Can anybody tell me how many styles are included on the XD3 with the built-in hard drive. I thought $400 for the option was very high until somebody said they thought that it included hundreds more styles. If that is the case it might be worth the price. Thank you.

[This message has been edited by The Accordionist (edited 01-26-2003).]

The Accordionist,

There are 4 folders within the HD of the XD-series with the following contents preprogrammed:

* Folder (2): 200 Songs/SMFs
* Folder (3): Over 50 X1 styles
* Folder (4): Over 50 MS styles
* Folder (5): 128 Song Registrations/Music Database.

Thanks,

AJ

Thank you AJ.

Can you please tell me what Songs/SMF are? Are they complete popular (or maybe standard is a better term) songs that you can play lead to?

And I assume registrations means "voices"?

Thanks again for the responses.

The songs in the HD are your standard/popular songs (plus some Italian songs too).
The Song Registrations are settings (voice, styles, levels, reverb etc) used to play particular songs.

Thanks,

AJ

Accordianist - The advantage of the HD is not really the additional Styles. You can get many hundreds of MS styles easily from other user groups. In addition, although not publicised, the XD plays (most) SD1 styles without conversion - out of the 307 original ones around 20 wont play. These are all great styles although a few are replicated on the XD.

The advantage of the HD is SPEED - if you want to load lots of different dets of user styles or reqistrations or OTS or SMFs (Standard Midi Files) then this is much much quicker than from floppy.

I make do without a hard disk. I can load around 35 additional styles before running out of memory and that is enough for me to gig out with. When I'm playing at home then it doesn't matter if it takes a little longer to load stuff. I may get extra memory in future which is a cheaper option but at the moment I don't need it.

Hope this is useful for you - whatever you do though get an XD or SD1 if you can afford it.

KF

Hope this helps

KFingers -

Thanks for the reply! I think you may have helped me immeasurably.

So I can just download styles from the web and then put them via floppy into the XD3? And this is all saved in RAM? You mentioned that you could get around 35 styles before running out of memory. Does this mean in addition to the ones already on the XD3? So basically I could have all of the styles inherent in the XD3 and then add around 35 more that I find on the web, or that I design, and then just gig with that? If so, that's all I need.

Also, what is your opinion of the sounds on the XD series? I have heard mp3s on the Ketron website that are unbelievable, and have heard user mp3s that are terrible - the guitars sound like keys. I'm trying to figure out what it would sound like live in front of an amp. Do you know where I can hear demos of any XD styles that I could download?

Since I'm an accordionist, who can't and doesn't sing, I think that the XD3 without the hard drive just might do the trick.

Thanks again for the help.

Yes Accordianist - You can load a number of user styles (called patterns to avoid confusion)in addition to the 172 internal XD styles. The amount you can load depends on the complexity and amount of instruments that are used in them. If I load some of my old MS styles I get far more as these only had 3 acc voices instead of the 5 on the XD.

You also have a certain amount of flexibilty with editing the internal styles. Although you can't change the patterns of each of the accompaniaments you can change volumes, instruments, drumsets, effects, speed etc and store these as the new factory preset within the XD. This makes a lot of the styles more useful to me for gigging as some styles can get a little busy which is great fun but could make songs sound similar when the same pattern is used. There is a restore function which will get you back to factory settings at any time

Another good feature is the lock function which enables you to have the same drum and/or bass and/or any of the acc. routines play on all variations. This can give more variety on the internal and user styles than you would otherwise have.

You need to go to places like Yahoo who have several groups you can join such as Solton Ketron and MS40. There are many accordion players here who have and use MS40, X4 or XD3 modules who can also answer other more specific questions (relating to accordions).

With regard to demo's, you can get these off the net - also listen to SD1 demo's - these are very similar. - BUT - You really need to listen to any instrument and play if you can before you buy. Having said that, the XD is really cheap here in Europe and, even if you buy without seeing it in the flesh (as they say), you're not taking as much as a chance than if you buy a Yammie or Technics as you are not paying for a keyboard and speakers you dont need.

The Ketron Modules have a special accordion mode and will allow you to do things simply not possible on other makes - I know two accordion players with these and as far as they are concerned you cannot touch them.

One other point is that some people seem to have an issue with Ketron reliability. I can only tell you that I had an MS40 for nearly 8 years and the XD3 without any problem - but - If it's important and your living or reputation depends on it then you should have some contingency. Of course this applies to all makes of keyboards and other equipment.

Hope this helps - If you put your e:mail into your profile I could send you styles to try when and if you get the Ketron or email me direct.

Regards - KF

Accordionist,
One other point. If you wish to have more than the 35 or so patterns, Ketron sells a a chip you can install easily into your XD3 which then allows you to load 200 patterns into your module. This chip sells for about $100.00.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California