PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production Chord Sequencer Keyboards

Does anyone have experience with chord sequencer keyboards?
My Korg is showing signs of age and I see there is some neat stuff on the market.

Roland Go Keys

See if you can get Dr. Dan, Gary Curran, or Rharv to comment.

I watched the demo you posted - wow that is fantastic - If it was 1985!

I'm generally a Roland guy
Far as I know the Roland GO:KEYS 3 is their version now, and is extremely affordable.

I haven't played with it much.
My Juno-G kinda has the chord feature but is discontinued and not recommended unless the screen replacement has already been done (factory installed screens failed after a number of years but were replaced under warranty with a better one if done within a certain time frame)

Made it thru half of Rharv's demo. In the opening comments the claim is "...it is so cheap if you don't like it send it back and we will give you something else".. REALLY.

Now I assume both Rharv and Bass Thumber are not punkin me, so this must just be something I don't understand. Maybe its the live playing - I don't do that. I compose and arrange so chord sequences and sound are critical to me. I need a workstation to create, not a portable keyboard with midi sounds (which by the way - do those really sound good to you? So I don't really have any more to say on this topic other than at $385 this may acutally be cheap enough for you to try it out.

By the way, for what its worth, here is how I work up chord sequences for my music. and by the way, the SL88i can be found for under $500.

Dan, I kinda agree with you which is why I started with

I don't have that need much anymore, with computers able to handle it, but that wasn't the question as I understand it.
Like I also said, I have no experience with the product because I have no need.
You and I can play keys.
BassThumper plays bass .. so, ya know, just trying be to be helpful

/thanks for changing your avatar, the previous one felt weird

Dan, I don't understand the reference to 1985. Are you saying that this keyboard is 1985 technology?
I also can't interpret the facial expressions you included.

PS> You're looking quite young and dapper, by chance are you taking a new multi-vitamin these days?

Yes, the price point for this instrument is quite affordable. As a two finger piano player I'm mainly interested in the chord sequencer feature where I can add a melody on top.
And thanks for sharing the video, kind of makes me want to take piano lessons . . . on 2nd thought, I'm having too much fun on my bass these days

I'm also somewhat of a Roland guy. I'm happy with their SPD drum pad which is a ton of fun to jam to my favorite songs, it's also a good tool to improve/maintain my sense of rhythm which pays dividends on my bass . . . . all good stuff!

Ha, back in the day we beat the crap out of a TR626
My Juno-DS has a drum pad on it, which is still kinda fun sometimes.

I would note that Dan's image shows that the audio has been muted to avoid a loopback issue.
Sometimes tech does more to complicate things than it solves when you just want to play.

As for being a 2 finger keyboard player; that's the beauty of this keyboard.
Record on a loop and play one finger at a time if you have to.

Looks like I have a bit or explainin to do.

First - the Avatar - I tried for days to change it, but it just would not. Apparently, Chrome does not work with this feature on this website. Prompted by the comments here I opened EDGE and --- Ya, that's the new me. The prior Avitar was a sculpture entitle "Grief". Today is my 50th Wedding Anniversary, October 11, 1975. With that, combined with the 1-year anniversary of my wife's passing, made me feel it was time to move forward. I will likely try some more updated photos in the near future.

BT - Regarding the Roland, I am sure my initial dispersions were due to the fact that I don't play keys LIVE. Which is way this product looked so odd to me at first. But I do maintain that the controlling interface and the sound I was hearing in the demo is old tech indeed. Maybe not '85, but certainly prior to 2000. Certainly, if you want to play live - I would hope there is better sounds available today. And I use the faces available in the forum pretty much totally random and arbitrary - so no deep meaning.

Rharv, you are absolutely correct regarding "...tech making things complicated". Scaler 3 is a perfect example. The company has struggled with this newest release. But this for me is the price I am willing to pay to get the features and sound quality I am looking for. I am afraid if you took away the modern day computer my music would cease to be. I would go totally silent except for what would sound like moaning and groaning coming from my voice.

