Korg PA300 Users manual

User Manual

ENGLISH | OS Ver. 1.5

Important safety instructions

• Read these instructions, and follow them carefully.

• Keep these instructions in a safe place.

• Heed all warnings.

• Do not use this apparatus near water.

• Clean only with dry cloth.

• Do not block any ventilation openings, install in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

• Do not install near any heat sources such as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or other apparatus (including amplifiers) that produce heat.

• Protect the power cord from being walked on or pinched particularly at plugs, convenience receptacles, and the point where they exit from the apparatus.

• Only use attachments/accessories specified by the manufacturer.

• Unplug this apparatus during lightning storms or when unused for long periods of time.

• Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel. Servicing is required when the apparatus has been damaged in any way, such as power-supply cord or plug is damaged, liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the apparatus, the apparatus has been exposed to rain or moisture, does not operate normally, or has been dropped.

• Turning off the power switch does not completely isolate this product from the power line so remove the plug from the socket if not using it for extended periods of time, or before cleaning. Please ensure that the mains plug or appliance couple remains readily accessible.

• Mains powered apparatus shall not be exposed to dripping or splashing and that no objects filled with liquids, such as vases, shall be placed on the apparatus.

• Install this product near the wall socket and keep the power plug easily accessible.

• Do not install this equipment in a confined space such as a box for the conveyance or similar unit.

• When a cart is used, use caution when moving the cart/apparatus combination to avoid injury from tip-over.

THE FCC REGULATION WARNING (FOR USA)

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

If items such as cables are included with this equipment, you must use those included items.

Unauthorized changes or modification to this system can void the user’s authority to operate this equipment.

DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY (FOR USA)

Responsible Party: KORG USA INC.

Address: 316 SOUTH SERVICE ROAD, MELVILLE / Telephone: 1-631-390-6500

Equipment Type: Music Arranger / Model: Pa300

This device complies with Part 15 of FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

NOTICE REGARDING DISPOSAL (EU ONLY)

If this symbol is shown on the product, manual, battery, or package, you must dispose of it in the correct manner to avoid harm to human health or damage to the environment. Contact your local administrative body for details on the correct disposal method. If the battery contains heavy metals in excess of the regulated amount, a chemical symbol is displayed below the symbol on the battery or battery package.

PERCHLORATE (CALIFORNIA, USA ONLY)

Perchlorate Material – special handling may apply. See www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/perchlorate.

CE MARK FOR EUROPEAN HARMONIZED STANDARDS

CE mark which is attached to our company’s products of AC mains operated apparatus until December 31, 1996 means it conforms to EMC Directive (89/336/ EEC) and CE mark Directive (93/68/EEC).

And, CE mark which is attached after January 1, 1997 means it conforms to EMC Directive (89/336/EEC), CE mark Directive (93/68/EEC) and Low Voltage Directive (73/23/EEC).

Also, CE mark which is attached to our company’s products of Battery operated apparatus means it conforms to EMC Directive (89/336/EEC) and CE mark Directive (93/68/EEC).

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO CONSUMERS

This product has been manufactured according to strict specifications and voltage requirements that are applicable in the country in which it is intended that this product should be used. If you have purchased this product via the internet, through mail order, and/or via a telephone sale, you must verify that this product is intended to be used in the country in which you reside.

WARNING: Use of this product in any country other than that for which it is intended could be dangerous and could invalidate the manufacturer's or distributor's warranty.

Please also retain your receipt as proof of purchase otherwise your product may be disqualified from the manufacturer's or distributor's warranty.

Further notices

Automatic Power-Off

To avoid wasting power, Pa300 will by default automatically enter standby mode after two hours of non-active use (playing, pressing buttons or using the touch-screen). Please save your data (Performances, Styles, Songs, and so on) before taking a prolonged pause.

Data Handling

Data in memory may sometimes be lost due to incorrect user action. Be sure to save important data to the internal memory or to an external USB device. Korg will not be responsible for damages caused by data loss.

Cleaning

If the exterior becomes dirty, wipe it with a clean, dry cloth. Do not use liquid cleaners such as benzene or thinner, or cleaning compounds or flammable polishes.

Use a soft cotton cloth to clean the display. Some materials, such as paper towels, could cause scratches and damage it. Computer wipes are also suggested, provided they are specifically designed for LCD screens.

Do not spray any liquid on the LCD screen directly. Always apply the solution to your cloth first, then clean the screen.

Example screens

Some pages of the manuals show LCD screens along with an explanation of functions and operations. All sound, style, song or parameter names, as well as shown values, are merely examples and may not always match the actual display you are working on.

Trademarks

Acrobat and PDF are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Mac is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. MS-DOS and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Open Source notice

Disclaimer

The information contained in this manual have been carefully revised and checked through. Due to our constant efforts to improve our products, the specifications might differ to those in the manual. Korg is not responsible for any differences found between the specifications and the contents of the instruction manual – all specifications being subject to change without prior notice.

Liability

Korg products are manufactured under strict specifications and voltages required by each country. These products are warranted by the Korg distributor only in each country. Any Korg product not sold with a warranty card or carrying a serial number disqualifies the product sold from the manufacturer's/distributor's warranty and liability. This requirement is for your own protection and safety.

Service and User’s Assistance

For service, please contact your nearest Authorized Korg Service Center. For more information on Korg products, and to find software and accessories for your keyboard, please contact your local Authorized Korg distributor. For up-to-date information, please point your web browser to our web site.

Keep your keyboard up-to-date

Your instrument can be constantly updated as new versions of the operating system are released by Korg. You can download the operating system from our web site. Please, read the instructions supplied with the operating system.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What’s in the box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

About this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Making a safety copy of your data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Restoring the original factory data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Loading the Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Keyboard tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Performance and STS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

The LOGO decoder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Interface basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Color TouchView graphical user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Operative modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Selected, highlighted items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Non-available, grayed-out parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Easy Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Style Play page in detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

The Song Play page in detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Quick Guide

Turning the instrument on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Turning the instrument on and viewing the main screen . . . 28

Connecting and calibrating the Damper pedal . . . . . . . . 29

Programming the Damper pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Playing the Demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Starting and stopping the Demo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Playing Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Selecting a Sound and playing it on the keyboard . . . . . . . . . . 33

Playing two or three Sounds at the same time . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Playing different Sounds with your left and right hand . . . . . 37

Changing the split point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Raising or lowering the Upper octave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Selecting and saving Performances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Selecting a Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Saving your settings to a Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Selecting and saving the “My Setting” Performance . . . 44

Selecting the startup parameters (the “My Setting”

Performance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Saving the startup parameters into the “My Setting”

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Selecting and playing Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Selecting and playing a Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Tempo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Intro, Variation, Fill, Break, Ending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Single Touch Settings (STS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Adjusting the balance between the Style and the keyboard . . 50

