Here goes,

picked it up, wow it's allot heavier than my T2.

Turned it on and the first thing I noticed was it was exactly like the SD1 display.

I did not have it hooked up to a PA yet, so I just had it playing through it's own speakers.

a funk style was already selected so I just hit a chord and my first reaction was " man these drums are going to blow these speakers "

went through a bunch of styles, played some sounds, screwed around with the midi files.

So as sounds go I found myself looking for the extras of the T2, especially in the guitar and trumpet sounds,. there were no extra vibrato or string slides and such.

Noticed I was spoiled with the realism of the solo sounds on the T2. I ketp saying to myself this sounds very synthy shen playing the SD trumpet and brass, the strings were very filling, big and thick sounding, not as detailed as the T2 but I think better for thickin up stuff.

Played a couple of organs which I was leaning towards the SD on these, they just seemed more pleasing to me and more real. I did notice that when I turned on the Rotor effect, there was a massive click then the sound was gone then came back, probably a software glitch.

I also miss or am spoiled from, the one touch settings linked to styles, or suggested sounds for a style, or maybe I just don't know how to activate it.

Also miss the ability to hit a variations and have a fill bring me into it. I know you can use the jump feature and a variation will bring you to the next variation but I liked determining where it was going first.

Not as many sounds as the SD1 or T2. the meat and potatoes sounds are there.

I still need to figure out the best way to switch from style to midi file to style for live playing. I'm not quite sure if they have changed the filing system or is it still constricted to 8 characters, (bummer)

So far I'm still on the fence.

the drums and bass are much more in your face and live sounding which gives me the feeling of a more motivating playing experince, but not sure if I like the rawness of the whole thing yet,

Tonight I'll put them both through my Bose PAS's and see what's I think

Hi
There is a Poll on Jazzhooves http://www.jazzhooves.com/page10/page10.html of which the results are quite amazing.
Enjoy whatever you play

Bill

I really feel that the SD5 will be my choice for live performance, but the T2 still has the beautfil SA voices which I feel for recording can not be beat.

So if I can combine them to make a super arranger.........

Frankieve thanks for posting what you think so far. I like what you had to say....especially since UPS will be delivering my T2 today.

Abacus, very interesting poll for sure.

I'll be MISSING IN ACTION while I explore the T2. I told my wife she won't be seeing much of me either over the next couple of weeks.



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 01-03-2007).]

Stephenm52 do you mean that you are using the T2 for recording or the other features that the SD5 seems to not have ?

As an arranger though there are some features that the SD5 have that the T2 does not. Velocity controlled stop/start the reset to beat 1 button. the on the fly live buttons for bass to lowest, instant 2nd voice add on. direct voice pre-selection.

OMG these arranger have so many things that make me go back and forth, it's like a tennis match

Frank, Good luck with your new keys.

Frank, no I don't do much in the way of recording. It's the other features that the T2 has that the SD5 doesn't have that you mentioned.

I agree with you it's like a tennis match going back and forth.

I like what I heard of the SD5 features and also the PA800. If I could have demoed a PA800 or the SD5 there's a chance I would have bought one of them (most likely the PA800), kept my PSR 3000 and used both. There were a number of reasons I went with the T2 one of them being the ease of transitioning from the PSR 3000 and the CVP 307 Clavinova. The learning curve is small in comparison to starting over with the Pa800 or the SD5.

Good luck with the SD5.


[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 01-03-2007).]

looks like someone sabatoged the poll of Tyros vs Ketron

Mine will be here in a few days.

Thanks. man! I'm feeling better about the SD-5; paerticularly because I have so much time with the MS 60 and Ms 40.

good info...

Russ

Good luck with your new unit Glenn....
I await your review, comparisons and experiences with the SD5 especially since you've been playing a SD1 also..

Stephen, you will absolutely love the T2. As you know I was a little undecided before buying my T2, but I got lost in Tyros 2 land for over 4 hours last night, and it felt like 10 mins

It is a superb keyboard, and you have made a good decision.

Enjoy!!

frankieve

Some answers for you:-

I also miss or am spoiled from, the one touch settings linked to styles, or suggested sounds for a style, or maybe I just don't know how to activate it.
>>>AJ: These can be done by first activating the "TOUCH TO STYLE". With the ONE TOUCH active, you can assign 1-12 pages (each one having 10 sounds each) to each style so that when that style is called up, you have available to you 10 favorite voices that go with that style.

Also miss the ability to hit a variations and have a fill bring me into it. I know you can use the jump feature and a variation will bring you to the next variation but I liked determining where it was going first.
>>>AJ: This feature "AUTOFILL" is available (ARRAMGER MODE - PAGE 2/2, AUTOFILL (F9) ) needs to be checked. This way when you go to any variation from any variation, it's associated Fill is played first!

Thanks,

AJ

Thanks AJ.

Did you get my email?

I started looking into the manual more and found some more answers,

yes there is an easy and fast way to go from style to midi file and back.

Is there a way to use arrangement D instead of the riff feature?

