On the Korg PA 900 Indian Version (Not Happy at all)

[M4MyIndia]

********** EDIT ON 3rd May 2015 7:40 AM IST ******

I PROMISE that i would update my thoughts as and when i discover new things on the Arranger.

Please do read my follow up posts to get the latest review.

I keep discovering new things and as and when i see them, i shall continue to update the same on this post.

I HUMBLY REQUEST that ... While reading this post, please do read my follow up posts to get my latest thoughts.

*******************************************

Hi,

Owner of a Korg PA 900.
Bought it from the Korg Indian Dealer. (Yes got and Loaded the SD card)

NOT AT ALL HAPPY
-The Keyboard is slow and very Buggy.
I tried to compose a Style using the Indian Kit that was given by Furtados.
After I record a track, i move to the next percussion track and start, the first track plays slow and completely out of Sync with the tempo.
I restarted it and now the problem seems to have gone.
Sometimes the Overall volume goes down and there is no way to figure out other than restarting the keyboard. (I shall produce the steps to reproduce it later)

-Many Basic features missing.
For instance, the supplied Indian sound "Tampura" which has a hold parameter ON .... Once you play the keys .... thats it. The Keys will continue to keep sounding till you go to the sound edit and un check the "Hold" Parameter. Exit doesn't work and neither does changing to a different voice stop the Tampura. No dedicated button for sustain or Touch Response , even a Yamaha has it.

-Careful while you fall for Advertisements
Dont fall for the DNC. Its just a different patch being played. Let me try to explain. E.g. the Violin is supposed to have a DNC when we Press the assignable buttons ... ACTUALLY the only thing that is happening ..is that the violin would slide up / down one Octave... You can't CONTROL the slide to anything less than an octave
Portamento becomes another joke as the Waveforms in different parts of the keyboard for the same patch (voice) are different.
196 MB Memory ? Once you load the Indian Voices, there would be only 67 MB remaining.
The supplied Indian voices are not that good either.

- The Indian Voice Pack.
Many of the patch locations contain just one octave of rhythm sounds ...e.g. Dholak's or Rajasthani styles etc. Imagine 8 Locations of User patches to store parts of one Rajasthani Style ? (only one octave per patch, rest of the keyboard are just Blank)
The Patches are not properly organized either Looks like Korg India just wants us to play the Hindi song, "Tere Bina" on this 1.5 Lakh keyboard
You must have the supplied SD card inserted in the slot at all times ...as its supposed to be the Decryption key to use the supplied indian sounds.

The Pros
-Touch Screen.
-USB in the front.

PLEASE NOTE :- I am slowly exploring the Instrument and a slow learner.

Feel free to ask me anything and i will try to answer the best I can.
Please stay safe and think a 100 times before spending your hard earned money (personal loan etc)

~ Vandemataram

P:S :- ***** IF I FIND THIS INSTRUMENT WORTH ******
I PROMISE I SHALL EDIT the post and will surely update this thread.


Korg PA 900 with the Indian sounds.
OS ver 1.20
Total Cost around Rs 1.4+ Lakhs

[Dikikeys]

It might be best to wait at least a LITTLE while before you pan the keyboard this bad.

I can't comment about the Indian Pack (although there are a few threads here about it, did you read them before you bought it?), but...

It's possible you don't understand yet what DNC is capable of doing... Yes, it's a way to switch sample sets depending on how you play (legato/staccato, interval played, switch input, etc.), but obviously, a slide of an octave is one set of samples, a slide of different intervals would require more memory for all THOSE samples, too. You are already complaining that RAM is almost gone even with just the one sample set!

And yes, portamento is an entirely different thing when you start to work with samples than what it is with simple synth waveforms. Pretty much everything suffers from this.

The Tambura that holds forever is a programming decision (you don't really want to have to hold it the entire time do you?!) but you can program it to have a normal release if you want to.

And, the bottom line is, do you know of another keyboard that has the capabilities to do Indian music that has more memory, better Indian sounds (or better third party ones available affordably), more RAM, more and better DNC sounds?

I agree that perhaps Indian music could be better served in arrangers, but that's largely the responsibility of sound designers and programmers from your region. It's rather a lot to expect Korg to invest a fortune programming sounds and styles for such a niche market (compared to styles popular around the world). You are already seeing how expensive it can be... In these days of rampant piracy, there's little incentive for talented sound designers and style creators to make content for your region when it will be pirated and distributed widely the minute it goes on sale.

Korg don't make it easy or cheap to obtain an SD card license to 'protect' their content, and yes, I think this could be better. Plus, they need a system so you can combine protected sets from developers so you aren't stuck with just the one SET at a time.

But in fairness, it is eventually up to YOU and the people in your area to make the content if you want a good choice and competition to open up your options. And it's up to the entire Indian community to NOT try to pirate it, so those making it can make a fair wage for their efforts, and possibly feel like making more!

