[NAMM] Korg Pa2x Pro

Guided by Korg’s Real eXperience (RX) technology, the PA2XPro combines quality sound, effects, MP3 features, sample edit tools, musical Styles and a sequencer loaded with compositional aids. Brimming with power, the Pa2XPro employs a slew of assignable controllers and a new motorized, full color TouchView interface, providing an intuitive and musical interface.

The screen of the Pa2X Pro is a motorized tilting display and with the capability to select the right viewing angle, and one of the 7 different background colors in the Graphical User Interface, you can be sure the display can be read in all lighting and performing conditions, a truly professional feature. A manual “clutch” allows you to adjust the motorized display, even with the power off.

So musicians of all levels can make great music quickly, there are two interface modes: EASY and EXPERT. The EASY mode shows only the most important controls while keeping a clean and easy interface, useful for beginners or for live performances, while in EXPERT mode you have full editing control. Nothing stands between you and your professional performance.

The 2 Switches and 8 Sliders (the 9th acts always as a MP3 Volume control, except for Digital Drawbars) are fully assignable so your live performances work the way you want them to. For one song the Sliders can be Organ Drawbars, controlling the 9 footages of a tone wheel organ; for another volume controls for each part of a backing style or Mic settings.

Sliders, knobs and drawbar positions will be changed directly by moving them on the touch screen. The same will happen with numeric fields: touch them, and then push forward to increase the value, pull back to decrease. Oh, and this is also valid for changing Tempo, for the smoothest accelerando and ritardando ever conceived!

The 76 key keybed has aftertouch and is velocity sensitive. Based on the EDS (Extended Definition Synthesis) engine found in the new Korg M3, the Pa2XPro provides breathtaking sound. The Pa2XPro also borrows the stunning multi-layer piano sound from our flagship C-720 Concert Piano. There are more than 950 ROM sounds, including a new amazing multilayer stereo Acoustic Piano accurately sampled from a Concert Grand (and including String and Damper Pedal resonance), plus 63 drum kits. In addition, the RAM area contains up to 256 user sounds and 64 drum kits and of course, there is full on board sound editing.

The full featured internal Sampler can load Wave, AIFF, Korg format files and of course the incredible Akai sample library into the standard 128MB of added memory (expandable to 256MB).

The Pa2X Pro also features editing facilities such as Loop, Cut, Normalize and Crop of samples. A special “Time Slice” feature allows you to slice audio grooves and import the audio data into a Style.

When editing SMFs in Sequencer mode, the Pa2X Pro can automatically replace the Guitar sound with a high-quality RX Guitar sound while adding RX Noise to the track.

The Pa2X Pro has 4 Stereo Master Effects processors with 125 of these effects from the standards such as Reverb, Delay and Chorus through to specialised effects such as a Vocoder and some of the REMS guitar based effects. The TC Helicon vocal effects are separate and completely independently controlled.

Each Track features EQ with Low, Mid and High controls. A custom track EQ can be memorized in the general preferences for the Song Play mode.

A final semi-parametric EQ, with Low, Mid (with adjustable frequency) and High controls, is added to the sound output of the Pa2X Pro.

The Pa2X Pro includes as standard the TC Helicon Voice Processor. This features EQ and professional quality effects like Compressor, Gate, Delay and Reverb, designed and shaped specifically for vocals. These effects, combined with the XLR/Combo balanced connection with switchable Phantom Power to connect even pro-studio condenser Mics, dedicated high quality Mic preamp and built in ultra realistic 3 voice Harmonizer ensure your vocals have the highest possible sound quality. The most important controls to keep your voice under control are available in the panel, using the user assignable Mic Slider Mode settings, and in the display’s main page. Simply connect your microphone and start performing!

The Style section follows your chord changes and voice leading, enhancing your performance by adding everything from tasteful and authentic guitar picking to a tight drum and bass groove – or even a full blown R & B rhythm section.

Styles can be created from “scratch” or quickly assembled by combining parts from existing Styles We add further realism to your performance with Fill 3/Break, Intro 3/Count In and Ending 3 Style Elements.

Guitar Mode allows any musician to easily create realistic guitar parts using real guitar neck positions.

