Arranger Extension

[Antallion]

Hello,
need advice. As above, need comments for an arranger extension for my setup Krome/KingKORG.
I prefer KORG sound. I'm undecided between microArranger and the new Pa300. Only for home use, but with preferences for fresh and modern styles for fast/quick-in standalone cover without long optimizations of Krome combinations.

mA:
+ XDS double-sequencer
+ audio L/R
+ classic midi I/O
+ Size & weight
+ Style libraries about the years, but never real to new RX-Engine
+ prize
+ compatible to 50,80,Pa1x
- Microsize keys
- mostly outdated sounds & styles from Pa80 (2000), Pa50 (2004), Pa50SD (2010)
- less int/var/end/fills
- polyphon 62 voices
- old HI-Engine (Triton)
- OS/Update

Pa300:
+ standard keys
+ new RX-Engine
+ songbook
+ touchview display
+ fresh & modern styles & sounds
+ more int/fil/var/end
+ "Guitar-Strumming"
+ polyphon 128 voices
+ prize
+ OS/Update
+ compatible to 600,900
- combined audio/phone out
- no classic midi i/o

In some cases a handful people, who tested the keys, are talking about trimmed samples at the Pa300, really?

Which device would you take, and why? Thx anyway.
Spoilt for choice. :/

 

[happyrat1]

The way I've set up my own studio, I have no two modules or keyboards from the same manufacturer.

Locking yourself into a particular manufacturer limits the range of sounds in your palette.

Currently I own keyboards from Kurzweil, Korg, M-Audio, Casio and Roland as well as a Waldorf Blofeld Module and an Alesis SR-18 and a Boss DR-880 drum boxes.

This diversity gives me a broad selection to choose from when I compose my sequences on my computer and allow me to mix and match sounds from one manufacturer with MIDI rhythms from another.

As for comparison between the Micro Arranger and the PA-300? All I can say is that the micro arranger is almost a decade old and hardly what I'd consider to be cutting edge.

Also I'd consider mini keys to be a big drawback on an arranger style keyboard.

Gary

 

[Fred Coulter]

Also I'd consider mini keys to be a big drawback on an arranger style keyboard.

Gary

Ditto.

Also, having multiple keyboards of different sizes would seem to be to be adding needless complications to your playing.

If you're willing to look outside the Korg ecosystem, I'd look at Yamaha for an arranger. Like Korg, Yamaha also produces aftermarket styles so you're not locked in to what the keyboard already has when you bought it.