Thanks for the info. If I'm not mistaken, the SL88i appears to be a MIDI controller?
If so, I'm not interested in MIDI at this point on my journey. I require a portable, self-contained keyboard that can jam with others; a replacement for my Korg Krome. And now that I see keyboards available with onboard chord sequencing, that is a must-have.

Yeah, a controller more expensive than what you are actually looking for just seems like a dumb point to make.
Every keyboard can be a controller if it has MIDI. Especially if keyboard is not your main thing.
Even that 'Go'
I was surprised to see how cheap it was.
$359 for something that does what I literally spent thousands for years ago seems inviting.
And complaining about the sound of it on a YouTube video for a $359 keyboard .. priceless.
I'm actually thinking it might be a Christmas list item.
Last year I got a golf membership, I'd prefer another keyboard.
I played golf about 6 times this year, it was a waste of a lot of money.

Hey Rharv, play nice or I woun't play. I have enough grief in my life.

No "punkin" here, assuming I know what that means:)
As for live playing, yeah, that's what I do mainly these days, sometimes with friends and mostly just in my studio for fun and recording. For me the thrill of music is jamming along to my favorite songs/playlists or Pandora. Fingers on strings (bass), fingers on keys (keyboard) and hands on sticks (drum pad). I've never tried mouth on trumpet or sax but I'm sure that's fun as well.

I'm somewhere in Quadrant 1.

OK, I apologize.
I know you had a rough road lately and if that happened to me, I'd be bitter too.
But read the room, man.
I'm not usually like that. You know that. Maybe something you said triggered it (?)
I admired you for a long while, but as of late you haven't been quite the same.

Well here's a preliminary summary table, putting this together was no small task and I need to confirm some of this info.
But so far it's looking like Roland has cornered the market for reasonably priced portable keyboards with hands-free chord sequencing.

That said, any of these boards can be described as a software product with a user-interface consisting of knobs, dials, buttons and 61 keys.
And when AI becomes included in these instruments the capabilities will surely skyrocket.

Why would you think that? 😕

Most AI is cloud based because there are zillions of elements that are processed.

I don't see how any of that would impact these keyboards.

.... consuming many megaWatts of power to do so.

There's an awful lot of marketing hype out there. Everything now has to be "A.I. powered" or "A.I. ready"

My old TV was "Ultra HD ready", thought it only ever did 720p.

I could certainly see machine learning doing things like recognising the style of what one's playing and matching, e.g., accompaniment style and swing to it, but I could also see many people turning that off. I don't think one really needs A.I. to do that, though.

I certainly don't mean to derail the thread, but A.I. this, A.I. that, A.I. ready?
Wouldn't it be better if we could just think for ourselves? I don't really know where all of this A.I. dependency is leading, but long term I don't think it can be good.

I know what you mean. I watched this video the other day and made me wonder the same thing.
Google AI with Logic Pro

Predicting exactly where any new technology will go is always a gamble. But here are a few thoughts that I see on the horizon regarding arranger keyboards.

AI could wade thru the zillions of available onboard styles and drum patterns to down-select to the top 2 or 3 that blend with what you’re working on.

AI could improve the realism of onboard voices by learning from real recordings. Some of these keyboards have horrid voices. Imagine telling your keyboard “Hey I don’t like the sound of that clarinet, can you improve it?”

AI could generate practice drills tailored to your weaknesses or help you improvise over chord changes. Think onboard personal tutor.

Based on a backing track on a thumb drive in its USB port that you are jamming along with, AI (in real-time) could alter the song by filling in for missing band members and allow you jam over a fresh rendition of the chord progression; perhaps in an entirely different style at a different tempo with different instruments. If you don't like the style it has chosen, push a button to guide it to what you want.

The list could go on and on if I had more time and imagination.

Place yourself back in the 1800’s and ask yourself this question.
“What applications could there be for this new-fangled thing called software?”

Yeah, all that needs a demand.
People are already just generating whole songs online.
I think they jumped right over keyboards, if that's your thing.
Why would they back fill that at this point?

