Ketron Vega Review

The Familiar and the Unfamiliar
The first thing I noticed coming out of the box is that the Vega is strikingly like the XD9 and yet the more I looked after I got it on the stand is that it sure is different than the XD9. The temptation is to tell you the differences, but if you don't have an XD9 that won't make a lot of sense. So I will try to resist. However, if you have not read my review of the XD9 it will help to do that first.
Ketron says that this machine is built on the XD9 and has all the same features. Truth is, it has MOST of the same features. For instance: The pitch bend and Mod wheel have been combined into a joystick. Using the mod wheel feature on the joy stick is ok, but you can't leave it set in position because it is spring loaded to return when you let go and there seems to be no graduation from off to on. That's not much of an issue since most of us rarely use it by leaving it in the on position anyway.
The first thing I noticed was Oriental scales just above the keys at the left end of the keyboard. I have spent my life learning to "get in tune" so mostly I don't enjoy this type of tuning. Perhaps I need someone to show me the correct way to use these. Until then, mostly this will remain inactive.
The second thing I noticed was that the styles start in the Oriental mode. In this mode, you navigate the styles by bank and number instead of group and function key. It didn't take long, however, to find that you can change back to the way the XD9 functions by changing the settings under "Left Control" to Occidental. Then the Oriental styles are in the "Country" bank. There are 217 very high quality styles on the Vega. 172 XD9 styles and 45 Oriental styles.
I spent several hours going over the Oriental styles and I have to say that there are some charming styles. They are really high quality and when I transferred some styles to my XD9 guess what! They sounded NOTHING like the style did on the Vega. This is largely owing to the Oriental percussion on the Vega and that, my friends, is why I may be keeping this Vega. I now understand why this is truly superior to the Oriental kit on the X1.
I remember the high demand for the few Oriental styles that were available for the MS series and those sounded like bird droppings compared to the new stuff.
These Oriental samples are fantastic. And there is nothing that keeps you from using these samples and styles in other ways. I tried Girl From Ipanema using a traditional Pan Flute and one of the Oriental styles and it was a great fit. This opens up lots of new possibilities.
The thing is, you gotta have a Vega to get these styles to sound right.
Now a word about the Jump Button. It is back on the Vega where it was missing on the XD9, but it doesn't work like any Jump button on any of the other Ketron keyboards. I fooled around with it for a while and decided that Ketron was again on to something. If you are on Arrangement A and play Fill 1 nothing happens. However, if you are on Arrangement A and play Fill 2 you will go to Arrangement B. If you had played Fill 3 you would have gone to Arrangement C or Fill 4 and Arrangement D. This way you can use your to go to whichever Arrangement you wish instead of moving up or down only one Arrangement as on the other keyboards. I could easily get used to that.
You must realize that the Vega and the XD9 have newly designed operating systems that do some pretty remarkable things. First in my mind is their ability to play all the popular Ketron styles whether they were originally done for the MS series or X or even SD1. However, the reverse is not true. Those styles written especially for the Vega will probably be acceptable only on a Vega. The Live Drum Technology insures that everyone else will be taking a back seat. Again.
Like the XD9 there is a Drum Remix in the Song Play mode. If you activate it you can take out the midi drums on yours SMF (Standard Midi File) and replace them with the fills from your styles. You can also control the fills, etc. A great chance to make a good song sound crappy, but also a chance to experiment with replacing some Latin drums with some Oriental sounds to give you a entirely new wonderful rhythm.
I was slightly disappointed that Ketron had not redone the Program section of sounds to reflect some of the Oriental sounds, but the Program sounds are the same as the XD9. I guess I shouldn't complain since the Program sounds in the XD9 really are special.
The Vega has Play Control and Left Control buttons like the XD9, but located in different places and with slightly enhanced functions on the Vega.

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