Here is the original review of a basic/Standard KETRON EVENT from a customer in the UK:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irgVe2wz9fY&t=1782s


Here is the same person's review after he installed the Pro1 package 2 weeks later to fix these issues he cited with his EVENT ...and further enhance his keyboard:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0TyCFDcgc&t=3611s

What do you think?

This sums up why you would want to get the Pro1 package for your EVENT.

AJ, much respect to you for how you've represented your company and supported it's products. I've never owned a KETRON product but I do recognize it as a quality product (albeit with suspect manufacturer support). Here's my problem:

Why is it that after spending premium dollars for a supposedly TOTL instrument that one must immediately spend a ton more money to realize it's full potential? To be fair, your company is not the only one guilty of this (Roland, and it's 'Roland Cloud' is just as bad, maybe worse). IMO, Yamaha is least guilty of this. I gotta' admit, I hate this 'Barbie Doll' approach to marketing. Just so there's no misunderstanding, I'm talking about ENHANCEMENT packages, not CORRECTIVE software (bug fixes).

JMO tho', other's may feel differently.

chas

Hello!

Yes! I agree with Chas. I bought an EventX 2 months ago and am very disappointed to watch 3rd party videos basically saying my EventX isn't up to par until I BUY more content. Any of the early bugs I had have been resolved. Maybe someone should have charged me for that?

When I see a demo on a newly released piece of gear I don't need to be told I won't experience the best because I need to buy something else? And these are the same folks who sold that gear and promoted it before its release. They didn't tell me then I would immediately need to buy more content if I want that good experience.

This is my first experience with Ketron. How am I supposed to think about this and be happy with it? I think not! -charley

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but getting the ‘best’ out of any arranger (and basically anything in life!) requires us to get the best out of ourselves, first. Maybe, after that’s done, we’re in a better position to judge if marketing meant to play on our insecurities is of value, or just marketing…

If professional demo after demo for decades has shown us anything, it’s that professional demonstrators can make ANYTHING sound great. Whether the original instrument or its expansion sounds and styles. Let’s be honest… do we sound better than a professional demo for a 15-20 year old arranger? On today’s latest TOTL arranger?!

It’s still 90% the player.

Expansion sounds, extra styles, will they make you ‘better’? They’ll make you sound different, certainly. If the styles and sounds are what you need and beat out the ROM content, maybe they are useful. But will YOU be better? Doubtful.

That’s going to take practice, work on playing techniques, work on studying the gear’s OS to fully exploit what came with the original instrument. After that, the add-ons could indeed make you ‘better’. But even if you don’t get them, you will still be better.

The question remains. When additional resources are made available, is what you first bought ‘worse’? Of course not. It’s the same thing you liked enough to buy it..! The manufacturer or third parties are under no obligation to improve it. You liked it ‘as is’ enough to buy it. But if they do, by additional content, they are entitled to compensation for their efforts (considerable, btw).

Now, some manufacturers subsidize extra content to increase sales, some don’t. But third party content creators ALWAYS deserve their efforts being rewarded, not moaned at for it not being free. I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand the negativity. Someone has added considerable extra value to your arranger, and all they get is complaints?

If we can’t recognize marketing, we aren’t savvy customers. Will purchasing add-ons ‘realize its full potential’..? Of course not. There’s always more content, more styles, more sounds. What you are paying for is someone else doing the work you could do for yourself if you realized YOUR full potential… If you don’t have the time or inclination for that, extra content is worth whatever they want to ask for it.

Greetings and thanks for your honest feedback.

Let me speak for my company which works in collaboration with KETRON.

Arranger keyboards (in general) are usually European-based & focused, meaning most of the input in how these instruments are designed, and features incorporated (regardless of the company) has a lot of European influence - and rightfully so due to the nature of music and the history of where the Arranger was born.
The "Americas" are not heavy on using Arrangers and prefer to use Workstations/Synths in part because of the limitation the Arranger presents which includes lack of CONTENT. Here is where we come in to bridge that gap both in content and features, hence ENHANCEMENTS. Creating these enhancements requires parts and labor that someone has to get, design, put together, and market. That is why these enhancements are not just packed within the original instrument and everyone FORCED to purchase stuff they may never need or use. For those who believe these ENHANCEMENTS are a must or find value in them, they may choose to purchase and have installed in their existing instruments.

