... to TAMING the beast!
I spent some time on the harmonizer (SD7) today, and came much closer to something I feel I can use. The recording runs a bit hot, but the sound from the speakers has no clipping at all. Weird. I had a nice long chat/tutorial with AJ last night, and I've come to this realization:
Much of why I opted out of this instrument years ago was due to it's lack of processing power. It does many things very, very well, but it cannot do unlimited multitasks like the TOTL instruments can. To be fair - this is a second tier keyboard, and not their flagship, so corners must be cut somewhere, but as AJ told me ... "Ketron does not make an entry level keyboard". This is a pro piece, for sure, but it has a few limitations ... most of which can be overcome with mindset, preparation, and patience. What do I mean by that?
Mindset: I needed to adjust my thinking that this is NOT A PA4X, or and Audya
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Preparation: Lots of adjustments to the registrations, and preferences help make the instrument perform more to my comfort level
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Patience: Well, I'm not the best at this. (not the worst either) Taking the time to LEARN the OS is paying off. It's not as similar to the other major manufacturers, with regards to operation ... but that's not a bad thing. PLUS - having one of the primary software developers (AJ) available by phone, or a few hours drive is PARAMOUNT to developing a future with this instrument.
If you don't ask it to do 10 things at once, and do the due diligence setting up the important things you need ahead of time, it performs really well. My jury is still out on whether the added processing power of the SD60 can be a benefit to me ... especially since I found out the weight difference is only 3lbs.
I love so many things about so many other keyboards, but this one just may check off more of my boxes than any other. The SD7 and the PA4x check off many of the same items, but in the end - the SD7 has speakers, so that's the tie breaker. If the PA4x was offered with speakers - that'd be a no brainer for me.
Anyway - enjoy the harmonizer sample!