MANUAL, TUTORIAL, HINTS & TIPS (V 1.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Number 1 2 2.A 2.B 2.C 2.D 2.E 2.F 2.G 2.H 2.I 2.J 2.K 2.L 2.M 2.N 3 3.A 3.B 3.C 4 4.A 4.B 4.C 4.D 4.E 4.F 4.G 4.H 4.I 4.J 4.K 4.L 4.
5 5.A 5.B 5.C 5.D 6 6.A 6.B 6.C 7 7.
Congratulations on your purchase of the KETRON SD7 Arranger & Player Electronic keyboard. This multi‐ media musical instrument is the first in this class of musical instruments to combine modern features such as a very intuitive touch screen, multi player capabilities including the new Audio Multi Tracking feature, Style Modeling and live Sounds into a very affordable package ‐ designed by musicians for musicians.
GETTING AROUND THE SD7 – NAVIGATION Getting around the SD7 is very easy and can be done in a number of ways using these key buttons:‐ 1. TOUCH SCREEN:‐ The bright touch screen allows you to touch icons directly on the screen. To access contents that are within folders, simply double touch (as you would double click on a mouse). allows you to change the values of selected 2. DATA/VALUE DIAL/WHEEL:‐ This wheel items.
1. PLAYING IN FULL KEYBOARD MODE (PIANIST) & SPLIT (ARRANGER) MODE When you turn on the SD7, it turns on in the SPLIT/ARRANGER MODE, the key bed has a SPLIT POINT where to the left of the split are the keys used to control the arranger or play separate LEFT voice(s), and the keys to the right side are used to play lead voice(s). The DEFAULT VOICE for the RIGHT side is the GRAND PIANO, while the default voice for the LEFT side is the ELECTRIC PIANO.
The current split point will be displayed on the screen (right side) as shown below:‐ You can then assign a new SPLIT point while holding down the SPLIT button by pressing the key on the keybed where you want the split point to be. So if you want the split point to be at F#2, as you hold down the SPLIT button, press the F#2 key and this will become the new split point (and it will be displayed on the screen – right section where the split value is currently being displayed).
2. SOUNDS & VOICES Unlike any other keyboard you’ve come across, you will quickly realize that the SD7 produces some of the best natural sounds for a keyboard in this class. The Sax, trumpets, Piano and other natural instruments come to life and ‘breath’ in your hands as you play them on the SD7, proving once again, that KETRON has lived up to its “Best Natural Sounds” motto. 2.A ‐ PLAYING & USING SOUNDS (LEAD VOICES) The SD7 comes loaded with over 500 voices.
As you can see, the left side of the screen shows the various voice groups or categories where all the voices in the keyboard reside in. The current voice group selected is highlighted in yellow (in the above case, PIANO), while the various voices in this group are shown on the left side of the screen (in this case the various pianos found in the PIANO group). To use a voice, simply touch it.
or pressing the ENTER/PAGE button, you can access the other pages By turning the data wheel of voices.. Touch the voice on the screen you want to load and use. When the hour glass disappears, the voice has been loaded and is ready for use. If you select another voice, the previous voice loaded remains in memory (name changes to red) and you can select this voice again. This time there is no delay because the voice is still in memory and so it can be played instantly.
elements (individual voices) that make up this voice (the voices used to create this lead voice you have selected will be turned ON as shown on the left On/OFF column). To select a new 2nd voice for this lead voice, touch the current voice in the 2nd Voice box. A screen similar to this one below will be displayed. This screen shows the current 2nd voice that is being used for this lead voice (left) and the voice group from which this voice was selected (right).
modification is made to a factory voice and you want to save it, it is saved as a USER VOICE. This therefore means that if you go back and select this factory voice, the original 2nd voice that was assigned to it by KETRON will still be there, and not yours). o SAVE:‐ This saves your new user voice in the USER VOICE location but with the same factory name. o SAVE AS:‐ Opens a keyboard where you can name your new voice and save it by touching the ENTER button on the screen.
the 2nd Voice too). This way, at the touch of the screen, you can install recall your layered/edited voice and use them as you wish. To start editing a voice, touch and hold down for 2 seconds a voice you want to edit or layer or that comes close to the voice you wish to create to open the VOICE EDITOR. Your screen should look something like this (in this case, the Lounge Tenor Sax was selected):‐ The voice editor in the SD7 is quit extensive but very intuitive and easy to use.
