After few days of working mainly on a KETRON SD5 and also on SX3000 which are the same mashines i learnt, heard and realized
many things that i didnt know or heard before, i never worked with Ketron mashines, i've been programmin for the last 12-15 years
many mashines (mostly Vintage Analog)(i am one of those freaks) but i never really got into Ketron. Touched, heard or saw a few
but i never paid attention to it, i knew they were good and probably the best but it was out of my interest, till recently untill u started
having some issues with new KORG mashines and with KORG itself. I mostly did programmin for them. Last friday when i got the
mashines home i started playing with the SD5 and right away started expliring (wasnt too hard, mainly any mashine is the same)
and in like 10-15 minutes i already had produced a single VARIATION-ARRANGER in an EMPTY STYLE. And of course there was
all kinds of things on the way getting there, good and bad...both. I will try to compare certain functions on the SD5 with other brand
mashines for easier understanding for the people that use other brands and also easier for me to express it since i dont know the
whole terminology in Ketron...at first i was a little confused with the Registation, Program, Pattern things but then all i had to do was
compare it to KORG functions and got my way around it:
1. Registration-SongBool
2. Program-Performance
3. Pattern-UserStyle
3. Voice-Sound...and so on.
But at first glance, only the MISSING things came out...things for which i kept looking for in the synth and it just wasnt there:

1. Not havng a Sequencer it didnt really bother me, 1. It is an arranger not a Workstation and 2. I never use onboard Sequencers.
2. Then i got into the Loveable EVENT EDITOR part...and it just wasnt there and i got sad...to me its unreplaceable, it is missing,
yes there is a workaround, recording a style directly from Soft thru Sync but thats old...the best option is creating a MIDI file then
using a Style Converter such as EMC Style Converter, where you have a lot more of freedom and expression then the EVENT EDITOR
but not all people wanna use a Computer, i program many PA800 or PA arrangers and i personally never used EMC, i always did
hand on the synth, all thru EVENT EDITOR...thats something Ketron should hear about.
3. After that i went onto the FX, same thing i was dissapointed that everything is Global, not many FX and not many parameters
and also there is nothing much you can do about the routing. But there was something else to it, i started playing factory sounds and
realized that the FX wont do much of a change in my performance since there was no need to edit certain FX on sounds, everything
i wanted was already in the sound. Its sounds WAY better then certain mashines i programmed. If Ketron does something about it it
will be nice cuz FX can do even bigger miracles in SOLOing, for a certain type of music it cant do nothing at all.
4. One thing i dont forgive Ketron is the Portamento, Purely SUX! There is no workaround or substitute, it needs Fingered Porta.
5. The Floppy thing i dont have to talk much, we are in the 21 Century and i hope and i believe they will do something in future,
i am just affraid looking on a MultiThousands of $ Audya with a Floppy Hole in it...it will be discusting.
6. The way the Fill Ins work, at first i didnt like, you have 3 Fill Ins but you cant use them the way you want, if you wanna use 2 you have
to be in variation 2 and you cant use Fill In 2 in Var 4...but after a little i got use to pressing my Pedal, one of the 13 Foot Controllers
to which the Fill Ins are assigned and i got the Fill Ins work wherever i want to...no big deal but 3 separate buttons would do better.
6. Whats up with the BAR/MEASURE length? You cant change it after you recorded something, NO GOOD! cuz in most cases is
annoying, what if a need a single Bar of a DrumLoop playing the same for 8 Bars but actually in those 8 Bars i wanna play different
harmonies and basslines...you record 1 Bar Drum Loop and then you just Expanded to 8 instead of doing the whole thing and yes
it can be done, that feature exists since 1993 on I3.
7. Copying...it lacks a lot, you are not free to copy like on any other mashine, if its not same Bar length, NOTHING! What was so hard?
8. There is not a single Fader nor a Dial, it is time and nerves killing just pressing buttons to go up and down, very frustrating.

For now i think thats pretty much abou it but THIS letter should be sent to KETRON!:

1. Please put some kind of EVENT EDITOR.
2. Please put some Better and some Insert FX.
3. Anyone can fix the Portamento.
4. Fix the BAR/MEASURE length issues please.

Most of it can pretty much be probably fixed in a new OS update, which never came out, still on OS 1.0...please do something!


And then...

