KORG PA5X-88 Professional Arranger Keyboard – 88 Key
KORG PA5X-88 is the new flagship in the KORG Professional Arranger lineup, redefining an arranger keyboard. Completely redesigned with a state-of-the-art sound engine and a streamlined colour-driven user interface, Pa5X produces a stunningly rich and unique sonic experience that inspires you to create and perform!
Inspiring New Sounds, Refreshing New Workflow, Entirely New Arranger
KORG PA5X-88 comes packed with thousands of inspiring Sounds and hundreds of fresh Styles. They’re all instantly accessible through an inviting workflow. A completely new front panel featuring an assignable Pad Matrix and Mixer section, multicoloured LED buttons, and a huge tilt-able touchscreen puts you in control of your music-making experience at all times.
Pa5X excels both as a live performance instrument and as a powerful creative tool in the studio. It allows you to find your ideal sound no matter where your music takes you.
PA5X-88’s Premium Quality and Elegant Design
The Korg Pa5X was designed with elegance and durability in mind. It features a sturdy aluminium body and genuine wooden side-panels for a luxurious appearance. All of the keybeds on Pa5X provide an authentic feel and full control of expression for any playing situation. The 88-key weighted action has a realistic piano-like touch while the 76- and 61-key versions feature lighter touch semi-weighted keys.
All the keybeds include aftertouch control for added expressivity.
Modern and Streamlined User Interface
At the centre of Pa5X is a large 8” tiltable touch screen that displays a completely redesigned GUI. This makes all the sounds and features of Pa5X easily accessible to studio musicians as well as performers.
The colours in the display are carefully matched to the ones used in the LED programmable buttons on the control panel. This color-driven interface allows you to easily navigate Pa5X, adding colour to your music!
Powerful EDS-XP Sound Engine for Rich and Inspiring Sounds
KORG Professional Arrangers have set the industry standard for powerful musical expression. They feature sound engines that inspire musicians to create and perform. Pa5X introduces the EDS-XP (Enhanced Definition Synthesis – Expanded) sound-engine. It builds upon the technology used in Pa4X with advanced hardware and a powerful new operating system, taking sounds on Pa5X to a new level.
The 24 stereo Oscillators and 160 voices of polyphony power thousands of high-quality sounds. They cover a wide range of musical instruments and genres. The EDS-XP sound engine also introduces new cutting-edge features such as Round-Robin drum and percussion performance, Smooth Sound Transition, Sound-Controller 3 functionality and much more. This provides an unprecedented level of sonic realism and expression that is only available on Pa5X.
PA5X-88’s Realtime Controllers
Pa5X features a fully programmable control section with 9 buttons and 9 sliders. You can assign any function to it, from mixer volume to drawbar settings, from microphone mute to bass inversion, to lyrics scroll commands and more.
The assigned function is shown by an auxiliary strip display. That way, you always know what you have under your fingertips – even if you are on a different page to the main display.
Numerous assignable controllers are available for expressive real time playing and Korg’s DNC (Defined Nuance Control) which supplies so much of the detail in the sound of musical instruments.
Faders, switches, real and virtual matrices of real-time controls, the joystick, and the ribbon controller are assignable to modulate any parameter of the sound. This provides precise control of the most subtle nuances and articulation of the instruments you are playing on the Pa5x.
Advanced Chord Recognition System and Full Library of Chord Sequences
Korg Pa5X’s chord recognition system is the most sophisticated around, featuring an Expert mode that is for playing styles of the best modern jazz pianists. This chord recognition system can be as simple or advanced as desired, even allowing you to trigger chords with a single finger!
With automatic harmonization, a chord sequencer, and a sophisticated chord recognition engine, Pa5X gives you the tools to create rich musical arrangements no matter what the genre of music.
Smooth Transitions between Sounds, Styles and Songs
Pa5X adds Smooth Sound Transition (SST) technology, allowing for seamless transitions between Sounds, Styles and Songs without any interruption. When you select a different element, the sound, effects and sequences will continue to play, fading away naturally until you are ready for the next sequence or note to begin, making for an uninterrupted and realistic performance.
Cutting-edge Dual Crossfading Players
KORG PA5X-88 can play two Styles, MIDI files, or MP3 files simultaneously and in any combination, made possible by the dual onboard Players. These two Players can be mixed with a handy crossfader, or can be used to play a song while another one is waiting to start. All the while, Pa5X’s sound engine delivers the power, effects processing, and polyphony to make these transitions happen seamlessly.
Lyrics, Chords, Score and Marker can be clearly shown on the large internal display of Pa5X. A wide variety of Lyrics formats are supported, and you can even automatically generate a score from a MIDI Song.
Markers allow for quick navigation of a song using the Style-Element buttons, allowing you to easily jump back to a passage you wish to repeat while studying, rehearsing, or performing live.
Creating Styles and Songs with PA5X-88
You can create your own Styles, and record your own MIDI and MP3 Songs. The included editing features allow for detailed editing of each single recorded event. A sophisticated transposition table adapts the sequences to any chord you may play.
You can record a MIDI Song using a full-featured Sequencer. Even easier, just record what you sing and play (including MP3 Songs) as an MP3 file, and listen to it anywhere you like.
