microARRANGER user review

[ddmetzger]

I have had my Korg microARRANGER for about nine months now. At first when I was on the very steep part of the learning curve (long-time Technics user) I was grasping at every Internet source I could find to help me with the not so user friendly OS.

By now I have been using it as the main instrument in Church for about six of the nine months. I was surprised that many members of the congregation said they liked the Korg voices as well as or better than my old Technics KN7000. I have been able to download more styles from the Internet than I will ever be able to make use of -- my biggest problem now being how to find the one that is "just right" for a particular performance.

After nearly a year of use, I would count myself as a very satisfied and enthusiastic user. There is a lot of chatter about smaller keys but I have found that to be absolutely NO PROBLEM. I do not have overly wide fingers and from the first time I touched the keyboard it felt perfectly natural. I can switch back and forth between regular size keys and microARRANGER without a hitch. I must add that I mostly use auto chords and harmony so I never try four or five finger chords.
I recently added an Altec Lansing Stage-Gig self powered speaker to my gear and I can do a respectable gig at a nursing home using the microARRANGER and Altec Lansing with only two bags each weighing about 12 pounds. The speakers can be daisy chained and a medium size church can be handled very nicely with a pair of Altecs and a sub-woofer.

After more or less giving up trying to get the micro ARRANGER to add a root bass note to the scanned accompaniment chord, I dug out a midi pedal keyboard I had purchased (but never used) for the KN7000. It integrated itself easily into the Korg and I re-trained myself to use it - mostly for accompanying congregational singing. If I am using a style there is no bass problem, of course.

I am old enough to have shoulder problems (probably brought on horsing the KN7000 around) and there is no way I would part with my microARRANGER.

[johnsmies]

Hi DDmetzger,


see PM


John

[david7685]

Greetings from Toronto, Canada
Yes I am another happy KMA user. The Musical Resources I acquired from John Smies made a big difference in improving everything. I too do not find the small keys a challenge and I have big hands with long fingers.

[Deane]

You can add me to the list. I have had mine for over a year and am constantly impressed with how well it has been accepted at my gigs.

Here is a link to 4 songs I recorded with the KMA.
https://app.box.com/s/r9m2qhsshg2xmlgy3wly

Deane

[david7685]

Last night played jazz gig with KMA.
Three sets of me with only KMA backing two front men; a male singer and a sax player.
The style JAZZ BRUSH is a stud. A real champion. Once I mute the vibes and busy acoustic piano parts from the backing tracks to strip it down a little more bare bones the walking bass and drum kit sounded great all night long on stage.

[stbfotos]

Well for a start, I'm a Sequencer/Keyboardist and I'm using a Laptop with a Software Midi Player (Vanbasco) and hooked it up to my Korg Microarranger as my Tone Generator. I have tried other Keyboards & Modules and i haven't encountered this Issues.

The Problems are when I'm playing midi files, the Korg would play the first song correctly but after that it would sound bad,what i mean bad is it is not reading the next song correctly, there would be Hanging Notes, or Sustained Instruments. Then ,when i would play Midi Files that have a Fine Tuning Control Change, all the midi files played after that would still use that control change and it can only be reset after restarting KORG MA. Well, its not very good for Live Performances.

I have tried different USB to MIDI Interfaces, still the same issues. And I'm pretty sure the culprit is Korg MA's Operating System. Even the files played using the Built-In Sequencer of KMA would still have hanging notes, etc..

Please help me Sir/Maam, I badly needed some solutions for this issues. I bought the KMA for my gigs but it seems I would be having a Hard Time getting this to work properly.

Thanks.