PETITION: Bring back real-time Kick & Snare Designation to Pa5X (full ROM+RAM list, like Pa4X but better!)

[listek72]

Hello everyone,

I’m a Pa5X user from Poland (OS 1.4.2), and I would like to submit a feature request that is extremely important for live performers who previously worked with Pa4X, Pa3X, and Pa900.

### **Background: Missing “Kick & Snare Designation” in Pa5X**

In Pa4X, the Style Play mode included a highly effective feature:

**Kick & Snare Designation**
(Style Controls → Drum/Fill)

It allowed the player to:

* Select Kick: **Off / Type 1 / Type 2 / Type 3**
* Select Snare: **Off / Type 1 / Type 2 / Type 3**
* Instant real-time switching during style playback (no stoppage)
* Save the new combination directly into the Style via WRITE

For live use, this was extremely powerful — one could instantly change from a soft/jazz kick to a punchy rock kick, or switch the snare character, without editing the entire Drum Kit.

### **Current state in Pa5X**

In Pa5X (OS 1.4.2), this functionality is missing.
In **MENU → Style Controls**, only Variations, Transitions, and Auto-Fill options are available.
There is **no Drum/Fill section**, no Kick/Snare selector, no mapping options, and no fast real-time drum replacement.

Currently, the only ways to change the drum character are:

* switching the entire Drum Kit (takes 1–2 seconds and is global),
* or offline editing of a User Drum Kit (slow and impractical on stage).

The official 1956-page manual and the specification sheet confirm that **Pa5X has no Drum Mapping / Kick & Snare selection inside Style Play**.

---

# **Requested Feature for Pa5X (OS 1.5 or future update)**

We kindly request the implementation of a **modernized version of Pa4X’s Kick & Snare Designation**, but significantly expanded:

### **Requested functionality**

Inside **Style Play → Style Controls → Drum/Fill**, add:

### **1. Direct Kick Selection (real-time)**

* When tapping “Kick”, open a scrollable list of **all Kick samples available in the instrument**:

* ROM
* User / RAM
* Legacy
* GM
* Imported samples
This would allow selecting **any** kick sound instantly (300–400+ possible samples).

### **2. Direct Snare Selection (real-time)**

Same behavior as Kick:

* Scroll through the complete list of **all available Snare samples** (200+).

### **3. Immediate switch during Style playback**

* No interruption of the Style
* No latency
* The Style automatically uses the newly selected Kick/Snare from the current Drum Kit engine

### **4. One-touch WRITE support**

* Save the new Kick/Snare assignment directly into the Style
* Without creating or editing a User Drum Kit

---

# **Why this is important**

This feature was one of the most beloved tools for live performers on Pa4X.
It allowed extremely fast drum customization without entering complex editing menus.
Since Pa5X was released (over 3 years ago), many musicians report that this is the **#1 missing feature** for live work compared to Pa4X.

The Pa5X sound engine is more advanced than Pa4X — therefore adding full ROM/RAM/Legacy/GM sample access would create the **fastest real-time Kick/Snare switching system on any arranger keyboard today**.

---

# **Summary**

We kindly ask Korg to consider adding this feature in OS 1.5 (or future updates) to bring Pa5X in line with – and beyond – the workflow advantages of Pa4X.

Thank you for your time and continuous development of the Pa-Series.

Greetings from Poland,
**Pa5X_User_PL (on behalf of the live performer community)**

[listek72]

PETITION: Categorized / Grouped Drum Sample Browser for faster & more intuitive Drum Kit editing in PA5X

Following my earlier thread about live real-time drum control improvements, I'd like to bring up another very practical workflow enhancement for PA5X users who actively create or tweak custom Drum Kits.

Current situation (pain points):

All samples in the Factory / User / Locked tabs appear in one long, flat list

Kicks, Snares, Hi-Hats, Cymbals, Toms, Percussion, FX, and everything else are mixed together

Finding the right sample (especially in large User libraries) requires endless scrolling and trial-and-error

This makes Drum Kit editing unnecessarily slow and frustrating, particularly during live preparation or on-stage tweaks.

Proposed feature – low-risk UI improvement:

Add an optional categorized view in the Drum Sample browser that automatically groups samples by type, for example:

Kick

Snare

Toms

Hi-Hat

Cymbals

Percussion (bongos, congas, shakers, tambourines)

Hand percussion / Tambourine

FX / Special effects

Important:

No changes to the sound engine, sample format, file structure, or compatibility

Purely a smarter, optional way to display and browse existing samples

Why this matters:

Dramatically faster Drum Kit editing and sound assignment

Much fewer clicks and scrolling during live performance preparation

Much more enjoyable and professional workflow, especially with 1000+ User samples

Huge benefit for live performers, session musicians, and sound designers

Community request:

We kindly ask the Korg team to consider implementing this categorized/grouped view as part of OS 1.5 or any future update. It’s a relatively small UI enhancement with very high real-world value for active users.

If you agree this would help your workflow, please reply with +1 and optionally share a short note about your current challenges or the types of libraries you use.

Many thanks in advance to the Korg developers and support team for reading this and for continuing to improve what is already an amazing instrument.

Best regards from Poland,
Pa5X_User_PL
(on behalf of live performers and custom Drum Kit creators)

[listek72]

My third missing feature request in this thread: One-Click Drum Note Length Optimizer for imported MIDI & Styles

Imported MIDI/Styles (Yamaha PSR, Band-in-a-Box, DAWs, Pa3X/Pa4X/Pa800 conversions via PA Manager) almost always have fixed short drum note lengths (~96 ticks / 1/16 @ 192 ticks/quarter).

This cuts off natural multi-sample decay:
- Kick loses punch (~500–1000 ms needed)
- Snare loses rattle/tail (~200–500 ms needed)
- Cymbals/crash/ride lose wash (2–8 s needed)

Manual fix in Event Edit takes 5–15 min per Style → 30+ hours for 200+ library. Very painful for live players and custom kit builders.

Ideal solution: A single button in Event Edit or Style/Song Play:

[OPTIMIZE DRUM LENGTHS] or [DRUM SUSTAIN FIX]

With 3 modes: Tight / Balanced / Long

One press:
- Auto-filters channel 10, notes 35–59
- Smart lengths: Kick/Toms min 1/8–1/4, Snare min 1/16–1/8, Hi-Hat very short, Cymbals FREE or very long
- Batch apply + preview + undo
- Optional user presets

I use Pa5X live and build custom Drum Kits – after every import I waste hours tweaking lengths manually. A one-click tool would be a game-changer.

What do you think? Anyone else annoyed by this after imports?

Thanks Korg!

Pa5X_User_PL
(live performer & custom Drum Kit creator)