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#404148 - 06/29/15 01:13 PM Ketron SD7 review
Fran Carango Senior Member Registered: 05/26/99 Posts: 9673 Loc: Levittown, Pa, USA	I attended the Ketron workshop yesterday presented by AJ. There was a light turnout, with some notable no shows.. DNJ was there to aid the demonstration with his new SD7, and PSR s950. I appreciated the chance to have a hands on.... This will be a random report, a I may make comparisons to the G70..etc First...as I always do...I checked under the keys..yes weighted.. The build quality is nice, solid, with some weight(33 pounds).. not bad for a keyboard with speakers and semi weighted keys.. The biggest plus...a touch screen (seven inch), with good response. A few more great features, not in any particular order. This demo unit had AJAMSONIC installed... It has ram sounds..these are wav samples that stream from the SSD. It takes a couple seconds to load the selected ram sound.. It will stream wav samples of 1 gig and probaly larger. Allowing it to compete with some current nice VST's.. The SD7 has an aux out (headphone/aux)..this allows the player to route any sound bass as an example to a separate mix, or a click track to the drummer.. The styles are typical Ketron, great bass and drums.. The rom tones are okay, good to great, but the ram sounds are very definately better.. Also like other manufactures, the lower priced models do not outshine the top model. The SD7 does not compete with the Audya..soundwise , side by side will comfirm this. Same with the Tyros vs PSR...and Korg PA3x vs PA900.. Working with the screen, makes editing a breeze...there is no reason for not having a touch screen on all keyboards.. Roland, if you want to sell a BK9..it needs a touch screen.. The SD7 harmonizer demoed by Donny, needed to be set up correctly, it distorted and Donny had trouble finding a preset with the correct voicing.. The SD7 has nice icons showing on the touch screen, that aids in editing.. The SD7 DJ mode has twin icons showing turn tables with dj features,like xfade.. Many of the features on the SD7, I listed are found on the 10 year old G70.. I would rate the Ketron ram sounds comparable to the Roland SRX boards.. The Roland harmonizer seems to be head and shoulders better than the Ketron, Roland is smarter to use.. Editing styles, sequences,...Ketron has made it a lot better than early models, but Roland still outclasses all the competition.. I like to talk about an edge that purchasing a SD7 has for you.. AJ...........Having a design tech and musician, to aid you is the greatest value...Don't sell this edge short.. Donny's SD7 has a few bugs, AJ confirmed to Donny, the update corrected the issues, varified by the other unit I was playing. I am sure AJ sent the update to DNJ today.. There are a lot of things I did not try, so initial impressions are just that.. Give the guys a chance to set the boards up, before judging.. And yes...I hugged my G70 when I got home last night.. _________________________ www.francarango.com
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#404150 - 06/29/15 01:39 PM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
adimatis Senior Member Registered: 01/28/05 Posts: 1162 Loc: Oradea, RO	Thanks Fran, I enjoyed your review! Nice to see you around! _________________________ Yamaha S770, Studio One 3, EMU 0404USB, ESI, ATH, Dell. And others.