Personally I like doing my own stuff.
Use BiaB to get an idea across? Sure.
Eventually the fun for me is getting a group together that can play that, as a group with their own playing/interpretation..
AI doesn't need that? True, and I don't need AI to do it. <grin>

Sorry, but I see AI ruining art by simply reusing existing stuff forever.
It has an endless supply of variations, but original performance in the true sense, not so much.

Again, all these are predicated on AI being in the cloud, because it's far too much to download. And if you could, why would you when the cloud exists?

We're talking about arranging keyboards here, which are stand-alone.

The two are mutually exclusive. I could easily see AI-powered solutions replacing arranging keyboards, but that's a whole 'nother thing.

Yeah, you may be surprised to find out how little processing power a keyboard uses compared to what AI requires.

Two different worlds.
Who is going to buy a $59,000 keyboard?
They may start claiming a given keyboard uses AI, but that would be stretch.

What WOULD be cool, was a keyboard that could use BiaB generation with a good MIDI soundset
Then you might have something!
Throw in Ultrpak/Audiophile/FLAC RT sound set and wow ..

Just a thought for Peter and team <grin>
That may blow the keyboard auto-accompaniment world up

To paraphrase Lewis Caroll's Humpty Dumpty, "When I use the term AI, it means just what I choose it to mean...".

Everything now from tiny microprocessors through PCs to giant server farms all now have "AI". It's become a crazy and nebulous term.

Quite an idea, indeed.

Once again, I’ll give you more examples; this time where AI is running locally on products shipping today.

Google has local AI vision and inference engines running on security cameras.
Apple Intelligence is doing similar on iPhone, iPad and Watch.
Sony has a local real-time AI running on a subject tracking camera.
Tesla is shipping on-vehicle AI compute software/FSD that is integrated with their Autopilot system.
Therefore, designing self-contained AI engines into arranger keyboards is quite possible and will be available commercially soon if not now.

I think you are cross-confusing huge general-purpose LLMs that are running on giant server farms (which is one specific implementation only) with other AI implementations, some of which are highly specific and have much smaller footprints. See above for examples. I have personally written AI/ANN algorithms that will easily fit on a small thumb drive.

Why would I think this? Quite simply for reasons of market share if you are a developer and for enhanced capability if you are a consumer.

AI and arranger (or other) keyboards are most definitely NOT mutually exclusive.
To be sure, there are some awfully smart people working awfully hard on this AI application.

I’ve said that AI will impact every domain from agriculture to zoology and everything in between and day-by-day I see this happening. If you research this subject you will find the same.

I have observed that there are 4 types of companies or individuals regarding technology adoption.
Type A: Those that actively develop and deploy cutting-edge technology: Sam Altman, OpenAI and others
Type B: Those that early-adopt new technology into their workflows and processes as needed
Type C: Those that are caught surprised (or deny) when new technology appears and then scramble to catch up if they are able
Type D: Those that refuse to adopt/use a given technology altogether: the Amish are an example

PS> Yamaha, a Type A company, clearly disagrees with you regarding the two being mutually exclusive. View this website on their YOO project.
Project YOO

NNs can be quite small - SynthV is a case in point, as are other NNs that resynthesize vocals and instruments.

So you're right - it's possible to do this and fit into a small device.

But with the ubiquity of cloud services, I'm having trouble understanding why a company would want to take that route. Call it a lack of vision, but given the option between locking users into a subscription model vs trying to sell a more limited model, I think the first option has a lot more appeal.

Even for the use case where a user wants a backing track, it would make more sense (to me) to have this performed in the cloud (via AI), and then for that rendered backing track be delivered in sections (intro/verse/ending/etc.) that could be switched to live during performance.

By way of analogy, think of BiaB RealTracks. An AI could generate new RTs dynamically, or it could generate them in the cloud and deliver them to you to use locally. The option to deliver them after building them in the cloud means that PG Music would have the cost of maintaining the infrastructure in the cloud, and you'd get the part you care about: the backing tracks.

