Just got an SD1

Hi,
yesterday my SD1 arrived from Belgium. I am twice happy: I have another cool keyboard and I bought it from a friend: Dirk Baert. This was my first "big" purchase by e- mail, but the price offered by Dirk's shop was simply too good to resist. As soon as I start to understand more of this keyboard I will record something for you (maybe this very afternoon, who knows... )
Cheers,
Andrea

Dreamer: Congratulations on your new SD1. WOW, what a SURPRISE, especially cuz I remembered that the reviews you initially gave it (from your auditioning experiences at your local music store in Rome) were not good due to noisy DSP on the organ & guitar sounds. I'm anxious to find out now if these problems have somehow been resolved in an OS update. As you know, I'm still considering the SD1 or possibly (more likely) the smaller sized 61 note XD9, so your respected feedback will be much appreciated. Unfortunately (as far as I know), there still are no Solton dealers in the San Francisco Bay area who have either the SD1 or XD9 available to checkout. Does anybody know differently?

DAN O'Neil !!!!! .... any luck working with your buddy Justin Warren (now Guitar Center SF Bay Area Pro Audio Mgr?) in getting Solton keyboards into one of the SF Bay area stores (in particular, the El Cerrito, CA. Guitar Center store)?

Scott

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http://scottyee.com

Hi Andrea and Scott,

I'm suprised too ! You absolutely did the right thing Andrea and you will love the SD1 for sure.
The noisy DSP is still there and the drawbars sound 'not OK' compared to the Native Instruments B4 (The best ever since the real tonewheels )

The latest upgrade to OS3 solved some problems (e.g. style delays) and the SY roothless chord recognition is implemented AND can be set to ON or OFF (great feature)

I expect Ketron will implement some of the user-wishes in future releases.

My SD1 performs fantastic and never let me down.

Roel

Congrats Andrea !

You got yourself a great keyboard, and I'm
sure you will learn to love it.
Great styles and just wonderful to play on.
You'll never know, maybe I have some goodies
who will load into your new baby........
Happy playing - have fun
GJ

Hi Andrea,
In light of your previous complaint that the SD1's DSP was unacceptably noisy, can I assume that you will be runnng your SD1's organ & guitar sounds thru your new external reverb EFX processor instead of thru the SD1's 'internal' DSP? That being the case, would you recommend the SD1's organ & guitar sounds when the SD1 is used as a 'stand alone' KB? Looking forward to hearing an SD1 produced song (with organ & guitar sounds) produced by you. It would be a really interesting comparison to hear a version made both 'with' and 'without' your new 'TC Electronic M One XL reverb EFX processor'. Thanks. - Scott

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http://scottyee.com

I haven't heard the organ and the "dirty" DSPs, but have you listened to a real Hammond B3 and Leslie lately? Talk about dirty. That was half the sound!
DonM

Hello Andrea,
I wish you many great hours pleasure on your new sd 1.
I want you to thank for buying your sd1 in the shop where i work.
I'ts make me happy to see the shipment has going well to Italy. If you have questions you can always count on me !!!!!!
Greetings from a friend in Belgium,
Dirk. http://www.mp3.com/dirkbaert
You can always email me on work.
dirk.baert@keymusic.be

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Hello guys,

I think I'm the only one that agrees with Andrea saying the DSP's are noisy ? D:
The Chorus in particular causes 'clicks' while playing the Epiano's
In my home studio the nearfield monitors are RIGHT in front of my ears and this is the ideal position to hear EVERY abnormality.... as long as your (my) ears are good...

On stage however the noise is not detectable.
The audiance ? ..... they don't even hear a huge hum or radio interference of an old Hammond B3 !

B3's can sound agressive or dirty but this is a distortion of tubes.... totally different from 'digital' distortion.

JJH : are you dutch ?

Dirk : I still enjoy the SD1 very much.
'Our' benelux distributor recently did a 'demo-tour' at my dealers shop : A total disaster !
The performing belgium artist (you know him very well) was more than once surprised by the SD1's reactions. He was not capable to switch off the harmonizer and I advised him to insert the mic directly in the mixing console

I think we all agree YOU are the best musician in our Benelux area to do demonstrations. Ketron will pay you a lot for this. This will cause a rush on SD1's !!

Roel

Now we can really hear some Beatles done well. I've been thinking of the Sd-1 myself. Please give it a good try and let us know how you like it.

Well, dear friends, my first day with the SD1 is almost over and here are the results: I have recorded a new song (for Chico) and have laid down the rhytm track (drums, bass and other instruments) for three more that I hope to complete within the week. All this work was possible because this instrument has a ton of terrific styles, really inspiring (the kind that make you play a song almost immediately, without even realizing what you are doing).
I am still accustomed to the sound quality of Roland and so, at least for the moment, I am using my VA7 to record the solo tracks, but just until I really dig into the SD1. For the moment my only problem is to blend the sonic quality of the two keyboards well. If you listen to my "Samba de Orfeu" you can hear the sonic difference towards the end, when the VA7 horns stop playing and the SD1 takes in to play the ending.
It will take me some time to squeeze the juice out of this baby. For now I can say that the much feared noise is not audible; maybe it was something that affected just the first series (the SD1 is one year old now). I have even upgraded to OS 3.01b (found on the Ketron site of Italy).
SD1007: my exact words, 11 months ago, were "Why I didn't buy the SD1" (and I mentioned the noise), but since the noise is now apparently gone (and I always use earphones to record my songs)....
Scott, I don't think that it's necessary to use an external DSP with the SD1; anyway, in the next days I will record more songs and they will speak for themselves about the SD1....
See you later!
Andrea

Team,
Just wanted to let you know ... we have started working on a new software that will 'correct' some of the 'noise' within the Electric Piano voices for the SD1. Sounds are being tested and I will let you know of any updates.
Thanks for your patience,
AJ

Tom, after two days with the SD1 I think I can start to make a few statements. The first one is that this thing has some really great styles. I won't tell you anything to spoil the surprise, but I have already at least five songs ready in my mind to be arranged and recorded. Last week, after I had recorded "Michelle", an anonymous friend, thinking that I had an X1, wrote me to suggest that I could use the Fox Ballad 1 or 2 as styles for that song. Now, with the SD1, I have tried them and indeed they would work great. Maybe in the future I will record again Michelle with the same arrangement and instruments, but this time on the SD1, to let you all hear and compare the sounds. What I can tell right now is that both the VA7 and the SD1 have great acoustic pianos; the SD1 piano has more edge (is more brilliant) and, besides, even if I am not by no means a piano player, I think that, to play a good piano, one needs a weighed or semi-weighed keyboard (like the SD1). The electric pianos are a bit disappointing, though, and so are the electric guitars; you know that I am a big Santana fan, but even if the SD1 has a preset called "Carlos", it's nothing more than an electric guitar with distortion applied (nothing to do with the Overdrive guitars of the VA7). The acoustic guitars, on the other hand, are very good, and I hope that I will at last be able to play some nice acoustic guitar solos. Another plus of the SD1 are the Hammond organs and I have seen that on the hard disk there are quite a few, really good.
That's all I can say for now, but I have to add that many sounds or programs can be tweaked in a many ways and besides, if you consider that if you don't like a sound you can always sample another one (and I have tons of samples from my Akai and Ensoniq samplers...and now I have an 8 Gigabyte hard disk to store them, and effects to process them at will.....)
I just hope that I won't fall back in my old habit to sample and edit sounds instead of playing, which is much more fun!
Best regards,
Andrea