Today I received my X1 oriental keyboard from Solton. This is not an X1 with the oriental kit, but an X1oriental made to be oriental. First, there is the joystick ModWheel/Pitchbender which really feels good. It's really "beefy" compared to the Roland. All the sounds, styles, voices from the Live Oriental Kit are in this machine. When I first talked to Solton in New York I thought this new keyboard would have the styles and sounds of the arabic keyboard developers permanantely inside but after playing this keyboard I can see exactly what they did.
There is the Live Oriental software installed and there are several folders in the hard drive which contain the voices, drum kits, sampled sounds and styles needed for this keyboard. Instead of having to use the 8 meg flash card, the sounds now load from the hard drive into the ram each time you turn on the keyboard. This is done easily using the auto load feature of the 3.1A software update. Next, the buttons on the front panel that do "oriental" functions are clearly marked. An example would be the fade out button no longer says fade out but rather ending. And the part volume buttons are also marked arabic tempo presets and tuning presets. By the way, I wasn't aware of the fact the the same buttons that change the volumes or tempos in the X1 also can be used to store 13 different quarter tone tunings which I think is a great thing to be able to do. The 40 arabic styles supplied on disks with the oriental kit which can be purchased for a regular X1 are now loaded into the first 40 pattern memory locations and are also on the hard drive so that if you erase them you can get them back. I was thinking that it would have been nice to have hundreds of additional Armenian and other patterns installed already but you will still need to load or make your own if you need them.
I'm not sure of the price of this until I get my invoice in the mail, so please stand by until I can get the price.
I also received a new Solton hard case with this keyboard today which features two wheels on the bottom and a handle on the top. this is great for portability without wrecking your back! Price I believe will be about $175.00
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene