Korg PA700 sound quality compared to Krome EX

[anotherscott]

I am looking at an external keyboard for casual playing and jamming outside of my daw.
There are many synths on my computer (including Korg) but it's not spontaneous and I don't have many hifi instruments/acoustic sounds.

I was looking at Krome and realized it has more of synth sounds (that I can already do).
It does have nice pianos and some acoustic sounds but much alike what I may already have on my PC.

Modx did come close but the samples are a bit older and the FM I can do on my PC.

True, lots of the Krome synth/piano/acoustic sounds, and the MODX FM, etc. are things you can do on your PC... but sonically, almost anything non-analog can be done better on a PC, and as you said at the top, your purpose here is (at least in part) to have a good selection of these sounds available to you when you don't want to be tethered to a PC, so maybe that doesn't really have to be much of a concern.

Modx did come to mind but the samples may be a bit older (?) and not as beefy as PA. The FM I can already do. I hear the sequencer is not as convenient as PA.
Roland FA, I checked the XV-5080 (should be similar and a bit older too) and not sure if it's the same sound palette but the Korg might have an edge?

MODX sample set is pretty new. Of its 5.67 GB of sample data, about less than a gigabyte is "old" (Motif XF and earlier), almost 5 GB was new to the Montage in 2016. All but about 200 mb of the Krome EX are the same as the 2012 model. The PA700 was from 2017, though it's a smaller sound set than the MODX, and much of it is still "legacy" from the prior model. But neither newness or size is everything, and if you feel it doesn't sound as "beefy," that may be all you need to know.

MODX sequencer is not as capable as PA700 or Krome. But you have a DAW, which beats them all. You're not likely to be creating sequences in a "casual playing and jamming outside of my daw" environment, so maybe that doesn't need to be a concern.

Roland FA acoustic instrument sounds are mostly from the XV-5080 which, yes, is quite old, or from the almost as old SRX expansions... but its Virtual Analog and handful of SuperNATURAL acoustic sounds are newer tech.

The PA700 seems to have those really good natural sounds that would complement my existing setup.

Arrangers often have automatic articulations that vary with how you play, which I believe is some of what Korg's "DNC" does. Though if this kind of expressivity on natural sounds is what appeals to you, I think Yamaha's arrangers tend to do a better job. But it's subjective, and also depends on which sounds you're comparing.

One other thing you might want to consider, if it's for casual playing and jamming, but also you care about piano, is that 61 keys can feel restrictive for piano playing (and for splits, if you'd be using them). So you might also consider what's available in a 7x.

 

[Biggles]

Perfect sense.

As it is I happen to have a CT-X 5000 in my music room, the sound quality is very good BUT the PA700 blows it away in every aspect, although the700 is much more expensive.

One other feature of the PA is its a one box solution, take it anywhere and it even runs on batteries. One drawback which has had a fair amount of adverse comments is the in unit recording is MIDI but can also be audio but only MP3.

A further thing with a PA is that it will not sound at its best straight out of the box as they are setup with a pretty flat frequency response, Master Eq brings it alive as does adjusting the individual sounds in a Keyboard Set.

The OS of the CT-X is most definitely minor league compared to the PA which as you should expect is far more complex, but so is the OS on any Workstation.

With the Kross 2 that I had it could layer a lot of Tones and each one had 17 pages of settings and adjustments available.

BTW, Korg have Video Manuals on their Youtube Channel so do check them out, they will give you a much better idea of the operation of the keyboards than a review will.

Hence whatever you decide upon expect a steep learning curve.

 

[yul]

Thanks so much for your awesome responses.This is truly a great forum with quality folks.

Wish me luck I have not decided yet on anything.

Actually there is the DGX-670 which just came out that I need to consider but probably will not make the cut!

 

[anotherscott]

The PA700 is very limited in its internal memory, ...

It is one of the reasons that I sold my 700, I had filled it up completely

It's all relative. PA700 permits about 256 mb of user samples (compressed(, which may not be a ton, but most boards up to its $1500 support less, or none. The only exceptions I can think of are Yamaha PSR-SX700 which supports about 400, and MODX6 which has a gigabyte (not sure how compression plays into it). PA700 also beats the Krome and Roland FA here, which have also been mentioned. Trade-offs, though... I'm a big fan of the MODX, but it doesn't have the arranger functions or built-in speakers of the PA700, so it depends what else you need. If you like the PA700 but wish it had more memory, of course, that's one of the advantages of the PA1000, it has more than doouble the user sample memory. In a way, they deifference might even be bigger than that, because the 1000 has noticeably better piano than the 700, so you may be less likely to feel you must use up some of that precious memory with a third-party piano sample.

Of course these days, you also have the option of adding some great sounds from even an iPhone or iPad that you might already have. The PA models do have some ability to integrate external MIDI sounds into its sound sets... I think that's an advantage it has over the Yamaha PSR models. (Lots of non-arrangers can do this, including the ones I've seen mentioned in this thread... Kross, Krome, FA, MODX.)