One thing I've always preferred Roland over Yamaha for was the choirs and voice dahs,hahs,lahs etc..

This shows that some people have cotton not just on their ears and eyes, but also inside their brain (if they have got one...)

Its fluffy cotton...sooo soft...

G1000 is no match for the VA7 in the sound department. I stand by that.

Just a tip:
VA7 have ALL the voices of G1000 and a LOT of other voices...

Someone can say that G1000 is better to operate but to say that the G1000 voices are better than VA7 is nonsense.

Chico

If more people would listen, play & compare the SD-1/XD9 sound to othert units they would be convinced for sure.

As many of you probably all know by now, I FINALLY had the opportunity recently to audition (at considerable length) BOTH the SD1 and XD9. Checkout my detailed review here:
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/004964.html

I agree that Ketron styles have a 'certain edge', but I'm quickly becoming convinced that the new 1,920 ppq high resolution Yamaha Tyros 'styles' are going to give the Ketron 'styles' some stiff competition. As far as the Ketron 'sounds' go, some are truly outstanding, while others imho are downright unimpressive. It's obvious that there still is no ONE kb which contains terrific sounds in ALL sound categories. Oh well, I continue to dream for that day.

Donny, Have you begun to play, explore, (and gig) with your new XD9 yet? I'm really anxious to get your candid feedback & real life experiences with your XD9.

Scott

Well, this is purely a matter of taste.

I played new Ketron board for a couple of hours, and my impression is that its voices are a little closed and plastic.

Situation will get better using an external amplifier, but still not as good as other arrangers.

Following my tastes, KORG PA voices are still near the top, with Roland voices very close. To me, Yamaha is a little lower, but I never listen to the new TYROS. And I never listen to the GEM GENESYS too.

Nice comparison, it sounded overall like the 9000 pro comes out top of the boards you've compared though (taken into account all pros and cons).

So where does this leave the Tyros?

Piano sounds - same as 9000 pro, so should please most.

Electric pianos - all the 9000 pro ones plus a few more.

Organs - You can't argue that the Tyros organ repetoire takes some beating! They have improved the footages to 9 and added many of the classic AR1000 theatre organ voices plus those Klaus sounds. Might not be to everyones taste and I've still yet to hear that classic hammond sound, but its close! The digital drawbars too are fun to experiment with in a cute graphical cubase plug-in type display. Steals polyphony though!

Guitars - Ahem... need I say more?

Synth pads - Lots of new pad voices (aka Motif?) but still misses some of those dreamy Korg pads I would love to have.

Lead synth - nice collection of USABLE sounds, can't fault them!

Strings - again lush, warm and realistic. Could do with a few more synth string voices, but dont forget the GM and XG set!

Choir - other than the gothic voice, rather disapointing. I think Roland has better choral sounds.

Bass - the new mega bass sounds are good, but as with all digital synths you never get a smooth deep clean bass without that chiff of digital noise!

Drums - excellent Live! kits and plenty of exotic percussion to play with! More electronic sounds would be nice though.

Accordion - fantastic harmonica, nice small accordion voice but rest perhaps a bit thin. Seldomnly used though.

Flutes - very good in my opinion, though I miss that celtic sound (used in titanic) which the roland does have. Pleeeez yamaha give us that sound! Classical flute is beautiful, sweet flute exciting and superb panflutes. Sweet Oboe is gorgeous!!!!

Percussion - beautifully warm vibes, very nice for jazz and orchestral work. Plenty of dings and dongs.

Brass - Plenty of choice to be honest on the Tyros, though the best combinations use several sounds stacked in the registrations. nice sweet trumpet and other brass voices. Horns are great if not a bit smooth!

Sax - Vastly improved sax section on tyros, though main solo sax's are questionable. Soprano sax is gorgeous aka Kenny G, but alto and tenor neither here or there.. My TG500 still has some of the best sax voices in my opinion! Great ensemble sounds though.

Have I missed anything???

S.



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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
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scott, I'm still setting the XD9 up for live peformance. Meanwhile I'm playing it in my studio as much as possible. The XD9 is not your play in the store and make a decision kind of KB. If you just want to push buttons without getting your teeth into the KB, the XD9 is not for you. You have to spend some time with it and tweak here and there to get the right sound. It is a very powerfull unit with so many editable features that need attention to create some unbelievable sounding music, But....once you take the time, hook it up to a good sound system, it is very gratifying. I have never heard more realistic sounds and rhythms come out of a arranger keyboard..... More to follow.

Dnj