Has anyone here had the opportunity to play both the VA76 and the SD1? How are the feels of the keys on the two boards? And sampled sound between the two?

The keys on the VA76 are longer and a bit lighter than the SD1. They are both semi-weighted, but of the two - I prefer the Ketron action. I like the smaller key length .... it's closer to normal. (the VA76 has looooong keys, like the G1000)
Sounds are about equal with the SD1 having more prossessing on the solo sounds. There ais more "built in" vibrato on the Sd1. That could be a deterent for some players, but both have top notch sounds. The VA76 has MANY, MANY more sounds, but alot of them are only slightly different from each other.
Both units sound fantastic - it's going to come down to taste and feel.

Thank you, Uncle Dave, for your response.

So, now, selection between the two boards boiled down to the "taste". I remembered George Kayed posted a message about the cost of the SD1 going for something closer to $2900 and the VA76 at the $2400. "Taste" here will cost me half a grand! Hmm, thinking hard...

Rhumba,
I will try to help you with your decision, as far as I can; when I bought my VA7 I played both the SD1 and the VA76; actually when I went inside the shop my original intention was to buy an SD1 but then I found that the VA7/76 had a more natural sound, while the SD1 (at least ten months ago) suffered of a problem due to a noisy DSP unit (you could hear a clicking noise with cyclic effects like chorus, flanger or rotary; the noise disappeared turning the effect off). Aside from that, the SD1 sounds are heavily equalized with a prevalence of mid-range frequencies that gives them a strong "presence" but also a nasal quality. The acoustic guitars of the SD1, for example, literally "jump out" of the instrument and are very good to play solo parts, while in the VA76 they are less emphasized and are good especially for rhytm tracks.
All that said, I think that the SD1 is a keyboard more oriented for a live use; in fact there are more fills per style (four, if I am correct) and each one has a dedicate button; besides, the SD1 has a "To end" button that is very useful to terminate a song in a natural way within the next bar.
Third point: the SD1 has many styles drawn from real songs and the styles themselves are overall more useful if your purpose is to make people dance.
Finally, the SD1 has a real hard disk, a sampler and an harmonizer.
So, I would say that in a studio situation the VA76 wins thanks to its more natural sound, while for live use the SD1 is better.
P.S.: I have a VA7 and am thinking to buy an SD1 too, provided they have solved in the meanwhile the noisy DSP problem.
Andrea