Adjusting the volume of the separate tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Turning the Style tracks on/off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Adding harmony notes to your right-hand melody with

the ENSEMBLE function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Song Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Selecting a Song to play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Playing back a Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Changing the tracks’ volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Turning the Song tracks on/off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Soloing a track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The SongBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Selecting the desired Entry from the Main List . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Displaying Artist or Genre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Sorting Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Searching for Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Adding Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Editing the Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Creating a Custom List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Selecting and using a Custom List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Recording a new Song (Standard MIDI File) . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Preparing the Style and Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Accessing the Backing Sequence (Quick Record) mode . . . . . 72

Setting the Record parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Second-take recording (Overdubbing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Saving a Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Searching files and musical resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

How to use the Search function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Notes about searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Reference

Selecting elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Style Select window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Sound Select window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Performance Select window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Pad Select window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

STS Select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Song Select window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Style Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Start-up settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Styles and Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Master Volume and Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Factory, Favorite and User Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

STS Name panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Volume panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Pad panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Split panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Sub-Scale panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Edit page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

ToC

Table of Contents

Mixer/Tuning: Volume/Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Mixer/Tuning: FX Send . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Mixer/Tuning: EQ Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Mixer/Tuning: EQ Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Mixer/Tuning: Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Mixer/Tuning: Sub Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Effects: A/B FX Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Effects: Master 1, 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Track Controls: Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Track Controls: Drum Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Track Controls: Easy Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Keyboard/Ensemble: Key/Velocity Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Keyboard/Ensemble: Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Keyboard/Ensemble: Keyboard Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Pads: Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Style Controls: Drum Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Style Controls: Keyboard Range On/Off / Wrap Around . . . 107

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Write Performance dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Write Single Touch Setting dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

Write Current Style Settings dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109

The Favorite banks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Song Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

MIDI Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Tempo Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Master Volume, Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Track parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Standard MIDI Files and Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Keyboard, Pad and Player tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Main page (Normal view) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

STS Name panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

Volume panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Pad panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Split panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Sub-Scale panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Jukebox panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Edit page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Mixer/Tuning: Volume/Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Mixer/Tuning: FX Send . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Mixer/Tuning: EQ Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Mixer/Tuning: EQ Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Mixer/Tuning: Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Effects: A/B FX Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Effects: Master 1, 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Track Controls: Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119

Track Controls: Drum Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Track Controls: Easy Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Keyboard/Ensemble: Key/Velocity Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Keyboard/Ensemble: Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Keyboard/Ensemble: Keyboard Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Pads: Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Jukebox Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Standard MIDI Files and MP3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Sequencer Play - Main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Entering Record mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

Record mode: Multitrack Sequencer page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Record mode: Step Record page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

Record mode: Backing Sequence (Quick Record) page . . . . .130

Record mode: Step Backing Sequence page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Edit page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135

Mixer/Tuning: Volume/Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Mixer/Tuning: FX Send . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Mixer/Tuning: EQ Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Mixer/Tuning: EQ Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136

Mixer/Tuning: Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

Mixer/Tuning: Sub Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

Effects: A/B FX Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

Effects: Master 1, 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

Track Controls: Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

Track Controls: Drum Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

Track Controls: Easy Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

Event Edit: Event Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138

Event Edit: Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

Song Edit: Quantize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

Song Edit: Transpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Song Edit: Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Song Edit: Cut/Insert Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Song Edit: Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

Song Edit: Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Song Edit: Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Song Edit: RX Convert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .144

Song Select window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

Save Song window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Overview on the Global mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

Edit page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147

General Controls: Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148

General Controls: Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148

General Controls: Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149

General Controls: Date & Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

Mode Preferences: Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152

Mode Preferences: Song & Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153

Mode Preferences: Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154

Controllers: Hand Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

Controllers: Foot Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

Tuning: Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156

Tuning: Transpose Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156

Tuning: Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157

MIDI: General Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158

MIDI: MIDI In Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159

MIDI: MIDI In Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159

MIDI: MIDI Out Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160

MIDI: Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160

Audio & EQ: MP3 / Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Audio & EQ: Master EQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Touch Panel Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

Write Quarter Tone SC Preset dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

Write Midi Preset dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

Write Master EQ Preset dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164

Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Storage devices and internal memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Supported device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Selecting and deselecting files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Searching files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

File types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166

Media structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167

Main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168

Table of Contents

Page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Navigation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

USB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Care of mass storage devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

SongBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Custom List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

List Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Book Edit 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Book Edit 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Book Edit 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Lyrics, Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Lyrics page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Score page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Style/Pad Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Recording Styles and Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Style/Pad Import/Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Entering the Style/Pad Record mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Exit by saving or deleting changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Listening to the Style while in Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

List of recorded events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Main page - Record 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Main page - Record 2/Cue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Main page - Guitar Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Style/Pad Record procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Edit page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Event Edit: Event Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Event Edit: Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Style/Pad Edit: Quantize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Style/Pad Edit: Transpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Style/Pad Edit: Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Style/Pad Edit: Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Style/Pad Edit: Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Style/Pad Edit: Delete All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Style/Pad Edit: Copy from Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Style/Pad Edit: Copy from Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Style Element Track Controls: Sound/Expression . . . . . . . . . 217

Style Element Track Controls: Keyboard Range . . . . . . . . . . 218

Style Element Track Controls: Noise/Guitar . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Pad Track Controls: Sound/Expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Style Element/Pad Chord Table: Chord Table . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Style Track Controls: Type/Trigger/Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Import: Import Groove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Import: Import SMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Export SMF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Write Style/Pad dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Copy Key/Chord dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Copy Sounds dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Copy Expression dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Copy Key Range dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Copy Chord Table dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Overdub Step Recording window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Sound Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229

The MIDI channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

How to select oscillators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Sounds, Drum Kits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Edit menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Edit page structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Basic: Sound Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Basic: OSC Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Basic: Vel/Key Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Basic: Damper Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Basic: Damper Trigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Basic: EQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

DrumKit: Sample Setup (Drum Kits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

DrumKit: EQ (Drum Kits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

DrumKit: Voice Mixer (Drum Kits) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Pitch: Pitch Mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Pitch: Pitch EG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Filter: Filter Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Filter: Filter Mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Filter: Filter LFO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Filter: Filter EG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Amp: Amp Level/Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Amp: Amp Mod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Amp: Amp EG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

LFO: LFO1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

LFO: LFO2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Effects: “B” FX Config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Effects: Master 1 / Reverb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Effects: Master 2 / Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Page menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Write Sound dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Copy Oscillator dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Copy Drum Kit dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

AMS (Alternate Modulation Source) list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

MIDI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .258

What is MIDI? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

MIDI and personal computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Standard MIDI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

The General MIDI standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

The Global channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

The Control channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

MIDI Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Connecting Pa300 to a personal computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Appendix

Factory data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Drum Kits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .282

Effect list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Dynamic Modulation sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Dynamics (Dynamic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

EQ and Filters (EQ/Filter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Overdrive, Amp models, and Mic models (OD Amp Mic) . 294

Chorus, Flanger, and Phaser (Cho/Fln Phaser) . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Modulation and Pitch Shift (Mod./P.Shift) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Reverb and Early Reflections (Reverb ER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Mono-Mono Serial (Mono-Mono) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

ToC

Table of Contents

Double Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Assignable parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

List of Pedal/Footswitch functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Recognized chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

MIDI Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

MIDI Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .358

Style Element controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Style and Player controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Single Touch Settings (STS) controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

MIDI Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Installing the Korg USB MIDI Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Connecting Pa300 to a personal computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362

KORG USB-MIDI Driver system requirements . . . . . . . . . . .362

Please note before use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362

Windows: Installing the KORG USB-MIDI Driver . . . . . . . .362

Mac OS X: Installing the KORG USB-MIDI Driver . . . . . . . .363

Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Technical specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

MIDI Implementation Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Welcome!