Since the RTs or backing tracks are the final product, there's little compelling reason to have them generated locally - as long as it can be seamless.

So it's possible, but I suspect that's not the route it'll go.

YOO is 7 year old project. Has it created an instrument yet? Seriously asking as I have not seen one.

They debuted that at a conference in 2018.

I think this is essentially already done.
Korg PA5X

That uses Biab Generation?
Or are you being disingenuous ..

Or what does this have to do with AI?
<confused>

That said it is impressive for what it does, though that video is pretty crappy sounding; I don't transfer that to the product

I think most good arranger keyboards and modules have done that for some years, haven't they? Korg, Yamaha and Ketron I'm pretty sure.

The Ketron Event uses samples a bit like RealTracks, though I think the others are still mostly(?) MIDI-type samples. BiaB can still sound better than any of them, I think.

Holy crap! It's $5k. That's a bit much..
You could have 10 BiaBs for that.

I need to leave subscription/no-subscription business models to the guys with bow ties and business degrees.
My main point is that AI is showing up in products that are both stand-alone and connected to the web. And that in theory, either strategy could be embedded into arranger keyboards. For company xyz, and product abc, it's a business decision.

But I'm not seeking a keyboard that is necessarily AI-powered, only one that is hands-free/chord progression-powered and has a wide variety of styles and grooves to choose from. The good news is that there are a few on the market. So the search goes on to be followed by a down-select.

I have stayed out of this conversation as I have little knowledge about chord sequencer keyboards but I hope someone can help me understand. I watched the video and it looked like it took a number of presses on the touch screen to get a chord sequence. I have DLed a MIDI song, brought it into BiaB so the chords are inserted into the chord window, picked a style, then pressed generate. I can also have a BiaB demo song put into the chord window. IMHO, and I may be wrong about this, both processes are easy to execute and have thousands of styles to pick from in the styles window. Note that I can use both RTs or MIDI styles. Granted PGM could have a better filtering system for picking a style but to me BiaB is the better route to take. YMMV

PS - Steve this is no knock against you or anyone else into chord sequencer keyboards. I'm just trying to understand. Noted that you will need a keyboard along with BiaB so that is another expense.

That sounds like you don't even need the keys, just the sequencer and sounds.

If you don't too much mind having a Laptop/PC with you, ...
Would BiaB and a good MIDI generator work for you? I'm thinking Ketron SD100 or a used Roland Sound Canvas or similar.
Or, would something like vArranger be suitable? It does play chord sequences.

If you don't want the laptop/PC, would a Raspberry Pi driving an SD1000 work?

My own hang-up with all of those is the mess of wall warts and cables they demand. Maybe that's also a killer for you.

<< But I'm not seeking a keyboard that is necessarily AI-powered, only one that is hands-free/chord progression-powered and has a wide variety of styles and grooves to choose from. >>

It would be interesting to hear how you would be implementing your concept live. There was a good discussion back in November 2023 very similar to this one with some thoughtful suggestions about triggering BIAB audio snippets in live performances.

Some of the discussion was centered around the Ketron Event Arranger Keyboard with Musocity demonstrating a program he designed for BIAB to be triggered direct from ram. (This concept has since been implemented in BIAB)
Musocity: "... video example, these are the actual wma sections that Biab plays after it has decompressed them into RAM.
Reaper is playing all the wma sections of all different files direct from disk (RealTracks and Drum folders on Biab USB 3.0 drive), markers have been added to every beat so transitions will occur on the next beat rather than next measure, so as I input a chord it will go to that chord on the next beat seamlessly:"

It's possible to convert Musocity's concept onto Yamaha PSR Keyboards that doesn't require a computer when performing live.

New 2024 Products Revitalizing PG Music

Hey Gordon, I hadn't heard of Keytron, thanks for putting it on my radar. From what I can see, this is another extremely powerful instrument. I wonder why this brand is not carried by GuitarCenter here in the States.

