Hello,

I've been playing for two weeks with my new SD1. It is a GREAT instrument, incredible sounds and excellent features.

However, I'm still missing some features which I really need on the SD1, and which (in my opinion) I think could make this instrument even better than it already is.

1) My biggest problem: there is no way to turn off all accompaniment sections except drums and have an instrument (piano) on the WHOLE keyboard, and when necessary, be able to turn on all accompaniment sections. Almost all the music we play, we start with piano, then I start the drum sections (and I continue playing the piano on all the keyboard), and some measures later all accompaniments start playing. This creates every time a stronger and stronger feeling on the music. The song starts at a certain level of complexity which we make it grow as we play. On my old yamaha, this was as simple as touching the "auto-accompaniment" button on/off. AJ: it would be great to have one button (or a combination of two) to make this possible. I already know that there are certain ways to do something SIMILAR (hold button, change the split point, lowering the volume for each part, pianist, etc..), but it is still too much complex and requires much time for one measure to another (and remember, I'm still playing the piano part).The pianist function is not good for this application, because it will detect when a chord is playing and, again, accompaniment parts will start. Turning off the hold function also is not good, because I don't have all the keyboard for the piano, I'm limited to the right section only. Changing the split point to the lowest note, turning off the hold function works great, but I don't have enough time for pressing so much buttons and functions.

2) Key Start / Stop response time: In the repertoire we play (keyboard + 2 violins) we include some tangos. As you may know, there are certain passages of tangos that require the key start & stop functions turned on (for example on "Jealousie" and "La Cumparsita"). I changed this parameter to the lowest value, which is 150 ms, and for us this is still too high response time. It is getting difficult to us to "synchronize" with this 150 ms delay. This could appear stupid, but this is a real problem. On my old yamaha psr-740 there was no delay (or, at least, not enough delay to be detected by human ear and by the violin players). AJ: Is it possible to permit lower values than 150 ms ? It would be great, specially for tango players.

3) I have the footswitch (FS13). I was trying to assign the CRASH sound to one of the switches. While I was testing it, somehow the arranger began to play FILL 1, FILL 2, FILL 3, FILL 1, FILL 2, FILL 3..... repeating time after time. I pressed the switch I was using (#13) and no results. I tried pressing all other switches and still the same. I had to stop the style and try again. Same results. The "crash" was no longer a crash and all fill-ins started playing over and over. I had to turn the keyboard off and then on. Is this normal? or is it a bug? or there's something I did wrong?

4) Is there someway to configure polarity for the sustain pedal? I have a roland sustain pedal which I like very much, but the polarity is correct on the SD1. It works backwards.

I really like the SD1. With this instrument I can bring more life to the music I play. The point is that I'm getting desperate because this small group of missing functions (specially #1) are making my music to loose some feeling. Anyway, is the best keyboard I've ever played. For now, I'm still carrying my old Yamaha for playing the piano parts while the SD1 plays only drums, and also, for the tangos, due to the high millisecond response time on the SD1.

AJ: I hope Ketron can do something to make this instrument even better. I simply cannot conceive the idea of missing my old YAMAHA, still have to carry it... the sd1 is heavy enough for me !!

Best regards,
Guillermo.