Again, same applies to many other goods we get today ... you get a Mercedes car, you who thinks the AMG component is a must, will CHOOSE to purchase this at an additional cost, or someone who gets a BMW but believes they would like the enhanced ALPINA version - as you see, this applies to many other areas of various industries. If BMW made all cars with their ALPINA enhancement, that would not be fair to the person who just wanted the option to buy a plain BMW X7 and not care for the extra 120HP the ALPINA version offers now, would they?

Hope this presents this in a perspective you and many who share this view will understand, and thanks for your honest question - hence the honest response.

Here at KETRON AMERICA, our dealers are supposed to show you the product AS IS FROM THE FACTORY, then mention the various upgrade packages you can get as well - and then you the customer decide what is best for you. If this was not done, kindly let us know and we will try to resolve this with the dealer in question. Outside of the USA, we have limited control. There are a few European dealers who now carry our packages and do likewise in Europe, alongside 3rd party content developers who sell their content directly. At the end of the day, the customer SHOULD be presented with ALL options available at the time of the sale.

However, bugs and fixes (updates) are made FREE and available on KETRON ITALY's website once released. This does not involve any expense for any customer.

KETRON ITALY also produces additional CONTENT (Live Styles, Content ... etc) which customers can CHOOSE to purchase and personally install in their instrument.

As for saying yuur EVENT is 'not up to par' - with what? The above review was conducted by a customer (like yourself) in the UK who felt the EVENT was not all it should have been. He had the choice to RETURN it or keep it as is, or get our package and see if it made a difference for him, which it did in this case. For many others especially in the Middle East etc, our packages are not worth it for the music they play.

Hope this clarifies this.

Thanks,

Diki summed it up here above:- There’s always more content, more styles, more sounds. What you are paying for is someone else doing the work you could do for yourself if you realized YOUR full potential… If you don’t have the time or inclination for that, extra content is worth whatever they want to ask for it.

As the owner of Ketron Event, I have constantly complained that the tool does not include updated modern rhythms, for example in dance rhythms, most of the rhythms are from the 80's or disco from the 70's, I am indeed an adult, but when the tool is so expensive, I expect to be treated with contemporary music, both in terms of rhythms and sounds. From the answer I received from A.J. When I turned to him I was disappointed, so I purchased the Korg pax5 and... a pleasure, what wonderful rhythms with recent arrangements and contemporary sounds alongside old fashion rhythms and I don't need to buy more rhythm or sound packages because the tool includes everything.

Strokes for folks, dud… Everyone’s looking for something different, and the cost of including content to please every possible need would be prohibitive!

I’ve said for the longest time, buy an arranger for the content, not the features. The most modern arranger, if it doesn’t come with what YOU need in the way of styles (or they aren’t available as high quality 3rd party content), it’s a waste of your money.

I am pretty sure that for every person that went from a Ketron to a Korg for the more modern styles, there’s an equal number going in the opposite direction for what Ketron does best. Or to a Genos/SX900 etc..

Content is the one thing you can’t really work around. You can usually find a fix for missing or ‘different’ features, but if the styles don’t work for the music you want to make, you’re done!

Diki , when a musician pay 4,000 - 5,000 $ for an arranger key the company that sale the key should make one that includes most of the popular styles and sounds , and dance/house/hiphop/trance/ from the 21 century are very popular so i do not understand Ketron that makes almost only dance from the eighties or disco from the seventies . we are in 2024 . shame on them that i need to pay more money for contemporary dance styles and sounds.

And someone from the South of America could easily say they’ve no use for deep house and trance, but need more country styles, a musician from Central America could moan about not enough Guatemalan styles, a Jamaican could lament not enough reggae.

I'm sorry, but YOUR tastes and needs are not universal. I’d be willing to bet you might be the only arranger user on this forum that plays much 21st century trance! What is more puzzling is why you got your Ketron in the first place if the style list (you could download the manual before you bought it) had so little club music styles?

It’s not Ketron's responsibility to cover the needs of every musician on the planet, it’s the buyer’s responsibility to research if the product covers HIS needs before purchase. Particularly as trance/dubstep/house etc. are more the province of workstations and loopstations and analog synths. The arranger market as a whole is a bit older than clubbers and the majority of the content is marketed towards MUCH older players.