1. I love the way you get in and out of Patern/Style Edit Mode, its just soo easy and smooth, you dont have to go to a MODE where
most of the other functions dont work...like on most synths, you dont have to hit 13 buttons before going in or getting out.
2. The way creation of Styles is constructed, you can actually in any page hear what you recorded, play a solo sound with it and do
anything you want same as in Style Play Mode which is not possible even on the newest mashines, you are pretty much stuck in a
time wasting Mode where you have to do 14 things before actually checking and hearing what you record it.
3. The Registrations, its just something else, no words to describe it or probably just LIFE MADE WAY EASIER!
4. I love the way the UTILITY/GLOBAL Mode is setup, everything being right there in front of you instead going thru pages and pages
to get to something and actually stop playing music while you do that, thats not the case on an SD5.
5. The way the Control Panel is setup is very nice and usefull, what you need is outside instead of going to HELL to get to something
like in the case of Portamento on a certain mashine you have to stop the style, go to Sound Mode, enter the Sound Editing Mode, find
the Portamento, turn it off, ReSAVE, go back to Style Play, reassign sound and start playing...its just loveable.
6. The Bass Modes in Pattern Edit make a lot more sense then Kbd Wrapping in KORG.
7. The synth is Solid Rock built, it wont give up that easy nor change color after 6 weeks of use then having to RePaint it.
8. To my own taste the KeyBed is way ahead then on any PA Arranger, i dont know about Yami but its more of a personal taste.
9. The most that impresses me is the 16 Assignable Multi Tabs on the left front which beats any existing arranger right now, very funny
compared to Korgs 2 Assignable switches next to Pitch Bend.
10. Gotta love the File Handling function on this, where each thing is treated as an individual, instead of having a whole bunch of stuff
in one SET where even god cannot his way around...thats whats happening to KORG now where most of us gave up, mostly becuse
of file handling...everything is a MESS but thats not the way Ketron works, its just nice and smooth, you SAVE or you LOAD just what you
need and you are all set to go instead of worrying WHY MY STYLE ISNT WORKING PROPERLY...CUZ YOU DIDNT LOAD THE WHOLE SET!
11. The PROGRAM Mode is also one of the Best features, where you dont have to hit 16 buttons to get to a certain combinations.

Sounds:
Drums, Bass Lines and Guitars so far are the best i've heard till now on an Arranger mashine but that wasnt new to me, i always knew that
factor about KETRON. I am not talking just turn the synth on and play few sounds on its speakers, i am talking how it sounds and it comes
out once connected to a powerfull PA System, its just way ahead of the other mashines, i just cant explain how the drums come out and
i will never stop talking about KETRON Drums, i know it gets annoying, that is a fact i know from many reviews and also coleagues who
dont even own a KETRON but heard it and now begging me to sample them some Drums. The other sounds in general are good and
bad same as on any other mashine but in my opinion what makes KETRON a KETRON is the 3 cathegories i was talking about.

If i was personally asked to compare it to a Korg mashine i honestly dont know where to put it but it will still be close to the PA2X cuz
of many reasons:
1. Better Drums, Basses and Guitars, better Organs, Drawvar and Keys
2. all of the reasons given above from 1 to 11...i dont wanna rewrite it again.

If i rate it on a scale 1 to 10 i would rate it probably 8, but in a comparison i would rate PA2X at 6, even though they are probably not in
the same level of Synth and Price but calling something a Flagship it doesnt really make it the best. Calling something a Flagship and
nothing on it still works properly is a little funny. My best choice for right now for the music i work on and play and produce is the SX3000
which is an exact SD5 with a little different Factory Rom which opens another story...it is way better then any PA only cuz of the expanded
ROM meaning it covers both worlds of music then...for my own needs an SD5 wouldnt even come close soundwise to a PA80 but at the
same time that same synth called SX3000 is WAY better then the PA2X itself...i never heard better Toupan, Darbuka, Tabla and also
Kemane, Zurna, Ney, Duduk, Klarinet or else even on a PA2X...sampled yes but factory is not even close, the Styles are killer, KORG
can hide themselves if they heat these style.

The synths are Rock Solid Built! Heavy, Full, now shallow plastics which give up few weeks later and for right now i am stuck with KETRON!

And today i was testing it as a MIDI controller
with SD2 thru Cubase 4. The worst so far i've seen.

I guess I'm playing the same genre of music you play Nedim and I would have bought the sx3000 if it just had a sampler built in. there is nothing like sampled darbukas and turkish/arabic sounds. factory sounds never do the same job. that's why I think my SD1 is the best instrument for this kind of music.
I don't use any of the costum styles and very few of the factory sounds. the sampler is very limited but I squeeze it to the limit including double and triple voice msp.
I love the aftertouch and keyboard and this is the only instrument (along with sd5 and other ketrons) where with a single touch on the 8 pads you can always get your 8 favorite sounds. worst feature is pitch wheel and mod wheel- I wish it was same as the sd5. with this feature changed and a little better sampler I think this instrument would have been perfect for me.

Hi Nedim,
they're the 2 biggest dislikes I have about my SD1+ also.
No onboard Style event editor & the bar issue you mentioned.

I realized when I bought my sd1 that it didn't have an event editor for styles.
i'd hoped to use EMC ( with plus package, it has a limited event editor).
Problem is when importing a pattern into EMC, EMC removes some of the controllers.
My main hassle was, that it removes controller 11 ( expression) on the first beat of bar 1. tThe rest are there. But what sometimes happens is, I get great jumps in volume.

Even if Ketron can't put an event list editor into the keyboards, it's a pity there isn't dedicated software availble to do this type of editing on styles.

There, I've had my whinge. haahaa

best wisheS
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nedim:
[B]But at first glance, only the MISSING things came out...things for which i kept looking for in the synth and it just wasnt there:

2. Then i got into the Loveable EVENT EDITOR part...and it just wasnt there and i got sad...to me its unreplaceable, it is missing,
yes there is a workaround, recording a style directly from Soft thru Sync but thats old...the best option is creating a MIDI file then
using a Style Converter such as EMC Style Converter, where you have a lot more of freedom and expression then the EVENT EDITOR
but not all people wanna use a Computer, i program many PA800 or PA arrangers and i personally never used EMC, i always did
hand on the synth, all thru EVENT EDITOR...thats something Ketron should hear about.


1. Please put some kind of EVENT EDITOR.

4. Fix the BAR/MEASURE length issues please.