Last September, I decided to buy from AJ his X1/SD1 manuals.
Presently I own a Ketron X4, and I only decided to order the
SD1 manual with the intention of comparing some of the
features (one never knows if I'll buy from Ketron again).
At that time, AJ asked me to publish a review of his manuals,
which I haven't done yet (sorry, AJ). My own pace through the
manuals and, more generally, my evolution as a musician is
rather slow, and that's the reason of the delay. A keyboard
manual is not something we read like a book, but something we
discover as our keyboardist skills evolve. Thus, it takes me a
certain time to be able to fully appreciate somebody's work.
I will dare to give you a brief amateur impression about the
X1 manual, writen by a professional. I hope you'll take the
necessary distance from my non-specialist comments.
Here we go: It's a 54 pages manual, divided in eight chapters,
with addicional 6 pages describing in detail the several
Operating System Updates. In the begining there is an "xpress
start", for the impatient. Here are the main blocks of the
manual:
1) Quick Overview
2) Keyboard Controls
3) Voices
4) Accompaniment (Styles)
5) Songs
6) Sequencer (basic operations)
7) Registrations
8) Vocalizer Tips
Where I think the manual is strong:
1) General approach - keyboard manuals are very often quite
"dry" introducing new users to the instrument, specially if the
user is a beginner to arranger keyboards. The manual shines in
topic organization. Everything is very well chained and
structured, and AJ's way of writing and explaining couldn't be
clearer. This makes the manual a great learning tool for non
native english speaking guys, just like me.
The other good thing is that the manual shows a special care in
pedagogy. Every aspect is smoothly introduced, with increasing
degrees of difficulty and in a natural way. None of these concerns
can be seen in the manufacturer manual. There are a lot of tips
spread over the different chapters, although they are not
homogeneously distributed.
2) Recording and modifying patterns/styles - This is, with no
doubt, the best covered topic in the manual, full of details and
full of very useful tips. It helps us to create styles from scratch,
modify style components or combine (copy/paste) styles. Great
pages!
3) Recording patterns from external sequencers - Very useful
feature, very well covered, with hints.
Where I think the manual could be improved:
1) More "musical hints and tips" - although I think this was meant
to be an instrument "manual", that is, a text where we essentially
learn technical stuff (and, yes, there are a great number of these
tips), I confess I was expecting to find more hints directed to
"how to make music" with all the functions an arranger keyboard like
these incorporates, from an experienced player. That is why I'm
waiting with enthousiasm, the (promised) book by Scott Yee; I'm
sure that in his work he'll put the tonic in the musical aspects!
2) Some topics are not covered with the same depth as others
(readers are sent to the Owner's Manual). It's true that topics
like X series sequencer operations are well described by a technical
manual, but the AJ manual is really succint here.
Finally, in these transactions a certain amount of trust is needed.
I really don't need to tell you this, because AJ is already a
respected guy among us, but he revealed himself as a 100%
trustworthy guy. I sent him the money by air mail, and he quickly
sent me the package with the manuals.
I apologize everybody for my english language limitations, AJ for
beeing so "out of time", and hope this helps others to know AJ's
great work a little better.
José Matias.
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