Should a Parameter Guide BOOK for M50 be supplied?

jpscoey · Post by **jpscoey** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:31 am

Does anyone agree with me that the M50 Parameter Guide should be available in printed format as well as on CD-ROM?

As a new owner of this great keyboard, I am eager to learn how to get the best out of it.

This may include bed-time reading, while I'm on the train, or taking my lunch break in a cafe / my car... etc, etc.

Do any of you have your PC in one or all of the above locations?

I somehow doubt it! (perhaps that should be a seperate poll!)

As most of you will be aware, there are countless occasions when the Owners Manual states "for details, please see page X of the Parameter Guide"

EXAMPLE: (I did this completely randomly)... I opened the manual & it happened to be page 45.
The first thing I notice is "Simple editing using the knobs"... blah, blah - see page 20.

I go to page 20...
It says 'you can do this, that & the other'.

But doesn't tell you HOW to do it -

I then have to go to page 11, 87 & 143 of the PG...
ie: be conveniently situated near my own computer (how many other peoples' computers are likely to have the M50 PG installed?)...

Then wait 5 minutes for my computer to boot itself up before i can start to find out this info.

I just can't understand why you are not provided with a more convenient way of looking this up.

Surely, in relation to the price of these instruments, the cost of producing a booklet is a drop in the ocean?

Also bear in mind that not everyone who buys an M50 will already be familiar with the way Korg keyboards operate - many will be first-time Korg users.

Please check the ''yes" box above, and/or leave loads of comments in agreement & Korg might do something about it!

Or maybe it's just me?...

.

FifthElement · Post by **FifthElement** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:49 am

I vote NO. The world doesn't need any more 410 page manuals printed on dead trees!

Here are my suggestions:

1. buy a laptop
2. find something better to do in bed and on trains
3. Forget manuals entirely. You're a musician not an IT guy!
4. It's a musical instrument. Play it! don't play with it!
5. Print the manual yourself (leave it printing overnight)

Always remember the old adage:"If you need to refer to the manual .... you've already lost!"

pkpdjh · Post by **pkpdjh** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:28 am

It should not be provided by default, however, one copy should be provided upon product registration if requested specifically by the customer.

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:00 pm

pkpdjh wrote:It should not be provided by default, however, one copy should be provided upon product registration if requested specifically by the customer.

Great idea.

I love having the parameter guide for my TR, but I admittedly don't refer to it that much. When I have done so, it's been either something like "What options exactly do I have for the assignable foot switch" or "I'm trying to program a synth sound from instructions that say 'set paramter X to Y', but the TR doesn't have something explicitly labelled 'X'; what do I use instead?"

For people who are going to dig into an individual program and modify it, which would include a lot of the people who post here, a parameter guide is quite useful if you've never owned another Korg workstation. If you have owned another Korg workstation, there's very little in the parameter guide that would be new to you. And, of course, people who modify programs (as opposed to just copying programs from a PCG they downloaded) are a minority among users, since outside the pro music world, not that many people have the knowledge to understand the workings of a workstation, especially the Triton LE/TR/M50 which are targeted at more casual users in a stronger way than the Triton Extreme/M3 (see the "My M50" video on the Korg website for evidence of this, not to mention the features included and excluded in the M50 scream "good enough for a pro with other gear, but targeted for a casual user").

There's also the fact that some people have the idea that understanding a highly technical device in depth is somehow easier than understanding the manual, so they *never* open their owner's manual (let alone the parameter guide). Heck, some of the question we see here and at keyboardforums.com suggest that the users never even opened the Quick Start Guide.

So, if the majority of users aren't going to use the parameter guide at all, it doesn't make sense to distribute it to everyone, but I do agree that it should be provided on demand to those who would genuinely want it.

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:41 pm

IMO ... it's fine for the Param Guide to be PDF only, but please Korg stop presenting it in the two-up format which is a traditional format for print but not on screen reading !

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:47 pm

Isn't that something you can switch in Acrobat Reader?

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:59 pm

No, each page has two columns, a format that is very common for printed materials like magazines and you can't reflow it using Acrobat or Mac's Preview.

Run · Post by **Run** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:52 pm

I only print the pages that I need the most as reference to what I need to go deep into since I don't have a laptop near my keyboard; however Korg should provide this document online in multilanguage.

Post by **Sharp** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:59 pm

What works well for me is my wife's Sony eBook Reader.
The two column approach KORG use slows the reader down a bit but it is able to format the Manual in a traditional book format (single columns).

Dead handy gadget to have around the house.

Regards.
Sharp.

Post by **Sharp** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:38 pm

Two quick snaps of the Pa800 manual running on my wife's eBook.

Image 1

Image 2

jpscoey · Post by **jpscoey** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:03 am

Ok - I get the feeling that opinions are definitely 'mixed' on this!

Maybe I got a bit carried away in a moment of frustration, but I do appreciate the comments that have been made
(apart from "buy yourself a laptop!!!" - yeh... we've all got money to burn at the moment, haven't we?)

What I would like to add is that I posted an email on the same subject to Korg UK
and they replied very quickly & courteously... so hats off to to Korg for that!

I'll keep pluggin' on with this great keyboard!

I know the lack of aftertouch & sampling is an issue for some - but, come on, anyone who can name a better
value-for-money keyboard on the market at the moment must know something the rest of us don't!

Thanks again.

John.

PianoManKD · Post by **PianoManKD** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 3:57 am

What is a parameter guide book?

jpscoey · Post by **jpscoey** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:01 am

PianoManKD wrote:What is a parameter guide book?

Putting it simply - it explains everything in full detail!

michelkeijzers · Post by **michelkeijzers** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:50 pm

I voted no, but I really want to have a hard copy. So I printed it

. Probably it would be more expensive then officially press it and sell it with the synth ... besides lots of users don't read it anyway.

kimu · Post by **kimu** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:08 pm

+1 YES on demand, not by default.

anyway, i would like to see shorter parameter guide... 400 and more pages are a little bit too much....

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Should a Parameter Guide BOOK for M50 be supplied?

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Should a Parameter Guide BOOK for M50 be supplied?