Ketron SD7 ...my experience.

I felt I should pass on my experience after purchasing an SD7.

First an foremost let me say that sound wise and interface wise
the keyboard is really really good.
The style modelling function is easy to use and you can make a style to your own liking to suit a particular song very easily.
The sliders and controls are well placed and the screen icons very cool.

Now the bad news: I sent it back and got a refund!

I am a gigging musician and my number one priority is reliability and
up to now have been using Tyros 4 (very reliable) but never been totally happy with the drums (also the interface is a bit outdated)

I had the SD7 just under two weeks and in that time it locked up on me at least four times.
On another occasion after making an edit and restarting... the sound went off completely and I could not get it back on.

I also found other bugs in the operating system but one of my main gripes was not a fault .... just an omission.
The four one touch voices cannot remember volume or octave settings when you save a registration....for me this was an important feature.

Plus any of you who are looking at the demo's of the multi tracking where you can take out any part of a song (guitar/vocal etc) this is only possible if you purchase special multi track wav files.
I think Ketron need to make this clear to any prospective buyers as everyone who I have spoken to thought you could do this with "any" wav file.

Finally the manual is built into the keyboard and on a usb stick that directs you to a web page on the internet.
It is not in my opinion nearly comprehensive enough to help the end user and has not been translated very well.

Let me say I am not trying to put Ketron down in any way ...I think they are the most live sounding keyboards available... but I think they still need to do a bit of work to get the SD7 right.

Also Ketron UK were very helpful and are currently working with Ketron Italy to sort out these problems.

All in all when the SD7 has ironed out the problems it will be superb.


Cheers

John.

John thank you for your honest SD7 review...finally we get some real feed back and some of the things you mentioned were on top of my concerned list for the SD7,....the "lock-ups" in live performance alone is unacceptable,...I remember this happening on my Ketron X1, SD1 & Midjay sometimes while I was on stage which was very embarrassing waiting to reboot,......good thing I had my Laptop to compensate for the problem and keep the music going with people on the dance floor.There is much more to a keyboard then great sound. I will get some first hand experience when I play the SD7 on June 28th at the Ketron workshop in DE.As far as the isolation & separation of tracks with WAV files I'm not surprised.
Real feedback like this is critical to potential buyers. I hope more people chime in with their experiences with the SD7 asap also.

I think these are the same bugs the MidjPro has. As far as I know its freezing issue still hasn't been solved yet.

From what I've read, recent OS updates to the Midjay Pro have identified and fixed the freezing problem.
I suppose with any brand new product there will be some bugs initially. The important thing is that they are identified and addressed as quickly as possible, if and when they arise.
From what I've read most of the problems with the MJ Pro were not in using the arranger, but when playing and mixing two CDG or MP3 files, going from one to the other.
I don't think anyone really expected that the SD7 could separate sections of just any commercial recorded song, but Ketron should have made this clear in their demos.
There is always some price to pay when getting a really early version of an arranger. I remember buying the FIRST Korg PA800 to reach the U.S. It was absolutely terrible. Sounded as if a blanket were thrown over it, dull and lifeless. I tried to use it for a month, then sold it. Shortly thereafter, Korg issued an OS update that totally corrected the sound problem! Too late for me though.
I should receive my SD7 around Wednesday of next week. Looking forward to seeing what we have on our hands!
Thanks for the review!

John,
Thanks for the update. I hope AJ is on top of this and there are fixes in the mix. I too, gig out and locking up on the gig would not work for me either. We will see.

Just a thought. I had a SD2 Unit that worked perfectly until I installed a Ketron recommended OS update. From that time on it was a total loss. AJ finally got it replace for me. Just wondering if you installed any updates or if any are even available yet?

Deane

Hi Deane
No updates done on the SD7 at all....
Faults were on the original operating system.
Cheers.
John.

Here's excerpt from email from A.J.:

I have updated all U.S. SD7s with the latest software (you should not experience any freezing .. etc).

Another software release is on the way for some additional features and bug fixes.

. . . (still working on proper manual and videos).....

Great news from Prince AJ he's on the ball........
can't wait to get my hands on a SD7 June 28th at the
Ketron Workshop!!

on the mjpro, i've experienced a some lockups due to a specific style. after changing the style, lockup is gone. however, the voicetron setups are not consistently remembered in the registrations including the mic volume setting. i hope the next os will eliminate this issue.

This frustrates the hell out of me . I am not in the market for a Ketron keyboard but if I were I could never buy one . How can a manufacturer put out a product that fails to do what it is designed to do ? It's the worst kind of advert and if sales are poor it will be chalked up to the result of the shrinking arranger keyboard market when the fact is the manufacturer scuppered their own product by releasing it before it was properly tested . What an awful way to launch a product .

It seems that keyboard manufacturers hurry product to market and let the customers find the problems. Always problems with most
keyboards when first out and then the updates come. Lloyd

Thank you John, for sharing your very helpful experience. It was greatly appreciated by me.

I no longer reside near a major brick and mortar music store that has an authorized repair service department that I could just drive to if I should have a problem with any future Ketron purchases.

I currently own an SD5 and I don't want to mess with the latter models for the same concerns as some of the other professionals in this Forum in regards to "locking up" issues.

I would be willing to experiment more with the newer models if I didn't have to deal with the hassle of paying out of pocket to ship the keyboard off to some remote repair center that I have no personal contact with, and have to pay out of pocket for the shipping costs, not to mention the chance of the keyboard being vulnerable to further damage by UPS or FedEx etc.

Ron, in Florida