And although the multi-bass looks like a great feature, no way am I going to let this (or any) machine have all the fun
Keytron Event

Ketron are a bit strange in their marketing. I presume they're a relatively small company and they're Italian which may make them a little uncomfortable in English-speaking markets.

The Event is very impressive, for a price(!), but the older SD9 and SD90 are not so far behind and are still around. Thomann handle them. There's a guy on YouTube Tiho who does quite a few videos about them.

Ketron's website focusses on the Event models, which are their new flagship series. They're also represented on FaceBook.

Just a heads up.
A few years back the Keytron US center was non-responsive for some.
Not sure if that has changed.

Keytron used to be talked about a lot on this forum prior to that.
I don't think they have much representation/repair anywhere in the USA as of late.

I think there have been some changes.

There used to be two websites that may or may not have been the same company. ajamsonic.com has disappeared and the only site now, I think, is ketron.us. The website is responsive, whether the people are, I couldn't say.

BTW, there's no Y in their name, despite it usually being pronounced as if there is.

Fair point. I did spell it wrong.
I wasn't talking about a website though, I was talking somewhere you can try it out and take it if it needs service.

I had a W-30 back in the day.
I now prefer to keep my studio modular.
I priced their top Event model with all the bells and whistles.
$6500.
For what is a single point of failure set up.

I prefer having it a little less dependent on one item, for example if a keypad fails I can grab a different keyboard from the closet and at least keep making music.

Yes, agree entirely. Not so dissimilar to Korg or Yamaha prices, of course.

The EVM offers an alternative arrangement, but the costs still all adds up and one also then has yet more boxes and cables to carry around and interconnect. Just going to jams with my Kawai, I have the keyboard, stand, pedalboard, seat, PA, tablet and a bag of cables. I don't really want also a laptop, sound module, screen, more cables.

rharv, I think you are comparing apples to oranges. BiaB and arranger keyboards are both useful in their own right but are in entirely different categories.

Clearly you are quite astonished at being able to buy multiple BiaBs for the price of 1 Korg Pa5X.

This is how society has established worth, for which I obviously have no influence.

Are you saying that to close the gap, Korg must lower their price-point or PGMusic should raise theirs?

Though Arranger keyboards also comprise quite a bit of hardware, which will account for quite a bit of the price and will also contain profit margins for distributors and retailers. PGM mostly sells direct to the customer.

I most certainly agree that society sometimes has a quite bizarre understanding of worth.

Oh, I understand worth.
$5k could get a fair amount of studio time with real musicians.

For my circumstances (and that's where value To ME is based) I have much better use for that kind of money.
I have access to decent musicians as most people here know.
I also think that particular price involves quite a bit of profit.
Sure, there's the R & D but I disagree on how cheaply these can be mass produced.
They try to balance price/demand/profit/cost based on a desired profit margin.

The formula is not based on how to sell the most units, it is based on maximizing profit.

And no, I don't think PG should raise their price as they rely on a good amount of return business and do by well at balancing that equation.
I'm sure they could make more per unit, but overall they would lose more return customers.

My thumb-rule for costing was that I had to be able to make a product for 1/6 of the planned retail price. That may be nearer 1/5 in USA, where you don't have our typically 20% VAT.

20% goes to government in tax.
40% goes to the retailer.
20% goes to the wholesaler/distribution.
~17% is the cost to make.
~3% covers ancillaries, and profit.

I still find that shocking and have to do a reality check, but that's pretty much how things are.

I've also got a Korg M1. I wonder what it's worth nowadays?

Mario, I may not be able to help you understand the finer points of arranger keyboards, indeed, the reason this thread exists is for me to learn more about them. But maybe this thread can help you understand a bit about why I want one.

I don't doubt that BiaB and MIDI can do many great things but they are not portable keyboards, and that is my need. I agree that BiaB desperately needs better filtering capability. I also agree that several key presses are needed to get things done on arranger keyboards. But would't one expect that to be the case?

Both of those statements make me a bit concerned that there's possibly a misunderstanding going on here.

