[Musikmesse] Korg Pa588

They believe that the Pa800’s powerful arranger tools and intuitive interface make it the perfect musical partner for composers, studio musicians and live performers who demand the highest quality sounds and ultimate flexibility.

Here’s their press release with all the details, decide for yourself…

• Get Real
  Korg’s team of sound development technicians has worked tirelessly to give you the ultimate concert grand piano sound in the Pa588. Painstakingly sampled at multi-velocity levels from a world-class grand piano, the Pa588 features string resonance and damper pedal noise, offering an outstanding aural experience. Within the first few minutes of exploring the Pa588’s beautifully weighted keyboard, even the very subtlest nuances of your playing are captured and faithfully reproduced.
  
  Using the same EDS (Enhanced Definition Synthesis) found in the Korg M3 Music Workstation, the Pa588 delivers more than 880 additional, realistic pro-quality sounds plus well over 50 drumkits. These sounds include a wide variety of expressive instruments including sax, strings, bass, and much more, giving you a vast range of performance possibilities. With the benefit of Korg’s much lauded RX (Real eXperience) technology, when you combine these with the Pa588’s stunning backing patterns, your performance will effortlessly recreate the rich depth and tonal detail of a top quality grand piano.
  
  
• Guitar Mode
  The Pa588 incorporates a Guitar mode that automatically converts your playing into the voicing harmony and chord data that is most characteristic of guitar playing. All you do is select a chord and specify a fretting position, and then use the keyboard to enter the playing patterns, such as picking and strumming. Korg’s RX technology reproduces such guitar subtleties as the sound of your finger sliding on the string as you change chords and the fret noises, imbuing your performances with a heightened sense of realism when you play and record using guitar sounds.
  
  
• Even Better Effects
  Good effects processing can make a great performance sublime. So you’ll be pleased to hear that the Pa588 comes loaded with a wealth of carefully crafted professional quality effects. Everything from variable length delays and lush reverbs through to an exciter and even amp modelling. The Pa588 also includes a powerful EQ section complete with parametric equalizer.
  
  
• Smooth Operator
  The Pa588 features a large TouchView display that, as the name suggests, is operated simply by touch. You can choose to operate the Pa588 in either ‘Easy’ or ‘Expert’ mode. ‘Easy’ works best if you’re a beginner or performing live as it gives you a simplified display with easy visibility and smooth operation. ‘Expert’ mode puts you in full command of editing and arranging. But regardless of the mode you’re in or the sound you’re playing, you can always use the “Play Piano” button to instantly change to the main Piano sound.
  
  
• Over 320 Styles
  The Pa588 contains more than 320 fully detailed and complete “styles, ” created by professional artists from around the world. Each style is a complete musical environment, providing, introductions, fills, breaks, endings and variations. The Style engine follows your timing, chord changes and voicing, delivering an immensely powerful musical performance automatically – no pre-programming required. You can choose from a diverse range of musical styles such as jazz, latin, country, pop, rock, techno plus many more.
  
  
• Sequencing Power
  The Pa588 contains a powerful 16-track 55,000 note multi-track sequencer which offers amazing creative potential. In addition to manually recording each part individually, you can use the Backing Sequencer function to record each instrument of a style-generated accompaniment in real-time in a single pass, allowing you to create songs incredibly quickly. You can also simply step in the chords and create an entire arrangement without playing a single note. During playback, the XDS dual sequencer can play one sequence file as you load another. Using the DJ-style crossfader, you can seamlessly crossfade between these for non-stop entertainment.
  
  
• A Range Of Practical Functions At Your Fingertips
  The KORG SongBook function organizes MIDI and Style data by genre, title, and artist name. For example you can use the Song Book to quickly search for the desired song data by artist name, and then recall with a single touch the MIDI file or style, effects and all settings specified for that song. It’s not only a boon for live performance, but it also lets you use the Pa588 for composition or arranging as a piano with a powerful musical data base built in.
  
  
• Stunning Design
  The Pa588 is a stunning piece of design with a beautiful body housing a superb integrated sound system featuring two full range speakers in bass reflex enclosures to bring out the full natural richness of the magnificent piano voice. (A headphone jack enables private practice; muting the sound through the speakers).

Comprehensive audio i/o connectivity means you can play the Pa588’s sounds through external amplification and speakers, you can also play sounds from other audio sources through the Pa588’s sound system along with the PAa588’s own sounds. MIDI connectors are provided, allowing you to transfer performance data between other musical instruments and computers. The USB connector allows single-cable connection to your computer for backing-up your performance data or for transmitting/receiving MIDI data.

Pricing and Availability:
TBA

More information:
o www.korgpa.com