Page 2/6 gives you access to the RANGE (split points these elements which make up this voice will be heard over), VELOCITY (how hard/soft a key is pressed before this element of this sound is heard), FIXED (if on, then regardless of how soft/hard a key is pressed, the sound will be heard at the same volume/tone), SUSTAN (the sustain pedal will have an effect on this voice if checked), EXP (the volume pedal will have an effect on this voice if checked).
Page 4/6 is a powerful page in this editor. It allows one to set (if say you are using all 3 voices to create this huge custom voice):‐ o MORPH/ROTOR:‐ If you set Voice 1 as First and Voice2 as Second, when you turn the Mod wheel up, you will hear voice 1 but as you move this mod wheel down, it now morphs until you will only hear Voice 2 once the wheel is completely down. You can also select the type of morph below the screen.
Page 5/6 gives you access to set the attack, decay ... etc. These parameters impact the actual voice/sample you are editing and can be used to actually create a ‘new’ voice all together if edited properly. V‐TONE:‐ Adds natural characteristics and embellishments to the Sound. Page 6/6 below is a continuation from page 5/6 above.
2.F ‐ PLAYING UP TO 2 VOICES WITH THE LEFT HAND (LOWER VOICES) You can also assign up to 2 separate voices and play them together or separately on the left side of the keyboard. These voices are usually determined by the style that is currently being used, but we will show you how irrespective of the style selected, you can call up and use voices to the left of the SPLIT point of the keyboard. First make sure your SD7 is displaying the default screen (screen it powers on with or similar.
In this screen, all the parts/tracks that make up the style/beat are displayed and next to each one is the VOLUME of that part. The LOWER voices have an extra column – OCTAVE. This value determines the octave of the voice which you can change by touching the number and changing it by turning the data wheel (+/‐ 12). The column next to the OCTAVE values is the VOLUME column. Each LOWER/Left voice has a value which you can change by touching it and adjusting using the data value wheel.
The following screen is now displayed showing you the different parameters that control the LEFT/LOWER voices:‐ For each LEFT/LOWER voice, you can do the following from this screen:‐ Hold Start:‐ [Hold on Start]. When on, if a style is playing (and the HOLD button is on), this voice will be sustained (held) until the style is stopped. Hold Stop:‐ [Hold on Stop].
stop is on and same action is carried out. One the arranger is played normally, the voices are heard again. Mute:‐ This mutes the LEFT/LOWER voice as needed. 2.I ‐ PLAYING LEFT HAND BASS ‐ MANUAL BASS You can also play left had BASS on the SD7, i.e. play bass lines manually on the left side with your left hand, while playing lead parts with a separate voice on the right side of the keyboard. To accomplish this quickly and easily, simply press the MANUAL button on the left side of the panel.
Press EXIT to return to the style view page and your new bass should be in the bass box.
o POLY – allows you to play more than one bass note at a time. MONO – You can only play one note at a time. If 2 or more notes are played, only the first note is heard. V‐TONE – This special feature adds “ambience” and more realism to the bass sound (or any instrument when selected in VOICE EDIT). As for the manual BASS feature, this was already described above in details under “MANUAL BASS – PLAYING LEFT HAND BASS”. 2.
Now touch SAVE AS to give your current setting a name and press ENTER on the next screen’s keyboard to save your song/keyboard set up. You can now change the set up of the keyboard and create different settings and save them again the same way with different names to create a library of keyboard settings for different songs.
2.L ‐ INSTANTLY ADDING HARMONY TO YOUR SOUNDS/VOICES You can instantly add harmony to your voices by pressing the HARMONY button on the right panel of the SD7. Once you do this, play a chord with your left hand and then play sounds with your right.
2.M ‐ ASSIGNING HARMONY TYPES TO YOUR VOICES You can assign which harmony types are used automatically with your voices or if you choose to layer voices, which voices the automatic harmonies will be added to and which will be ignored, or further still … set which harmony type to apply to which of your layered voices once this voice is recalled (USER VOICE). This has already been described above in 1.E USER VOICE (Screen Page 4/6).
3. INSTANTLY ADD PROFESSIONAL EFFECTS TO YOUR VOICE AS YOU PLAY – (LIVE EFFECTS) You can instantly add Live EFX (Effects e.g. altering Filter, Dampler and Resonance parameters) to your lead voice (and other parts of the keyboard to like Drums, Chords, Bass … etc, but let us focus on the lead voice for now). To do so, simply press the LIVE EFX button found on the top right side of the panel.
The left side of the screen shows the various parts of the keyboard that can be affected by the LIVE EFX (PLAYER, RIGHT [Right/Lead voice], DRUM [Drum track of the Arranger], BASS [Bass track of the Arranger], CHORD1‐5 [Chord tracks of the Arranger]). Touch the part you want the LIVE EFX to impact (in the example above, RIGHT has been selected so when you turn on the LIVE EFX, only the right/lead voice of the SD7 will be affected by the LIVE EFX settings/values).
