With all the hoopla over the new Yamaha Tyros, it seems that Ketron XD9 arranger discussion has fallen by the wayside. In fact, has there EVER been any XD9 discussion here before? Though the XD9 was released 3 months ago, not much (if any) feedback has been given by any XD9 owners. In fact, the only XD9 owners I know of (so far) are Donny Pesce (DNJ) and Andrea Rotolo, who owns the XD3 module version of the XD9, and both of these guys only received their XD arrangers just in the past week.

Donny & Andrea: I sincerely hope you guys will post your candid feedback about your new XD9/XD3 arrangers soon, and hopefully even produce some MP3 demos to share with us as well.

OK, Who else out there owns the XD9? Are you happy with it? How does it compare with the X1, SD1, or other arranger KBs you've played? Looking forward to getting first hand USER feedback re the Ketron XD9.

Scott

Scott,
I got my XD3 two days ago and the only things I can say so far are:
- it sounds cleaner compared with the SD1, maybe because the DSP is quieter.
- it lacks many of the SD1 sounds (the ROM is 24 vs. 48 Mb)
- many sounds have been resampled; the acoustic piano has loops that begin shortly after the attack phase; this means that the decay phase of the sounds depends only on the ADSR envelope; the SD1 has longer samples with a more natural decay phase; so, I would say that the SD1 piano is better, but here again the XD3/XD9 sounds cleaner.
- one weak point of the XD9 are the saxophones: the SD1 has a lot more of choice; the Night Sax on the XD3 is gone.
- the horns sound better on the XD9: they are quiet and natural; the XD9 flugelhorn is beautiful and I love the slide trombone too. Here again, the SD1 has more choice (like the Golden Trumpet).
The SD1 has more buttons, even to choose an instrument: in the XD9 the acoustic and electric pianos are accessed with the same button and the same goes for saxophones and flutes.
- speaking of electric pianos, they are much better on the XD9.

I will be more than happy to record something with the XD3.
I have to say that this is the first time that I have an arranger and a module of the same brand (they are almost identical); if you ask me which one I would keep or sell, my answer is: I would keep both!
The great advantage of the SD1 is that I could sample the XD3 sounds I like most and use them together with its internal sounds.

Andrea, THANKS for your usual insightful & precise analysis. As we've spent many days/hours last June playing music together and quickly becoming life long music buddies, I of course highly respect your opinions & observations. If it's true that the XD9 can import any or all of the SD1 sounds & styles to the XD9 hard drive, it appears it's possible to have the BEST of both the SD1 and XD9 on ONE keyboard. Hope you might be able to test/confirm this by trying this out on your Ketron keyboards.

Andrea, Looking forward to hearing your demos of the XD3 (XD9). Realizing your musical talent as demonstrated by your website songs, I'm sure we'll all be impressed. - Scott

ScottYee and anyone else looking at the Ketrons

I have had an XD3 now for the last 3 days and my initial reaction is as follows:

The Drums and Bass are the most powerful I have ever heard from this type of equipment and excels when used with the vast majority of the styles/patterns.

The organ sounds are fantastic whatever your taste. My favourite are tonewheel which I love and have played for over thirty five years - and the B3/Jazz/Click/Overdriven type organs you get or create are brilliant but there is plenty of scope for cheesy 60s electronic, theatre and sacred types.

As well as good basic organ sounds there are excellent rotary and chorus vibrato effects(a must for authentic B3 sound).

There is also sustain so you can emulate some of the old Lowrey sounds (If any of you are old enough to remember those).

The rest of the voices vary from very good to great but there are a few exceptions. Most of the guitar voices are OK and one or two are pretty good but none of them have the subtle (delayed) vibrato that is usually heard on certain types of guitar. OK you can program this in and save as your own sound, but this is inconsistent with the saxes where the vibrato is actually sampled and is so much better (more natural) than using modulation for the same effect.

The level of control and setup is very extensive and almost overwhelming but It's early days and I'm getting there.

For accompanyment - 2 drum kits - bass - 5 different rhythmic accompanyment and 2 left hand voices - on the right you can have programs with up to 4 different voices all with their own key range, effects, panning etc. It should be noted that only the GM voices can be used for accompanyment but these can have effects applied (you should hear the clean guitar with wahwah for Theme from Shaft).

Ok so what's the down side - Well for me it's the bog-standard piano sound. Electrics and Electro Accoustics are good, honky tonk is fine but one of the staple sounds that I mainly use just isn't quite right for me. It's fine in the lower and middle registers but just too clunky up high. I have yet to tweak and fiddle but I shall still be taking my Roland JV1080 module to gigs just for the piano sound. (Mind you - I had to tweak the hell out of this before I was satisfied so perhaps I'm just too fussy).

The other minus is not such a big deal but there are a lot less buttons than on the SD1 for example and therefore more multifunction ones and layered menu screens. For live playing this is frustrating especially like an old tweaker like me - However, many of the things that I fiddle with (no laughing now) can be achieved using the 13 switch footpedal.

It's still early days yet and I am am still getting excited about some of the obscure features I knew nothing about before I bought like the the ability to have any brass or other voices cut out of the accompaniament when playing the right hand voices. I love busy and complex styles but not to compete against when I am soloing. This means that I wont have to "thin out" the styles like I have in the past.

I hope that the above is of interest - don't forget that all of this is very subjective and I am only comparing with a Solton MS40 that I have gigged with for nearly 8 years, my dad's Technics 6000 and a Yammie PSR9000 round my friends music shop where I used to work. I wouldn't swap for anything else but of course I haven't heard the Tyros or Genysis

Well as they say - That's my £590 worth (I still can't believe I got it that cheap)

Now if only it had a colour touch screen and a music database and was £200 cheaper......

Hi Scott,

I'm really too busy at this time to get into the greatness of the Ketron XD9, especially after yesterdays road trip to see Dano, and AJ at the PIANO MAN Store in Catonsville MD and observed a super DEMO. But I promise to give some insight into many of its fantastic features as I learn and experience them from a Professional KB Musician's standpoint as soon as I can ok?

Donny NJ



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 10-31-2002).]

KFingers,

The music data base [128 song setups] (in the form of single registrations) are found in the HD (Folder 05) and can be loaded instantaneously.

* Press DISK
* Use styles numeric buttons to enter 0-5
* Select the 'song-setup' of your choise.
* XD will be ready to play that song.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

AJ