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#404151 - 06/29/15 02:08 PM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
Dnj Senior Member Registered: 09/21/00 Posts: 43703	Originally Posted By: Fran Carango I attended the Ketron workshop yesterday presented by AJ. There was a light turnout, with some notable no shows.. DNJ was there to aid the demonstration with his new SD7, and PSR s950. I appreciated the chance to have a hands on.... This will be a random report, a I may make comparisons to the G70..etc First...as I always do...I checked under the keys..yes weighted.. The build quality is nice, solid, with some weight(33 pounds).. not bad for a keyboard with speakers and semi weighted keys.. The biggest plus...a touch screen (seven inch), with good response. A few more great features, not in any particular order. This demo unit had AJAMSONIC installed... It has ram sounds..these are wav samples that stream from the SSD. It takes a couple seconds to load the selected ram sound.. It will stream wav samples of 1 gig and probaly larger. Allowing it to compete with some current nice VST's.. The SD7 has an aux out (headphone/aux)..this allows the player to route any sound bass as an example to a separate mix, or a click track to the drummer.. The styles are typical Ketron, great bass and drums.. The rom tones are okay, good to great, but the ram sounds are very definately better.. Also like other manufactures, the lower priced models do not outshine the top model. The SD7 does not compete with the Audya..soundwise , side by side will comfirm this. Same with the Tyros vs PSR...and Korg PA3x vs PA900.. Working with the screen, makes editing a breeze...there is no reason for not having a touch screen on all keyboards.. Roland, if you want to sell a BK9..it needs a touch screen.. The SD7 harmonizer demoed by Donny, needed to be set up correctly, it distorted and Donny had trouble finding a preset with the correct voicing.. The SD7 has nice icons showing on the touch screen, that aids in editing.. The SD7 DJ mode has twin icons showing turn tables with dj features,like xfade.. Many of the features on the SD7, I listed are found on the 10 year old G70.. I would rate the Ketron ram sounds comparable to the Roland SRX boards.. The Roland harmonizer seems to be head and shoulders better than the Ketron, Roland is smarter to use.. Editing styles, sequences,...Ketron has made it a lot better than early models, but Roland still outclasses all the competition.. I like to talk about an edge that purchasing a SD7 has for you.. AJ...........Having a design tech and musician, to aid you is the greatest value...Don't sell this edge short.. Donny's SD7 has a few bugs, AJ confirmed to Donny, the update corrected the issues, varified by the other unit I was playing. I am sure AJ sent the update to DNJ today.. There are a lot of things I did not try, so initial impressions are just that.. Give the guys a chance to set the boards up, before judging.. And yes...I hugged my G70 when I got home last night.. Fran makes some really good observations some I agree with not all.... Quote: The SD7 harmonizer demoed by Donny, needed to be set up correctly, it distorted and Donny had trouble finding a preset with the correct voicing.. The rest of the story....To be honest VH was a bit over modulated,...but once I adjusted the volume/gain, and EQ'd it sounded terrific & on par with TC Helicon for sure,...remember I only have the SD7 a few days,...still learning all features. The Mic Voc processor for singing is really good you wont need a mixer. So many pluses, I'm very happy with the SD7, I shipped the S950 today without regrets it was good to me,.....as always with new unit there are a few things that need to be addressed but nothing major that will handled in future upgrades as the demo model Aj had there with upgrades installed .. At least it's much lighter then the 49lb G70 just sayin' lol Edited by Dnj (06/29/15 02:16 PM)
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#404152 - 06/29/15 03:06 PM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
Bill Lewis Senior Member Registered: 11/12/08 Posts: 2445 Loc: Bluffton/Hilton Head SC USA	Roland, if you want to sell a BK9..it needs a touch screen.. frown Fran Wouldn't the Ipad hookup solve that problem? I think thats what Roland was thinking and for those who don't care about that it saved some cost. _________________________ Bill in SC --- Roland BK9 (2) Roland BK7M, Roland PK5 Pedals, Roland FP90, Roland CM30 (2), JBL Eon Ones (2) JBL 610 Monitor, Behringer Sub, EV mics, Apple iPad (2) Behringer DJ mixer
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#404154 - 06/29/15 06:32 PM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
necdetdoni Member Registered: 05/20/03 Posts: 351 Loc: Antalya / Turkey	Can you give more detail about ram sounds? you wrote; "It will stream wav samples of 1 gig and probaly larger. Allowing it to compete with some current nice VST's." is it a new technology? different than ram sounds? Thanks..