If you turn the data wheel or press the ENTER/PAGE button, you can access the next 3 pages of 10 voices each. Now let us select a voice we want to replace in the current VoiceList. In this example, let’s replace the voice MUSETTE with a voice of our own. Simply touch the voice ‐ MUSETTE on the screen for about 2 seconds (If you touch and release quickly, it will just be a voice selection meaning the musette voice will be selected and heard when you play!).
Select the voice group to the right you believe your voice resides in and touch the voice you want to replace the MUSETTE with. In this case, we have touched the voice group ACCORDION and so it is highlighted in yellow – while the left of the screen displays the first page of accordions. o NB:‐ You can also use RAM voices (voices stored in the internal SSD that can be loaded into memory) in the voice list. Simply press the RAM button here. The screen will list the current voices in RAM.
Repeat the above action – touch and hold a voice you want to get rid of/replace – go to the voice screen and make a new selection of the voice you want in that location instead – press EXIT to return to the VOICE LIST screen … etc. Remember the VOICE LIST is made up of 4 pages with each page being able to display 10 voices each – so you can fill the VOICE LIST up with up to 40 of your favorite voices (you don’t have to as just 10 voices in the fist page may be sufficient ...
4. STYLES Some people call them beats. Others call them patterns. In the Arranger Musical world, they are called styles. At the heart of every arranger keyboard are styles. These are musical ‘phrases’ which can be altered in real time to produce music based on the chords played on the keyboard. The SD7 comes loaded with 260 styles meaning you will barely lack a style to perform any kind of music. 4.
keyboard at any given time. Do accomplish this, KETRON has implemented a system that shows you what the current status of the keyboard is (style and voice selected, tempo, … etc). Here is a general interpretation of the main screen while in STYLE mode (default screen of the SD7 as of OS 1.0) The top left box of the screen shows :‐ o The group the current style resides in (Ballad), o The variation of the style currently selected [A].
The top left corner of the screen shows the following information related to the Right/Lead voice being used on the keyboard:‐ o Group where the voice resides in (Piano). o Volume of the lead/right voice (52) o Name of the voice in Capital letters (CLASSIC GRAND) o Sustain and Wheel settings o You can touch this box to quickly access the voice selection page. 4.
<
We will discuss this screen in more details below but at a glance, this gives you access to the individual style parts, instruments used, volume of each instrument, access to PAN, REV, CHORUS, EFX levels of each instrument … etc. 4.C ‐ HOW TO SELECT A STYLE/BEAT FOR YOUR MUSICAL PERFORMANCE As mentioned earlier, the SD7 comes with many styles / beats to choose from.
As you can see from this example, the current style selected is from the BALLAD style group (shown on the right) and the style’s name is 8BEAT_1 (selected on the left). Notice that the top part of the screen remains the same, showing you the style information and voice information at a glance. To choose a style, touch the style group you believe the style you want to use is (for this example, BALLAD was touched). The first 10 styles in the BALLAD group are displayed to the left side of the screen.
To play the style you just selected:‐ o Press the K.START (Key Start/SYNC START) button. When this button is on, the style will start playing with complete backing one you play a key to the left of the SPLIT point (or any key if the PIANIST button is on [full keyboard mode]). You can also simply press the red START button if you want to hear drums only – until you play a chord to bring in the rest of the arrangement. K.STOP works this way – STATUS/MODE Nothing happens on chord section with Keys.
The HOLD button allows you to play and release a chord and the SD7 will still maintain that chord … until a new chord is played. If the HOLD button is off, the chord is released as soon as you lift your fingers off the keyboard (chord section). o RESTART – allows you to restart the style at any given time.
Page 2/3 (Touch page “1/3” to move to the next page .. 2/3). Your screen should look something like this:‐ This screen gives you direct access to the 4 fill ins and 4 breaks of the Arranger. The panel only gives you access to a fill and a break – however, when this button is pressed, the FILL/BREAK you hear depends on the Arranger/Variation that is being played before the button was pressed. So, if you were playing Arranger A and you press the FILL in button, Fill 1 will be heard.
When you press the page button (2/3), page 3 will be displayed and looks like this – The first 3 soft touch buttons at the bottom of the screen are also accessible as described below under (4.J – Arranger Instruments Page 52), however by having them here right at your finger tips, it means you have direct access to these functions without digging into menus and pages to find them.
