Korg PA2x Pro arranger keyboard review..

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The Korg PA2x Pro advanced arranger keyboard serves dual roles as both a songwriting station and an on-call stage band, all in one feature packed interactive keyboard.

Musicians can use Korg’s arranger keyboards as their home keyboard, composing partner, stage instrument, accompaniment keyboard or even as a one-man-band, creating powerful performance pieces with outstanding sound quality.

Editors Choice!

I have chosen the Korg PA2x as my next keyboard purchase so although I do not currently own one, I soon will.

I wanted to let you know the reasons why I am choosing this keyboard as my next instrument.

I have played the instrument at least a dozen times and have spent a great deal of that time delving into its many features.

Having worked for Korg as a sales rep, I am also very familiar with the company and its consistent quality and innovation.

Songwriting and performance.

I wanted a keyboard where I could transfer my musical ideas as a songwriter quickly into full arrangements without a lot of hassle.

I also work as sort of a one man band and the features in this instrument allow me to organize my sets and to play just about any request on the fly and sound like a full band.

Fairly easy to use.

The keyboard has a large color display that is a touch screen so all you have to do is point to access something on the screen.

The screen tilts and is contrast adjustable so you can see it in most lighting conditions, bright sunlight being the exception.

The tilting is motorized but I like to use the hand clutch as I don't trust motors to last forever.

The screen has two modes Easy and Expert. Easy mode shows only the most important controls while keeping a clean and easy interface, useful for beginners or for live performances, while in Expert mode you have full editing control.

Switches and sliders.

There are 2 Switches and 8 Sliders (the 9th acts always as an MP3 Volume control, except for Digital Drawbars).

All of them are fully assignable so your live performances work the way you want them to.

For one song the Sliders can be Organ Drawbars, controlling the 9 footages of a Hammond organ; for another volume controls for each part of a backing style or Mic settings.

Touching the sliders and switches on the touch screen will also move the physical switches.

Like the motorized screen it is cool but something in my mind says too many moving parts can stop moving. I guess even if they did the switches would still function so who cares?

The keyboard

The Korg PA2x has a 76 note keyboard that has touch and velocity sensitivity.

On a professional basis I have been fine with 61 notes but for this purchase I decided the extra expense was worth it to me as having the extra keys allows me to add a little more flair on piano parts.

The sound?

While sound quality is a purely subjective matter, Korg sound quality is universally recognized as superior, and is relied on by musicians everywhere.

There are approx. 950 ROM sounds, 64 Drum kits, 256 places to store user edited sounds so you will have more that enough to work with.

I am really impressed with a lot of the multi-level samples that add great and natural sounding articulation to things like guitars and flutes, trumpets and of course the excellent Grande piano sound.

Sound Expansion.

Many professional musicians choose to add their own sounds, and because the Korg PA2x Pro is dedicated to professional musicians, the internal Sampler can load Wave, AIFF, Korg format files and also the Akai sample library - about the largest sample library available - into the standard 128MB of added memory (expandable to 256MB).

Excellent effects.

The Korg PA2x Pro has 4 Stereo Master Effects processors with 125 of these effects from Reverb, Delay and Chorus through to specialized effects such as a Vocoder and some of the guitar based effects for authentic guitar tones.

Professionally done musical styles.

The Korg PA2x has hundreds of great useable styles that were obviously created by some very talented arrangers. As I was an arranging and composition major this is very important to me and most automatic accompaniment keyboards are lacking in this area.

Each style has drums, bass and up to 5 other parts available and all styles are editable so you can create you own from scratch or modify the existing ones.

Guitar Mode allows any musician to easily create realistic guitar parts using real guitar neck positions. Guitar tracks are usually a challenge for every Style and Song writer (possibly even more than the Drums track!).

Additional cool stuff.

An on board vocal processor from TC Helicon will make your vocals sound studio tight.

Full connectivity to your computer and recording equipment including 4 separate balanced/unbalanced analog audio outputs, 2 balanced/unbalanced analog line inputs, 1 XLR/Combo Balanced Mic input with switchable Phantom Power, 1 USB Device and 2 USB Host connections.

And because the Pa2X Pro is a fully professional product, the digital output (in S/P DIF coaxial format) is standard. The optional VIF4 Graphical Video Interface (available in PAL or NTSC standard formats) can display on an external TV monitor either just the lyrics (useful for Karaoke) or clone the on board display.

The Korg PA2x Pro has two USB Host connections available to connect standard flash drives, external hard drives, DVD-CD players or even a Floppy Disk.

One Host is located in the front panel for quick access in real time, while the second Host is on the back panel.

A further USB Device connection is available for the Pa2X Pro to connect with a computer (PC or Mac) for fast exchange of large amounts of data from the internal SSD memory and Hard Disk or as a MIDI connection without the need for extra MIDI computer interfaces.

These are just a few of the reasons I am choosing the Korg PA2x as my next keyboard

Price?

The list price on this outstanding instrument is 4600.00 making it for serious players. I have seen them available in the 3600. dollar range.

It is a keyboard that you can live and grow with for quite some time.

I will update you when I get mine!!!

Best Home Study for "Ear Players"

After checking out dozens of home study courses that teach you to play by ear and focus on chord progressions I am convinced that the folks at Hear and Play have the best, most well rounded program available for just about all styles of music from Gospel to Jazz. Read my review or visit Hear and Play for more information.

Make practice fun and take your playing to another level by playing with a full band 24/7.

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Sounds crazy but with the power of technology, I’m going to show you how to finally make practicing fun, productive, and effective.

Here’s what it does:

* It gives you access to over 350 real-sounding backing tracks.

* Practice and live performance files are played in all 12 keys.

* You can choose between multiple speeds: slow, medium, and fast.

* 3 different sections, 9 styles of music, & drums-only option.

* Instant streaming playback and automatic downloading to your system for burning to cd, transfer to ipod, and editing.

* And much more… This will take your playing to another level and not hurt your pocket book!! Check out Back Pocket Band!!!

Contact me

If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for future lessons feel free to Contact Me.

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