4 months after returning the one i had for 3 months,
my 2nd E60 arrived yesterday from George Kaye, this time
with the latest 1.09 os loaded in. Nobody in the usa
knows at this writing how the 1.09 improves the 1.08..
but the 1.08 corrects the unstable tap tempo (that and a
faulty d-beam were the reasons I was entitled to an
exchange) plus the V-link has become a control button.
also are 3 new indo drum sets.

I had a love/hate relationship with the E60, and waited
these 4 months to see if there was something I'd like
better: tried the pa800, sd1+, sd5, and finally the s900.
all of them had great features, but none of them blew me
away. If the Ketrons were lighter and had better dealer/
service network and price, I might have jumped.
The pa800 was overkill and overcomplex for my needs,
the s900 won me over, but not totally. If it had 76 keys..
and a separate balance knob or accomp level slider, ( I was amazed it lacked that and required going into screen to balance) no contest..that's what I'd be playing now.

I finally decided that the 76 keys and nice keybed and sound selection still had a powerful appeal to me, since
I have a 61-key Korg is35 that has great rhythms, is the
best layout and os for navigation on-the fly for someone
like me, and the old sounds leave a lot to be desired but
I've managed to tweak a few to acceptable. So the new
os with the V-link button as badly needed extra controller
and tap tempo bug cure made me feel--ok, I think this
may be enough to tip me back, and maybe the 1.09 has
even more goodies..so I made the decision.

Well. after spending several hours with the new one, I have come to the reluctant conclusion that I just have to
find a way to use the E60 in a very limited fashion..which
may not be altogether a bad thing. The v-link controller
functions have almost nothing significantly usable for me.
I can use the ritard or the break is all..i was hoping to use
the fadeout but it's so brief and abrupt it's next to
useless..so I'll fade manually w/the volume knob. btw, i
hve not yet discovered what 1.09 has added or changed.

I won't go into all the litany of complaints I've outlined
here before, they remain. but I have now found ways to
bypass so many functions that are maddening..and I'm
going to look at this thing as just a great stage 76 with
2 bread and butter sounds in the setup: piano and rhodes.
there's a nice chorus organ in the memory intelligence
that is also easy to access in a flash..when i want to use
others, I can't access them with any ease or speed, but
at least they are available. I set up a permanent bass
split on F#2 ('acoustic 88") and whole keyboard recognition. the one d-beam control will be for bass on/off, and the few times i want to use full backgrounds I'll switch it to accomp on/off, the next icon down. then I'll
learn to move as fast as i can within the limited nav.

the key is that the 2 bread and butter sounds are so great.
that makes it unnecessary to go to a whole lot of sounds
like i have to in my Korg. the vintage elec piano #1..that's
so cool and expressive I never tire of it. right above it
in the panel page is the piano/strings for ballads.

the piano sound? the one the E60 is set up with, that
always reappears in the quick piano setup, is called natural piano, and I think it's not good at all..so that
prevents me from using a lot of the shortcuts. There is
a much better sound on page 2, called Superior Piano. But
I have found a way to modify the muddy Classical Piano
sound on page 3 that is an absolute killer, and I'd like to
share with other e60/50 users (maybe the G70 has it too?)

Go to the Classical Piano sound, then go to Tone Edit in
the menu. the 2 parameters on the extreme right are
resonance and filter cutoff..set those to +7. then go to
the attack parameter and set it to minus 3..take 2 aspirin
and call me in the morning!!!!



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Miami Mo