Korg calls the recently NAMM show-shown Pa500 a "Work-less Station," and after a solid minute and a half of trying to catch my breath from laughing, I took a few puffs from my inhaler and was ready to learn about what this bad boy can do so that you don't have to do it.

It's based around the EDS [Enhanced Definition Synthesis] sound engine on-board units like the Korg M3, Pa800, and Pa2XPro. RX [Real eXperience] Technology credits itself with realism and articulate expression that produces very natural sound.

Guitar Mode transforms the keyboard into fretted strings of nearly any chord / neck position to make modeling guitar on a keyboard a much more natural experience as well. This is good news for a generation where the most popular guitars have five colored buttons. Even more comfortable, though, are the piano keys from Korg's flagship C720.

Let's not forget the Style engine, essential to all Korg Pa instruments, which shares the nickname I've had since high school for my flamboyant, sequin-heavy wardrobe. The Style engine follows your chord changes, timing, and voice leading and can back you up with grooves that span from simple, stripped down rhythm arrangements to a complete performance -- all on the fly in realtime. With no programming required, this is like having a whole backing band full of session musicians who graduated with degrees in musical composition.

Styles can even add up to five additional parts separate from drums, percussion, and bass. There are 320 editable Styles, and each includes four variations, introductions, endings, and more. For you hands-on types, users can create their own Styles or just mash existing Styles together to create custom settings.

The Pa500 includes many tools for songwriters from traditional "workstation" sequencing [including Korg's Backing Sequencer for recording parts to multitrack in one pass] to step-editing. A 240 x 320 pixel TouchView display also offers a couple of interface modes. EASY mode uses enhanced graphics to display common controls and EXPERT mode offers full control. On-screen HELP comes in seven languages for polyglots. I would not recommend teaching yourself other languages with the TouchView menu.

The Korg XDS twin, multi-mode sequencer can load a new sequence while the current one is playing for a DJ-style crossfading transition. Jukebox mode lets a single file play multiple songs for continuous use, and the sequencer is compatible with SMF and Karaoke files with Karaoke lyrics appearing in the display. It sounds like a veritable box-o-fun.

In addition, the Pa500 features 61 velocity sensitive keys, 80 note polyphony, and 880 pre-loaded sounds with 56 additional drum sounds that can be arranged into 64 kits. And to survive in this heavily plugged in world, it of course supports SMART CARD, USB and MIDI. --- THE END RESULT OF MY INVESTIGATION -- THE KORG PA500 IS BY FAR THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK ON THE MARKET TODAY !!!!!