AS many of you may remember, I had the opportunity to audition both the SD1 and XD9 at great lengths, and on several different occasions. Though I was impressed with the 'authenticity' of many of Ketron's style patterns, I couldn't get over my feeling of disappointment with the kb's seemingly overall muffled bassy sound. In contrast, the Yamaha Tyros/9000pro/PSR2000 sounds imho natural & open (transparent) with a balanced frequency response (from high to low) and a lot less fatiguing to my ears. It's my opinion that Ketron boards are best suited for contemporary dance oriented genres, while Yamaha arrangers better suited for emulating acoustic genre music: acoustic jazz, pop, R&B, country. I assume that the new SD1 'Plus' overall sound continues in the tradition of the Ketron overall sound that I outlined above, right?

I'm curious now to find out if anyone else (Donny Pesce, Andrea (Dreamer), Uncle Dave, and others) here that had the opportunity to play & compare the SD1/XD9 with the Tyros/9000pro/PSR2000/2100 has observed what I noticed or not.

Dan O'Neil: Realizing that you're now both a Ketron and Yamaha dealer, I'm particularly interested to hear 'your' candid thoughts on this now.

George Kaye, as another Ketron & Yamaha dealer as well, I would value your feedback on this as well.

I'm also interested in hearing what type of customers (musician keyboard players) tend to go with the Ketron vs Yamaha arrangers.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback & input.

Scott

I had no gripe about the sound of the Ketron products ... just the playability and navigation. It has great bass, drums and winds ....... for starters, but I still think the polyphony issue needs to be re-addressed. You can't play 2 fisted piano/string parts and use the sustain pedal while anything else is going on .... and if the harmonizer is triggered .... it will SHUT THE VOICES OFF when the max is reached. Unacceptable for a singer.

Scott and Others,
For ease of use and moving around to different editing pages and displays, the Tyros I find to be much easier to work with. The sounds of both the SD1 and the Tyros become personal tastes. In my store I think it seems to be divided right down the middle. Some really like one catagory better on one and others on the other. For sequencing I prefer the Tyros, but for the feel of the keyboard and size I like the 76 key SD1plus. Polyphony doesn't seem to be an issue with any of my customers because over the years of the SD1 I haven't had any complaints. I've only had 1 Tyros that needed to be exchanged because of a defect and I've had to have many SD1s sent in for display problems. However, the problem seems to be gone on the SD1plus and even when there have been problems, Ketron USA has been there for their customers to get the display problem fixed quickly.
Like Dan, I like the ability to turn off drum sounds quickly on the SD1 but both have the ability to use the drum remix feature where you play a midi file and use one of the internal styles for the drum track.
You can't go wrong with either keyboard in my opinion.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

These are good comments from George .

Thanks Dano for your clarification about the Piano sample. Strange communication from Ketron: I heard from many representatives, that the SD1Plus contains the same hardware. You are the first one informing, that there is a new piano chip.

I have no problems with this product strategy, but would have preferred a clear and open information from Ketron.

Brgds Hansruedi