Hi all:
After over a year of no posting on this great forum I am glad that you guys are still there to "bounce off" a little problem related to my X1 I've been dealing with for sometime now.
First let me say that in my humble opinion, after having owned many and varied keyboards in the last 20 years; I have yet to find a Keyboard that has the realism in the sounds and inteface friendliness that the X1 offers; but enough for the compliments. I am, however, very desapointed about the "sloppiness" of the sound when you add harmony to the lead instrumentthe notes just don't sound "tight" enough together(sorprise! The SD1 has the same problem.)
I own a PSR740 as well(that's how I came to this realisation)and there's no comparison; the Yamaha "seamless" transition from one chord to the next is infinitely better. Regardles of the timing when playing the chord with your left hand, the chord is perfectly constructed and at the right time at the lead side. I love The PSR740, it just doesn't interface with the player as well as the X1 in "live" setting. I also love the Yamaha pianos much better. I've tried "twicking" the X1 all possible ways hoping to get rid of the "sloppines" but I've run out options. What do you think AJ?
Am I all alone on this? Does anyone out there have any feedback on this subject? This is driving me "bunkers".
Mario

Mario,
It is true that KETRON, YAMAHA, KORG (& even TECHNICS) plus others each have different ways of 'interpreting/generating' harmony/techichord. Un/fortunately, there exists more than one way to harmonize notes and each company designs their boards to do such in various manners. Personally, of all the above, I like the way the TECHNICHORD/Harmonies are created on TECHNICS keyboards the best; warm, rich, and sounds are generally 'filling' to my ears.
To achieve this same effect on the KETRON products, there are some options you could follow.

Generally, the best warm sounds to have harmonies added to are the STRINGS, PADS etc. In this case, these are the voices with which you would want to add HARMONY to, rather than percussive voices (eg PIANO). The harmonizers (in most keyboards) have various harmony types that are perfect for some voices and not too good for others so you will have to play around and see which suits you.
On the SD1, you also have the option to choose what voice should be harmonized when using more than one voice (PROGRAMS). In this way you could have a layer of voices (PIANO, STRINGS, VIOLIN and PADS) called 'PIANOPAD' and have the harmony/technichord assinged to just the PAD voice. When you play this voice and turn the HARMONY on, you get harmonise (eg TRIO if selected) on just the PAD voice.
Harmony is generally a great feature but sometimes might 'weekend' the ear when over-used.
On your X1, to achieve such, use the 2ndVOICE feature and assign harmony to the 2nd voice. Now change the 2nd voice to some STRING, PAD, WARM etc voice while having your main voice as the hard, percussive voice.
Let me know what you think/if you need further assistance.

AJ

PS: In most of these keyboards, I believe most of the voices with harmonies have arleady been preassigned (with some having the capability to edit these assignments). The pre-assignments choosen by the YAMAHA & TECHNICS engineers in my opinon, seem to have an edge over the others - thank goodness, they are EDITABLE!

AJ:
Thanks for your prompt reply. Yeah, unfortunately the X1 being such a great keyboard lacks the "seamlessness" of Yamaha which excells in this matter. I particularly like the way the piano sounds with harmony no to mention the strings along with every sound I tried. You are right when you say that the X1 tends to sound better on some sounds like the slow strings; however, percusive instruments sound terrible on the X1. Darn it! I would never replace it, were it not for this problem(I am contemplating buyin the PSR9000). My other pet peeve with the X1 is an anoying, very High pitch noise almost imperseptible to the ear but loud enough to be noticed, specially if you find yourself close to the speakers; this, by the way, occurs when the keyboard is idle. A nightmare if you are recording. I took the keyboard to Nyack N.Y. to repair it but they could not do anything about it; it seems to be inheritant with the board. Please let me know what is your impression of the PSR9000 for live work.
Thanks Again and happy Holidays!
Mario

Mario,
I'll be sending you the X1 Vocalizer software that should correct the high frequency pitch you are hearing (when you get close to the board). This occures when your MICRO is set to active and VOCALIZER is ON, right? (As a test, turn these off and let me know if you still encounter the high pitch - if yes, then I'll have to look for a solution elsewhere; if no, my software should fix it once installed ... hope I can still find it!)

Thanks,

AJ

AJ:
I will perform the test and report ASAP.
Thanks,
Mario