The SongBook: A Music Library Always With You
Save Songs and Styles into the onboard SongBook, whose database-like entries are easy to synchronize with external score readers on a tablet. You can therefore use a digital music book to control your Pa5X.
The songs in the music database can be saved into Set Lists. Each one is dedicated to a show, to a singer or a style of music, for easy handling of all music resources at once. When choosing a song from the SongBook, you also immediately get the necessary Sounds, the Style, a Song, the effects and even a chord sequence.
A Complete Sound Library
The onboard sounds range from ultra-realistic acoustic instruments, to electric vintage keyboards, to synth classics, with the addition of fantasy sounds and special effects for game, media, video and cinema production. We have also included instruments from various ages and world cultures, while also leaving ample room for your own expansions.
The curated selection of acoustic and electric pianos, which includes sounds from our celebrated SV-2 Stage Vintage Piano, is particularly suitable for the hammer action 88 key version. We also included specially selected sounds from our flagship synth workstations: Kronos and Nautilus.
A new Drawbar Organ section proudly boasts a realistic control surface that can rely on the physical sliders and buttons on the main panel of Korg Pa5X. New effects that are derived from the legendary KORG CX-3 Combo Organ are also included.
The new Drum Kits were recorded making use of a new technology, based on round robins to increase realism. No two drum hits are equal, resulting in authentic-sounding drum performances.
In addition to the huge amount of included sounds, the onboard sampler will help create new sounds. Record your own sounds or import from standard file formats like AIFF, WAV and SF2. The detailed on-board sample editor allows you to fine-tune your samples. Also, transform an audio loop into a percussive kit.
Intuitive Mixer Section with Extensive Effects Processing
Sounds on KORG PA5X-88 are processed by an elaborate chain of professional studio quality effects, with up to 10 Insert FX, 3 Master FX and 1 Finalizer for each of the two Players. The Keyboard Sets can use up to 3 Insert and 3 Master FX.
Final mastering effects are applied as the last step on the audio outputs of Pa5X. This results in a polished sound that is blended and produced. This is a result of KORG’s long-term cooperation with Waves Audio®.
Dedicated Microphone and Guitar Inputs with Effects Processing
Connect a microphone and a guitar simultaneously to the separate audio inputs of Pa5X. KORG’s extensive experience in vocal harmonization technology and guitar effects processing is present. Each of these inputs having dedicated on-board effects.
We are proud to have teamed with Shift Audio, a company with 30 years of experience in vocal processing technology. The founders of Shift Audio came from an industry-leading company specializing in vocal processing products.
The latest generation of vocal processing algorithms optimised to run on the latest technology used in the Pa5X.
The result is incredible lifelike four-voice harmonies that give you the feeling of a real singing group. You will also enjoy the new Auto Pitch feature in the Pa5X. It delivers performance and sound found in a lot of modern music.
The separate guitar input is completely independent and even has its own gain control. Guitar effects include vintage pedal and amplifier simulators to enhance your guitar sound and performance. There are many predefined guitar-presets of up to 4 insert-effects provided. It is also easy to create and save user effects presets.
One vocal and one guitar-preset are assignable to each SongBook entry. Therefore, this makes for an easy and fast musical performance.
MIDI, USB, HDMI, Audio In and Out, Pedal Connectors
KORG PA5X-88 offers a plethora of audio, control and storage connections. You can use MIDI and USB for controllers or storage devices. Use HDMI for an external display. Then, XLR, jack and minijack audio connectors for other keyboards, condenser and dynamic microphones, guitars and bass guitars, smartphones and tablets, or to connect your instrument to powered speakers or PA systems via the balanced outs.
Four separate line outs are available to handle sounds separately. Three pedal inputs allow for connecting your preferred damper pedal (with half-pedal support), footswitch, volume and expression pedals. You can use the ones you already own, or choose from our range of optional accessories.
Standard File Formats work with PA5X-88
Using formats like MIDI or MP3 for songs, WAV, AIFF and SF2 for samples, opens up a world of possibilities. The MIDI and USB ports allow Pa5X to connect with any external device with storage. The HDMI connector is compatible with many modern monitors and club video circuits. Therefore, allowing Pa5X to serve as the centre of your studio or stage setup!
Optional High-Quality Accessories
The optional modern and stylish ST-SV1-BK stand keeps Pa5X sturdy while performing. Thanks to its elegant design, it can also function as a stylish piece of furniture when setup in your home.
Pa5X is compatible with the KORG PaAS Amplification System. It’s a speaker system that easily connects directly to Pa5X without cables. This allows you to listen with the best audio quality, even at the lowest volume levels for rehearsing at night. Simply put it in place and play!
KORG PA5X-88 Conclusion
KORG PA5X-88 is the most evocative, powerful, and easy-to-use Professional Arranger ever produced. It has much more to explore on this cutting-edge new platform. Pa5X’s new sound catalogue, operating system, streamlined navigation, and feature set will take your performance to an all-new level.
- Premium Quality and Elegant Design
- Modern and Streamlined User Interface
- Stunningly rich sound-engine: EDS-XP