"Arranger keyboards" are not necessarily "chord sequencer keyboards". The subject line conflates the two things.

Generally what an arranger keyboard does is recognise a chord you play in the left hand end of the keyboard and play a backing pattern that fits with that chord. They very often do not include any kind of built-in chord sequencer. The button or touch-screen presses control variations on how the backup 'players' play, usually (invariably?) from simplest to most complex.

Some do include a chord sequencer, but one would have to look fairly closely at the documentation to be sure what and how that's done.

I think it's likely that most or all arranger keyboards can be controlled from a MIDI sequencer, e.g., like the BiaB "chords" track, though again one would have to look closely at the documentation to be sure.

Unless the arranger has a built-in chord sequencer, one would still need an external sequencer for it. Edit: That is, to get automated chord sequencing, rather than having to play them yourself.

Arranger keyboards take some practice to use ... the chords often have to be played at the right time, usually slightly ahead of the beat, to avoid messy or missed chord changes, and those other buttons or pedals usually have to be pressed as well, if only to switch to the end sequence. They have rigid timing, which also isn't always what one wants, though a bit of planning can often get around that.

None of that is intended to discourage, but it is intended to help assure that you understand the tool better.

As ever: caveat emptor.

Thanx Steve that answers my question. I did not know your need for portability and thought that you were going to use it in conjunction with BiaB. Thus the reason for my confusion and message.

Just like BiaB and arranger keyboards are apples and oranges, so too is how we measure worth.

I have no interest in spending $5K for "real musicians". Such expensing would not only be one-and-done, but they'd be having the fun.
Having said that, more power to them and I wish for their success in this age of music software, arranger keyboards and AI.

From my perspective, spending that money on a modern keyboard will give many years of creative joy, self-learning, exploration and collaboration/jamming with others; all items that I assign high value to.

But to each his own. I suppose that's why they make chocolate, strawberry and other flavor ice creams, not everyone prefers vanilla.

As for profits going to Korg, Yamaha, Roland and other instrument designers/manufacturers, again I say more power to them. Someone has to innovate and produce the instruments we all want and need. The engineers, programmers, musicians, manufacturing people and others that toil at these companies certainly need to earn a living and put food on their tables.

Oh I agree with all the above.
Like I said, They make that balance/decision of price vs units sold.
I think some products price above that balance, but that's just my opinion. As in my PGMusic example; PGMusic could charge more but would lose a repeat buyer market.
At some point the cost of producing the product becomes cheaper, if you sell enough of them.

And trust me, I don't pay $5k for musician time. I (and another) invested in and maintain a small local studio that musicians enjoy, hence my access to decent musicians. At very little cost overall.
"Yeah, we can give you cheap studio time, wanna jam on some of our stuff too?" works very well for us.
Plus we can do it at our leisure.

The whole thing was based on 'value to me', which is the only way I can honestly define value (and I thought I made that clear, even in your quote).
YMMV, and likely will, so I'm not arguing.

I agree.
And I don't get too hung up on the term "arranger keyboard" but I do want a keyboard that thas chord sequencing/chord progression capability where one can enter in custom chord progressions. I'm noticing such keyboards typically come with a lot of other bells and whistles, like many different styles which is a good thing. The technology in this area is really quite impressive.

I notice that some of the higher-end such keyboards get described as "Workstation", rather than "Arranger". I presume by that that they mean they do more than "just" the arranger function Some of them are very impressive, though of course take some mastering.

My usual method for deciding if something like that does what I want is to download the manual, search it with suitable keywods and read the relevant bits. That can be tedious/frustrating.

Good luck on your search.

Now Workstation I can get on board with.
THAT I have spent over a grand on and loved it. So much value at the time.

If only we knew the OP's budget .. big or small.
That Roland may be the best choice for his budget/needs. Or maybe he has a bigger budget, I don't recall that ever being defined (but it's a long thread)

Yeah, portability is a big requirement.
And although I'm not specifically planning to integrate BiaB with this keyboard, it will be possible via USB, line-outs and my DAW; so I'll never say never. I've learned that unplanned connections between various tools in the toolbox are quite possible and can be a rewarding part of the creative process.