Welcome to the world of Korg Pa300 Professional Arranger! Pa300 is a very powerful arranger, suitable both for professional and home entertainment use.

Here are some of the features of your new instrument.

Physical Features and User Experience

• 61 synth-type keys with velocity.

• Slim and compact, lightweight, elegant cabinet design.

• Wide 5" TFT graphic touch screen display. Professional TouchView™ graphic interface for direct access to the onscreen controls and to the musical resources.

• High-quality integrated amplification, and high-quality output audio converters.

• RX (Real eXperience) Technology, the cutting edge engine that drives every aspect of the Pa300 – from the synthesis to the display and how it all works together.

• A joystick and an assignable pedal ensure total control over the sound.

Sounds and Effects

• Powerful sound generation system, for crystal-clear, realistic sounds.

• 128 voices of polyphony.

• General MIDI Level 2 Sound-compatible. Enhanced Sound compatibility for GM Songs.

• More than 950 Sounds, plus 64 Drum Kits.

• 240 Performance locations, plus 4 Single Touch Settings (STS) for each Style and SongBook entry, for fast setting of keyboard sounds and effects.

• Four Stereo Master FX, with 125 effect types. Final 4-band Parametric EQ.

• Edit Sound, to create and edit new Sounds.

Styles and Songs

• Over 300 Factory Styles with 4 Variations and 4 Fill In + Break, plus 8 Favorite and 3 User Style banks for unlimited storage of your custom Styles and settings.

• Style and Pad Record, including the enhanced “Guitar Mode 2” for even more realistic guitar parts.

• Guitar Mode 2 tracks, for more realistic guitar tracks.

• Standard MIDI File player and recorder, and MP3 player.

• Lyrics and Score display. Multilingual extended character set. Enhanced compatibility with Lyrics in graphical format (+G) for Standard MIDI Files and MP3 files.

• Full-featured 16-track sequencer.

• Fully editable SongBook music database, for fast song retrieving.

Other Features

• Search function, for instant retrieving of any musical resource or file.

• Operating System updates, to load new features and enhancements. Don’t let your instrument get old!

• Generous internal memory, to store a great amount of data.

• USB 2.0 High Speed Host port, for connecting external devices like hard disks, CD-ROM drives, USB memory sticks, etc.

• USB 2.0 High Speed Device port, to connect a personal computer to your Pa300. This port can be used for file transfer, and for MIDI connection (without the need of a dedicated MIDI interface).

Welcome!

What’s in the box

After you buy your Pa300, please check that all the following items are included in the package. If any of the following items is missing, please contact your Korg dealer immediately.

• Pa300

•Music stand

•AC power adapter

•Power cable

•Quick Guide

• Accessory Disc (containing the Video Manual, the User Manual, the USB driver)

About this manual

This manual contains all the informations divided in four sections:

•An Introduction, containing an overview of the instru- ment and of basic operations.

•A Quick Guide, containing a series of practical guides.

•A Reference Guide, with each page and parameter described in detail.

•An Appendix, with a list of data and useful information for the advanced user.

In addition, in the Accessory Disc and in our web site you will find a multilingual Video Manual, showing how to use your Pa300 in easy steps.

Contacts

Your preferred Korg dealer not only delivers this keyboard, but also a whole bunch of hardware and software accessories, as well as service information. You should ask them for any help should you eventually need.

Our international web site is www.korg.com. Korg distributors around the world may have their own web page on the internet. A list of all Korg Distributors can be found in our dedicated web site (www.korg.co.jp/English/Distributors/).

Making a safety copy of your data

Making a safety copy

In case you like to customize your Musical Resources (Sounds, Performances and Styles), we suggest you use the Media > Utility > Backup Resources command to make frequent backup copies into compact archives.

Also, you can use the Media > Save All command to save files that you can separately reload one by one.

Restoring a safety copy

To restore a backup, use the Media > Utility > Restore Resources.

If you saved your data with the Media > Save All command, use the Media > Load operations to reload them.

Restoring the original factory data

In case you want to restore the original factory data, use the Media > Utility > Factory Restore command.

Wa r n in g : This operation will overwrite all the Factory, Local, Favorite and User data!

Loading the Operating System

Your Pa300 can be constantly updated as new versions of the operating system are released by Korg. You can download the operating system from our web site is www.korg.com. Please, read the instructions supplied with the operating system on the site.

You can see which version of the operating systems is installed in your Pa300 by going to the Media > Utility page.

Wa r n in g : Do not install an OS other than the official OS supplied by Korg for the Pa300. Trying to install an OS created for different models or downloaded from unofficial web sites may cause data loss and permanent damage to the instrument. Korg is not responsible for any damage caused by improper installation of the OS.

Introduction

Overview

Front Panel

Overview

Front Panel

Music stand holes

A music stand comes standard with your Pa300. Insert its legs into these two dedicated holes.

Speakers

The integrated speakers give a faithful reproduction of the sound of Pa300. They are automatically deactivated when inserting a jack into the PHONES/AUDIO OUT connector.

Joystick lever

The joystick is on the left side of the front panel.

JOYSTICK

This joystick triggers different functions, depending on the direction it is moved towards.

X (+/–) Move the joystick towards the left (–) to lower the

pitch, or towards the right (+) to raise it. This effect is called the Pitch Bend.

Y+ Move the joystick forward to trigger Modulation

Y– Move the joystick backward, to trigger the

assigned function.

Overview

Front Panel

Introduction

Volume controls

Use these knobs to control the master volume, and to balance between the Keyboard and the Style or the Song.

MASTER VOLUME

This knob controls the overall volume of the instrument, both of the integrated speakers and the PHONES/AUDIO OUT connector.

BALANCE

While in Style Play and Song Play mode, this knob usually balances the volume of the Keyboard (KBD) tracks against the Style (ACC, Accompaniment), Song and Pad tracks. This is a relative control, whose effective maximum value is determined by the MASTER VOLUME knob position.

When moved, a magnified version of a virtual slider appears in the display, for more accurate adjustment.

Note: This does not work in the Sequencer mode.

Mode selection

Each of these buttons recalls one of the instrument’s operating modes. When selected, each mode excludes all the others.

STYLE PLAY

Style Play mode, where you can play Styles (eight tracks of automatic accompaniments) and play up to four Keyboard tracks and four Pad tracks. In the main page, Keyboard tracks are shown in the right half of the display.

You can recall the main page by pressing EXIT from any of the Style Play edit pages. If you are in a different operating mode, press STYLE PLAY to recall the Style Play mode. If Keyboard tracks are not shown in the display, press the TRACK SELECT button until you can see them.

Overview

Front Panel

This operating mode is automatically selected when turning the instrument on. The “My Setting” Performance will be automatically selected.

