I just joined because I need some immediate technical assistance after only 2 weeks with my new "baby" -- or should I say "toy".
After stressing out bigtime for about 4 months re what type of keyboard/arranger to purchase as well as how much to spend (from $800 USD to $3500 USD), I was able to check out only 1 of the 4 brands I was considering at the local Guitar Center (Yamaha, Roland, Ketron and Korg).
So I read every forum I could find on Roland's, Yamaha's, Korg's and keyboard/arrangers over a 2 day period. Since everybody seemed to have their own preferences, and nobody could proclaim that this or that model/brand was the absolute best without taking a lot of heat from the other members of the forums, my stress level really started to max out so I just had to make a decision and get something in my hands. While the local Guitar Center only had the Korg models (pa500, pa800 and pa2xpro) that I was interested in, but not the Roland G-70, Yamaha YPG-635, PSRs900 or Tyros 2, or Ketron XD9/XD3.
I was so impressed with the sounds and arrangement styles of the Korg pa2xpro that I just had to have it.
However, little did I suspect that the Manual would be 325 pages long. You see, I am 63 and virtually put my accordion, trombone, and tenor sax in the closet when I went away to college. While I did buy a Yamaha organ in the 70's when they were the hottest thing for home players, and another cheap keyboard in the 90's, I really have never worked with a machine so complex as the pa2xpro is. Thus I have a real steep learning curve to cover to learn all the accompaniment styles and possiblilities, plus all the great sounds.
My musical interests cover selected songs from a variety of genres (no particular order): jazz, smooth jazz, latin & latin jazz, pop, 60's & 70's R&R, ballads and show tunes from the 20's thru the 80's, disco, ethnic (French musette, Italian, Scottish, Irish, Slovenian-style polkas), ballroom dance, even a little classical, blues, bluegrass, and Cajun/Zydeco.
Hope that's enough to get me started. I will have lots and lots of questions as I get more acquainted with this instrument, so I hope you folks have all the answers.
Swellguy in San Diego
