http://www.bck.co.uk/htm/sd3demo.htm

http://www.bck.co.uk/htm/SD3.htm

Wonderful !

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 08-15-2007).]

KETRON XD3 vs SD3

SOUNDS:- Most of the sounds of the SD3 are new and in some cases even better than the sounds of the flagship SD1Plus (such as guitars, violin, piano, strings, sax). More realism has been added especially to guitars which now have fret noise, strumming … etc. When used with the styles, they are even more realistic than before.
STYLES:- The new styles take use of the new voices. You now have a lot of bass slides and guitar strums and noises within a style making them more realistic. Most styles are now 16 or (as in the case of some RIFFs) 32 measures long making them less redundant and more realistic.
FEATURES:- A lot of new features have been included with the SD2 making music performance and creation more fun such as
Multi-tab buttons. Can be assigned to various functions OR used to call up registrations (whose names can now be displayed at the center of the screen).
Fill to Arranger. A user can now press any of the Arrangement tabs, and the SD3 will automatically insert a fill before going to the next arrangement.
RIFF. Unit now plays back complex chord progressions based on the style selected and the style of play.
After Fill. This feature allows you to trigger the Fill in by pressing harder on the keys – frees your hand so you focus on playing.
Hard Drive upgradeable. Upgrade HD to 80GB
MIDIJAY LINK – Control the Midijay functions directly via Midi from the SD2. Use the Midijay to increase library with Grooves, drum loops, audio (wave and Mp3 files) … etc

A very cool feature I see is triggering fills by "key velocity". That's an awesome feature! That would give you great control over the fills while keeping both hands on the keys.

As long as you don't want to play louder for some reason (like dynamics or accents, perhaps?)...

I am not a big fan of velocity OR pressure triggered arranger actions. I do not want anything I want to play (on the spur of the moment) to have to be censored by worrying about whether it will trigger an arranger action I don't want.

I still believe that multi-button foot-pedals are the best way to have hands-free control and STILL be able to play anything you want.

And, Ketron... Riff Mode will ALWAYS be redundant until you let the users program the changes themselves, or even better, record it live from the played changes (Chord Sequencer, anyone?). Preset changes get boring very quickly, no matter HOW long the pattern is. You have the START of a really useful feature, but need to consider that most players savvy enough to use it would also rather be able to 'roll their own' changes.

Let's face it... Riff Mode isn't exactly setting the world on fire. ALLOW USER INPUT.... and stand back!

to be honest, i dont hear much of a difference between this and the sd1+.

I'm not sure I understand this. The site says: "Click on any of the music styles below to download an MP3 audio recording of the SD3
playing in the style of your choice."

The accordion demo is the same one I heard a year ago before the SD3 even came out.

Not complaining about it.....just confused! What demo's from what Ketron are we actually listening to?

The demo's sound great as always, but is it my imagination or are the "styles" becoming more "in your face" with every new generation? The dixieland is overpowering. I liked a previous "dixie" much better. Also, I thought the "big band" was a little TOO elaborate. The basic beat (that causes the foot tapping) got lost somewhere.

Other than that, Ketron reigns supreme!

These are the same demo's posted on the Ketron website when the SD5 came out; actually, since they share the same sound engine, this makes sense, but I would have liked to hear something new this time.

Exactly, Dreamer... The SD3 has always claimed to have the same engine and samples as the SD5...

And, despite the header, there is NO XD3/SD3 comparison in that post...

Just one more example of a PR guy (if that is what uxt150 is ) not knowing his product...

Cut and paste from a brochure or PR release for a different product (what was with the SD2 Midjay blurb?!) doesn't really cut it, around here.

[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 08-16-2007).]

Diki, I see you are still making friends..

Not trying to, my friend...

You want to shill here, might as well get your facts straight. This isn't a local mall, where you can put up anything about an arranger and Mom's and Dad's go 'Ooooh, isn't THAT interesting?!'

Hopefully, we have a higher standard here, and need something with a bit more factual content. But I could be wrong...