SONG PLAY

Song Play mode, where you can play back Songs in Standard MIDI File (SMF or KAR) or MP3 format. In addition to the Song tracks, you can play up to four Keyboard tracks and four Pads along with the Song. In the main page, Keyboard tracks are shown in the right half of the display.

You can recall the main page of this mode by pressing EXIT from any of the Song Play edit pages. If you are in a different operating mode, press SONG PLAY to recall the Song Play mode. Use the TRACK SELECT button to cycle between the Keyboard and Song tracks.

SEQUENCER

Sequencer mode, where you can play, record or edit Songs (in Standard MIDI File format). The Backing Sequence mode lets you record a new Song based on the Keyboard and Style tracks, and save it as a new Standard MIDI File.

Note: In this mode, you cannot play MP3 files.

DEMO

Press the STYLE PLAY and SONG PLAY buttons together to select the Demo mode. This mode lets you listen to some Demo Songs, to let you experience the sonic power of the Pa300. To exit from this mode, press any of the MODE buttons.

Special Mode Buttons

These buttons are used to recall settings, file management and the Song Record mode.

GLOBAL

This button recalls the Global mode, where you can adjust various global settings. Most Global settings are automatically memorized as soon as you edit them. This mode overlaps any operating mode, that will still remain active in the background. Press EXIT to go back to the underlying operating mode.

MEDIA

This button recalls the Media mode, where you can perform various operations on files and storage devices (Load, Save, Format, etc…). This mode overlaps any operating mode, that still remains active in the background. Press EXIT to go back to the underlying operating mode.

The internal memory contains an area where to save data (“DISK [KORG DISK]”).

Accompaniment, Memory, Manual Bass

These buttons let you turn all Accompaniment tracks on/off, decide what should remain in memory, and how to play the bass.

ACCOMP. (Accompaniment)

In Style Play and Sequencer-Backing Sequence mode, use this button to turn the Accompaniment tracks (ACC1 ~ ACC5) on or off.

On After pressing START/STOP, the full accompani-

ment plays and follows the detected chords.

Off No chords detected. After pressing START/STOP,

only the Drum and Percussion accompaniment tracks can play.

You can jump to the Global > Mode Preferences > Style Play page by keeping SHIFT pressed and pressing the ACCOMP button.

MEMORY

This button allows you to choose whether the Lower notes and/ or chord triggering the accompaniment must remain in memory after raising your hand from the keyboard.

On Depending on the setting of the “Memory Mode”

parameter (in the Global > Mode Preferences > Style Play), the sound on the left of the split point (Lower), and/or the chords for the automatic accompaniment can kept in memory even when you raise your hand from the keyboard.

Off Both the sound and chord are released as soon as

you raise your hand from the keyboard.

You can jump to the Global > Mode Preferences > Style Play page by keeping SHIFT pressed and pressing the MEMORY button.

MAN. BASS (Manual Bass)

This button turns the Manual Bass function on or off.

On The automatic accompaniment stops playing

(except for the Drum and Percussion tracks), and you can manually play the Bass track on the Lower part of the keyboard. You can start the automatic accompaniment again after pressing this button to turn off the Manual Bass function.

Off The bass track is automatically played by the Style.

Note: When you press the MANUAL BASS button, the Bass track volume is automatically set to its maximum value. The volume is automatically set back to the original value when the MANUAL BASS button is deactivated.

RECORD

This button sets the instrument to the Style/Pad Record or Song Record mode (depending on the current operating mode).

Overview

Front Panel

Pads

Here you can play (and stop) the Pads, i.e. single sounds or looping sequences.

PAD 1 -4 STOP

Each Pad button corresponds to a dedicated Pad track. Use these buttons to trigger up to four sounds or sequences at the same time.

• Press a single PAD button to trigger a single sound or sequence.

• Press more PAD buttons to trigger several sounds or sequences.

The sequences will play up to the end. Then, they will stop or continue repeating, depending on the individual settings.

You can stop all sounds or sequences at the same time, or just some of them:

• Press STOP (in the PAD section) to stop all sequences at once.

• Press a single PAD button to stop the corresponding sequence.

About Pad synchronization. In Style Play mode, Pads are synchronized to the Style’s Tempo. In Song Play mode, they are synchronized to the Player.

Note: There is no synchronization with MP3 files. Pads can only be synchronized to the Tempo of the latest selected Standard MIDI Files. Therefore, when an MP3 file is assigned to the Player, Pads will synchronize to the Tempo of the last Standard MIDI File that has been played back.

About Pads and the Player’s Start command. When you press the START/STOP button to start the Player, all Pads will stop playing.

You can jump to the Style Play > Pad page by keeping

SHIFT pressed and pressing one of the PAD buttons.

Selection

Here you can select a Style, Sound, SongBook entry, or Song.

For each type of Styles there are several banks, that can be selected by touching the side tabs. Each Style bank contains various pages, each with up to eight Styles, that can be selected by touching the lower tabs.

Styles of the Factory type are usually write-protected (unless you uncheck the “Factory Style and Pad Protect” option in the Global > Mode Preferences > Media page). You can use User locations to temporarily load new Styles from an external device. Favorite locations, too, can be used to load new Styles from an external device, but in addition you can edit the names of these Style banks, so that you can create a custom set of Styles.

By keeping this button pressed for about one second, the

“Write Current Style Settings” dialog box will appear.

SOUND

Use this button to open the Sound Select window and select a Sound to be assigned to the selected track. This is the same as touching a Sound name in the display. Repeatedly press it to cycle between the Sound bank pages.

For each type of Sounds there are several Sound banks, that can be selected by touching the side tabs. Each Sound bank contains various pages, each with up to eight Sounds, that can be selected by touching the lower tabs.

Sounds of the Factory type are write-protected. Sounds of the Legacy type are standard Factory Sounds allowing greater compatibility with older Pa-Series instruments. Factory Sounds of the GM type allow for compatibility with General MIDI sounds. Sounds of the User type are locations where you can load new Sounds from an external device. The User DK type is where you can load new Drum Kits.

Some models could include Local-type Sounds, that are Factory Sounds customized for a particular Country.

Hint: The page menu of the Sound Select window contains a command to access Sound editing, and customize your Sounds.

SONGBOOK

The SongBook is a database of song titles, that can automatically choose the more appropriate Style, Standard MIDI File or MP3 file for you.

Press this button to open the SongBook (when you are in Style Play or Song Play mode). While the SongBook is shown on the display, you can browse through the music database.

By keeping this button pressed for about one second, a new SongBook Entry with the current settings is added to the database. You will be able to give it a name and save.

Introduction

STYLE

Use this button to open the Style Select window and select a Style. This is the same as touching the name of the Style in the display. Repeatedly press it to cycle between the Style bank pages.

You can jump to the SongBook > Custom List page by

keeping SHIFT pressed and pressing the SONGBOOK button.

SONG

Press this button to open the Song Select window and choose a Songs. This is the same as touching the Song name in the display.

Overview

Front Panel

Style Elements

This section contains the separate elements of a Style (Intro, Vari a t io n , e tc . ).

