Ketron SD2

OTB, very easy to use. Basically, plug and play! Works great with BAIB, and other sequencers as well - Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, Sibelius...

Excellent sounds and patches - the pianos sound lively, the guitar patches are incredible, and the sax has to be heard to be believed!

All in all I was VERY impressed with this box. One would not expect a small box like this to sound as good as many of the sw libraries on the market today, but it does. And for the price - it can not be beat. $380!!! Unbelievable that something that costs so little sounds so big - and so good.

And one can't go wrong with the amount of sounds and patches - 384 orchestral sounds, including solo instruments, 32 live drum sets, 150 drum loops - where else are you going to find this amount - and this quality - for this price?

The best feature for me is that it is external hardware. No worrying about running out or CPU and RAM - everything is done inside the SD2. And it is nice and small - not too small to use properly, but the perfect size to squeeze into my already crowded "studio".

Again, the sounds are great. Not at all what you would expect from a little box like this that only costs $380. And it responds to all MIDI controller data like a charm. I have a touch-sensitive keyboard that I play from, and the SD2 responds to the touch sensitivity just like it should. All I need to do is make sure I play properly, and the SD2 takes care of the rest.

To me, this is extremely reliable and dependable. The rugged construction (no plastic here!) will allow me to take this to gigs and not have to worry about the case cracking, or the innards getting roughed up if it gets dropped.

I have not had alot of need for customer support - but did have a question about something. I shot them off an email, and they got back to me later the same day. Answered my question very clearly, and the person was very friendly. Seems like their suppost is top notch!

Very easy to use right out of the box as a GM synth, upper banks are also easy enough to access simply by toggling the Bank 0 to 1, 2, etc.

However, there is a built in full Tonewheel Organ and Rotating Speaker simulator, complete with active drawbars that is a not so easy to access situation that requires having a MIDI controller with enough Continous Controller assignable drawbars or knobs plus a few other CCs that are critical to operation that make that feature hidden for all but the compleat Midiot most likely. Ketron does supply templates for using the Tonewheel with Sonar, Cubase and Logic recording softwares as a free download from their website for those wishing to use the box for recording.

I wish they would supply a software utility for that standalone, though. Not a kill AFAIC, just a wish.

I cannot find a spec for the polyphony in either their manuals nor on the two ketron websites, Italy or US. However, I've run this thing ragged with both heavy midi sequences and as the MIDI output synth for Band in a Box and have not encountered any polyphony problems, note dropouts or the like.

There are a few built in effects, "Rotor" - "WhaWah" - "Bass Boost" and "Distortion" that I might use, also listed is "Arabic Scale" and "Global Transposer" plus "Tune" which are accessed by sending MIDI SYSEX commands. The ones I have tried work and the Rotor is rather realistic to my ears, good stereo monitors, normalized, are critical.

No hardware expansion to my knowledge, but the internals can be upgraded via software and the same MIDI input port, matter of fact, Ketron has already issued one upgrade to firmware for free on their site to do so, I haven't done it, my unit may not require that, due to purchase date, am still trying to find out about that. So far, it sounds so great I don't care about upgrading anything and haven't had any bugs to speak of either.

Full MIDI implementation, right down to programmable aftertouch response. No complaints here yet from Ye Olde Midiot, but I'm sure that with enough trying, I'll be able to find something (grin).

For what the box is designed to be, I'd have to say that it is full featured alright.

Man, I have a shelf full of hardware MIDI synths from most major brands in this little jinglestudio, plus another shelf full of samples, soundfonts and gigasamples that I think just got retired for the most part. This little box sounds fantastic and very realistic. Even the horns and guitars. Wow.

I think this SD2 works best with music where you are trying to create the illusion of existing acoustic and electric instruments. I use it for Commercials, Jingles, Industrial Music, Jazz, Classical, Rock, SmoothJazz, Country, whatever the customer requests, to good advantage. Sometimes my customers can't believe it is MIDI music.

This SD2 also sounds very nice with Band in a Box, just in GM mode. Start exploring the upper banks and it is simply one of the best I've heard to date. "To date" is important with MIDI synths. Every year, something else comes along to trump the latest and greatest, but AFAIC, this one is the latest and greatest when comparing pricepoint to sound quality there is nothing else out there yet to compare it to.