I think we had a bit of misunderstanding before, I thought you did pay thousands for musician time.
Now that I know you manage/own a studio where decent/pro musicians frequent, you should invite them to this forum.

I'd love to hear what they have to say about mid to high-end keyboards and even what they think of BiaB.

Well, it also helps that my parents owned the main music store in the area, so I have been around the local guys since we were knee high.

They don't need BiaB because they play with other musicians.
Except the retired ones, who like it for practice.

Fun fact, we use RB/PT a lot; simple, quick, and just works.
Although Reaper and Pro Tools are available if needed.
Most guys never ask what we use, they just want the results.And the room.

As for using the generation tools, yeah, we like to freak them out occasionally with a generated part.

Drummer is going to be late?
No problem, we can fake it until he gets here.

[quote=Gordon Scott
I notice that some of the higher-end such keyboards get described as "Workstation", rather than "Arranger". I presume by that that they mean they do more than "just" the arranger function Some of them are very impressive, though of course take some mastering.

My usual method for deciding if something like that does what I want is to download the manual, search it with suitable keywods and read the relevant bits. That can be tedious/frustrating. [/quote]
Yep, we have workstations, arrangers, high-end keyboards, mid-end keyboards and probably another category or two. And lot's of overlap amoungst them. As technology progresses, it will probably become even more overlapping.

I also download manuals which has proven to be useful. Another source of product data and commentary are the dedicated forums such as
Keyboard Forums

Plus there is Music Radar

So you've been around studio cats since a kid, cool. You must have a ton of stories.

I wonder what they'd have to say about mid to high-end keyboards on the market these days.

When I used one, I would spend hours on a song.
Take it to rehearsal/practice and play it for them.

They'd say "let me hear it again"

If they liked it we would play 'our' version of it.
If we kept playing it after that, I would be tasked to make the workstation control the lights and such moving forward.

Well I decided on the Pa5X-61 and it arrived today. All I can say is that I love this instrument.

I basically plugged it in, connected it to my digital interface, the menu came up, I selected the default Pop style, tapped the Chords button to display a pre-programmed chord progression, picked up my bass, and started jamming along to one of its many built-in progressions. Everything so far is well laid-out and easy to navigate. I didn't have to consult the quick start manual or the more detailed user manual at all. Before I knew it, 3 hours of fun had flown by.

This will replace my previous keyboard, also a Korg that had 88 keys but the Pa5X has an octave +/- button which works just fine.

The funny thing for me as a bass player is that this keyboard with it's real-time chord display will actually contribute to my knowledge of music theory. If I play a 3-note chord while a style is playing the rest of the band will instantly follow that new chord allowing you to arrange a song in real-time. Plus, when the screen is configured properly, it will display the chord you are playing. I already built a mini song fragment just by cycling from C to Cm to Csus4 to C even though I didn't know how to construct those chords 4 hours earlier. You just play 3 (or maybe 4 or more) notes and if it's a valid chord it will display it on the screen. Neat technology for sure.

Kudos to the musicians and engineers that designed this, in my mind they hit a home run.

Pa5X

Well, ya went fro $400 to $4000 so I HOPE you like it. <grin>

I admit, I thought the original Roland you gave as an example also defined the budget range.
I've eyed the Pa5x, but never pulled the trigger.
Sounds like the arranging part works good for you, how are the sounds?

Can it also record your input with/without the arranger feature?

I had a couple W-30s as the my last workstations, sync'd at times. Since a laptop can do most of the job since then, I have done without, but lugging stuff around gets old (all in one is convenient).
The sound may tip the scales, which is why I ask.

Yeah, I know listen to videos (compressed formats that had production involvement). Just wondering how it sounds when it's in front of you.

Oh yeah, I more than just like it and there's a mountain of features I've yet to explore and grow into. I can easily see this as my last keyboard.
It's got a bunch of factory styles and the ones I've sampled sound good to my ear. Also the individual voices; pianos, strings, brass, percussion also sound high quality. This unit also has built-in mixers so if you don't like things you can mix onboard. And of course you can record to your DAW and EQ at will.