INTRO 1-3 buttons

These buttons turn the corresponding Intro on. Intro 1 plays a sequence including a chord progression, while Intro 2 plays a fixed chord. Intro 3 is usually a one-bar Count In.

After pressing one of these buttons, start the Style, and it will begin with the selected intro. The INTRO LED will automatically go off at the end of the intro.

At the end of the Intro, the Variation whose LED was blinking will be selected.

Press one of the INTRO buttons twice (LED blinking) to let the corresponding Intro play in loop, and select any other Style element (Intro, Variation, Ending) to exit the loop.

VARIATION 1-4 buttons

Each of these buttons selects one of the four Variations of the current Style. The higher the Variation number, the denser the arrangement.

You can jump to the Style Play > Drum Map page by keeping SHIFT pressed and pressing one of the VARIATION buttons.

AUTO FILL

This button allows to turn the Auto Fill function on or off.

On When selecting a different Variation, the Fill hav-

ing the same number of the previous Variation is automatically selected. For example, if going from Variation 2 to Variation 3, Fill 2 is automatically selected.

Off When choosing a Variation, no fill is selected.

BREAK

This button triggers a break. Press it twice (LED blinking) to let it play in loop. Press it again or select any other Style Element (Intro, Variation, Ending) to exit from the loop.

ENDING 1-3 buttons

These buttons trigger the corresponding Ending. Ending 1 plays a sequence including a chord progression, while Ending 2 plays a fixed chord. Ending 3 starts immediately, and is just two measures long.

While the Style is running, these three buttons trigger an Ending, and stop the Style. Press one of them, and the Style will stop running with an Ending.

Press them twice (LED blinking) to let them play in loop, and select any other Style element (Intro, Variation…) to exit the loop.

Style Controls

Use these buttons to start/stop the accompaniment.

START/STOP

Starts or stops the Style.

You can reset all ‘frozen’ notes and controllers on the

Pa300 and any instrument connected to its MIDI OUT or the USB Device port, by using the “Panic” (SHIFT + START/STOP) key combination. Just press SHIFT + START/STOP to stop all notes and reset all controllers.

SYNCHRO START / STOP button

These buttons turn the Synchro Start and Synchro Stop functions on or off. With this feature, you can choose to press the START/STOP button to start and/or stop a Style, or just play the keyboard in the Chord Scan area.

Start On, Stop Off

In this situation, just play a chord in the chord recognition area to automatically start the Style. If you like, turn one of the INTROs on before starting the Style.

Start On, Stop On

When both LEDs are lit, raising your hands from the keyboard will momentarily stop the Style. If you play a chord again, the Style will start again.

Start Off, Stop On

In this case, raising your hands from the keyboard will stop the Style.

Start Off, Stop Off

All Synchro functions are turned off.

You can jump to the Global > MIDI > Setup/General Control by keeping the SHIFT button pressed and pressing the SYNCHRO START/STOP button.

TAP TEMPO/RESET

This is a double-function button, acting in a different way depending on whether the Style is running or not.

Note: This button only works while in Style Play mode.

Tap Temp o : When the Style is not playing, you can “beat” the tempo on this button. Tap as many times as the Time Signature’s numerator (for example, four times with a 4/4 Time Signature, or three times with a 3/4 one). At the end, the accompaniment starts playing, using the “tapped in” tempo.

Reset: If you press this button while the Style is playing back, the Style pattern goes immediately back to the beginning of measure

Overview

Front Panel

Display and Brightness Controls

COLOR TOUCHVIEW™ GRAPHICAL DISPLAY

Use this display to interact with the instrument. To adjust the display brightness, keep the MENU button pressed, and turn the DIAL counter-clockwise to make the display darker, or clockwise to make it brighter.

Special Function Controls

Use the TRACK SELECT, SEARCH and SHIFT buttons to choose special functions.

STS Section

Use the STS (Single Touch Settings) buttons to assign Sounds to

the keyboard.

Introduction

STS 1-4 buttons

These buttons allow to select up to four Single Touch Settings

(abbreviated as STS). Each one of the Styles and SongBook

Entries includes four Single Touch Settings (STS), to automati-

cally configure Keyboard tracks and effects at the touch of a fin-

ger.

By keeping one of these buttons pressed for about one sec-

ond, the “Write Single Touch Setting” dialog box will appear.

Note: STS contained inside Factory Styles are usually write-pro-

tected (unless you uncheck the “Factory Style and Pad Protect”

option in the Global > Mode Preferences > Media page)

Player Controls

Pa300 is equipped with a Standard MIDI File and MP3 Player. Its

controls can be used in Song Play and Sequencer mode.

TRACK SELECT

Depending on the operating mode, this button switches between the various track views.

STYLE PLAY MODE

Toggles between Keyboard and Style tracks.

SONG PLAY MODE

Toggles between Keyboard tracks, Song tracks 18, and Song tracks 9-16.

SEQUENCER MODE

Toggles between Song tracks 1-8 and Song tracks 9-16.

Press this button to open the Search window, and look for a specified file or musical resource. The Search window appears slightly different depending on the current context.

SHIFT

With this button held down, pressing certain other buttons gives access to a second function. The list of shortcuts is in the Appendix.

<< and >>

Rewind and Fast Forward commands. If you use them while the

Song is in play, they make it scroll back or forward.

When pressed once, these buttons move the Song to the previous

or following measure (with a Standard MIDI File) or to the previ-

ous or next second (with an MP3 file). When kept pressed, they

make the Song scrolling continuously until released.

In Sequencer mode, if you set a “Start from” measure other than

1, when pressing the << button the Song will rewind up to that

measure instead of the first one (see page 124).

In Jukebox mode, keep the SHIFT button pressed, and press these buttons to scroll to the previous or next Song in the Jukebox list.

(HOME)

Sends the Song Position back to measure 1 (i.e., the beginning of the Song).

In Sequencer mode, if you set a “Start from” measure other than 1, the Song Position will go back to that measure (see page 124).

(START/STOP)

Starts the Song from the current Song Position, or stops it at the current Song Position.

Overview

Front Panel

Lyrics, Score

Use this button to access the Lyrics and Score pages.

LYRICS/SCORE

When a Style is selected, this buttons recalls the Lyrics page, or exits from it.

When a Song is selected, it cycles through the Lyrics and Score pages. Press it a first time to see the Lyrics page, a second time to see the Score page. Press it again to return to the main page.

Data Entry and Navigation

The VALUE DIAL can be used to assign a different value to the parameter selected in the display, or to scroll a list of files in the Song Select, SongBook, Search and Media pages.

VALUE DIAL

Turn the dial clockwise to increase the value of the selected parameter. Turn it counter-clockwise to decrease its value.

When used while pressing the MENU button, this con-

trol always acts as a Display Brightness control.

EXIT

Use this button to perform various actions, leaving from the current status:

• exit the edit menu page, without selecting any item

• make the page menu disappear, without selecting any item

• return to the main page of the current operating mode

• exit the Global or Media edit environment, and return to the current page of the current operating mode

•exit from the SongBook mode

• exit from the Lyrics and Score pages

• exit from a Style, Pad, Performance or Sound Select window

This button opens the edit menu page for the current operating mode. After opening an edit menu, you can jump to one of the edit sections by touching the corresponding button in the display.

