I received this new keyboard late Monday. I unboxed it and spent a couple hours with it Monday night, then about 5 hours with it Tuesday.
I got quite comfortable with it, having some experience with the operating system-very similar to the SD1, so I took it to the job Tuesday night.
So far, I like it even more than I expected. I didn't even realize quite how much I missed that LIVE drum and bass sound.
The SD5 has added some sounds that had to be loaded each time on the SD1, such as Growl Sax. It also has that wonderful Strat sound that was first introduced on the Midjay. It sounds even better on the SD5.
My unit does not yet have a hard drive, and my computer doesn't have a floppy drive, and I no longer have the connecting serial cable, so right now I am limited to the styles and sounds on the keyboard itself.
They should include the serial cable with all units, in my opinion.
The SD5 comes compete with 160 registrations, and they are very well done. Access to them is very easy, as there are 16 assignable buttons immediately above the left hand. The buttons are called Multi-tabs, and they in the Registration mode they come pre-programmed with Registrations. If the Registation light is on, you press the category of the genre you want, such as Swing, then the buttons become quick access to 16 Swing registrations. Of course they can be altered, replaced, erased, etc.
In addition to these registrations, it is very easy to create more, that can be accessed by entering numbers. Before going to work I modified several banks of registrations to suit my preferred fingering mode and split points, and choice of lead sounds.
Another form of registration, Single, is also available, but they must be saved to Hard Drive or Floppy. I used this quite extensively with the SD1, and most likely will here too after I install a Hard Drive.
A neat feature is that if you have a style and a text file and/or a midi file in the same folder, calling up the Style will also call up the text file and/or midi file.
The Vocal processing is slightly improved, in my opinion, from the SD1, and the Vocalizer (harmonizer) seems to be the same. It works very well, and the harmony is clear. I experienced zero distortion--very pleased after having to "baby" the Yamaha harmonizer.
It had several different modes--two choices of chord modes, and an Effects mode which has a list of gimmick voices such as Micky Mouse, Big Bear, etc. I believe there were about 15 of those, and they work with the touch of a button.
Speaking of buttons, there are a wonderful array of buttons that access the various operating features, PLUS the Multi-tabs can be programmed to do just about anything from style variations, registration up-down, drum part mutes--there is a full page of assignable functions. Haven't even got that far yet.
The arranger section has options to Hold the bass line, style parts or drum parts as you change variations, in effect vastly increasing the variety of styles.
The much-talked about Riff feature is quite fun to play with. I played a style called Organ Hit, that seemed to be made for Ray Charles' "What I Say?" When the fourth variation is flashing, it means a riff is there. I pressed it and then proceeded jam over the top of the riff, which in this case followed the exact chord progression I'd been playing. (All the riffs don't do that.)
You can press Pianist, and play piano, or any other sound over the entire keyboard while the riff is on. Very neat.
Besides the sound, probably the most outstanding feature of the SD5 is the extreme programmability. You can make it do just about anything you desire. There are various functions of initial touch and aftertouch that can affect style parts, and there is a button called Arranger Mute, that mutes certain parts of a style. These parts are selectable.
There is wonderful real-time control of volumes for style parts, right voice, left voice, drums bass, etc.
The only realtime e.q. is a Bass Boost button, that allows you to crank up or reduce the bass as needed. I prefer to crank it up in most cases, and it sounds really great.
The onboard speakers are very powerful and sound very good. I think I recall that they are 22 watts.
As to the sounds, I mentioned the Strat. There are also very good acoustic guitars, Pedal Steel that allows bending of one note, very accurate Fiddle, Harmonica and Chrome voices. I was very pleased and surprised at the Pianos. They really sound great to my ears. Saxs are still good. The organs sound good and respond nicely to the dedicated rotor on/off and speed buttons. You can also open a screen showing drawbars.
There is also a button that allows real-time modification of the lead voice, allowing quick application of overdrive, distortion, wha-wha, and various others. Not that I use Wha-wha, but it can be assigned to the volume pedal if wanted, and it becomes a wha-wha pedal while the assignment is on.
This thing is built like a tank, and is large enough to have 76 keys, but it has only 61. It isn't as heavy as the G70, but much heavier than the PSRs. It seems to be the same size and weight as the SD1.
I was able to find a style for most every song I wanted to do, but I'm looking forward to adding a hard drive so I can access the entire collection of styles from SD1 and other models.
If anyone has any specific questions, I will try to answer, but I am still in the early stage of taming this beast.
I got several comments from audience about how great the sound was last night.
I just plugged it into the Bose L1 and played. There was no e.q. added, or needed!
The SD5 comes sounding great out of the box, and that in itself is a real pleasure.
There is three band e.q. available for the two mic inputs, plus you can fully adjust reverbs and delays.
Probably more than you wanted to know about SD5, right?
DonM