I'm surprised that no one has mentioned a very serious ommision on the Ketron SD5 keyboard & SD3 module.

Why is there no USB port, for a flash drive or external Hard Drive or, at the very least, an SD Card slot.
A floppy disk is steam age technology nowadays and a cost of £250 for an internal Hard drive is far too much
for far too little, when I have bought a 500 Gb external Hard Drive for my computer for £85.

I had intended to buy an SD3 as soon as they hit the market - £1300 sounds a fair price for this module but I don't want to go back to using slow & outdated floppy disks after using an SD card on my Technics KN7000.

Ketron make quality products with good sounds and features and they have been one of the few manufacturers to keep producing Module versions of their keyboards. I have praised them constantly for this - but the lack of cheap and convenient storage is a big turn-off in my opinion and I'm now reluctant to make the purchase.

I wonder whether AJ or, better still, someone from Ketron themselves would like to comment on this.

Tony, SHEFFIELD

Anthony,
when I first saw the SD5 keyboard at the NAMM winter show in California in 2006, not 2007, when it was being shown for the first time, the first things on commented on was that this seemed like a dated keyboard to me. No USB port for computer. No USB device port for external storage, the same old keyboard interface which was on the X series products. And most of all, a price that was supposed to be around $1595, came in at $2500.00 map! At this time, AJ, Lou and Aldo from Bell Duo-Vox in New York were still the owners and Paolo, the owner of Ketron from Italy were all present. I sat with all of them at explained how the SD5's biggest competitor was the Yamaha PSR3000 which had all the newest features including 128 note polyphony, vocal harmonizer, 16 track sequencer, USB, Color monitor, etc. and the only feature similar on the SD5 was the 128 note polyphony. The riff function was the big new buzz about this model, but I am not sure it has gone over real well since it's introduction last year. I encouraged Paolo to reconsider the price........He said he couldn't because of manufacturing costs. It seems that the SD5 was a decision to have something come out new until Ketron could unvail whatever the replacement for the SD1plus would be. As we saw earlier this year at the trade show in Germany, this will be the Audia keyboard which will come out sometime in 2008 I would assume. The SD3 module, which I've been told will MAP at over $2000.00 is based on the SD5 keyboard and probably still lacks those features we expect on newly released items. I'm not so sure of it's possible success based on it's price and features.

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

[This message has been edited by George Kaye (edited 07-28-2007).]

[This message has been edited by George Kaye (edited 07-28-2007).]

Hi George,
Seems like you were on the case long before me. It's a shame that those guys didn't listen to your sensible advice at the time.
As I've said before, I do want to support Ketron to encourage them to keep producing
modules but I don't want to buy in to old technology. As you pointed out, Yamaha can produce boards in a similar price range with all the latest bells & whistles.
If Ketron are pinning all their hopes on a single range topper board and ignoring the lower end of the market, they could be in for a fall.
I also agree with Miden about the clear lack of interest & support in Ketron products and share his disappointment as a long time Ketron fan. Not looking good!

I agree with you guys. I just got a used Midjay, but opted for a new G-70, SH-201 and E-09 instead of an SD-5, mainly because of what I see are Ketron internal and marketing issues in the US. George knows what I'm talking about. Shame, because Ketron (Solton) has been my brand of preference since the Auto Orchestra 70's.

Just spent over $5,000 and would have preferred that most was Ketron. Oh well, it's their loss!

Russ