I received this new keyboard late Monday. I unboxed it and spent a couple hours with it Monday night, then about 5 hours with it Tuesday.
I got quite comfortable with it, having some experience with the operating system-very similar to the SD1, so I took it to the job Tuesday night.
So far, I like it even more than I expected. I didn't even realize quite how much I missed that LIVE drum and bass sound.
The SD5 has added some sounds that had to be loaded each time on the SD1, such as Growl Sax. It also has that wonderful Strat sound that was first introduced on the Midjay. It sounds even better on the SD5.
My unit does not yet have a hard drive, and my computer doesn't have a floppy drive, and I no longer have the connecting serial cable, so right now I am limited to the styles and sounds on the keyboard itself.
They should include the serial cable with all units, in my opinion.
The SD5 comes compete with 160 registrations, and they are very well done. Access to them is very easy, as there are 16 assignable buttons immediately above the left hand. The buttons are called Multi-tabs, and they in the Registration mode they come pre-programmed with Registrations. If the Registation light is on, you press the category of the genre you want, such as Swing, then the buttons become quick access to 16 Swing registrations. Of course they can be altered, replaced, erased, etc.
In addition to these registrations, it is very easy to create more, that can be accessed by entering numbers. Before going to work I modified several banks of registrations to suit my preferred fingering mode and split points, and choice of lead sounds.
Another form of registration, Single, is also available, but they must be saved to Hard Drive or Floppy. I used this quite extensively with the SD1, and most likely will here too after I install a Hard Drive.
A neat feature is that if you have a style and a text file and/or a midi file in the same folder, calling up the Style will also call up the text file and/or midi file.
The Vocal processing is slightly improved, in my opinion, from the SD1, and the Vocalizer (harmonizer) seems to be the same. It works very well, and the harmony is clear. I experienced zero distortion--very pleased after having to "baby" the Yamaha harmonizer.
It had several different modes--two choices of chord modes, and an Effects mode which has a list of gimmick voices such as Micky Mouse, Big Bear, etc. I believe there were about 15 of those, and they work with the touch of a button.
Speaking of buttons, there are a wonderful array of buttons that access the various operating features, PLUS the Multi-tabs can be programmed to do just about anything from style variations, registration up-down, drum part mutes--there is a full page of assignable functions. Haven't even got that far yet.
The arranger section has options to Hold the bass line, style parts or drum parts as you change variations, in effect vastly increasing the variety of styles.
The much-talked about Riff feature is quite fun to play with. I played a style called Organ Hit, that seemed to be made for Ray Charles' "What I Say?" When the fourth variation is flashing, it means a riff is there. I pressed it and then proceeded jam over the top of the riff, which in this case followed the exact chord progression I'd been playing. (All the riffs don't do that.)
You can press Pianist, and play piano, or any other sound over the entire keyboard while the riff is on. Very neat.
Besides the sound, probably the most outstanding feature of the SD5 is the extreme programmability. You can make it do just about anything you desire. There are various functions of initial touch and aftertouch that can affect style parts, and there is a button called Arranger Mute, that mutes certain parts of a style. These parts are selectable.
There is wonderful real-time control of volumes for style parts, right voice, left voice, drums bass, etc.
The only realtime e.q. is a Bass Boost button, that allows you to crank up or reduce the bass as needed. I prefer to crank it up in most cases, and it sounds really great.
The onboard speakers are very powerful and sound very good. I think I recall that they are 22 watts.
As to the sounds, I mentioned the Strat. There are also very good acoustic guitars, Pedal Steel that allows bending of one note, very accurate Fiddle, Harmonica and Chrome voices. I was very pleased and surprised at the Pianos. They really sound great to my ears. Saxs are still good. The organs sound good and respond nicely to the dedicated rotor on/off and speed buttons. You can also open a screen showing drawbars.
There is also a button that allows real-time modification of the lead voice, allowing quick application of overdrive, distortion, wha-wha, and various others. Not that I use Wha-wha, but it can be assigned to the volume pedal if wanted, and it becomes a wha-wha pedal while the assignment is on.
This thing is built like a tank, and is large enough to have 76 keys, but it has only 61. It isn't as heavy as the G70, but much heavier than the PSRs. It seems to be the same size and weight as the SD1.
I was able to find a style for most every song I wanted to do, but I'm looking forward to adding a hard drive so I can access the entire collection of styles from SD1 and other models.
If anyone has any specific questions, I will try to answer, but I am still in the early stage of taming this beast.
I got several comments from audience about how great the sound was last night.
I just plugged it into the Bose L1 and played. There was no e.q. added, or needed!
The SD5 comes sounding great out of the box, and that in itself is a real pleasure.
There is three band e.q. available for the two mic inputs, plus you can fully adjust reverbs and delays.
Probably more than you wanted to know about SD5, right?
DonM

Don Good Luck the SD5. Are you going to use the s900 as a back up?

Thanks Don!!! Great info. Only wish it had a USB!!! I know you can work around that but disc drives are pretty much Dead! Are you going to get your HD from Ketron? I understand it comes with "Software". I think that means Midi files not sure? there is an option to expand the style content by 200, do you know anything about that?
The SD5 FACTS say 179 styles the SD3 says 202?? Did you consider waiting for the AUDYA? I assume you had the Tyros before this? Sorry for all the questions!!

Enjoy!!! I love getting a new KB!!

Good review Don.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

I will probably use this until the Audya comes.
I will get the expansion card and hard drive, with additional styles asap.
I don't remember exactly how many styles the basic memory has. I'll check tonight.
Gotta run. BIG day tomorrow. I'll leave the SD5 set up at the club, take the PSR900 to two Nursing Home jobs 200 miles away. I'll leave the house at 6:00 a.m. and get back home after the last job at about midnight.
More to come on the SD5.
DonM

the SD5 does support USB by using a serial cable to a USB Midi adapter and Ketron USA does provide one free of charge if needed. The pattern expansion chip allows for up to 200 patterns to be loaded in rather than about 40 without it.
The part that bothers me about the SD5 is just about price. I feel that a keyboard with these features (no vocal harmony stock, no USB device stock, 61 keys, only a single track sequencer for recording songs) is price to high at close to $2500.00. When announced to me over 2 years ago, I was told it would sell right around the price of a Yamaha PSR3000. This never happened. Today, it's closest competition would be the PSRS900 which comes with all the above mentioned features for around $1000.00 less. If you add the vocal harmonizer and hard drive to the SD5 it becomes $3000.00. I also think it is time for Ketron to improve upon their displays. The new Auyda has an interface display that looks more like Korg and Yamaha. The SD5 looks like the X1.
The SD5 is built very well and like Don says, you can program it to behave in just about any way you like and then save all this as a "power on set up".


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Great Review DonM,

Can anyone confirm that the SD3 is basically an SD5 in module form??

Don P

When will we hear it, Don? ...
t.

Thanks for the review!

Don....thank you for taking the time to voice your professional views on this unit.....some of those features sound very interesting....hope to hear more about it as you go along & maybe a few demos on you website also.

George, you make mucho sense in what your saying also regarding price vs features etc, etc, ....any word on what the AUDYA will be prices to sell at?