Otherwise, press EXIT to return to the main page of the current operating mode, or the current page of the underlying operating mode.

Tempo Section

The TEMPO and METRO buttons can be used to control the Te mp o .

TEMPO +/– buttons

TEMPO– decreases the speed of the Style or Song. TEMPO+ increases it.

Press both buttons together to reset the Tempo to the value memorized in the Style or Standard MIDI File. With MP3 files, the original speed of the file is recalled (value reset to “0”).

TEMPO LOCK

This button turns the Tempo Lock function on or off.

On When you select a different Style or Performance,

or select a different Song, the Tempo will not change. You can still manually change it, by using the TEMPO +/– buttons, or select the Tempo value and change it by using the VALUE dial.

Off When you select a different Style, or select a dif-

ferent Song, the memorized Tempo will be automatically selected.

Note: This button does not work with MP3 files.

You can jump to the Global > Lock page by keeping

SHIFT pressed and pressing this button.

METRO

Use this button to turn the Metronome click on or off. The metronome uses the same time signature as the latest selected Style or Standard MIDI File.

You can jump to the Global > General Controls > Basic

page by keeping SHIFT pressed, and pressing this button.

Split

Splitting the keyboard allows for separating the chords area from the melody.

SPLIT

In Style Play, Song Play and Sequencer-Backing Sequence mode, use this button to choose how the four Keyboard tracks are positioned on the keyboard, and how chords are recognized by the arranger.

Note: The ACCOMP LED must be turned on for the accompaniment to play.

On The Lower track plays below the split point, while

the Upper 1, Upper 2 and Upper 3 tracks play above it. This is called the Split keyboard mode.

By default, turning on the Split mode automatically selects the Lower chord scanning mode. In this mode, chords are detected below the split point. The number of notes you should play to form a chord is defined by the “Chord Recognition” parameter.

Off The Upper 1, Upper 2 and/or Upper 3 tracks play

over the whole keyboard range. The Lower track does not play. This is also called the Full keyboard mode.

By default, turning off the Split mode automatically selects the Full chord scanning mode. In this mode, chords are detected over the full keyboard

Overview

Front Panel

range. You must always play three or more notes to let the arranger recognize a chord.

By keeping this button pressed for about one second, the Split Point window appears. When there, play the new split point on the keyboard.

Ensemble

The Ensemble function automatically harmonizes the melody played with the right hand.

ENSEMBLE

This button turns the Ensemble function on or off. When on, the right-hand melody is harmonized with the lefthand chords.

Note: The Ensemble function only works when the keyboard is in SPLIT mode.

You can jump to the Style Play > Keyboard/Ensemble page by keeping SHIFT pressed and pressing the ENSEMBLE button.

Performance Select Section

Transpose Section

Use these buttons to transpose the Sounds of the single tracks, or the instrument as a whole.

UPPER OCTAVE

Use these buttons to transpose the Upper tracks in steps of one whole octave (12 semitones; max ±3 octaves). The octave transposition value is always shown (in octaves) next to the Sound’s name.

Press both buttons together, to reset the Octave Transpose to the saved value.

– Lowers the selected track by one octave.

+ Raises the selected track by one octave.

You can jump to the Style Play > Tuning page by keeping SHIFT pressed and pressing one of the UPPER OCTAVE buttons. Hint: Go to the Tuning page to separately transpose each

track.

Introduction

Use these buttons to select a Performance. Performances memorize all Sounds assigned to the keyboard and most control panel settings.

MY SETTING

This is a special direct-access Performance, that is automatically selected when the instrument is turned on. When pressing this button, the Performance is immediately selected.

Keep this button pressed for about one second to save the

current settings into the My Setting Performance.

PERFORMANCE buttons

Use these buttons to open the Performance Select window, and select a Performance.Each Performance bank contains five pages, each with up to eight Performances. Repeatedly press a PERFORMANCE button to cycle between the available pages.

All Performances can be freely customized, by accessing the edit pages of the Style Play and Song Play modes by pressing the MENU button.

TRANSPOSE

These buttons transpose the whole instrument in steps of one semitone (Master Transpose). The transpose value is usually shown in the page header.

Press both buttons together, to reset the Master Transpose to zero.

Note: You can also transpose MP3 files. Keep in mind, however, that transposition always remains inside the range -5…+6 semitones. This range is enough to cover all keys, but allows to avoid excessive audio degradation. Any further transposing will be reversed to fit the range. So, you might see a +7 transpose value (Just Fifth Up) shown in the display, but the MP3 will actually play 5 semitones lower (Just Fourth Down).

♭ Lowers the Master Transpose in steps of one

semitone.

♯ Raises the Master Transpose in steps of one semi-

tone.

You can jump to the Global > Transpose Control page by keeping SHIFT pressed, and pressing one of the TRANSPOSE buttons.

By keeping one of these buttons pressed for about one sec-

ond, the “Write Performance” dialog box will appear.

Overview

Front Panel

Power On/Off

POWER

Use this button to let the instrument exit (LED off) or enter (LED on) standby.

Press it briefly to let the instrument exit standby.

Keep it pressed for about one second to let it enter standby.

Wa r ni n g : When the instrument is in standby mode, it is still connected to the power line. Accessing the inside of the instrument can be dangerous. To completely disconnect the instrument from the power, unplug the power plug from the power socket on the wall.

Note: To avoid wasting power, Pa300 will by default automatically enter standby mode after two hours of non-active use (playing, pressing buttons or using the touch-screen). Please save your data (Performances, Styles, Songs, and so on) before taking a prolonged pause. You can change the auto power-off timer in Global > General Controls > Date & Power.

Overview

Rear Panel

Introduction

USB-HOST

This is a USB Type A (Master/Host) connector, USB 2.0 compliant (High Speed only – to connect older, slower USB devices, please use an USB hub). Use it to connect to the Pa300 an USB Flash Memory stick, an external CD-ROM drive, an USB hard disk. You can access the connected device in the Media mode.

USB-DEVICE

This is a USB Type B (Slave/Device) connector, USB 2.0 (High Speed). Use it to connect the Pa300 to a personal computer, and transfer data to/from its internal memory (Disk). You can enable USB connection in the “USB” page of the Media mode.

MIDI over USB is supported, so you can use this connector instead of the MIDI ports found on older devices. The drivers for PC and Mac, needed to make full use of this type of connection, are supplied in the Accessory Disc that comes with the instrument, or can be downloaded from our web site.

PEDAL/DAMPER

Use this port to connect a footswitch or Damper pedal, like the (optional) Korg PS1, PS3 or DS1H, or a continuous/expression pedal, like the (optional) Korg EXP2, XVP10. To program and calibrate it, or to change its polarity, go to the Controllers > Foot Controllers page of the Global mode.

When the Headphone option is assigned to the “Level” parameter, you can connect headphones. You can use headphones with an impedance of 16-200 Ohms (50 Ohms suggested).