[Snorkum]

+1 Dikikeys

M4MyIndia:
It is very easy to complain about something you might not understand fully. As you said, you are still trying to learn/understand the equipment. I have the PA900 for almost a year now and still explore new features. I know one thing, and for this kind of money, it's, besides the PA3X the best arranger on the market. Always consider what you pay for.
Maybe you should go back to dealer where you purchased it and complain to him besides to trash talk it in this forum. Maybe you have a bad unit. Who knows. Obvisously you don't understand certain functions yet. Maybe you should have tried it out before you purchased it, or before you loaded the SD card. Maybe there something wrong with the SD card.
Maybe you should have read the specs first, you would found out that it is a semi-weighted keyboard. Meaning Touch response which you can adjust.
If the patches are not organized to your liking, organize them. Easy to do in the PA900. Piece of cake.
Why don't you just sell it and by a Yamaha, you might like this better.
It is very irresposnsible to make claims like this right after you purchased the equipment.

You should do your research before you buy stuff for that kind of money.

[natasha]

I've had my PA900 for 2 weeks. I've probably spent 7 hours each day to learn things myself as I had no response to my earlier questions on this forum.

I managed to:

1. Create my custom performance list for easy sound changes with SST like the Kronos has
2. Transfer my entire Indian tone library from my Roland Fantom G6 to .kmp and import onto the PA900. I have bulbul, sarod, harmonium, sarangi, israj, bansuri, pluck, kanun, oud, sitar, santoor, veena, tambur and shehnai. Additionally i have exported some logic exs sounds too lile persian santoor.
3. Create a way to have my lower 2 octaves play a punchy mono effects less bass without my volume pedal affecting this bass region and only the lead part i.e octaves 3, 4 & 5.

If you have so much time to complain and write long negative threads, your time is better spent reading the beautiful manual or getting your PA900 closer into your heart.

For me, it's a constant learning curve. I didn't wanna fork out $350 for a sd card from furtados.

I LOVE MY PA900 !!!!!

Best wishes

Tash.

PS i think you DID NOT CHECK the true meaning of DNC. lol

[jimsweb]

As Diki mentioned, there are already multiple threads discussing the Indian styles and pack. you might want to take look at that (just serach ion google it will pop up)

PA900 was my previous board and now i have sold it out and bought PA3x. I have always mentioned in my previous posts that the Indian styles and sounds are created by India dealer (protected and packed by Korg). It's free when you buy board india and ridiculously priced in US. It's their business model and we have to accept it. If you could have read the threads here before going for pa900, you might have gone for PA3x.

As an arranger keyboard pa900 fares well in it's own category - as far as i know - this is the general perception. Now if you are experiencing some issues with style recording -
-> is your board updated to latest OS update? (If i'm correct it's 1.21)
-> if the OS is upto-date, did you try factory resetting?

I think it's unfair to blame KOrg and PA900 for something else.

[Dikikeys]

To be fair to the OP, he DID mention his review was initial impressions and problems, and that he would update it as he got more familiar with it. I don't think it's fair to be hostile to him as he is so new to the unit.

I think there's room somehow for the Indian Korg arranger users to try and create their OWN community online (if there isn't one already) and to support and help each other out with a special focus on using the PA series for Indian music. Legally sharing sounds and styles that you have created (please don't pirate and share!), help each other out with issues specific to Indian music performance, I think something like that would be of great use...

At the very least, try a thread here maybe titled 'Indian Korg users' discussion thread' or something like that where all of you can talk about issues, solutions, review any third party content, sample sets etc..

There are PLENTY of you out there, help each other out!

[Snorkum]

All I am saying, before you complain, research. Make sure your complaint is valid and not because you don't like it initially. It's not fair to the Keyboard. I just stated my opinion just like everybody else does here.
And here is your comment:

It might be best to wait at least a LITTLE while before you pan the keyboard this bad.

You were just a little bit nicer about that I was. I was more direct.

[M4MyIndia]

-> is your board updated to latest OS update? (If i'm correct it's 1.21)
-> if the OS is upto-date, did you try factory resetting?

The OS stated on Korg website is v 1.20 released on Oct 2014.

But BIG THANKS for the second pointer...FACTORY RESET ......... (Ooohhh why didn't i think of that)

I will do this but there is another Hitch. I have the SD card (that holds the Copyright info for indian voices) inserted into the Unit.
Basically, they have supplied the two Encr files and I load them via the USB. and I guess the files use the Decryption / Copyright info from the SD card.
I wonder if Factory reset would erase the SD card as well. I would check that with the KORG Brand Manager "Hithesh Shukla.

The Showroom guys from where i bought the keyboard have very less knowledge about the PA 900.

