I sent this letter to Ketron a week agon..... no answer yet :
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Dear mr. Sandro,

I still am a very happy user of the SD1 (for about 2,5 years) and we do many gigs where the Ketron proves to be the absolute BEST arranger keyboard compared to Yamaha,Roland and all others !

However, since the latest upgrade to 4.0b there are some polyphony problems as you probably know ?

Especially while using string-voices (right hand) often the bass-voice disappears and it looks to me the priority is programmed not correctly. In my view the bass needs almost highest priority.... far above the right-hand chords/voices.

I expect Ketron engineers to be busy with this problem already, but with this email I like to give an extra attention to this point.

Could you please confirm this problem is known and the engineers are working on it ?
My friends from the synthzone-forum have only one problem, THIS problem, with playing- and considering purchasing the SD1.
Solving it will bring Ketron even more buyers/customers.

The last question : Is there an expected release date ?

kindest regards from The Netherlands,

Roel de Jonge

I agree with Roel and I join him with a plea to Ketron to try to bring the quality of polyphony to the level of Rel.3.0
Luka

Exactly the same problem with XD3!!! I did post my observations regarding this anoying polyphony problem for 3 times!!! No answer!
For sure is a programing mistake.
Flavi.

Hello to all ,

Ketron was closed for most of August for Holiday.

My understanding is that everyone returned yesterday .

Dano

I have also posted similar XD3 polyphony problems on this site. Using harmony and just playing single notes with a C or D arranger style will produce massive clipping, to the point that I find harmony to be an unusable feature for performances.

Today mr. Sandro (Ketron) sent the following reply. In my case it did not help, please post your findings !

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Roel,

The problem of the Bass randomly disappearing does’n’t regards the polyphony of the SD1 but just the Retrigger parameter on the Bass which has been left to ON instead of OFFon some Styles.

When in ON position ( only on some Styles ), the Retrigger function may result critical according with the Bass lines which are programmed ( if long or short notes, if playing in between two bars and so on ).

Pls. try to change the Retrigger value on requested Styles and save them again.

I’m sure this will fix your problem.
Pls. inform.

Sandro

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I myself checked with the LUCKY style.
While playing only the left hand it is no problem, but after adding stringvoices (right) there is a problem.

Roel

[This message has been edited by Roel (edited 08-26-2003).]

From the answer, that Ketron returned to Roel, I got the feeling, that they are not quite aware of the problem.
I suggest, that we gather a few exact examples-styles that make us trouble, than we send them to Ketron to help them identify the problem.
My example:
Style Partybeat1+ Zivago and 2nd voice (Strings1) for right hand
- in Rel 4.0a eating Bass and even drums (especially after FILL)
- in Rel 4.0b eating right voices, sometimes Bass too (especially after FILL)

Yes this is a good plan !
I'm trying to explain this problem on a German forum too, but for some unknown reason the 'specialists' do not get the point

Advices given :
Turn off the chorus
Turn off the layered sounds
Do not play with more than one finger (right)
Turn off the retrigger-functions.

Yes we can disable a lot, but nobody wants to completely reconfigure the SD1 or change the way we play.... do we ?

The more examples we get ... the better !
Please budies donate them here and I'll contact mr. Sandro ;-)

Roel

Dear mr. Sandro,

Yesterday my SD1 was fixed concerning the Display : The switch/display board was replaced completely.
This is good customer service ! Thank you.

But :
The polyphony/cutoff problem howerver gets more serious worldwide and I'm thinking to go back to 3.0c....... like many users did already.

Please visit our forum
http://www.synthzone.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Ketron+Forum&number=22

where you find many complains/examples.

On the German forum http://www.mira-multimedia.de/KetronHotline/index.htm

you'll find some more.

Advices given to eleminate the cut-offs do not help much and it's a hell of a job to edit. (nobody wants this)

We all get the impression that the changes in the OS asks too much CPU load for sound-improvement and 'increasing polyphony' so that sometimes the SD1 is not even ready to produce a sound ;-))

If you would ask me what to do :
Skip all the fancy features from OS to save CPU-load.
(e.g. Who of the users will ever mess around with chord or bass retrigger switches ? ( 2 % ?) )
Create an OS that has 'playing' without cutoffs and latency as the most important task (core business)

Please can you put as many effort as you can in solving this important (last) problem ?

kind regards

Roel de Jonge

PS This letter is posted on both the synthzone- and German forum.