Keyboard errata (aka "known/open issues")

[Jeff B]

I was recently tasked with evaluating a Korg Pa1000 (for purchase or prompt retailer new product warranty 30-day return.) Finding the kb blemish/fault-free to quick inspection-- nevertheless, probing its operation more deeply: I encountered seeming discrepancies wrt various capabilities described in the 1080 page Pa1000 manual. Unfamiliar with this model, and realizing that with any such complex device "bug free" perfection can be an only aspirational goal (sadly, even years after product introduction), nor can documentation be assumed truly complete and error free-- ultimately, I reported that the kb was probably fine; with any flaws inherent to the firmware/OS, and common to all current production.

Searching KeyboardForums and the web more broadly for Pa1000 errata uncovered a single Korg Forums post, to wit:

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2024 6:02 pm Post subject: Re: PA1000 Successor?
. . . It's shameful for Korg that not even the errors complained about since the initial delivery were fixed - such as the "Style to KbdSet" function, which is unusable with the songbook and and only quickly was compensated for with "Lock Keyboard Sets" in the Pa4x.
kind regards
- siebenhirter, austria -

In so far as I am aware, neither Korg nor others maintain a comprehensive list of known/open Pa1000 issues-- but I'm hoping someone here might know otherwise, or start such a list.
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[Jeff B]

BTW, Korg has just released a minor Pa1000 OS 1.5 update to v 1.5.1. However, the reported fixes/changes are limited to video sync with an external monitor and user sample memory handling:
Improvements and bug fixes
Improvements in OS 1.5.1
The maximum space for User Samples in memory has been increased to
480 MB. With compression, you can now load up to 960 MB of User Samples.
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[Biggles]

All credit to Korg for issuing updates on a keyboard first released in 2017 and widely on the market from March 2018.

There is no thread listing bugs and the outcome, most Pa1000 owners are happy with the keyboard but many would like the expanded memory which this latest update brings

Updates for the 1000 and 700 models have been few and far between, hardly surprising as both did not have to many bugs from the off.

When the OS Next was introduced for the then top of line Pa4X it was widely hoped that a similar version would follow for the 1000 and 700.

All effort at Korg has been on Synths and minor bug fixes to the new top of range Pa5X which still has missing features compared to the Pa4X, that said for the target market it is pretty good once one learns its quirks.

As regards the quoted post on the Korg Forum, I ignore everything that guy has to say, he has a chip on his shoulder re missing Pa4X /1000 features that were present in the defunct Pa3X but in reality what he quotes in this post is very different from his other posts.

Trying to evaluate any keyboard thoroughly is a slow process, it took me many, many hours to get to grips with the Pa OS, and now I’m in the same boat again two weeks into Pa5X ownership I am am still scratching the surface at the differences yet the basics are there.