I will be doing a factory reset, but I doubt if it would resolve the issue Permanently as this can crop up again as per system load.
Too bad for a keyboard for this price range to happen.

~Vandemataram

[M4MyIndia]

I have uploaded a small video to illustrate my Style Out of Sync Problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_iISo ... e=youtu.be

Steps to Reproduce.
1. Choose Style Play
2. Choose Rec >> Create New Style
3. Choose Track 1 (or as i did in the video Track 2)
4. Select an Indian Kit that was supplied with the Korg.
5. Hit the Start / Stop to start recording. Punch in some notes
6. Stop Recording
7. Select The other Percussion (Drum) Track to record
8. Press Start Stop

Result
You will see the Earlier Recorded Track going Out of Sync

Expected.
All Previously Recorded Tracks should be in Sync

Please Help me.

~Vandemataram

[M4MyIndia]

I need a Little Help here.

Dont know if its a problem or something that i am missing.

I save a sound with Portamento, but when I select the same sound from the Style Play section, i do not see the Portamento as much as i saved it from the sound modify section.

Here is a video to help better understand the situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nytmypnc3G0

Is this a Bug ? or something that i am not paying attention ?

Thanks in Advance.

[jimsweb]

I have uploaded a small video to illustrate my Style Out of Sync Problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_iISo ... e=youtu.be

Steps to Reproduce.
1. Choose Style Play
2. Choose Rec >> Create New Style
3. Choose Track 1 (or as i did in the video Track 2)
4. Select an Indian Kit that was supplied with the Korg.
5. Hit the Start / Stop to start recording. Punch in some notes
6. Stop Recording
7. Select The other Percussion (Drum) Track to record
8. Press Start Stop

Result
You will see the Earlier Recorded Track going Out of Sync

Expected.
All Previously Recorded Tracks should be in Sync

Please Help me.

~Vandemataram

My penny worth suggestion. There is an option to quantize your beat recording. Please refer manual and adjusting this might help you.

[jimsweb]

I need a Little Help here.

Dont know if its a problem or something that i am missing.

I save a sound with Portamento, but when I select the same sound from the Style Play section, i do not see the Portamento as much as i saved it from the sound modify section.

Here is a video to help better understand the situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nytmypnc3G0

Is this a Bug ? or something that i am not paying attention ?

Thanks in Advance.

Are you aware that the sound samples provided by Korg India distributor is proprietary? It's encrypted and no modification is possible as far as i know. Please call them immediately and confirm it. I had pa900 (bought from us and never bothered to shell out $350 to get Indian pack) and i mostly buy samples and preapre my style my own. This needs time - but worked fine for me.

[M4MyIndia]

Your first comment.
The Bug is not about Beat Quantize but the two tracks completely going out of sync.
I am in touch with India Korg who in turn are in touch with Korg Italy, they have asked me to send them the style and the entire set as they are unable to reproduce the issue there.

Your second post.
Sounds are Proprietary - Yes.
However there are and should be no restrictions for modifications.

I got a disturbing workaround or should i say Workflow ....as response to my problem that i would post as my next post.

[M4MyIndia]

This is in answer to my post 6 above.

My Question / Problem was this.
I modify a sound via the Sound Modify section, and save it. <I>
Then I switch to the Style Play mode and select the sound i just saved and
I find that my sound is still Polyphonic.
Steps :-
1. Modify your sound from Sound Modify Section <I>
2. Save the modified sound to a User Area.
3. Press Style Play and select the sound you just saved

Problem :- Your sound would continue to play in Polyphonic even though you saved it as Monophonic.

The Ridiculous workflow that Korg India gave me as Answer is as below.

1. Modify your sound <as>
2. Save it to usr area
3. Go to Style Play
4. Choose your sound <it>
5. Press Menu
6. Choose the Track Controls from the screen
7. Repeatedly Press the Trk-Select on the keyboard until you see the Upper1 , Upper2 Upper3 etc settings.
8. Change the Poly to Mono using the Data dial for your desired Track.
Now your sound will sound in Monophonic.

.. and the funniest point is, Whatever sound you choose to Upper1 from now on, would be in Monophonic ......... unless you go to the Menu and reverse it back to Poly.

Since the above is Un believable, I would confirm this from my Users Manual.

~ Vandemataram

[Dikikeys]

The only question I'd ask is, was the original tabla part a loop, or played?

If played, for starters (as you mention) it is a bit loose with regard to timing. Possibly it needs some quantizing to tighten up... Secondly, is there any 'list edit' for the track's data? Does it show the first event accurately on 1.1.000? Perhaps there's some other data in there (sys-ex, maybe) that is throwing the timing off?

If it's a loop, you need to check that the loop has been accurately trimmed, and that the reported tempo is accurate (if you have any pitch bend on, it will speed it up or slow it down). And that the trigger note is accurately placed, and the correct length.