Let's put it this way. If I am blown away with styles and sounds, I will take time necessary to learn an OS, even if it doesn't do all Yamaha does. I can figure things out in time. But an hour on this and I was DONE. I revisited it the next day and no better. The 3rd day I was depressed.

Your reply is a bit puzzling but I respect it. I hope you find what your looking for down the road.

One would have thought that styles and sounds are the one thing you CAN audition on the web...

Did they not rock your world BEFORE you bought the SD? If they DID, why the change now, and if NOT, why buy in the first place?

I must say, I tend to agree with you, though. The sounds and the styles are the only thing you (and your audience) can HEAR. When you go 'I GOTTA have this!' when you first hear it, that's a pretty important sign you should buy one. But, of course, as soon as you do, you then run into the OS differences. But if it SOUNDS so good, you just HAVE to tolerate the OS shortcomings.

Trust me, I miss my Chord Sequencer every day. I have had to re-think the basic way I use an arranger. But the sounds and styles on my G70 are SO good in comparison to the G1000 that I HAD to make the change. I won't go back to one no matter how much I miss the CS.

But I still find myself puzzled that you bought the Ketron, if you don't like the sounds and styles. At least, that's what I think I infer from your post...

Diki,

I traded my PA800 for the Ketron after listening to web demos and testimonials from other users. I also read all the comments on Sonic that pretty much were very positive. Pour in a few other comments from past users that raved about the sounds and styles - well, I was expecting good things.

I unpacked it, set it up on my kitchen counter, turned it on and became extremely ill, very fast.

The styles are VERY glitchy - which would end it right there. The supposed unplugged - a joke at best - nothing I could ever use in style play - thin and bodiless. The Riff - good idea if you could play your own chords! The sounds? Plain awful. Thin guitars, weak acoustic piano (and on the split - even worse). Horns, weak. FX to the max to mask everything. The whole thing sounds very hollow - hard to explain, but sounds like one of those cheap Williams/Suzuki digital pianos.

As mentioned, I traded my Korg PA800 for it and lost, big time. The Korg sounds like the ultimate dream machine in comparison. I tried to get my deal back, but no way - I'm sure the other owner was happily washing his hands to rid this thing too.

To say my opinion is subjective is an insult (not that anyone has), but I can assure everyone that THIS particular keyboard has some serious issues.

zuki

Wow. Lucky we dont have ketron in south africa

Gosh, Zuki. After reading your post above, I actually am feeling a little guilty about kidding you in that other post. Believe me, I've been there; most recently with the Tyros 2. I bought it under the same circumstances as you bought the SD5. It's not that it's such a bad keyboard, it's not. But the fact that I don't even turn it on for months at a time, speaks volumes. By contrast, I play the Korg (PA1xPro) every day. It has mostly to do with styles and my concept of what they should sound like; truth is, I find the OS on the T2 to be much more user-friendly though they both have/don't have features that I'd want in live play. BTW, I've heard the SD5 demoed live and agree with you that (to my ears) it sounds like puppy poo.

Keep your spirits up. A year from now this whole experience will be a distant memory (unless, of course, it results in a divorce).

chas

[This message has been edited by cgiles (edited 02-25-2008).]

Owning my first Korg arranger, the Pa2xpro, after owning Yamaha boards for the past 8 years I think qualifies me to compare the two.

One of things I like very much about the Korg styles is the fact they are not over-done like the Yamaha styles. Although the Yammy styles are very good and melodic, they do sound very cheezy after a while; especially playing live. Sometimes you will get an annoying string or guitar strum that constantly plays the same thing over and over to the point that you MUST shut down that track in the mixer.

The Korg, on the other hand, sounds more natural like a live band. And if the Korg style does get a little over the top, you have those wonderful sliders to mute or reduce the volume.

Overall, I think the Korg styles are VERY different from the Tyros 2 styles and are more geared towards live music.

------------------
Al Giordano http://www.arrangerworld.com


Tyros 2, Korg Pa2xpro, Roland VK8-M, DW Collectors Series Drums, Roland SPD-S.

[This message has been edited by kbrkr (edited 02-25-2008).]

True, True, .......& MORE TRUE!!
Good assessment!!

I need to step back and put things in prospective. The audience likes 1) my singing 2) my playing. I get tons of compliments on how great the 900 sounds, to the degree of having to demo the product on some nights after a performance. They could care less about the drums.

As Chas mentioned, it's what I WANT - hit it on the head. So, I have to closely examine the whole scenario and assess what got me this far. Guess what? - The lowly PSR3000 and now 900, with no harmonizer, no gimmicks, nothing else! And it's continuing to go extremely well.

I conclued that a harmonizer and the T2 will work best (for me). I can make the styles work, believe me. They are EVERYTHING but boring. The Yammy arrangements are fabulous, even if not as 'life-like'.

In the music finder, a few songs come to mind: Copacabana - wow / Dock of The Bay / Wonderful World. These songs sound terrific live and nothing I could duplicate on other boards.

Throw in 3rd party and lots of studio time to build the song list and it will will make for an appreciative audience - that's the goal in the first place.

zuki

Your first part made sense.....
But why do you need the T2 at all Zuki?
Ebay or Craigslist the Sd5.....buy Don M's S900 for a B/u if needed & a Tc helicon Harmony M in May....& with the change take your wife out for a nice romantic dinner!



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 02-25-2008).]