I second what spalding said. But I admit I am not the omb live musician. Rather want to stick to an arranger keyboard for composing purposes. Thats what other workstations owners are at least considering. So I ruled out the sd5 for my next keyboard.

Heinrich

Guys, no adding the sequencer would not add the weight. But it would make it harder for the customers to justify buying the SD1. The same can be said about the sampler, and probably about the 76 keys as well (the SD5 appears to be as long as the SD1).

If you remember AJ's posts before the release of SD5, it seemed like Ketron was intending to repackage their technologies (and make some improvements) and make a low-cost instrument. I think even the professional OMB entertainers would find having a playback-only sequencer a sufficient compromise.

My concern is that at $3000 MSRP (without a vocal processor), the SD5 is NOT a low-cost instrument by any means. I believe that the PSR3000 sets the price point for the "low-cost professional instrument", at about $1500 street. Korg PA50 and Roland are close to that - actually closer to PSR1500 (without vocal harmony).

As far as the new features go - having the 16 extra buttons is nice, but their placement, where they can only be accessed by the left hand, is questionable - they should be right in the middle. I guess the Riff functions are interesting, but they are relatively smal software enhancements, and if they are really that useful, I would guess that every SD1 owner should demand a software update, which will include them.

I am going to reserve my judgement as to whether the SD5 is worth its asking price until I get to see/hear/play it. However, at first glance this is not a low-cost offering that many manufacturers produce when repackaging their 4-year old technologies and producing a dumbed-down "middle of the line" instrument.

so you think it was a market positioning ploy by Ketron to omit the seqencer to make the choice between their high end arranger (SD1) and mid range SD5 more distinct? Its still in my opinion a marketing mistake. The SD1 has been out ages with only AJs upgrade kit being a recent innovation. I would guess that sales of new SD1's will have gone into decline when competeing with the newer top flight keyboards (T2 PAX). The upgrade kit as far as i am aware is only being sold to existing SD1 owners so the upgrade is only of benefit to existing owners. (AJ correct me if i am wrong and that the SD1 's being sold are all upgraded instruments ) The new sounds on the SD5 are excellent, guitars outstanding, and if i were an SD1 Owner i would be tempted to actually "downgrade" to the SD1. ( watch out for the SD1 second hand market) . so who are the new purchasers of the SD1 ? Is Ketron going to launch another top end arranger with the SD5 sounds and a fully kitted out machine, sequencer,VH sampler ? I saw the vid of the SD5 and it sounds spectacular but so did the tyros 2 and the PAX to me. But the PAX took my money because it was the most complete arranger as far as i was concerned, sampler, VH, sequencer , synth, on board speakers and product support ongoing updates etc.

I wish Ketron well and am happy that there is still competition driving the arranger keyboard market . I hope they have got this one right for most of theirpotential customers. Unfortunately i wont be one this time.

sorry heres the link to the video . Excellent demonstration by the way !
http://republika.pl/korgstation/KETRON_SD5.zip

apologies again , thats the audio !

heres the video www.mira-multimedia.de/ablage/disma.wmv

well, the link doesn t work
"error 404: Datei nicht gefunden!"

Spalding,

look for AJ's posts from about 8-12 months ago: he was actually asking members on this forum what would be a good compromise set of features for a lower-end arranger, and then he announced the SD5. Although it is mainly a repackaging of the selected SD1 technologies, it also has some new features and larger polyphony. Overall, I think this was a good attempt to produce a mid-level arranger (though my concern about price still stands).

Indeed, SD1 is a fairly old instrument (by today's standards), having been around for 4(?) years. However, Ketron has been pretty good issuing software updates which significantly improved the instrument over previous versions; they have even updated the sound set. Many times I have seen the manufacturers advertise instrument as being software upgradeable, but then these software upgrades are just bug fixes of the things that should have been working from the start. So in effect, this is just a way to turn the user into a beta-tester. While initial SD1 patches were all correcting bugs, some of which were fairly serious stability problems, the later software updates went beyond that. I wish Roland had done that with my G1000.

As far as completeness of the instrument goes - we all have different needs, and yours may well be different from mine. I need high polyphony and abhor heavy weight of the likes of latest Rolands and Korgs. Playing mostly live, I don't care about recording with the sequencer. Whenever I need to do a multi-track recording (which is very rarely), I am at home near a computer, where even a $60 PowerTracks provides loads more functionality than any built-in sequencer. I can see how someone else may want an all=in-one instrument, and don't care about the weight. This is why it is great that there is more than one model of an arranger on the market, and we have the freedom to choose, instead of being confined to a single one.
Regards,
Alex

I couldn't agree more. PowerTracks has a plethora of features, ease of use, and 1-800 free tech support. Creating files and transfering to the AK is a breeze. If you're not familiar with this midi/audio program, check it out:
http://www.pgmusic.com/powertracks.htm

i hear you Alex and i understand that its all down to choice but like i said initially a sequencer will not add to the weight or detract from any other function that Ketron wanted to add but what it will do is immediately negate purchases from people who create on the fly or at the spur of the moment like me. People who can maybe spare a couple of hours a week toplay the instrument and dont want to waste time connecting Amps and computers and drum machines, synth modules etc. It is just impractical for me to devote one room in the house for music where the keyboard is permanatley set up and connected to other hard ware like a computer that other members of the family might want to use.

Just makes no business sense to omit it. It having one would enable just 2 additional purchases of the isntrument , wouldnt that justify having one ? Would the inclusion of a sequencer have turned people off the SD5 or increased the sales of the SD1 ? I mean how hard could it have been to implement the existing SD1 sequencer into the SD5 ?

Hello to all,

I am a former demo guy for SD1 and have always enjoyed Ketron products. I want to make sure that we define "sequencing"...

Is being able to record your own pattern/style, sequencing ?

Is being able to play your created style in real time,directly to floppy disk or hard drive, sequencing ?

It is my understanding that the SD5 will do both ... You can also edit midi sequences during playback and instantly save those settings has always been a ketron feature as well !

Dan O'

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