Your next screen should look like this – Touch FOOTSWITCH to display the foot switch program page as show below … Now touch the switch you want to assign a function to (e.g. #10) and a drop down menu showing all relevant functions you can program into #10 are displayed. You can use the data wheel to scroll down the list to others not currently displayed on the page.
When you see a function you want, touch it and it is automatically assigned to that switch (displayed right below it). Press EXIT to get back to the main footswitch page and repeat the above for the other switches you want to program. Please note that although the diagram shows the FS13, if programming the FS6, use just the first row of switches (1‐6) and ignore 7 – 13 at the bottom! When done (while still in the FOOTSWITCH page, press the SAVE button and touch SAVE to save the footswitch set.
From the main STYLE VIEW page above, touch the VOICE & VARI (Variation) button on the bottom of the screen to display the following page – This page has 2 main functions which we will explain in detail – VOICE – VOICE TO ABCD (OneTouch Settings at the top row of the center screen) and VARIATION (muting/playing arranger parts so the style sounds less busy depending on your application at the 2nd row of the center screen). 4.
this screen, the voices that have been assigned to the various arranger/variation parts of this 8BEAT1 style are as follows:‐ GRAND PIANO ‐ Assigned to Arranger/Variation A. When you play Arranger A, the lead/right voice automatically selected will be the Grand Piano. MARK ‐ Assigned to Arranger/Variation B. When you play Arranger B, the lead/right voice automatically selected will be the Mark piano. PIANO&STRINGS ‐ Assigned to Arranger/Variation C.
Make sure “USER STYLE” is highlighted (in yellow) and NOT REGISTRATION. If not, touch it so it is highlighted. Touch‐ o SAVE – if you want to maintain the same factory name o SAVE AS – if you want to give this style a new name. Touch ENTER in the next screen after naming the style to save it. o CANCEL – To abort this operation To use this style with your Voices, from the STYLES page, touch USER, go to the group your style resided in and touch it. It will be loaded with your voices. 4.
In this case, simply touch any of the VARIATION parts to turn them on (red underline) or off. In the example above, they are all ON so all the style parts are heard. As you switch between Arranger/Variation, notice how the sounds related to the variation parts (chords) are also changed ‐ depending on the style. This feature allows professionals to express themselves without having the style get in the way ...
From the main style page, touch STYLE VIEW to display the various style elements compositions as shown below – Notice again that the top part of the screen still shows the current condition of the keyboard (styles used, voices used, tempo … etc) while the middle shows you the various parts of the style and corresponding elements (volume in this case).
(which you can change by touching the value and turning the wheel) and their corresponding volume (which again can be changed by touching the value and turning the data wheel). This was explained in greater detail under “1.F ‐ LOWER VOICE” above.
PAN:‐ Touch this to display the screen where you can adjust how much of the parts you want coming out of the left or right speaker. L shows the value out the left speaker and R shows the value out of the right speaker. It helps to create a great surround environment when you partially pan the instruments left and right about +/‐ 40. REV (REVERB):‐ Touch this to adjust how much reverb you want applied to each part (0‐127).
Touch DRUM to access the following screen and functions associated with the DRUMS (DRUM turns yellow):‐ o Vari 3 To Groove:‐ As mentioned above in “2E –VOICE (ONE TOUCH) – ARRANGER VARIATION” section, the 3rd variation can be programmed to be for Drums/Grooves and not a chord track of the style, meaning you will be able to turn on/off busy drum and percussion parts associated with the style.
=> o o o o o o This way, you now have 2 musical VARIATIONS to use and 1 percussive/drum VARIATION. This is very useful especially for LATIN styles and beats that tend to have a lot of percussive parts. There comes a time when muting some of this at the touch of a button creates room for musicians to fully express themselves without competing with the SD7! Of course there are those who would prefer the keyboard played all the parts while they lay down a solid lead‐instrument line.
TEMPO RANGE (MIN/MAX):‐ Touch this to manually set the maximum and minimum BPM/TEMPO for the selected style. Since the SD7 uses Audio Drums, this feature is very handy when you want to limit the range of the style just before the audio component begins to distort (once the audio drum is stretched too far).
To change the drum kit of the manual drum set you are playing on the keyboard – Press and hold down the DRUMS button for 2 seconds until the following drum set screen is displayed – You can touch the individual drum instruments on the screen and play them live. To change the drum kit, simply touch the current drum set shown below the screen (in this case Standard_sd) and pick a new drum set from the pop up list displayed. You can also remap the current drum kit and make your own drum kit.
