K.N.A.T

Issue No. 51

Hello everyone and welcome to issue number 51 of Ketron News and Tips (KNAT).
This issue is targeted for the second quarter of 2006.
If you have a question to ask or a tip to submit, please let me know at jay@ketronus.com. Also I love your comments so don't hesitate to let me have them.
There is a special coupon number in this issue. It is worth $150.00 off the price of any XD3HD, XD9HD, VegaHD or SD1+. I will not honor anything that does not have a Hard Drive. This also does not apply to the Midjay. The coupon is valid for 6 weeks, ending June 30, 2006. It is only available to KNAT members.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

In this Issue:

SPECIAL!!: IN THIS ISSUE IS BURIED A COUPON NUMBER WHICH WILL SAVE YOU $150.00 OFF THE PURCHASE OF ANY XD3, XD9 OR VEGA WITH HARD DRIVE. SAVE THE SAME ON ANY SD1+.
News: SD5 has not been released!
News: SD2 has not been released!
Tip: Building Styles -- First Part
Ad: Style Factory is here and hot!
News: Ketron U.S. has moved
Ad: Ketron US now selling M-Audio products as accessories.
Quotes: Just for fun

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

The long awaited new keyboard is out. SD5

I reported last month that the SD5 was being released. It is now targeted for mid-summer. I am hopeful that it won't be longer since I have everything on order. I am beginning to be excited. There seem to be many unexplained features. I love when that happens because the adventure of discovery is always exciting. However, it will be a little like wondering in a forest with no map or compass. These is still no manual available for download at the moment and I expect it will be a full year before a proper manual is out if Ketron keeps to their normal release pattern. I love the shape which is like the old MS60. My best guess right now is that the styles are customizable based on your playing style. I hope that is correct since it would give each individual performer an opportunity to sound different than other performers. This has long been one of the strongest points of Ketron instruments and in this regard, they seem to lead the industry.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

A New module is available -- the SD2!

For many years I have been forced to answer in the negative to those people who did not want a full module, but rather a module with those Great Ketron Sounds. Now the SD2 comes along to answer those prayers. A pocket-sized module that you can drive with a MIDI keyboard, a sequencer, or a computer. It looks to have the same specs as the SD5 keyboard as to sounds, drums, etc.
It will not play styles in itself. It will not play MIDI files without something driving it. I don't know yet what the price is, but I have one on order. This little guy looks like the answer to some prayers.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Ketron U.S. has moved!!

I would like to thank everyone who has helped force me to a larger facility. It is only success that could have caused this! THANK YOU!!
The Thank You coupon number is: KUS60022150. It will be valid until June 30, 2006.
It will likely be months before things fully settle down, but once settled, my office will feature some very cool things including variable flush mounting for testing various speakers. The showroom feature will have a lot more space for instant A/B comparisons.

The address is:
Ketron U.S.
9709 Westbury Cir.
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129

The phone number 303-347-1495 has remained the same.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Ketron US is now sell M-Audio products!

We have taken on an exciting line of products that will complement the Ketron products just like peanuts compliment a Snickers bar. You can see some of the products at the Accessories Page.
You can also read the reviews that I have had time to do. The speakers are frankly a class above most other products. I am blown away by some of these offerings. I am listening to the BX5a set as I write this and during this writing session I have heard Andres Segovia, Chet Atkins, Ray Price, Frank Sinatra, The Lovin' Spoonful, "Gatemouth" Brown, UB40 and Basia. A pretty wide range of styles and genres and every one sounds accurate. These speakers are frankly good enough to mix on. I was trying out the StudioPro 3 and sold my first set within 30 minutes of hooking them up. These are not PA speakers, but designed for use with your computer studio or as near field monitors. I have heard a lot of "computer speakers" and most strive for anything but accuracy
I am also taking on the line of Keyboard Controllers including the Axiom and Oxygen models. These should be the ideal keyboard for using with any Ketron module as well as your computer sequencer. The prices are very reasonable and it is surprising to know that M-Audio has about 80% of that market. There is surely a reason!
In addition to that, I am ordering in the "Black Box" effects box for guitar players. I will surely let you guitar folks know what I think.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Building Styles

I have started a tutorial for building styles in Ketron products. I will be trying to cover most of the products from the X series forward. Of course, this will mostly not apply to the Midjay since style building is not possible in it.