When the Line Out option is assigned to the “Level” parameter, you can connect a line-level device to this connector. Use a stereo jack to send the final stereo mix to an external device. Connect the other end of the cable to a stereo channel of your mixer, two mono channels, two powered monitors, or the CD, LINE IN or TAPE/AUX input of your audio system. Don’t use the PHONO inputs of your audio system!

Adjust the output level with the MASTER VOLUME knob.

DC IN 15V power adapter connector

Plug the supplied power adapter into this connector. When the cable is connected, the instrument is in standby mode. To let it enter or exit standby, use the POWER switch located on the front panel.

Wa r n in g : When the instrument is in standby mode, it is still connected to the power line. Accessing the inside of the instrument can be dangerous. To completely disconnect the instrument from the power, unplug the power plug from the power socket on the wall.

Cable holder

Fix the power cable to this hook, to avoid cable jamming.

PHONES/AUDIO OUT

Use this connector to connect a pair of headphones, or to send the audio signal (sound) to a mixer, a PA system, a set of powered monitors, or your hi-fi system.

You can select the type of connection by using the “Level” parameter in the Global > Audio & EQ > MP3/Output page (see page 161).

Glossary of Terms

Sound

Glossary of Terms

Before you begin, take a few moments to familiarize yourself with the names and terms we will be using to talk about the various elements of the Pa300.

In this section, you will find a brief description of various key elements of the Pa300. A professional arranger (Pa) keyboard uses different terminology than a traditional synthesizer or workstation. By familiarizing yourself with the names and functions in this section, you will get a better understanding of how all the different parts of the Pa300 work together to create a realistic musical performance. This will also help you to get the most out of the rest of the manual.

Sound

A Sound is the most basic unit of an Arranger Keyboard performance. A Sound is basically a playable instrument timbre (piano, bass, sax, guitar…) that can be edited, saved, recalled and assigned to any track. In the Style Play, Song Play or Sequencer mode, Sounds may be freely assigned to Sequencer tracks, Style tracks, or Keyboard tracks.

Style

The Style is the heart of a professional arranger keyboard. At its basic level, a Style will consist of up to eight parts, or “Tracks”.

Variation

For each Style, there are four Variations, to be used for the Verse, Bridge and Chorus of a song. In general, each Variation is a slightly different version of the others. As you progress from Variation one to Variation four, the arrangements will become more complex, and more parts (Tracks) may be added. This allows your performance to have a more dynamic arrangement, without losing the original “feel” of the Style.

Fill-in & Break

During a performance, a drummer may often perform a “fill” such as when transitioning from a verse to a chorus – adding extra dynamics and keeping the beat from getting too repetitive. The Pa300 offers four Fill-ins specifically programmed for each Style, that may be automatically recalled when choosing the corresponding Variation (Auto Fill). A Fill-in may be drums alone or drums with instrumentation. Then, there is even a silent “break”.

Intro & Ending

Each Style also allows you to complete your performance with a set of musical introductions and endings. A long and short version of the Intro and Ending are usually provided, with the former more harmonically elaborated, and the latter with a fixed chord. A “count-in” Style Intro is also provided, as well as the quick Ending 3.

Drums

The Drum track will provide a repeating rhythmic phrase, played by the standard instruments of a Drum Kit.

Percussion

An additional rhythmic phrase played by various percussion instruments (conga, shaker, cowbell, etc.) is provided by the Percussion track.

Bass & Accompaniment

The Bass track and the (up to) five additional Accompaniment tracks will each play musical phrases that are musically related to and in sync with the Drum and Percussion tracks. However, the notes being played by these tracks will change to follow the chord progression that you play on the keyboard.

Again, any Sound you choose may be assigned to any track in a Style.

Pad

Pads are single sounds or single-track patterns, that can be triggered by using the dedicated PAD buttons. They can be used to play single sounds, as well as short, cycling sequences that play in time with the Style or Standard MIDI File, and are transposed according to the recognized chords.

Keyboard tracks

Up to four parts can be played on the keyboard in real-time. Three of them (Upper) can be layered and played over the full keyboard. They can also be used to created particular sound configurations: each of these Keyboard tracks can be limited to a particular range of keys or velocities, but in general up to three can be assigned to play above the split point (Upper), and one below (Lower). This allows the Upper Sounds to be layered together. The split point can be set to any note on the keyboard. In addition to performing along with a Style, these same Keyboard tracks will allow you to play along with the Player.

Glossary of Terms

Performance and STS

Ensemble

By turning the Ensemble feature on, a single note played on one of the Keyboard tracks will be embellished by additional notes to create a complete chord voicing. The Ensemble knows which notes to add by looking at the chord that you are playing. In addition, the Ensemble parameters allow you to select the type of voicing that will be added – from a simple one-note harmony to a full “Brass” section – even a marimba-style trill!

Performance and STS

The Performance is the most encompassing setting on the Pa300 – a single setting that can remember the Keyboard tracks (with all the appropriate sounds) and all their transposition, effects, etc… A Performance can be stored in one of the Performance bank locations.

Single Touch Settings (STS) are similar to Performances, but are associated to a Style or SongBook Entry.

The LOGO decoder

On the front panel of your Pa300 you have probably noticed a series of logos, and may have even wondered what they stand for. Well, here is a quick explanation of each one.

General MIDI (GM) is a standard that ensures the compatibility of sounds and messages between GM compatible instruments available

from different manufacturers. For example, sequenced songs created on any GM equipped product and saved in the GM format will playback correctly on the Pa300.

General MIDI 2 extends the basic features of the General MIDI, allowing for 256 Sounds and 9 Drum Kits (instead of 128 and 1).

RX Technology is the cutting edge engine that drives every aspect of the Pa300 – from the synthesis to the display and how it all works together.

Introduction

Sequencer

The Sequencer acts as a recorder, so you can capture and playback your performances. The Pa300 sequencer can function in different modes. In the Backing Sequence mode, each Style element and each Keyboard and Pads element can be recorded on a separate track in a single pass. This can be a big help in getting a song recorded quickly. The sequencer can also behave as a traditional 16-track linear sequencer, where each track is recorded individually one at a time.

Player

The Player lets you playback your performances or any Standard MIDI File or MP3 file.

TouchView is the sophisticate technology allowing for touching the objects in the

display, instead of pointing to them through an external device (a mouse, a series of buttons). Go straight to the musical elements, instead of catching keys somewhere on the control panel.

Interface basics

Color TouchView graphical user interface

Interface basics

Color TouchView graphical user interface

Pa300 features our exclusive easy-to-use TouchView graphic interface, based on a touch‐panel LCD screen. By touching items on the LCD screen, you can select pages, tabs, and parameters, and set parameter values via on‐screen menus and buttons. Here are the basic elements of the user interface.

Menus and sections

Pages are grouped in sections, to be selected by touching the corresponding buttons in the Edit menu that opens up when you press the MENU button.

Overlapping windows

Several windows, like the Style Select or Pad Select, the Global, the Media, or the Lyrics, overlap the current window. After you select an item in the window, or press the EXIT button, the window closes, and the underlying page is shown again. (The following example is the Sound Select window).

