Yesterday I sent the following letter to Ketron. Sandro asked for comments about the SD1 and promised to look at the list and do his very best in trying to get solutions for the detected problems/wishes.

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Dear mr. Sandro,

Without any doubt the SD1 is the very best keyboard I ever owned.
Thru the www.synthzone.com discussion-forum keyboard players are 'connected' and we all share our knowledge and help eachother out in case of problems or questions.
It's great to hear you are willing to listen to the customers and therefore I collected some issues that we would like to be changed or improved in the SD1.

a. Noisy Digital Sound Processor.
Especially the Chorus DSP (used in E-Piano's) adds unwanted hiss, interference sounds or harmonics to the original EPiano's. At higher volumes it becomes worse. .

b. The Rotor DSP, produces 'clicks' while speeding up-/down the effect itself is not good enough.

c. The sinus-drawbars produce a very poor sound : Soft attack, slight decay, slight delay. Please improve this soundgenerator.
(The sampled ones are great !)

d. Since OS2.0 some users (e.g. Mdorantes) had 'hangups' (software lockups) while performing on stage. The display showed a kind of error-message about the pitch-wheel. The only way to get rid of the 'frozen SD1' was Power off/on.

e. Several users complain about the delay while playing styles directly after fill-ins. We think it is caused by the Autocrash. When this sound is not in the currently playing drumset, a program-change causes this delay. (time gap) Rhythm is the heart of all arrangers..... time-delays cannot be tolerated. (Luka)

f. Once connected in a MIDI-chain the SD1 sometimes lets notes 'hang' because of external midi-traffic. The question is : How to 'kill' the notes on one specific channel ?

g. One user's SD1 sometimes freezes in ARRANGER VIEW when sounds are changed while the arranger is running.

h. A specific wish of Luka :
To have an option to call up a vocal set (*.voc) from the harddisk with a registration on the name basis (as it is possible to call midi and text files on a name basis and PROGRAMS as well)

i. Microphone input
This input (XLR) is pretty noisy I need to 'inactivate' the MIC to get rid of the noise. The volume slider has no effect on the noise.

j. The vocalizer produces MONO (?) output and we wonder why ? Please make it sound in stereo.

k. The internal HDD produces too much noise and there is no way to get it manually in 'standby' when a user wants. (e.g. in studio-use)

l. The style-buildup is a bit strange. Normal would be var1, var2, var3 and var4.(var1 being 'easy' .... to var4 'heavy')
The SD1 needs var1, var3, var2 and var4 Please change this in the correct order.

m. The led-indicator VAR-A is always on at about 10 % of the normal ON intensity.

n. Once the 'style-setting' button is ON we cannot change intrument-group by just pressing one of the buttons. This is pretty confusing and we do not see why this would not switch off the 'style-setting' button.
Please change it to 'overrulable by voice-buttons'.

o. The mic-volume slider on the back of the SD1......... I had to remove the knob, otherwise it would cause damage. (I use a keyboard bag for transport)

p. We expected some funtions to be part of the power-on setup : e.g. Pianist, after touch, keystart.
Please change this and make them part of power-up setup..

q. The VELOCITY curves do NOT work. There is no difference between 'normal' and 'soft'. the user ones are editable but the work bad.

r. Some users have serious problems with the display intensity : Sometimes it flickers or falls to dark/white

s. The 'To End' button is positioned very close to the 'break' button. Many users, me included, sometimes want to press the 'break' but take the 'to end' . This is a big problem because, once pressed, the performer is not allowed to quick correct his mistake : The 'to end' stops the arranger very sudden and no way back !!
Please change this to : Interrupt-allowed to varX or fill-in

t. We all wonder why the SD1/X1 availabilty is soo low in many many countries. Even in the Netherlands there only are a few dealers willing to sell Ketron/Solton. I get phonecalls from all over the Netherlands and people ask for experiences, advice and addresses to be able to try/buy the SD1.
In the US and Canada it is almost impossible to get one..... and customers buy other kb's because of the lack distribution and support of Ketron products.

We hope you are able to put some effort in the mentioned items and solutions can be created by your Ketron team-members ?
(OS3.0 ?)

Kindest regards,

Roel de Jonge



[This message has been edited by Roel (edited 12-21-2001).]