The following is part one which mainly covers terminology and a brief description of MIDI.

If there are any parts unclear please email me -- Jay@ketronus.com -- and I will do everything I can to create good explanations.

A LOT ABOUT STYLES FOR KETRON
CHAPTER 1

First let's see what a Style is. A style may also be called a Pattern or a Rhythm.
A Style is composed of a set of short looping MIDI files that react to special commands. There is a different MIDI file for each part. A part may be an intro or ending or fill or one of the regular beat phrases Styles are all written in the Key of C for ease of use. Some styles have a separate part for different chord types. For example: Arrangement A in a Ketron style may have one bass phrase for a Major chord, a different phrase for a Minor and yet a different bass line for a 7th. These are very complex styles to create so it will be a long time before we get to that.

Now I may have already used some terms that you are not familiar with or don’t fully understand. MIDI is an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. That is a mouthful so for years it has been referred to as MIDI. All it amount to is a computer-like digital way for musical instruments to communicate with one another. Basically MIDI is just a set of commands that are fairly simple and anyone can learn them. There are several kinds of digital information that can be sent from one device to another. A MIDI keyboard is a device and a computer with the right kind of software can be another device. A module may be one type of device and a keyboard controller or set of foot pedals another device. Most of today’s electronic instruments are equipped with MIDI ability.
Various kinds of information can be sent through MIDI. For instance Note information is sent. Each time note information is sent, the information contains several smaller pieces of information that make up the whole. In the case of a note, the information sent tells the receiving instrument 1) which note 2) how hard it is played (velocity) 3) how long it is played for 4) what channel it is played on etc. Each piece of information like a note is called a MIDI event. Then the events are responded to by the receiving device. If you are recording your MIDI the event is placed into a time track that then remembers when that event is to occur.
I am not trying to explain MIDI in depth because there are already a number of good books on the subject, but I felt you should know something about it since you will be using MIDI whether you understand it or not. Your entire process will be easier if you have the general concept.

Since I sell Ketron products I will be addressing the many ways to create styles using Ketron instruments.
On Ketron products, those styles that are factory programmed onto your machine are called Styles whereas the styles that can be built by the user or others that are not part of the factory programming may be played in the User Pattern section of the unit and these are called Patterns even though they are identical in every way to what Ketron calls Styles. This terminology is very confusing. I will try to keep it separate by referring to all these as styles. If it is preprogrammed and installed as one of your default Styles I will try to remember to call it a Factory Style and if it is something built, copied or edited by you or another person, I will call it a User Style. However, beware because some of the sections of the keyboards/modules are called things like Pattern Edit or Edit Pattern and in those cases I have been forced to stay with the factory’s terminology.

Styles are built in sections. There will be four variations for the main rhythm of a song and usually three Intros and three endings. There will also be four fills. The Ketron SD1 has one additional ending.  In Ketron’s terminology the four variations are called Arrangements and it will be most convenient to stay with that term. Inside each Arrangement are the different musical instruments such as Bass, Drums, Chord 1, Chord 2, etc. Each one of these may contain a musical passage and we will call these Phrases. In some manuals Ketron refers to these as Traces.

I am going to use the XD series mainly for this tutorial. You will find that nearly all of the Ketron instruments from the X series forward are very similar in nature.
To build a style you need to be in the Pattern Edit mode. On most Ketron instruments there is a Pattern Edit button. On the XD series you will need to press the Left Control button and then go to the second page on that menu. Then press F1 to get to the Pattern Edit screen.

On other instruments that have the Pattern Edit button press the button and that screen comes up right away.

The Pattern Edit screen looks like this.

Figure 1

BUILDING A STYLE FROM SCRATCH

Now that you are in the Pattern Edit mode, check to make sure you have an empty slot and if not, keep changing the style until the name says "Empty". On the XD you use the Style/Number buttons to find an empty slot.

Press the button that puts your keyboard/module in the Record mode. In most cases that will be F1.
You have a large number of choices here.

