George,
Jane lives very close to Phoenix, Az.

Hi Jane,
Can you "please" tell us WHERE you were able to "try out" the SD1? I have been looking desperately in my area & surrounding 100 mile radius (San Francisco, San Jose, and Sacramento areas: all HUGE areas each with metropolitan populations over a million) and NOT "ONE" dealer will stock or even have a SD1 available to demo (special PRE-paid orders ONLY). So far I know of ONLY two places in the ENTIRE USA who actually has a Solton SD1 available in their store to audition: George Kaye's Music in Southern California and the Guitar Center where Dan O'Neil works(Towson,Maryland store ONLY).

I contacted the US Solton distributor two weeks ago by telephone in New York (Lou) and he had promised me that he would locate or set something up for me locally (right away) so I could audition an SD1 in a store. Two weeks and I have NOT heard back from him at all. I'm beginning to believe there is something WRONG here as far as Solton US distribution/support goes. As I mentioned before, I also discovered there are NO Solton West Coast sales reps. It appears like the entire US Solton operation is run out of one small(?) place in New York.

I had previously asked people on this forum to please come forward to report on any/all known music stores in the USA who are willing to stock the SD1 or have a demo onhand (except for the 2 dealers listed above) and apparently Jane is the ONLY one (so far) to come forward. Jane, can you please tell us the store name and location so we can officially increase it to 3 KNOWN stores in the ENTIRE US which have a SD1 readily available to demo? It appears that the SD1 is truly a RARE find here in the US (like the endangered Panda Bear) for sure - Scott

Hello,

I will call and check to see for sure it was an SD1 that I tried out. Maybe it was an X1, as I tried several that day and was unfamiliar with the Solton name, so maybe I'm mixed up about the model. (I haven't looked at keyboards in 6 years.)

I do live near Phoenix and know of at least one other place in town that is advertising the SD1, so I'll call and see if they have any in stock and let you know, Scott.

George, I'm happy to hear that the internal harmonizers work well because I was planning to upgrade my digitech (which has been much improved in recent years according to what I've read), so now I can factor that into the overall cost of the keyboard. Do the internal harmonizers have the same two options that the digitech does - to generate harmonies by playing chords with the left hand or by programming?

Jane

Jane,
The internal harmonizers recognize chords on the left hand, the right hand, the whole keyboard, when you just sing they can be set for specific intervals or when you play midi files with vocal harmony tracks they just harmonize as arranged on the song. The ability to record chord changes into a sequencer as the digitech does I don't beleive can be done on any of the keyboard harmonizers. Actually I don't think i'm right. If what you are talking about is putting manually the chord changes for a song into a memory location in the digitech, I don't see why you can't record the chord changes only for a song in the keyboards sequencer in step or real time (depending on the keyboard), then go and mute all the volumes down if you don't want to hear any music play, and just sing into a mic and hear your harmony and voice track. I'm not sure about this, I will have to try it at my store. I don't even know if this is what you are asking about!
George Kaye

Jane,

you may want to try Synthony Music in Phoenix (on Indian School) - they have X1, SD1, Yamahas Korgs, and other arranger keyboards.

Hi all. I purchased my MidiMan Omni I/O mixer with Delta 66 soundcard via mail order from Synthony Music and the staff there were BOTH very helpful and very friendly.

I called them today and they "DO" have a Solton SD1 on the sales floor. If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, go CHECK IT OUT. Ask for Barry , he's their Solton guy. They also have a Yamaha 9000pro and SD1 to compare 'side by side'.

Too bad George Kaye (Kaye's Music Center), Guitar Center (Towson, MD store), and Synthony Music are sooo far away for me to travel to. I WISH I could find a store locally (within 75 miles) to check out the new Solton SD1. Anyway, I hope more people on this board will now have the opportunity to check out the SD1 and report back to the rest of us here. I guess there are now 'officially' THREE places in the US who have a SD1 demo available on their showroom floor:

1) Guitar Center, Towson, MD
2) Kayes Music Center, Reseda, CA
3) Synthony Music, Phoenix, AZ

Scott

Hi All,

Thanks for passing along the information about Synthony, Alex - I'm glad you were able to get your SD1, Scott! So far, I haven't found any other music stores in Phoenix that carry it. Synthony is a really great place with friendly and helpful people, so I know once I decide on a keyboard, I will go back to Synthony.

Jane

George, this is exactly the information I was needing - thanks for being so helpful. So I could record the instrumental track first and then the lead vocal and then the backup harmonies like I do now. Sounds like a really neat setup. Thanks again! Jane