The Pa2X Pro arranger include also the Fixed NTT, a feature that moves as few notes as possible while creating the style backing tracks, making legato lines and chord changes far more natural for instruments like strings, piano, mute guitar, etc.

In addition, the Pa2X Pro supports the main musical formats such as Standard Midi File, Karaoke files, General MIDI Level 1 & 2 and of course is able to display lyrics and chords in most popular karaoke formats. Further improving on Korg’s XDS Double Sequencer concept, two MP3 files can play at the same time, as in a double DJ turntable or CD player. MP3 files start immediately, and can be freely transposed, accelerated or slowed down as if they were MIDIfiles. No need for external players or controllers – they are all included and working in a highly-integrated environment!

The standard MP3 board allow also for recording your entire performance (including Vocals and Pa2X Pro sounds) in MP3 format.

There is also a practical Marker function to allow you to jump directly to a given position in the song: you can fix the markers using the internal sequencer (or using a computer based one – the marker format is standard) and then remix your favourite songs during a live performance for added spontaneity.

Along with a powerful and fully programmable multi track sequencer, you can use Backing Sequences to create songs based over styles.

The SongBook is a Musical Database, completely user programmable, containing all the settings needed to play a particular song. You have only to search the title of the song you would like to play, select it and hit “Play”. The SongBook can use Styles, MIDIfiles, Karaoke and MP3 and immediately recall settings such as Song Title, Genre, Artist, Tempo, Volumes, Sounds, Muted Tracks, FX settings, Easy Edit, 4 STS*, 4 Pads, Master Transpose and more.

You can configure and edit almost anything in the Pa2X Pro. You can modify and save Styles, Pad, Performances, Sounds, Songs, SongBook, settings for Sliders, Switches, Pedals, Global (Midi channels, output routings, etc.) and more for both, internal and external control.

Scales are fully programmable and include Quarter Tone settings and a programmable Arabic Scale. If you are playing an organ sound, you will enjoy using the 9 Sliders as Drawbars. With all of this control, the Pa2X Pro also functions as a MIDI controller (Master Keyboard).

A complete Media edit section is available for files and folders handling including load, save, delete, copy, rename, backup, restore, delete, etc. functions for internal and external USB connected drives. During your extensive editing sessions the internal clock will fix the correct date and time in your files.

The Pa2X Pro has 4 separate balanced/unbalanced analog audio outputs, 2 balanced/unbalanced analog line inputs, 1 XLR/Combo Balanced Mic input with switchable Phantom Power, 1 USB Device and 2 USB Host connections. And the digital output (in S/P DIF coaxial format) is standard. The optional VIF4 Graphical Video Interface (available in PAL or NTSC standard formats) can display on an external TV monitor either just the lyrics (useful for Karaoke) or clone the on board display.

It has two USB Host connections available to connect standard Pen drives, external hard drives, DVD-CD players or even a Floppy Disk. One Host is located in the front panel for quick access in real time, while the second Host is on the back panel. A further USB Device connection is available for the Pa2X Pro to connect with a computer (PC or Mac) for fast exchange of large amounts of data from the internal SSD memory and Hard Disk or as a MIDI connection without the need for extra MIDI computer interfaces. A Hard Disk is standard on board for storing.

And if you have been one of the many longstanding Korg Arranger users you will be happy to know that even though the Pa2X Pro is all new, it is also compatible with the Korg “i-series” style format and with any “musical” Pa50, Pa60, Pa80, Pa1X file. This means your Pa50, Pa60, Pa80 and Pa1X sound programs work in the Pa2X Pro as well so you can keep your Sounds, Styles, Songs, and Performances while benefiting from a cutting edge keyboard. Of course, the Pa2X Pro is fully compatible with Pa800 data.

The Pa2X Pro offers options such as the Graphic Video Interface (PAL/NTSC compatible), a memory expansion up to 256 MB for sampling and a variety of Foot Pedals. Not only you can expand your Pa2X Pro to perfectly fit your needs, you can also easily keep it constantly updated to new exciting features with the new operating systems available as free downloads from www.korgpa.com.