Hi Bob,
isn't it annoying. A lot of the arrangers I've had over the years I've had to order sight unseen & hope they were as good as the brochure made them sound.
Funny enough, with Korg I was lucky, we live in a small coastal town, but, an hour away , we had a Korg dealer who was probably ecstatic to able to sell their one & only PA3X. I think I bought their one & only PA800 as well haahaa, I'm sure it had been sitting on the shop floor for well over a year.. Top End arrangers aren't that big a seller over here, so nobody much keeps them in stock.

I still have my old psr1500, not worth anything. Don't really use it ,but I do like some of the yammie styles, they're a lot simpler, so again, if I can't quite find the style I want on the Korg, I convert it across from a midifile. I can even do some of my old roland & ketron now if I need to thru VArranger software. It plays yammie, ketron & now Roland styles. Sort of 3 keyboards in one.

I like using both my keyboards & Band in a Box. They're different. Keyboards are fun for realtime playing,
BIAB I think of more as providing a finished song. Even though you can play melody over the top of the backing, it's still not the same as realtime arranger playing.

Actually what is really handy is BIAB providing the left hand chord changes for the keyboard. Great for auditioning styles & variations without having to worry about left hand chord changes.

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And I have to say, check out the new PA3X. I've drooled over it for about a year now. This is only based on internet videos, none of the stores I frequent have had one in stock, they still have the PA2X.

And, Rikki I totally agree with your assesment about Korgs. Years ago I sold pianos and Technic's organs and thought at that time Technics were the best but not lately. It's pretty much between the Korg, Yamaha Tyros and the Ketron. Each one has their fans. The Roland G70 is good, a friend has one but both he and I like my Korg better and mine is just the Pa1X. When i bought my Kurzweil last year I sold my other two keyboards but not the Korg. It's just too cool.

Bob


best wishes
rikki

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