The left side of the screen now shows some very interesting BASS features under 2 columns – ARRANGE (where you can use these features with the STYLE’s bass/ auto bass) or MANUAL (with you playing bass manually on the left side of the split point). Let’s exploit the ARRANGE (ARRANGER/STYLE) bass features:‐ o o o o o ALTERNATE:‐ This is a special mode for the alternate Bass that adapts it to the chord change according to the correct rule of musical harmony.
When on (lights up), the SD7 assigns the lowest note of the chord to the Bass over and above the basic chord played. In this way the Bass will play in inversion. This again is a tool you can use to bring more life to your music – especially when used sparingly and alternating with TO ROOT above. As for the manual BASS feature, this was already described above in details under 2I – Manual bass Page 20 – PLAYING LEFT HAND BASS”.
Reset of Root recognition (Tonic) is done by pressing Chord notes fast (with maximum dynamic). At the centre of the display you will find the MODE function that may be set on EASY or FINGER modes. On Easy mode the instrument plays in standard mode recognizing the chord. Some tones may also be obtained by not playing the full chord. For example, you may play a major chord by playing only the tonic part.
BRASS instrument as one of the lower voices and want to use a break and want the horns to come to an abrupt stop/end, especially with DANCE music. STOP MUTE: When this is set to ON, the LOWER voice is not heard when the style is not running. MUTE: Instantly mutes the Lower voice selected regardless of whether the style is on (playing) or not.
o o Standard: In this mode you freeze the chord recognized with the Sustain Pedal so as to play on the keyboard without altering the tone of the Arranger. This is the typical way a piano player plays anyway – pressing the sustain pedal when the notes being placed are in the current chord just played. Sustain Pedal: When this parameter is enabled (ON), the Sustain Pedal control on Pianist is enabled once plugged into the SD7.
Touch the MODELING icon on the screen to display the following screen below ‐ As an example, let’s replace the current ‘boring’ Nylon guitar lines used in Arranger/Variation A CHORD 2 with a new ARP Guitar from the built in KETRON library that has over 30 guitar arps. (NB:‐ You can touch any of the ARRANGERS A‐D on the panel and work with it’s chord 2 instead).
as the style plays, test each of these to see which one you want to use. For clarity, you can touch the SOLO button (which will mute all the other arranger parts but CHORD 2 which you are now working with). o You can also take this a step further and change the instrument used to create the ARP (in this case the guitar). You may want to replace the STEEL guitar with another guitar or another instrument from another category such as Brass or Piano.
Touch SAVE AS and name your new style in the next screen – then touch the ENTER button on the screen and save as a USER style. This style can now be used by you instantly by selecting it from the appropriate style category (USER STYLE on [yellow]) or in a REGISTRATION (Keyboard set up). 4.L ‐ ASSEMBLING YOUR OWN STYLES (STYLE MODELING) Up until this point, we have been discussing making adjustments to factory styles and saving them as USER STYLES for future use.
The following page will be displayed on the SD7 – You can see all the relevant parts that make up the style (apart from CHORD 5). These are the parts you can modify and replace with hundreds of other style‐templates that KETRON has provided for use in each section – so you have different templates for DRUM, Groove (percussion), Bass and Chords (1 – 5).
The left side of the screen displays the first 10 grooves which you can select by simply touching any one of the groves. Still need to access more groves? Turn the data wheel to access the next 10 and when you see what you want, touch it. As the style plays, you will immediately notice the new Groove playing once selected. o o o o GROOVE (box) – As you make your GROOVE selection, this box shows you the current GROOVE being used.
NB:‐ When a drum track is selected during MODELING, the new selection automatically loads the various audio drums for all the other Arranger tracks ‐ so if you were in Arranger B and went into the STYLE MODELING and selected DRUM to choose a new DRUM arrangement for Arranger B, 3 new Audio Drums will also be loaded for Arranger A, C and D. You cannot load individual Audio Drums for individual Arranger parts! o ORIGINAL – Use this to revert to the original style (ignore all changes).
Let’s MODEL one of the CHORDS – CHORD 1. Touch the CHORD 1 icon from the MODELING main screen to display a page similar to this below – Now, with the CHORDS, you can actually select from 3 different banks, which kind of arrangement you want to use for CHORD 1 (or any chord you have selected) by touching any of the banks PIANO, GUITAR or ORCHESTRAL. For this example, the PIANO bank has been selected.
and Arranger D – a very flexible and intuitive design by KETRON. Also note that the FILL ins, Breaks and Intro/Endings are not affected. Once you have competed modeling you style, you will need to save it as a USER STYLE, or else all changes are lost once you select a new style or turn off the instrument. To save the new style as a USER style, simply press SAVE on the panel Touch SAVE AS and name your new style in the next screen – then touch the ENTER button on the screen and save as a USER style.
discretion of the user. In each of these however, if you want to maintain the format used by the factory style, please proceed as follows:‐ Intro1:‐ The shortest intro phrase, usually just 1 measure long. End 1:‐ Immediate ending in general of about 2‐3 measures long – depending on the style and BPM of music. Intro2:‐ Usually just 2 measures long, recorded in the key of « C major or C minor » with no chord changes and no melody line(s).
