Registered: 03/28/07
Posts: 39
Loc: brooklyn ny usa
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
Registered: 10/08/00
Posts: 4715
Loc: West Virginia
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.
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GEAR: Yamaha MOXF-6, Casio MZX-500, Roland Juno-Di, M-Audio Venom, Roland RS-70, Yamaha PSR S700, M-Audio Axiom Pro-61 (Midi Controller). SOFTWARE: Mixcraft-7, PowerTracks Pro Audio 2013, Beat Thang Virtual, Dimension Le.
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!
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!
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.
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.
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Korg Kronos 61 and PA3X-Pro76, Roland G-70, BK7-m and Integra 7, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, vintage Gibson SG standard.
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...
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An arranger is just a tool. What matters is what you build with it..!