Figure 2

F1 Tells you what part of the style your are going to record. The machine will usually default to Arrangement A. Be sure you set it for the part you want. It would be a shame to record your Arr. C over a just completed Arr. B. It does happen, but it won't happen so often if you exercise a bit of care.
Now notice that now F1 determines the Arrangement, Fill, Intro or Ending you are going to be working on.
I suggest that you start with Arrangement A.
Notice that the screen will say "Bar 4", telling you that this is a 4 bar phrase. You will also see a quarter note=120 which tells you the tempo. You are going to be in 4/4 time and the quantize value is 16. If you want to change most of this we need to back out of this screen and go to "Parameter" instead of record, but for now let's stay with the defaults.

F2 is Solo.
This allows you to just listen to one part with the metronome.  It is a handy resource if you know you have a mistake, but you are not sure what phrase it is in.

F3 is Tonality
This is what makes a complete style. You can record different parts for each Arrangement, depending on the type of chord played. You can set it to be the same for all parts if you have the M.m.7th setting. That means the Arrangement will play the same no matter what chord you are playing. On a lot of styles this is just fine. Styles such as the one we are going to build to start with.
But you have a lot of choices and you can program a style to play a completely different phrase when you are using a minor chord and yet a different musical phrase on a 7th chord as compared to the normal Major chord.
Your choices are M.m.7th, Maj, min, Maj.min, 7th, Maj.7th, min.7th
Where your choice is Maj.7th that is telling you that the phrase will play the same whether the chord played is a Major or 7th based chord. Not that you get a different phrase for a Major7th chord.
Generally speaking, the chord phrases will change to match the chord type, but the bass and drums will not. It is also useful to use a different phrase if you are using an arpeggiated style or a walking bass.

F4 is Metronome. Pressing F4 simply toggles the metronome on and off.

F5 is Save
Use this button often when programming.

F6 is Val Quantize
This is a very useful setting unless you are a virtuoso keyboardist.
You can set for "real" which offers no correction.
2 = half note quantizing
4 = quarter note quantizing
4T = quarter note triplet quantizing
8 = eighth note quantizing
8T = eighth note triplet quantizing
16 = sixteenth note quantizing
16T = sixteenth note triplet quantizing
32 = thirty-second note quantizing
32T = thirty-second note triplet quantizing
64T = sixty-fourth note triplet quantizing

F7 will do a quantize after a track is recorded

F8 is your Record/Play button. It defaults to Play and you must press it to go to the Record mode.

F9 gives you a new screen which allows you to change the velocity of a particular track or just a particular note in a track. When you change a particular note, for instance C2, then all the C2 notes will be changed. To use it you press F9 and on the following screen you set the note or Global and then set the value using F3 and the value keys. You can set for increasing or decreasing the velocity of a section and then you use F10 to execute the command or F5 to escape if you change your mind.

F10 is Clear
While holding this down you can clear a phrase if you are not happy with it. This gives you a chance to re-records a phrase until you are satisfied. Normally if you don't clear your earlier phrase you will simply record on top of what you did before. This can be a really useful feature sometimes, like when you are laying a drum track. You can put in your HiHat and then come back and put in the bass drum and back again for the snare, etc. Conveniently, you can clear just the snare drum by note if you make a mistake on that and are happy with the other parts.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Style Factory is here and it is HOT!!

Style Factory, the new fantastic software from EMC, the makers of Style Works 2000, has arrived.
I had the opportunity to play with a beta version at the NAMM show in January and was very excited at the possibilities. Now that I have it installed on my machine, I realize that it is far more powerful than I had first imagined.
It will allow you to assemble musical phrases by a simple drag and drop method to create styles that are completely your own. You will also be able to import phrases from other styles and thus build your own phrase library that will be unlike anyone else's. Also under development is a module that will allow importing from software such as Band-In-A-Box.
The price is quite reasonable, much less than Style Works.
You can make styles for Ketron keyboards and modules from the SD1+ and Midjay all the way back to the MS40/50. Very cool!
I expect to have a ball making new styles.