The first measure of the Midi file must have only one marker on the first tick. The marker must have the following name “Audya Style 1.0”. You can now start recording the events/notes of the style from the second measure. The sequence order of the Midi parts of each section and of the marker is at the discretion of the user. (Ex. ARRA_MAJ, INT3_MIN, FILLC_MAJ, etc.). There is no fixed order to arrange these parts, as they will automatically be assigned to the appropriate style parts in the SD7.
It is very important that you also comply with the following rules:‐ 1) The Arrangement parts (A‐D), Fill ins and Breaks must be programmed in « C Major ». With built in Chord algorithms, the SD7 can then automatically generate all other chords played on the arranger so long as this structure is correct. 2) The following Midi events and controls can be used within the Midifile:‐ Note On/Off, Bend, Modulation, Sustain, Expression, Pan Pot, Rev, Chorus, Wha‐Wha (On: CC 86 value 127 – Off CC 86 value 0.
where KST = Ketron Style]. Connect the SD7 via USB to your computer and transfer the *KST file into any of the USER STYLE sub folders (Pop, Dance, Ballad … etc). For this example, we will copy the file into the POP sub‐folder. Disconnect the SD7 from your computer and go on the keyboard – press the STYLE button (on) and Touch the USER style icon on the screen. Now, touch the style group you copied your new style into (in this case Pop).
as needed by the style to the relative style buttons (Intro, Arranger A‐D, Fill Ins .. etc). You can further enhance the style by going to style view (touch VIEW) from where you will have access to the individual style components (Drum, Bass, Chords .. etc) from which you can modify the volume, program change, effects, pan and other style parameters such as parallel/close chord modes, retrigger .. etc for each style part.
5. MICROPHONE & VOCAL HARMONIZER (VOICETRON) The SD7 comes with studio quality professional built‐in Microphone and Vocal Harmonizer circuits. This allows you to sing into your microphone and instantly add background vocals to your songs as you either play live (as just a keyboard or using the styles and beats) or with Audio (Mp3 and Wave) and Midifiles (in which case the Midifiles control the vocal harmonies automatically).
The Microphone and Vocalizer/Harmoniser presets can be achieved by pressing the MIC button on the panel for about 2 seconds. The screen should look like this – This microphone EDIT page is made up of 2 columns:‐ MICRO (left) –These settings address the effects on the microphone. The ON/OFF button turns the mic on or off (same effect as turning on/off the mic by pressing the MIC button on the panel).
o o o Simply turn the wheel to highlight the one you want and touch it (or press ENTER on the panel – left side) to select it – and it will be displayed in the box. The user settings are below the factory settings. If you EDIT any of the factory settings, they get stored in one of the 10 USER locations. If you press EDIT, the SD7 will now display the various effects processes used to create the current Mic setting (Gate, Eq, Compressor .. etc) as shown in the screen below.
o Touch the Noise Gate setting you want and press EXIT on the panel (right side) to return to the Mic Edit screen. To view or modify the current EQ settings, touch VIEW on the screen and modify as you see fit to your voice – by touching and turning your finger on the screen or the data wheel. If you want to make your own EQ setting and save for future use, touch the current EQ setting box below the EQ graph from the previous screen (Studio as shown in example above).
o o o Only a USER EQ setting can be saved for future use. (NB:‐ If you select a factory setting, you can modify it for your current performance but you cannot save the modifications made for future use). Moving on, if you want to make changes to the Compressor, simply touch the current selection (Comp‐ 15db) to display other options as shown below – Select the new compressor setting you wish to use by touching it on the screen – then touch EXIT to return to the edit screen.
VOICETRON – These settings address the vocal processor that adds harmonies to your voice as you sing into the mic. The ON/OFF button turns the harmonies on or off. Touch either of the knobs (red line denote it is active) and turn the data wheel to adjust the microphone’s Vol (Volume), Rev (Reverb level). The values are displayed right next to each other. You can also change the value by touching the corresponding knob and moving/turning your finger on the screen or turning the data wheel.
