My first week with the Korg PA4x

[Bachus]

First of, the reason i bought the PA4x, is not because i needed it, i own a Tyros 5, its because i got an offer i could not refuse, and i can probably sell it any time in the next 2 years and still make money on it (payed 2100 euro and a Roland G70, which proved impossible to sell at anything higher then 300 euro)

This allowed me to buy it just with the reason to play around with it and have fun with it.

So far my experience with it has been golden... i think i got into the very most basic features and understand them quite well...

First of, its the interface, its very very well tought off, espescially with all the direct acces buttons, and the double midi player it just gives the musician slightly more direct controll over its performance.. But thats something we allready knew.. love the shift key, tough wish i would find a small list with direct access options trough the shift key (probably need to dive into the manuall)

What i like most about the design philosophy of the PA4x, is the fact that Styles and Keyboard sets are fully sepperated from eachother, i can freely use any keyboard set with any style... compared to the Tyros the way PA4x replaced the sound selection buttons with the keyboard set selection buttons is a step forward.. also the fact that they do have a fully sepperated effects section is golden..(however, the effects sections should have been equall to eachoter, i.e. each having 4 inserts and 3 masters)

Now on Tyros, you can handle keyboard sets to some extend using performance memmory, but thats just less straightforward then Korg.. also the performance memmory has direct controll over the style parts... i found that i can do everything i do with performance memmory trough the set list... where i can have multiple inputs for a single performance/song.. The song book is incredible, love it...


Next up is the sequencer, plays both MP3 and MIDI, the fact that it has a double player is priceless for people gigging with this instrument and using this for backings... its a little bit sad, that midi markers are only accessible trough the smart screen, but it is as it is... to bad the player does not support some kind of lossless audio format.. because MP3 is still not perfect.


Styles, first off, i love the Korg arrangements of the styles.. also i am very happy with the fact that its now possible to directly try out new styles from the USB stick (what size USB sticks do you guys use?) but most happy i am with the easy basic edditing of styles and espescially of drum parts, where you can edit the 8 main types of drums, and save the results with a new style or even a songbook entry.. this feature is mindblowing and very usefull.. still room fro improvement, like accessing a full bank of styles directly on USB, but the fact that i can now easilly try out styles and keyboard sets and then quickly copy the ones i really like to my setup is very nice... Having this file structure has both advantages as disadvantages... i think in the end, its much more real time friendly then the structure on the Tyros which is more flexible, but there i am allways searching for things, never remember where i put them..

I played with the Midi to style converter and it yielded some usefull results... in general for most song styles i am happy with 2 varriations that work after edditing.. and this was often the case.. i dont care about intro´s as i play them manually


single Sound quallity is mostly on par with the tryos5, however there are definately some winners on the PA4x, like its piano, strings, even the guitars... eveything on the PA4x is very wwell ballanced, and compared to the Tyros 5(piano, synth, epiano) there are no real weaknesses.. Th edditing of sounds is incredible, basic changes are saved in the keyboard set, but the synth engine and the easy access to it blows everything the Tyros5 offers (even trough YEM) away... i love the interface..i love the endless possibilities, and i havent even got into the sampling part yet... If i compare the synth editing interface to the Kronos, it is much much more straightforward, which is a good thing as that in general makes yielding results much easier.. But for an arranger keyboard this is as good as it gets and should be..



Now the main questions, did i encounter anything i could not archieve with this keyboard? well, maybe the Tyros5 ensembe voices, still love them, but since i will add a macbook with mainstage and VST´s i will have those kind of voices there..

Did i encounter any problems or bugs so far? yes, when i enter Global mode, and choose an option .... the next time i enter global mode, i directly go trough to that option and if i want to return to the mani menu of global, i need to restart the PA4x (if anyone has a work around for this, please tell, as its rather anoying)



So far, i only used the PA4x as a stand alone keyboard, so i will report back here when hooked up to the macbook and the Kurzweil PC3x. what i love ass a stand alone keyboard, is the fact that i havent felt the need to connect it to a PC, everything i want to do so far could easilly be done from the PA4x, and thats a huge step forward over the Tyros5..

This week i will be rather busy at work, but the week after that, i will dive into the more indepth features of the PA4x, and report back on that... Going to make this review as complete as possible, so people interested in a PA4x can make their mind up and compare it to the Tyros5.. both are incredible nice instruments thats for sure...but i can see quite a lot of reason why people would want a PA4x, altough i can also see a lot of things why certain people are better of when sticking to Yamaha


Overall, i enjoyed my first week and am still impressed with the PA4x...

