tank, plenty of metal construction versus plastic on the T4 and despite both boards being 61 keys, it's a lot smaller when placed side by side to the T4.

I watched the demos on you tube and they didn't do a thing for me. It's one of those situations where you have to play it for yourself to really hear it.

Thanks!
I had a chance to play the korg in store, and had some mixed feelings....
Does your also load so slow when power ON? I thought it will never start...
Yes, I think the keybed is pretty good. I loved some of the sounds - like guitars and sax or piano they are now very "megavoice".
What I had trouble with - the touch screen, hit and miss for me. The arrangement part - hard to describe it, (as if the arrangements didn't "fit" or were just dressed up old rhythms) and lastly the number of buttons all cramped together where it wasn't always obvious what you had running and what not (as opposite to the tyros "70's russian space program" style lighted buttons that begs no questions).

I played the tyros 4 at the same time and if I had the money I would still go for the tyros as a dedicated arranger. Somehow on tyros everything fits together from the flick of a switch - and boy I am lazy to make things work. But I also have PSR910 so I am familiar with this and I guess biased.

But with tax it is about 5K and that is a REALLY insane - I think they could go away with this for a while, but not any more... better make the next tyros $1000 cheaper.

So I ended up not getting the PX3 and sort of wanting the "next" Tyros whatever it will be. But it is obviously too personal. PX3 is definitely bang for the money, just perhaps not as much dedicated arranger like tyros, more like a Korg workstation with added arranger as "one" of many things.

I have one of those too .....the blonde wife