From the Edit Mico screen above, touch the current vocal harmonizer setting (HARMONY RIGHT in this case above) to display the following screen that gives you access to all the other current vocalizer preset settings in the SD7. Turn the data wheel to access even more below. Once you have found the appropriate setting, sing into the microphone and try it out.
Touch MICO if you want to save the Microphone settings or touch VOICETRON if you want to save the vocalizer settings … depending on what was adjusted. You’ll then be asked to save the settings and replace a USER setting – So in the example above, VOICETRON was selected from the previous screen and now you can save the current settings under the first user location‐ USER 01 (or turn the data wheel to select another User location).
etc. This frees you up from having to manually select and switch harmony types as you play and best of all, you focus on playing and not pushing buttons. To access this, press EDIT under the VOICETRON column (as shown below) – The following screen will now be displayed below … Touch Off to turn this mode ON (yellow). (NB:‐ If this is left off, even if you proceed to set up the various modes, the modes will not change automatically as you switch between the various arranger modes).
Now below each Arranger button is the box displaying the current vocalizer setting that will be heard when that Arranger button is on. Touch each box and select from the drop‐down menu which harmonizer setting you want each arranger button to use when active. When done, your screen should look something like this – In the example above, the vocalizer has been set up such that if you press – ARRANGER A:‐ You’ll hear UNISON (double voice but same notes).
5.C ‐ TIPS ON USING THE VOCALIZER/HARMONIZER Although exciting and very ‘sweet’ sounding in most cases, it is wise to use the vocal harmonizer just as you would harmonize in actual tunes … sparingly here and there (maybe reserve it for chorus … etc). If harmonies are used throughout the entire tune, there is the tendency for ‘ear fatigue’ to set in and as such, the harmonizer is no longer an ‘effect’ you bring in to enhance your song.
The default setting set up for this input to be used is for a microphone and so the gain is internally set high by the settings. If using a Guitar or any other musical instrument, you will have to let the SD7 know that the signal coming in is not from a microphone but rather a LINE musical instrument.
Each of the stomp boxes displayed above represents different guitar effects used by Guitar players. Once you have plugged in your guitar into the Line input on the back of the SD7, simply touch the effect box’s knob you wish to turn on or off. A red light denotes that the effect has been turned on (in the example above, the DELAY effect has been turned on). To change the amount of delay, touch e.g.
6. KEYBOARD SETTINGS SAVING AND RECALLING EVERYTHING(REGISTRATIONS) You are at point where, you’ve picked the proper voice for your right hand (lead), selected the best layered 2nd voice, picked the greatest style and slowed it down just right for your next song (“I will always love you” for an example), transposed the keyboard so you can play this tune in the key of C but sound as if you’re playing it in the key of A … and then ….
The following screen is displayed once you press the MENU button above – Touch the REGS.SETUP (Registration Set up) to enter the registration set up screen where you can select what settings registrations will load up and which will be ignored.
There are 2 columns displayed. The left column displays the 8 major functions while the right section displays the individual features within which can be saved and recalled within a registration (Yellow) or that will be ignored (blue). In the example above, in the GENERAL section, we see that the Transposer and Slider values/levels will be saved within the REGISTRATIONS, however the footswitch, Arabic and Control settings will be ignored.
The center of the screen displays the current registrations (factory ones if you have not added any to this list) found in REGISTRATION BANK 1 (the yellow icon associated with registration files and icons associated with other file types can be turned on/off from the home/Player screen under FUNCTION described below under ICONS – Page 112) . There are 4 banks (1‐4). You can create up to 1024 Song settings/REGISTRATIONS in each of the 4 banks (Bank 1,Bank 2, Bank 3 and Bank 4).
case, you may want to save the registration with a name such as ‘SLOW BALLAD’ so you know to recall this song setting to play most of your slow ballads back to back for an example. 6.C ‐ RECALLING YOUR SONG SET UP/ REGISTRATIONS AT THE SHOW The SD7 was designed predominantly with the live player in mind.
to your registration, even if it is at the bottom of the list, you can instantly recall it by punching in the number associated with it:‐ o Touch Num.
You can – Touch the Keyboard and start typing the name of the registration. The SD7 will display all files with that name. The registration will be the one that ends with the *.reg extension. Touch it twice (double click) to load it and use. Use the numeric keypad at the bottom of the screen to enter the letters into the box. Touch quickly twice (for the 2nd letter) or thrice (for the 3rd letter).