In the end, Ketron provide the tools to create club music from audio loops better than most arrangers do, which is how most club acts do it… but you have to do the work. Just like a reggae musician would have to create his own styles no matter what arranger he bought, a club musician is going to quickly tire of the few ROM club styles no matter the make. Then you are stuck facing how well the arranger works with audio loops, as you import stuff from your loop library. From what I’ve read, the PA5x still has some software issues that may make it difficult for you once the ROM styles stale….

Freshness is what drives the dance floor, I’m not sure I’d look to ROM styles to determine the best arranger for packing a rave! Easy loop import, time and pitch stretching and clip launching capabilities probably are the thing that will give you longevity.

Just curious, but why did you choose an arranger rather than a workstation or something like a Maschine MPC type tool if your main thing is club music?

if i would ask for etnic styles you are right (in my country -middle east styles) but when i am talking about contempory styles even in jazz not only dance department , a new key from 2023 should include them internaly ( and by the way country music and styles from south america include in Event as they include in every arranger in the market ) exatly as they are include in Genos 1 and 2 and Korg pax5 . and for your question why did i buy the Event i'll say ,for the drums and bass and the feel of a real live band , and i believed that Ketron will download more contemporary styles in their home page for free or in a new os, as Yamaha and Korg do

Everyone thinks their ‘ethnic’ music is normal music, and other people’s normal music is ethnic!

Given that house and club music is primarily done with drum machines and synths, and Ketron’s thing is primarily live musician music styles, I'm still puzzled as to how you would expect them to include much if any.

If you aren’t into creating your own dance tracks, personally I’d say something with a solid reputation for being supported by third party content for dance loops is what you need, and that’s never really been an arranger thing. Nowadays, it seems like software solutions or hybrids like Maschine and MPC devices get the most content.

thanks Diki ,but these is not the point. when you purchase a new key from 2023-24 ,which is not retro key like many new retro synths' it is expected that you will get styles from 2023-4 ( together with the old ones) and not only oldies . if i was looking for old stufs i would have buy ,an old Psr or Ketron solton ' or roland e 80 .

Glad you found what you’re looking for…

Manufactures include the styles for the market the keyboard is intended for, (Arrangers are mainly for mid to oldies) so including the styles you want is a waste of resources for the manufacture as it will not increase sales. (To be honest it would probably put people off as they would say, why should I pay for something I will never use)
As Diki says, the arranger is not designed for the type of music you want, so you need to look elsewhere.

Bill

Thanks Diki and i want to add korg added a n os 1.2.0 and 1.2.1 in Korg pax5 that incleds 50 new contemporary styles and many sounds for free

There’s a lot I really like about the PA5x, particularly the ability to run two styles at the same time, but there’s still a ton of stuff to completely integrate the feature into the Songbook still left to do.

We’re getting to it being out what, almost two years now since launch, and the bug list and missing features list is still extensive, and Korg have gone basically dark, no communication, no progress reports and only a couple of updates.

For a TOTL product, that’s not good enough, IMHO. TWO YEARS…

I know a couple of PA4x users that haven’t pulled the trigger on upgrading because of the missing features and unfinished bug fixing but there’s pretty much universal agreement about the considerable improvement in overall sound. These are guys that had no qualms going from PA3x to PA4x. I know Covid threw the world for a loop, but releasing the PA5x so half finished hasn’t done Korg’s reputation any good.

Seems to me most of the people ecstatic about their PA5x are people that didn’t previously own a PA4x…

as an owner of both KETRON EVENT and KORG PAX5 i must say that there are also bugs in EVENT too , i can manage both of them because i am not in performance any more and i play only at home. but..... at home i prefere the PAX5 and most of the time use it and not the EVENT because of the contemporary styles and sounds though there are some sounds like electric guitars that i prefere on the EVENT. but thats me.

I'm sorry but this isn't acceptable. One can't even trust a new keyboard so you only play it in private?? I have been hearing too much lately on the PAX5 and its shortcomings. My Genos2 would be on the fast track out of here if I couldn't trust it. And I am a home player. My standards shouldn't be lowered because of that. In 30+ years of owning Yamaha arrangers I can only remember firmware updates to fix minor problems. I was never left dead in the water.

I bought an EventX right before my Genos2 arrived. I haven't spent much time with it as I am loving Genos2 too much to find time for it. Just knowing and reading some posts about some of its release issues leaved a dark spot. Until I know things are fixed I can't even look at it now. This should not be my problem.

It's just like the news. You must be first reporting it even if you don't have the facts. Hopefully all these issues will be addressed soon. -charley