Scott - good morning

You referred on another post about the KN6500 ability to recognize chords well while in the full keyboard mode. I was curious as to what happens on the Technics that makes it different. I am assuming that if you are soloing in the right hand you do not want those notes to trigger changes in the chord recognition - so am I missing something here? - is there still a split point? - but the piano sound is the same across the keyboard?

Mike H

Mike,

Right, there is NO split point in full keyboard mode and the same sound is played & heard throughout the entire playing range.

The Technics KN5000, in 'full keyboard mode', tends to recognize what is played in the lower portion of the keyboard with your left hand first: F7 (F-A-C-Eb) or F13 (Eb-A-D); and then when the right hand plays a passing tone note such as G# , the chord recognition then changes (correctly) to F7#9 and if a Gb is played in the right hand the chord recognition changes to F7b9. On the other hand, on other brands, such as the Yamaha PSR2000 (in full keyboard mode), the notes played in the right hand will sometimes alter the chord recognition unexpectantly to a 'completely different' unrelated chord or an 'on bass' pedal point kind of thing which (in my opinion) makes the bass line jump unpredictedly (jarring).

For example if you play (in full keyboard mode) on the PSR keyboard, with your left hand a simple 1st inversion C7 chord (E2-G2-Bb2-C3) and then play the notes in slow succession: C3-D3-E3-F3-G3, you will notice that the chord recognition (and subsequent bass line accomp) will shift jarringly back and forth from C7 to C7/E (E bass pedal).

Right hand notes played: Chord Recognized:
C3: C7
D3: C7
E3: C7/E
F3: C7
G3: C7/E

On the other hand, these same notes played on the Technics KBs will maintain a consistant bass pattern without that jarring E bass pedal point motif popping up when E3 or G3 is played. It really is disruptive to hear the bass line jump unexpectantly from a nice smooth C7 bass line to a sudden E pedal point configuration.

In addition, it seems that only the Technics keyboards recognize several popular two-hand voiced comping chords popularly used by blues/jazz keyboard players:

for example:

left hand: right hand: chord recognition
(Eb-A-D) (G-C-F) : F13

Mike, I really can't elaborate any more than this because it really has to do with the style of keyboard playing you are accustomed to. I just think that the Technics chord recognition system is based on a traditional 'jazz chord theory' point of view while the Yamaha, Roland, Korg and others base their chord recognition on more basic pop voiced chords. I hope this helps to explain and clarify the differences. I still enjoy the PSR2000, but find its' 'full keyboard mode' useless, so I stick to split mode and have to trigger all my chords solely with my left hand.

In spite of this, the PSR2000 is working out well as a terrific sounding affordable 'interim' board until the 'next' generation Technics or other brand arranger KB model arrives, which supports 'full keyboard mode' chord recognition aimed towards acoustic jazz style keyboard playing.

Scott

Thanks alot - I understand you perfectly.

regards
MH