Pages

Parameters are grouped into separate pages, to be selected by touching the corresponding tabs on the lower area of the display.

Dialog boxes

Similar to selecting windows, dialog boxes overlap the underlaying page. Touch one of the button on the display to give Pa300 an answer, and the dialog box will close.

Page menus

Touch the icon on the upper right corner of each page, and a menu with suitable commands for the current page will appear. Touch one of the available commands to select it. (Or, touch anywhere else on the screen to make it disappear, with no command selected).

Interface basics

Color TouchView graphical user interface

= On

= Off

List

Scrollbar

Pop-up menus

When an arrow appears next to a parameter name, touch it to open a pop-up menu. Select any of the available options (or anywhere else on the screen to make the menu disappear).

Checkboxes

This kind of parameters are on/off switches. Touch them to change their status.

Editable names

When the (Text Edit) button appears next to a name, touch it to open the Text Edit window and edit the name.

Introduction

The virtual keyboard works exactly as a personal computer’s keyboard. Some of the symbols are context-sensitive, and only appear when they can actually be used.

Lists and scrollbars

Numeric fields

When a numeric value can be edited, touch it a second time to open the Numeric Keypad.

The virtual numeric keypad works exactly as the numeric keypad of a personal computer.

As an alternative, touch a numeric field and keep it held. Then move your fingers up (or right) to increase the value, or move it down (or left) to decrease it.

Files on storage media, as well as other kinds of data, are shown as lists. Use the scrollbar to scroll the list content. Also, you can use the VALUE DIAL to scroll.

When the Name label is selected, keep the SHIFT button pressed while touching one of the arrows on the scrollbar, to scroll to the next or previous alphabetic section.

Virtual sliders

To change a virtual slider’s position, select it, then use the VALUE dial to change its position. As an alternative, touch a slider with your fingers and keep it held; then move it up or down to change its position.

This also includes the Tempo numeric field in the main page of the Style Play, Song Play, and Sequencer modes.

Interface basics

Operative modes

Virtual knobs

To change a virtual knob’s position, select it, then use the VALUE dial to change its position. As an alternative, touch a knob with your finger and keep it held; then move your fingers up (or right) to rotate it clockwise, or move it down (or left) to rotate the knob counter-clockwise.

Operative modes

The pages of Pa300 are grouped in various operating modes. Each mode is accessed by pressing the corresponding button in the MODE section on the control panel.

Each operating mode is marked with a different color code, that helps you understand at first sight where you are.

Two special modes (Global and Media) overlap the current operating mode, that remains active in the background.

The Song Record mode can be accessed from the Sequencer mode, and allows for creating new Songs.

Icons

Various icons help identifying the type of a file, a Song, a folder. For example:

Folder

File of Style bank

Standard MIDI File

Selected, highlighted items

Any operation on parameters, data or list entries, is executed on highlighted items. First select the parameter or item, then execute the operation.

Non-available, grayed-out parameters

When a parameter or command is not currently available, it is shown in grey on the display. This means it cannot be selected, but may become available when a different option is selected, or you switch to a different page.

Shortcuts

Some commands or pages can be recalled by keeping the SHIFT button pressed, and pressing other buttons or elements in the display. Some others can be accessed by keeping a button pressed for more than one second. See the “Shortcuts” chapter on page “Shortcuts” on page 364 for a list of available shortcuts.

Easy Mode

The page menu

If you have never used an arranger before, we suggest you to switch to the Easy Mode. Easy Mode allows you to play Styles and Songs with a simple user interface, free from the many advanced parameters that you will want to learn later.

Turning the Easy Mode on

Touch the little rectangle on the top right corner of the display, to open the page menu:

Touch the “Easy Mode” menu item, to make the checkmark appear:

Introduction

At this point, the Easy Mode has been activated, and the elements in the display appear less crowded:

Turning the Easy Mode off

Reverse the above operation when you want to deactivate the Easy Mode.

Easy Mode

The Style Play page in detail

Sound icon and status. If the

icon appears, the Sound is in mute and cannot be heard. If the icon does not appear, the Sound is in play and can be heard. See page 35

Sounds assigned to the right hand (UP1 to UP3) and to the left hand (LOW). Touch the Sound’s name to open the Sound Select window and choose a different Sound.

Style name and info. Touch the Style’s name to

open the Style Select window and choose a

different Style.

Tempo. Use the

TEMPO buttons to

change it.

Length of the accompaniment pat-

tern, and current beat.

Performance or STS. Touch it to open

the Performance Select window and

choose a different Performance.

Sounds on the keyboard will change.

Single Touch Settings (STS). Touch one of them to choose it, or use the dedicated buttons on

the control panel. Sounds on the keyboard will change.

Split Point. Touch here and play a note to set the new split point.

See page 39

Effects. Touch here and choose the effects assigned to the various tracks.

Mixer. Touch here, and mix the track’s

volume and pan.

The Style Play page in detail

To see this page, press the STYLE PLAY button.

Notes:

• There are three Sounds for the right hand (Upper 1, Upper 2, Upper 3), and a single Sound for the left hand (Lower). Their names are abbreviated as UP1, UP2, UP3, LOW, and are shown on the right side of the display.

• Right hand (Upper) and left hand (Lower) Sounds are separated by the Split Point.

• Performances and STSs are collections of Sounds. Just choose one of them to change all the keyboard’s Sounds.

• Choose a Style to change the musical style of the accompaniment patterns.

Easy Mode

The Song Play page in detail

Sound icon and status. If the

icon appears, the Sound is in mute and cannot be heard. If the icon does not appear, the Sound is in play and can be heard. See page 35

Sounds assigned to the right hand (UP1 to UP3) and to the left hand (LOW). Touch the Sound’s name to open the Sound Select window and choose a different Sound.

Song assigned to the Player. Touch it to open the

Song Select window and choose a different Song.

Tempo. Use the

TEMPO buttons to

change it.

Meter (or Time Signature) and

current beat.

Performance or STS. Touch it to open

the Performance Select window and

choose a different Performance.

Sounds on the keyboard will change.

Single Touch Settings (STS). Touch one of them to choose it, or use the dedicated buttons on

the control panel. Sounds on the keyboard will change.

Split Point. Touch here and play a note to set the new split point.

See page 39

Effects. Touch here and choose the effects assigned to the various tracks.

Mixer. Touch here, and mix the track’s

volume and pan.

Current measure.

To see this page, press the SONG PLAY button.

Introduction

Notes:

• As in Style Play mode, there are three Sounds for the right hand (Upper 1, Upper 2, Upper 3), and one Sound for the left hand (Lower). Their names are abbreviated as UP1, UP2, UP3, LOW, and are shown in the right side of the display.

• Right hand (Upper) and left hand (Lower) Sounds are separated by the Split Point.

• Performances and STSs are collections of Sounds. Just choose one of them to change all the keyboard’s Sounds.

• Available STSs depend on the Style or SongBook Entry you last selected.

• Touching a Song name in the display is the same as pressing the SONG button in the SELECTION section of the control panel.

Easy Mode

The Song Play page in detail

+ 348 hidden pages