Great Review George,

Can the SD5 really be an 'arranger' keyboard when quote... "Sequencer, again only a one track song record. This is not a board for someone who wants to do multitrack recording on the keyboard".

Other then that, the SD5 sounds incredible.
Now to find a place, close by, to try it out...maybe Guitar World?

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Larry
SynthZone Frapper

George thanks for the review, as always I think you shoot straight from the gut in your comments. After reading your review about the PA800 you created lots of interest on my part and your unbiased review of the SD 5 got me interested in that as well. Too bad there isn't enough money hanging on the tree in my backyard. Just doesn't seem to grow fast enough. I'm with Rikkisbears, after spending almost $7500 bucks on equipment in 2005 and another thousand this year, I'd have to be prepared for the divorce.

Rikki I know a good divorce lawyer



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 12-15-2006).]

Larry,
An arranger keyboard is one with styles and sounds. In actuall musical terms, you are correct.
An Arranger is someone who takes a song and creates individual parts for several musicians to play in a band. The term arranger in keyboards is having the ability to play this keyboard with 1 or more fingers. What you are playing is a simple or complex arrangement with very few fingers.
A workstation keyboard is one with a multitrack sequencer and you create an arrangement after you've recorded these tracks.
The SD5 has all these styles which you play with 1 or more fingers and thus is defined as an arranger keyboard.

Rikki, maybe you and Steven can get together after your divorces. The family that "plays" together stays together!
:}
DonM

Please don't get me wrong, I enjoy George's reviews, and respect him as a reputable seller, but bear that in mind when you read him. He is trying to sell the things..... so you often have to look very hard at his writing (and in between the lines!) to garner the REAL truth.

Diki,

Are you out of your mind? George has always been straight-forward and unbiased with every review he has posted about any keyboard. He is honest, caring, and has vast knowledge of all the keyboards he sells, and he spends a great deal of time researching the information he posts. If you want to take pot-shots at someone please do it on another forum.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

The SD5 does have a sequencer on board (just not a 16 tracks one with thorough editing capabilities).

You can ...

A. Use the Arranger (pre-record sequences or your own recorded in C) which already uses 8 tracks plus 1-4 more for lead so a total of 12 tracks...in this case, you would have to play as you record...

OR

B. Use the Arranger alone (with chord variation recorded within) and record up to 32 measures per variation of the various song parts. When completed, compile in real-time ... however the final recording process to disk is only once while the arranger recording process into memory is open to 8 tracks per arrangement!!

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

AJ

George. We have a few good dealers like yourself in the UK.
Don't get upset with the occasional remark about your credibility and no need to excuse the fact that you are in business and invoices have to be paid.
I have been visiting this forum daily for some years now and you George do a fine job reporting back your product finding. Your reviews are very much appreciated by 99.9% of us.

Hehehe

I enjoy your reviews very much, George. I've never found you anything other than helpful and you seem to tell it like it is. It's not like you're tooting the horn for one brand... you sell several brands and models. Keep 'em coming!

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Bill
SmallGig.com

Look, everybody, I DID say, in my earlier post, that I enjoyed George's reviews, and respected him as a VERY reputable dealer. I am not taking 'potshots'.

But..... you have to understand the difference between a review from a dealer, and a review from a buyer. Firstly, George's status as a dealer of Ketron, or any other arranger line he sells, is going to suffer if he slams the product online. Just think what your opinion would be of an employee (or associate) of YOUR business if he started slamming YOU online.....

So George has to be careful about how he phrases less than stellar aspects of a product he handles. We, as buyers do not have this constraint, so often our reviews and initial comments may concentrate on things that we don't like, and broadcast them as a warning to other buyers. George does a wonderful job of describing the positive aspects of the SD-5, with it's strong points to the fore, but when he talks about something that is less than stellar, he is obliged to use language that is more circumspect.

Hence, while on the other thread, he initially talks about guitar sounds that 'won't turn any heads', in his review here he goes;



So a slightly different 'spin' than they won't turn heads.....

Now, once again, let me remind you that I respect George, value his reviews, and have nothing but the utmost respect for his professionalism and the kindness he shows our members here at SZ.

But I realize the constraints he is under, and respect those, but merely, in my earlier post, tried to direct our members attention to a less than glowing statement he had earlier made, which he didn't, for obvious reasons, include in his main review. That is all...... it was NOT a 'potshot'..... My apologies, George, if you took it that way.