You can now get the Ketron and Universal version on this web site at: Style Factory

Or you can go to my other web site to order:
You can also check out the great prices on Band-In-A-Box and Power Tracks Pro Audio.
Other versions of Style Factory and Style Works 2000 are available here

http://www.keyboardstyles.com

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Here is the thing that MANY customers have asked for before buying

For years I have struggled to describe the differences between different Ketron products. It is never enough to say, "Well the bass seems a little fuller than on the previous model." And I am constantly asked by prospective buyers, "How does the Midjay sound compared to the XD3?" Or a similar question like, "Which one sounds better?"
The only sure way to find out is to line up all the instruments and put them into one sound system with identical settings and hear them side by side. Since there is not always a dealer near you and the internet has changed the way business is done, that solution is not usually practical anymore.

Well I have tried to answer the question by demonstration and do it honestly. I found 9 very high quality MIDI files, the source of which was the XD3 and Midjay and some from the original Blue Fish Music programmed by Doru Caplescu, a brilliant MIDI sequencer.
Then I took all 9 full files and recorded them into 4 different Ketron products. The products were the Midjay, SD1, XD3 and X4.
Those recordings are now to be found on my site at: http://www.ketronus.com/downloads.html
I placed these on the page above the Midjay Demo and below the SD1 Demo.
These are large downloads because they are full length good quality MP3 files.
Now you can listen for yourself to see which instrument sounds the best to you.

A word about how it was done:
I created these files by playing the MIDI songs from the same floppy disk in each instrument. In other words, no tweaking for a particular instrument was done.
All instruments were set to 0 for internal eq purposes.
All reverb settings were at Global 8.
The instruments were all recorded into a Layla 3G and on to my computer in Adobe Audition. (Adobe Audition is the upgrade to Cool Edit Pro which was sold to Adobe.)
There was absolutely no tweaking of sound on any instrument.
All volume levels were "normalized" at 98% to give the listener the most totally accurate representation possible. It is possible to make any instrument to sound a little better by making it a little louder than the others. This was not done.

With all this care and effort you would imagine that you will now be able to hear the exact differences between instruments. Not so!
First it is not possible to have included all the instruments and variations on the units.
Second there is no individual instrument comparison as single voices.
This is just the best I could do at this time with the limitations of the internet.
I hope you enjoy the downloads and I hope you have broadband internet cause otherwise it may take a while. I do have high speed and it takes me about 24 seconds to download "Feelings" which is the largest file.
A tip for people with slower internet is to save the file to a folder on your desktop and open it from there. That will make it much easier to listen to. I use Windows Media Player as a playing source on my computer.

I hope you will all enjoy and find useful this latest effort!
Check it out here!

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Stands for the Modules
I have found a source of heavy duty stands that are perfect for the MS40, X4 and XD3 modules. The stands have a very heavy 4 leg base with a center pole. The rack tilts into 3 different positions. The top has rubber to keep from scratching the instruments. The stand is too large for the Midjay, but is perfect for all others. I will be retailing it for $69.95 plus shipping. The shipping weight will be approximately 18 LBS. The stand weighs 13 and folds into a fairly compact unit. This stand is identical to the ones that used to be available at over $100.00 retail. You can see and buy it on the accessories page: http://www.ketronus.com/accessories.html

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Upgrades available:
There are upgrades available for most Ketron products at:
http://www.ketron.it/software/index.asp

Some upgrades are available at:
http://www.ketronus.com/downloads.html
Here you can find the Win98 USB driver, the DJ loop compiler, the XPC drivers for Win98 and both versions of the Ketron FT utility. You can also find the upgrades for the currently supported instruments.

Most of these are also available at Ketron U.S.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Visit me at www.ketronus.com. Or email me at jay@ketronus.com

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^

Quotes: Just for fun

"Why isn't there a special name for the tops of your feet?" - Lily Tomlin

"Adversity is the first path to truth." - George Gordon Byron, Don Juan

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes." - Henry Kaiser

"All men have an instinct for conflict: at least, all healthy men." - Hilaire Belloc,

||Home | Tips & More | Demos | Downloads | Reviews | Returns | Links | Contact ||

© Copyright 2002 by Ketron U.S