Metal case, no doubt about the RF shielding there, also looks and feels quite rugged. I've started carrying it to the occasional keyboard gigs I do, using it for the sound module instead of the internal sounds in my 88 key Kurzweil, simply because to my ears it sounds better. And the vast majority of that time I carry it just for the Grand Piano, which seems to just blend well and sound real no matter the setting. With a proper fullrange stereo amplification system onstage, of course.

That question in this category, "Would you use it on a gig without a backup" has always seemed absurd to this old working musician. I suppose I would if I didn't have anything else, but I don't go to gigs with anything electrical without some sort of backup for it if I can help that. Still, the SD2 should last and last if not electrically abused somehow. YMMV

I give the device a 7 only because of the dumb question.

So far, the few communications I've had from Ketron have been great, but I didn't do anything other than send an email telling them how knocked out I am over the lush and realistic SOUNDS in this thing. Got a reply back in one day with a pleasant thanks. That's promising. I don't expect any troubles here, though.

If my gear gets stolen, somebody usually gets hurt when I get it back. Therefore my gear don't get stolen (grin). But I really love the sound of this box, at the pricepoint, I'd get another, sure.

I started on piano at 3, Trumpet at 8 and Guitar at 12, I'm pushin' the latter half of 50 now. Professional. This is what I do for a livin' when I'm not masquerading as an electrical engineer on the day job.

I love the sounds this box makes. They are realistic and AFAIC a cut above the vast majority of what's out there today.

Nothing could be easier. My review will be somewhat simplistic as I really haven't a clue about midi stuff. I do know you do need a sound card with a midi hook up. I midi out from my computer soundcard then rca back into my sound card. It is that simple. This is a pure hardware item so there are no presets. Any editing would be done on your computer. In my case it is with Band In A Box. You would think going out & back in would have some latency problems but it is zero! Once I have my BIAB song set up I play it through the SD2 while recording it on Sonar. Any recording software should work. So it is BIAB -> Ketron SD2 -> Recording software.

It does have an "On" button & a vol. slider. On the back is Midi in & thru plus RCA's out. That is it. Programming would be done with software or a keyboard. In my case I use Band in a Box for backing tracks & this thing is the best sounding gizmo I have found. Oops! Mini headphone jack too. The best feature however is its size. It is a hair bigger than a portable handheld CD player. I have limited space so a larger keyboard synth is out of the question. This combined with my Edirol recording interface gives me a recording deck hooked up to my computer that is about the height of 6 or 7 CD's stacked up. The footprint is actually a hair smaller than a CD.

If you have used midi using software synths like the MicroSoft synth you already know how bad it sounds. Next step is you upgraded to a Roland software (VSC?) & things sounded a bit better. Finally you tried Forte ($40.00 & still a good deal) & were reasonably pleased but deep down still yearned for a bit more. I listened to sound samples of some of the more expensive soft synths & I thought a couple of them were almost as good as the SD2. I did a back to back to back comparison of the above mentioned stuff & the SD2 was quite a jump up in quality.

It is made in a little metal box. I think I might be able to pund nails with it but we probably shouldn't test it out like that.

I talked to Jay at one of the US Ketron sites. http://www.ketronus.com/
He was incredibly helpful. He gave me his number via email & told me to call him on a Sunday no less. We talked for a half hour or so & I ordered it right then. If others were as helpful as Jay I would be even more broke than I am.

If it were lost or stolen,,, You bet I would buy another.

I am an old rocker trying to learn a second language called Jazz! Between BIAB & the Ketron I have started making some interesting music that for my money really keeps me in the game. I just listened again to BIAB using Forte as my sound synth vs. the Ketron. The song had some horns in & the difference just blew me away. I started playing guitar at age 11 & am 50 sumpin now. As there aren't too many jazz player around here the set described above gives me virtual players that are better than I am at times. I hate reviews that just handout 10's! Sorry but this thing is that good for the money. If I win the Lotto so I can get more space I'll go buy a keyboard synth costing thousands of dollars. I'm assuming it might be a bit better.