Korg Forums

PA50 training DVD as this thing is just too hard to figure out?

Hi all.

Is there a training DVD for the PA50 available?

I bought this keyboard from a large retailer in Milton Keynes, UK for my girlfriend a year ago.

However, it has not been used and just gathers dust as she tried to figure it out via manual, but it is just toooooooo confusing. Not like the Yamaha DGX500 she had before.

Here is what she used to do with the Yamaha DGX500.

She used to play ballroom dance tunes with all the more sophisticated backing pre-set rhythms like fox trot, waltz, quickstep etc.

Also used to play jazz standards using the pre-set backing tracks. This was easy, all she had to do was press a button to play the backing track.

This was all done using fingered chords.

Since I bought her the Korg PA50 it would appear that these features of the Yamaha DGX500 cannot be achieved? or am I wrong? all seems very allusive?

She has been through the manual, but cannot figure it out at all.

Can anyone tell me if the Korg PA50 actually has built in pre-set rhythms and the like (like the Yamaha)? is it possible for her to do on the PA50 what she was doing on the Yamaha?

Is the PA50 a mistake? if so, can anyone recommend a keyboard that would make a good replacement for the Yamaha DGX500?

The main reason we sold the DGX was because some of the sampled sounds (such as saxophone) were not very realistic; cheesy and cheap sounding.

DGX had a lot of voices, but only a very small handful sounded any good.

She wants more voices that are more authentic that sound professional with lots of decent rhythms with better intros/outros as the DGX were cheesy and with no taste.

Would be a shame to put PA50 on eBay as it has not even been used yet and a year ago it cost me £699, I'm sure I'd lose half that on eBay today.

Having said that, Louise has just spent the last 30 minutes playing though some of the various instruments and she said they sound thin and weedy and not any better than the old DGX500?

Any advice greatly appreciated guys.

Hi Nigel,
There's quite a selection in there. There's a demo if you push the 2 top left buttons at once. Also the instruments sound better when they're used in a style play.
Unless someone has done a global change to it, it should start up in 'Style' in something like a Ballad beat, with Grand piano as the solo instrument. It will more than likely be set to the whole set of keys playing piano and selecting the chord anywhere.....there's some buttons at top right which select which part of the keyboard makes the chord select operate....you may want your left hand to do this so select the 'split' (might be 'lower'...'Im at work at the moment..). There's another buch of buttons just above the keys...a big red one in the middle 'Start/stop', and just to the right of that there's a 'Synchro' start/stop...with that set at start, play a chord to the left of the split point (which is middle C default), and away it goes...even tells you what the chord is....(somewhere in the menu you can select whether you play one finger or 3 finger chords),....

Various ways to change 'Style' or rhythm...Left row of buttons.... each has 16 styles ....or over on the right side, there's a 'Change style' button which operates when the 'perform' button is set, and you select from one of the bunch of buttons labelled as instruments, then select from the side buttons by the screen......

Sorry this is almost as complicated as the Manual, and you've probably sussed it out by now anyway!

That set of three buttons below the instruments.....if you choose the 'program' one, the instruments are displayed in screens of 8, and there's anything up to about 8 screens +/- ...if you choose 'perform' you get single screens of 8 which don't necessarily appear to agree with the button label ; these are the ones which can also change the style (depending on whether or not you have selected 'change style).

So to play a Jazz standard....assuming you know the tune in your head and could rattle it out right handed.....and you want accompaniment....Top left button, style play....then a couple of rows down left button then 'jazz1'...select button to left of screen 'jazz brush' or whatever....push the 'synchro start' button....play a chord...and probably set top left sliders half way down!

Sounds complicated....try to describe how to tie a shoelace!

Hope you and Louise make some good music.
Salam......... Jinxby

Please go to the toutorial section of the instruction manual and read while making sure that PA50 is infront of you and it is turned on. Any person with a basic english knowledge can follow the toutorial section of the English Manual. Please try..

Nigel, dhe DXG is a stupid toy comparing to PA50, i dont know whats wrong
with you or your girlfriend but until now nobody came with a problem like
tis yet...you just turn on the keyboard, select a style and play, as simple as it can get.

...or ,try to play a dulcimer....will be more easy for you
sorry...i am just kidding.

I agreed that the DGX500 is a toy compared to the PA-50 because that's what I had before buying the PA-50 which really blows me off when I check it out in the store. The sounds are so real , so are the backing styles. Without any manual, I was able to play just like with my DGX-500.
EVERYTHING the DGX-500 does, the PA-50 does it much better, and it does even more (4 variarations compared to 2, 2 ending compared to 1, 2 intros compared to 1, 4 STS compared to 0 and lot of live performance capabilities that simply do not exist on the DGX500.

The bad thing about the PA-50 is you got to read the manual (and possibly the tutorials) to know how to use the great/advanced features because the procedures are different, that's all. Once it's learned, you are home free. The most confusing part is PROGRAM versus PERFORMACE, take time to understand it and you will enjoy it.