Ketron SD5 Review

I have waited nearly a year for this keyboard and the question is: Was it worth it?
That would get a resounding YES. I only wish I hadn't been teased for a year first.

I saw a post on the internet that in one players' opinion (the player was in Europe, which got the SD5 model 6 months before the U.S.) this was just a cut down 61 note SD1+. I am happy to say that the player missed the point. Missed it by several miles. This is not an old rehashed model. It is very new.
Every few years Ketron, a small and not overfed company in Italy revolutionizes the industry. They have done it time and again starting with the Auto Orchestra and Programmer24 series then the MS40/50/60/100 group. Just as you started to think things couldn't get better, here came the X series, then the SD1+, Midjay and now the SD5 is carrying on the tradition in ways that should have other brands shaking in their chip sockets.
Other companies, really good companies, have lots of great products to offer, but no one catches Ketron for innovation.
A little caveat here: If you are looking for a groove box, a Hip-Hop specialty machine, a New Age outer-space sounds, go somewhere else. Ketron specializes in having the most realistic sounds and styles of anyone and succeeds much better than any other company.
Is Ketron a difficult company to tolerate? You bet! (It is taking 11+ months to get a product after it was introduced)
Is Ketron as rich and fat as other keyboard manufacturer? Absolutely not.
Does this cause occasional problems and issues? Sure does.
Is it worth all the hassles and waiting, etc? IT SURE IS!

Because what we have here is just too great for words.
The Multi-Tabs feature is worth several hundred dollars to a live performer.
There are 16 tabs plus one mode select tab.
So what?
Hit the Select Mode button and you have 6 choices of types of things you can do with the Multi-tabs.
First you have the Drum On/Off.
The first 10 tabs will take out any one of ten different drum groups from the style. This is really handy if you want to have a style be very simple in some places in your song.
Tab 14 turns off everything except the Kick Drum and 15 turns off all except the Hi-Hat. Tab 16 cancels your settings and returns the Drums to normal.

Then you have the GM page. Select that and you can change the instrument, volume, effects and much more on any of the 16 GM MIDI channels. This gives you tremendous control over a MIDI file.

Next you have the FX menu. Pressing that will give you 16 different effects that you can use and rearrange to suit yourself.

Remember the Vega? The SD5 has an Arabic Scale mode and the Multi-Tabs function very much like the 1/4 tone detuner on the Vega.

Then comes one of my favorites, the Assign Tabs. You can assign the same cool functions to the Multi-Tabs as you would to your FS13 footswitch. For example: you can turn your built-in Vocal Harmonizer on and off. You can assign the jump functions. You can do many many more things.

Then for the live performer that uses Registrations comes the most useful thing of all. You can assign registrations to the Multi-Tabs and access 16 different ones with the touch of a single button. You can then change to a different 16 with the simple touch of one of the Style buttons. My, my, my! Talk about speed on stage. Registrations can change your entire keyboard setup at the touch of a button, so moving from one type of thing to another is just a fast as you can hit a couple of buttons.

Possibly even more exciting in terms of creativity is the Midjay Utility.
You can cross connect to your Midjay (OS 4.0 must be installed in the Midjay) and run the Midjay from the SD5 keyboard.
More--you can synch the grooves in the Midjay to the styles in the SD5. This is a totally unique function and you leap with joy at the results. It is unbelievable what happens with the GrooveSync. Choose a groove from the Midjay and load it,then choose a style and play the SD5. The Groove drums synch with the style and not only change with the different Arrangements, but change when you choose a different style while using the same groove. Some of the combinations are absolutely beyond belief. The one thing that you can't seem to do (yet) is to play a style on the Midjay hard drive using this method. Of course, that is not too hard by simply setting up the SD5 as a controller keyboard, but it may be time consuming to switch from one setup to another whilst on stage. For studio work, the creative possibilities are nearly limitless. I had my Midjay playing into a different set of speakers than the SD5 and it sounded like I was in the middle of the best and most elaborate drum/percussion section I have ever heard in my life.
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The styles have been almost totally revamped. These styles are far superior to other styles in my opinion. The "A" arrangements are simpler and less cluttered which means that adding more drums, grooves, loops etc is far easier. The rhythm guitar is so realistic that I can hear the strum direction easily and I noticed that the strum direction is consistent with the way guitar players actually strum. If there is anything that REALLY stands out in the new styles it is the bass lines. These lines are not entered like a keyboardist would normally play, but like a bass player would actually play them. The lines are truly appropriate to the styles as well.
It is easy to customize the styles and save them so you then have the exact balance you like for the instruments. Tweaking them is great fun because there is so many quality parts to work with.