Keep in mind I don't wear or need hearing aids and the Pa5X does not contain speakers, so I'm routing its audio to my interface and then to a single JBL studio monitor. It has plenty of output capability but I want to reserve my other monitor for other audio. There may be times where I'll route both channels to each monitor but I did that rarely on my old Korg.

Another feature I've yet to explore is the style fader. I've seen in the YouTubes that you can allocate 2 different styles to a performance. And use the slide fader below the screen to fade from one style to the other. I'm thinking that each style's tempo would need to be an integer multiple of the other (if not identical) for the tempos to seamlessly align. I'm not aware of any other keyboard that can do this but I haven't done an exhaustive search. The large, multi-color screen, chord progressions and large quatity of styles/voices is what I prioritized. You're simply not going to get all this for $500.

Right now I see absolutely no limitations for my needs; it's professional grade.

Since this is an international forum there may be some here (like me) that find Korg's global footprint impressive, although I'm not sure why the US is not shown.

$5200 at Sweetwater!!! I hope you love it for a long time.

The Korg design team must have had a ton of fun engineering this instrument. Much like how today's late model vehicles are a massive software program with 4 wheels and safety/comfort features, this instrument is an elegant piece of easy-to-navigate software, that is housed in a box with buttons, knobs and 61 responsive and weighted keys. The onboard storage must be measured in GBs. According to the quick-start manual the sounds are processed by an elaborate chain of effects including final effects for each of the Player and Keyboard Sounds. So it looks like they borrowed much from the DAW folks. This is definately not your grand daddy's keyboard!

And it does pay to shop around, you saw how much lower the price is at Amazon compared to Sweetwater.

My own creativity is the only limit of how well this will become integrated with my DAW, BiaB, my bass guitar and my Roland drum pad. One thing is for sure, my game just got upped

Here is a quick and dirty demo I built a couple days ago immediately after unboxing and shared with some friends.

Korg Demo

0:00 – 0:26 Automatic Intro when I play the C major chord with the style that is at the top of a very long styles list, "Pop '21".

0:26 I start playing using Voice 1 (e-piano) and play chords on my right hand; C – Cm – C – Cm – Csus2 – C and the band follows me. And the cool thing is it shows me on the display the name of the chord I’m playing in real-time!

0:50 I push the “Break” button twice for it to give me a stream of repeating breaks during which I switch over to Voice 2

1:01 I start playing the above chords, now with Voice 2 (female vox)

1:31 I hit “Break” again to switch over to Voice 3 (organ)

1:41 I again play my chords with the Voice 3 and the band follows

2:12 I hit one of the ending buttons and it brings us nicely to an end.

2:23 It ends the song

2:26 For grins I played the major scale chords (I think) from C to C and then messed around a bit when I reached the top. This shows a little better how the band follows my right-hand chords and when no new chords are played it just vamps on the last chord until told to do otherwise.

The point of this isn't to show off my dismal keyboard chops but rather to show a tiny bit of what a 21st century keyboard can do.
We are truly living in a neat time in history regarding music gear.

I thought the drums and guitar sounded good, the organ did not. Voice sound was average

Thanks for sharing it, it helped me. .. FWIW

Reinforced my opinion of Korg sounds, whatever that means, YMMV, etc.
Also, I hear glitches before the breaks (36 second mark or so) that were distracting
Just being honest, I appreciate you sharing it.
It's nice to hear a raw version of the output without all the production from marketing, much appreciated.

"We are truly living in a neat time in history regarding music gear."
very very true, even thinking of this stuff was a dream not so long ago

That may well be related to chord entry timing. It can be quite a challenge to get the timing right, not too early, not too late. A small timing error can have a noticable impact.

True ..

Somewhat impressive, some nice features, but I also felt that the backing was particularly repetitive. Perhaps there are settings for variations that could be added?