[Snoopy]

...yes, when i enter Global mode, and choose an option .... the next time i enter global mode, i directly go trough to that option and if i want to return to the mani menu of global, i need to restart the PA4x (if anyone has a work around for this, please tell, as its rather anoying)...

Hi Bachus,

just press the "Menu" Button and you´re in the global "main" page again

[Bachus]

...yes, when i enter Global mode, and choose an option .... the next time i enter global mode, i directly go trough to that option and if i want to return to the mani menu of global, i need to restart the PA4x (if anyone has a work around for this, please tell, as its rather anoying)...

Hi Bachus,

just press the "Menu" Button and you´re in the global "main" page again

Is it that simple... i will try tonight.... thanks for the tip.

[siebenhirter]

.. enjoyed my first week and am still impressed with the PA4x .. .. i like most about the design philosophy of the PA4x ..

Hello,
it is nice to hear you enjoyed your first week and still are impressed with the PA4x, but is misleading your sympathy for design philosophy of PA4x, because most of the features you discovered, we also had in previous Pa-keyboards and are nothing new.

.. that Styles and Keyboard sets are fully sepperated from eachother, i can freely use any keyboard set with any style.

Styles and Keyboard sets always was fully separated from each other by simple use of "style change".

.. they do have a fully sepperated effects section ..

Using effect section separated also is nothing new, because lock of "upper1 fx" did the same so far.

.. the way PA4x replaced the sound selection buttons ..

To omit sound selection buttons is no step forward - it is a step to reduce functionality because preventing one-button-direct-access for sounds of selected realtime- /background-tracks one could do easy with autoselect-sound.
*
For advanced users therefore regarding design philosophy arguments in thread "Pa4X developers fatal mistake !" seems to be somewhat more realistic.

[Giner]

Got anything good to say, Sieb? Don't be a wet rag. Bachus is enjoying himself.

[Bachus]

.. enjoyed my first week and am still impressed with the PA4x .. .. i like most about the design philosophy of the PA4x ..

Hello,
it is nice to hear you enjoyed your first week and still are impressed with the PA4x, but is misleading your sympathy for design philosophy of PA4x, because most of the features you discovered, we also had in previous Pa-keyboards and are nothing new.

.. that Styles and Keyboard sets are fully sepperated from eachother, i can freely use any keyboard set with any style.

Styles and Keyboard sets always was fully separated from each other by simple use of "style change".

.. they do have a fully sepperated effects section ..

Using effect section separated also is nothing new, because lock of "upper1 fx" did the same so far.

.. the way PA4x replaced the sound selection buttons ..

To omit sound selection buttons is no step forward - it is a step to reduce functionality because preventing one-button-direct-access for sounds of selected realtime- /background-tracks one could do easy with autoselect-sound.
*
For advanced users therefore regarding design philosophy arguments in thread "Pa4X developers fatal mistake !" seems to be somewhat more realistic.

This is not about what others like... this is about my likes and dislikes..
This is also not about previous and other PA models, this is about the currnet model, and a comparisson to my previous experiences with the Yamaha Tyros 5

In general everyone uses their instrument in his own way, which makes up their preferences... the diferences in phylosophy between Yamaha and Korg are quite obvious...

It seems like many of the old time Korg users, think every change to the interface is a step backwards... mostly because they arent used to the new phylosophy.. and have a hard time addapting to this... i think this happens with the changed sound selection... i do like it...

[Hal2001]

Congrats Bachus. I think you made a great choice and the fact that you are happy already, proves it. Enjoy. A nice way to start the new year. Hal

[karmathanever]

Congratulations Bachus
I am delighted that you are enjoying and loving the PA4X.

This PA4X OS design is new for the PA series and I love that it is now even more "logically" structured.

This is not about what others like... this is about my likes and dislikes..
This is also not about previous and other PA models, this is about the currnet model, and a comparisson to my previous experiences with the Yamaha Tyros 5

In general everyone uses their instrument in his own way, which makes up their preferences... the diferences in phylosophy between Yamaha and Korg are quite obvious...

It seems like many of the old time Korg users, think every change to the interface is a step backwards... mostly because they arent used to the new phylosophy.. and have a hard time addapting to this... i think this happens with the changed sound selection... i do like it...

+1

Cheers

Pete