Also another T2 vs SD5. Styles are more live band with the SD5, meaning longer style bars with small variations within to give small changes so there is less of a canned style sound.

seem to be missing some key styles and sounds from the SD1, hopefully i can add them.

almost everything is accessabel through buttons, barely any hidden menus

i think i'm right with the limited 8 characters on file names, damn damn damn.

GREAT..GREAT..Great midi file playback.

there are 16 assignable tabs that are amazing, great idea. it's basically having 16 more buttons that you can decide will do anything you want them to.

much better reg system ( excluding the 8 character limit )

getting back to sounds.
within arranger playing the SD5 sounds which I thought were lacking are perfect in the mix.
the T2 sounds are great but all those nuances get lost within the style, so they actually start to sound a little thin,

I need to sleep, can't even type correctly.

I'm hoping to get the SD5 ready for a gig in 2 weeks,

I might be selling the T2, can't completely decide yet.

Later

jazzhooves poll is a joke in my opinion because of the style the player choose to use for the Ketron SD5 compared to the Tyros2. I have commented in another post that the style used "westride" is a totally poor choice to use in this competition. Because the style is almost all a snare drum and bass drum and the snare drum is played with brushes and is being played in a march type rhythm which doesn't show off the potential of the keyboard. I like both keyboards a lot but I don't think a proper poll should be looked at without two similar type styles.
I have also found out that many of the things players using Ketron Products don't always find out right away because of such a deep feature list, is how to do all the things their products are capable of. I sure wish the owners manuals for Ketron products were done better. Often, I call AJ to find out how to do certain things and if they can be done.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Interesting to hear the two files on the Jazzhooves website for the T2 & SD5. I am not familiar with the sound of either instrument historically, & have never owned any arranger from Yamaha or Ketron, so I don't have any bias for or against either.

Whilst both recordings have their good & bad points, my intitial reaction on hearing the first few bars of each was as follows:

- For the T2: "That's a home keyboard of some sort"
- For the SD5: "That sounds like separate real instruments playing together"

OK, there were obvious give-aways in both cases that made it quickly apparent that both recordings were from keyboards of some sort (inappropriate delay settings on the lead guitar sound and the "holes" in the drum fills for the SD5, overall sound quality
for the Tyros), but my initial reaction was that the SD5 potentially sounded more "real" overall.

I am sure loads of you will disagree with my opinion.........

Happy new year to all. Regards - Mike


[This message has been edited by MikeTV (edited 01-04-2007).]

Stein, so far the T2 is exceeding my expectations. With all the discussion and debates of various brands I wasn't totally sure about moving the to T2. I got lost
last night beginning at 7 PM. Finally somewhere around 1 AM I shut it down, would have stayed up longer by 5:30 AM normal wake for work time comes mighty fast.



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 01-04-2007).]

Steve ... I am really glad you are enjoying your new keyboard ... let me know when you gig with it .. perhaps I can come and hear ...
t.

Mike nothing new about your opinions ...we all know the differences in sound between these two..I myself have owned & performed with both type units T2/SD1/Midjay.....
& I cannot argue your points given above...But...there is MUCH More to the "complete" package then just the sound & herin lies the differences in opinions and choices for each players needs....ergonomics, navigation, on-board features, weight, display, key-feel, support, etc etc etc .....for recording that would be another story, but for performing live you really have to dig into your soul & personal needs as a musician!


[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-04-2007).]

Anybody looking for a SD5 to try/Buy my local dealer in The West Midlands,England is carrying them:

Colbecks
Sutton Coldfield
0121 321 3909 www.colbecks-music.com
Regards
Mark

Thanks Tony, got all private stuff in January, next public place I play at will be Java Madness Sunday Feb 7th 11 AM to 2 PM. If you can come on down.

That was partly my point - I didn't have any first hand knowledge of how these two sounded, and don't have any bias either way between the two makes. My reaction to these files was therefore not 'preconditioned' in any way by previous contact with these instruments.



Totally agree - which is why I have ended up using top end arrangers from Korg & Roland in recent years. Not because either make is inherently better or worse than Yamaha or Ketron (or any other obvious competitor, for that matter) but because the instruments I chose were best suited to my purpose.

As a simple example to confirm exactly what you are saying, I absolutely hate pitch bend wheels, much prefering a side-to-side lever. As a result, I don't even bother auditioning any of the Yamaha range as they all use a wheel for this function. I make heavy use of pitch bend, so it doesn't matter how good the rest of an instrument is, if this 'must have' lever is not present it won't be on my try-out list. Others feel the same way regarding 76 note keybeds. In my case, I've had both 76 & 61 & can live with either.

But you're absolutely right - an arranger is very musch a sum of it's parts. It isn't always the best sounding one that gives the most ultimate satisfaction. Usability is just as important.

Regards - Mike

Mike thanx for your reply...IM glad you see my point NAVAGATION is #1 priority for me always has been, I make split second switches throughout a song when I perform and if the controls and features are not just right or in the right position or if it takes too many moves to accomplish I will not keep the unit.....although on the outside in my choices there have been many friendly good vs bad battles on the SZ throughout my switching maneuvers in the past....if you read the last two posts by us it explains many of the reasons musicians make choices in gear beyond just the sound....even though many might not agree or wonder why....its a PERSONAL CHOICE for each player & always will be.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-05-2007).]