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#404162 - 06/29/15 08:27 PM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
Jerry T Senior Member Registered: 09/23/05 Posts: 1002 Loc: Phila. 'burbs, Pa. USA	I attended AJ�s workshop in Bear, De. It was good meeting up with Fran, Donny and of course AJ as well as several other attendees - can�t recall names. There were a couple of laughs, but on the whole it was a pretty thorough learning experience. I like the fact that AJ didn�t just give a Ketron sales pitch and actually spent hours educating. At times it was intense and I must say, left me bewildered but with a hankering to learn more. I am really happy with my Midjay Plus� (have 3 - one for gigs, a back-up and one in my make shift studio). Most folks are of the opinion that there is not enough styles in the Midjay, but with the AJAM upgrade, I have ample styles, the machine is very easy to work with on gigs, and IMHO is the best sounding arranger. I thought that the Midjay Plus with AJ�s upgrades would be the last piece that I would ever need. But, after seeing, hearing and fiddling with the Midjay Pro I was thinking differently. I left the workshop thinking that the Plus is working for me, and a new module would require too much time and work setting up. Then on the long ride home, I had time to sort out and digest info AJ had given us, and yes Fran, I called AJ and ordered the Midjay Pro with the AJAM upgrades. Ciao, Jerry
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#404165 - 06/30/15 01:08 AM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: necdetdoni]
abacus Senior Member Registered: 07/21/05 Posts: 5387 Loc: English Riviera, UK	Originally Posted By: necdetdoni Can you give more detail about ram sounds? you wrote; "It will stream wav samples of 1 gig and probaly larger. Allowing it to compete with some current nice VST's." is it a new technology? different than ram sounds? Thanks.. Been out in the Pro World since the late 90s Review and now comes in many formats. As most arrangers (Even the latest) use old technology hardware (Discarded years ago in the Pro world) it is only in the last few years that it has become available to the arranger player. Hope this helps Bill _________________________ English Riviera: Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).
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#404166 - 06/30/15 02:45 AM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
Dnj Senior Member Registered: 09/21/00 Posts: 43703	Jerry Congrats you made a wise choice with the Midjay Pro!!!
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#404168 - 06/30/15 03:56 AM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
Bachus Senior Member Registered: 03/02/06 Posts: 7143	My nephews play a G70, and it still sounds remarkably good.. But is defiantely showing its age, as it cant keep up anymore with tyros, pa3x and audya, when it comes to soundquallity... Audya has better styles, Tyros5 solo voices are from another division and Pa3x does everything better all over the board... Maybe you are giving the Sd7 a bit to little credit? _________________________ Yamaha Genos, Roland Jupiter 80, Ipad pro. http://keyszone.boards.net
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#404173 - 06/30/15 09:12 AM Re: Ketron SD7 review [Re: Fran Carango]
Fran Carango Senior Member Registered: 05/26/99 Posts: 9673 Loc: Levittown, Pa, USA	Let me respond to some questions I believe the RAM sounds are standard waves,although there may be some Ketron priorities.. Initially, the sample is loaded (partial) and then streamed from the SSD. Similar to the MediaStation (Giga sample). My comparison to features also found on the G70..was not a negative comment about the SD7..the comparison was because I have hands on experience with the G70 .. The comment about outclassing the competition was in relationship to editing SMF's, Styles etc...ease of use..make up tools and covers..still hard to beat.. If you read the content of my review, it is favorable to the SD7...The only negative was the harmony I heard and I also said give the guys a chance to set it up.. I still believe Roland harmonizer has the right approach, reads the chord automatically from any application..style, SMF, Vocoder (real time harmony)..with easy selections.. Yamaha , Korg and Ketron never excited me in the harmonizer area.. Bill, the ipad apps help the BK9, but a touch screen would benefit all aspects, not just a few editable sections...especially make up tools...And I don't want any Apple products..it would have to be Android If I were in the market for a new keyboard...in this price range, The SD7 woulkd be at the top of my list, edging out the Korg PA3x...although I would have to think about a bump in dollars for an Audya.. PA3x and Audya would give me the 76 keys I prefer...SD7 gives you decent speakers and superior touch screen.. _________________________ www.francarango.com
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