Here is what Leigh Wilbraham from Jazzhooves.com said about the styles: "The backings are big and sonically perfect. No matter which genre you choose, the backing is well orchestrated and unlike some of the big arranger keyboards, there is room for your right hand performance to fit right in."

In some of the styles you have the option of the new "Riff" feature. This exciting feature takes the place of variation #4 and will vamp 2 or more choruses (using the correct chord changes for the style) so that you can solo over the super backing track that is playing. There are currently 26 styles that have the Riff feature. They are:

1) 16BTFUNK
2) FUN80NEW
3) MAMBO5
4) BLUESMID
5) GOSPEL
6) POPORG
7) RBLUE2
8) 8BTFOLK
9) BALLAD6M
10) SLOWFOX
11) DIXIE
12) EASYJAZZ
13) ORGJAZZ
14) JAZBRUSH
15) MUSETTE
16) OBERWALZ
17) OBPOLKA
18) JIVE
19) SALSA6
20) CHA-CHA
21) CUMBIA2
22) MERGUIT2
23) SOKA
24) MERENG1
25) MAZURKA
26) POLKA

Many years ago Ketron came out with a saxophone sound (Night Sax) that was so realistic that people bought Ketron products on the basis of that sound alone. I am thrilled to say that nearly every instrument sound on the SD5 is that good. Of course, the entire industry is producing better and better samples for keyboards, but Ketron has been ahead of the game for many years.

Leigh Wilbraham from Jazzhooves.com said about the sounds: "Breath of fresh air is an understatement when I look and listen at the list of voices in this keyboard. The piano's are crisp and clear, guitars are realistic and the brass section is very good. This keyboard has fantastic saxaphone, organ, synth and pad sounds. The organs are bright and punchy and there is the added bonus of a drawbar section."
Read a review from a new SD5 user at the bottom of this page.

The hard disk structure is more like the X and XD series than like the SD1 series. This is frankly easier to manipulate. Until they decide to use a regular tree structure on the hard drive, as they did in the Midjay, this is better.

There are some new buttons among the familiar old ones. In the familiar category are the extremely useful One Touch, Second Voice, Harmony, Octave, etc. while in the new category are buttons like Double (boy is that one useful!) and a Microphone section that includes the ability to Talk.

Of course, the SD5 has all or most of the great functions that have been the hallmark of Ketron keyboards for the past several years; things like Drum Remix, which lets you take a Standard Midi File and replace the wimpy drum track with one of the exciting drums from the style of your choice in real time. (note: Not all Standard Midi Files have wimpy drum tracks.)
There is the mic input for mixing you voice live with the keyboard.
And there is more--so much so that it will take years to explore it all and use it well.
But to start with, this keyboard is laid out for easy use and people are going to go crazy over it. So those players who initially dismissed it as a "cut-down SD1+" are going to be eating their words for a long, long time.

Review by Ronnie Ross

Hi all. I thought I'd let you know my thoughts on using the new SD5 in a live situation.
I recieved the new keyboard last Friday and I didn't intend to use it until well into the new year. I am a professional entertainer and I don't use a new instrument until I'm 100% sure of my way around it. However, my old X1 started playing up a bit so I fired in all of my usual patterns into the SD5 and went out in front of 250 people on New Years day throwing caution to the wind.
I work 95% with styles with only a very occasional midi being used. I didn't use any midi's last night so I can't comment on that side of this keyboard, but as far as using styles are concerned, this is simply the best keyboard I have ever played.
The new styles are simply stunning. The old ones somehow just sound better, especially the drums. The lead voices are great and when you use the second voice layering option the sound is just so full! The brass sounds are way superior to the X1 and so in general are all the other sounds.
The layout of the keyboard is also much more practical from the live gigging point of view. I put all of the styles I use into registrations so that I know exactly where to find a waltz or a quickstep etc. This way you can change from a Jive to a Twist, say, without stopping and keep the floor full of dancers. The one slightly negative point I found was that in going from one registration to another (while keeping playing) this keyboard is a bit slower at changing.
I tried both the Tyros2 and the Korg Pro and didn't really think either of them was worth changing my X1 for. This keyboard is, in my opinion, far better for a "live" player (as opposed to using mainly files) than any I have come across. It is also the easiest to use straight out of the box, especially if you are already familiar with Solton/Ketron products. Over the years I have had an MS5, MS40, and the X1. They were all great products of their time. This one is the best of them all. I hope this review is of some help to anyone interested in Ketron keyboards.
All the best,
Ronnie Ross.

Posted 2JAN07

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So we all concur. Musicians on both sides of the Atlantic are really, REALLY excited about this new bit of technology. I will be adding to this review as time permits and you can read the full Leigh Wilbraham review at the following link: http://www.jazzhooves.com.