7. RECORDING (SONGS & PHRASES) You can record a song or phrase directly onto the SD7’s internal memory and transfer to a USB stick or your computer or keep in the SD7 for future use. There are 2 types of recordings that can be done on the SD7:‐ SONG (complete song) or PHRASE (up to 16 bar loop which can be played back as you play freely throughout the entire keyboard). 7.A ‐ SONG OR PHRASE RECORDING Recording a song is pretty easy on the SD7.
Select the type of recording you want to do on the SD7 – MIDI:‐ This records the data played on the SD7. Use this option if you intend to play the recorded material through the SD7 so as to get exactly what was recorded. You may also use this if you intend to use the playback material in the studio and allow for re voicing, modifications …etc. When MIDI is selected, the tempo (speed) and metronome bar are also displayed on the screen and can be modified before you start recording.
8. AUDIO, VIDEO & MIDI MULTI MEDIA PLAYER The SD7 is not only a keyboard player’s dream come true. It is also the Swiss knife for musicians offering you the capability to play back MP3, Mp4, Wave and Midifiles and mix and match them with styles too. You can also time stretch audio files (just as a DJ would today) plus add LIVE EFFECTS to your music in real time and cross fade from one to the other automatically or live during your break. There are 2 PLAYERS on the SD7 which you can control in real time.
(NB:‐ If you want to access or use contents found in a different storage drive such as your inserted USB stick, you will have to …) – Press the MEDIA button to display the following screen which shows all the devices connected to the SD7 at this time.
Touch the drive whose files you want to work with. From now one, you will be able to work with and access files within the selected drive. If you need to work with files in another drive, you will have to press MEDIA once more and touch the drive you want to work with. Turn the data wheel to highlight the file you want to play and touch it twice once displayed on the screen (or press ENTER) to start playing it immediately.
The following screen shown below will be displayed (bottom left screen) – >>> You can now (while the first song is playing) select the next song you want to start playing. It will be displayed next to the screen. icon on the bottom of the screen as shown in the top‐right Whenever you want to start playing the new song, simply slide the icon from left to right (go to the new song …)and the initial song playing will immediately stop, while the new song selected will start playing. 2.
the sound heard, there is also the characteristic of the drummer which is hard to replicate using Midi Drums. The SD7 allows you to thus take out the Midi drums of any Midifile, and replace it with the Live drums used within the styles. Taking it a step further, you can use and control fill ins and breaks as well within the midifile … thus bringing life into your sequences or songs. This feature can only be used on MIDIFILES, so make sure you are in a folder that has Midifiles.
The song will start playing with the new AUDIO DRUMS. You will notice that the DRUM RESTYLE button (K.STOP) will now be on. This means the drums heard are currently the new Audio Drums from the style that was just selected. To turn of the DRUM RESTYLE mode and revert to the song’s original Midi drums, press the KEY STOP/DRUM RESTYL ON/OFF button once more as the midifile plays – The drums heard will now be the original drums of the Midifile.
The right side of the “Drum Restyle” screen shows the start and stop measure which you can set by touching the respective box, then turn the data wheel to put in the values corresponding to where in the song you want the new audio drums to start and stop.
playlist has been created and named “PLAYLIST 1”. To display the songs that make up a playlist simply touch the playlist whose songs you want displayed… so for an example, if you want to display the songs that are in the PLAYLIST 1 (factory Playlist) above, simply touch the PLAYLIST 1 icon on the screen to show the following – Now, you can touch any song twice (or press ENTER once highlighted) to start playing it. A.
Touch YES and the SD7 will take you to the drive you are currently working in (shown on the top right corner of the screen) and display all the folders and files within that drive. Your screen will look like this – Nb:‐ If you want to change to another drive installed on your SD7, simply touch to the right of the screen. Scroll through and touch the folder where the files you want to add to your playlist exist. Touch twice to open (or press ENTER once highlighted).
>> Now, highlight the song you want to include in your playlist and press INSERT ITEM (as shown above) to insert the selected song into the new playlist.
In this case above, 2 songs have been inserted into the new playlist (24000 Baci.mid and A Che Serve Volare.mid) o NB:‐ You can also press EXIT and go to other folders and INSERT songs into the playlist – the SD7 is adding all the songs you select into the new playlist which you will then name once done with the song selection.
Touch the PLAYLIST displayed on the screen which you want to edit. The songs within that playlist will be displayed on the screen as before. Touch EDIT on the screen to display the edit controls (as shown below). You can now use these buttons to below to erase, insert, append, replace or remove songs within the current PLAYLIST.
4. MY FOLDER:‐ MY FOLDER – works very similar to PLAYLIST above – however instead of having individual songs, you can now use entire folders instead and create favorite folders e.g. WEDDINGS (where you store all your wedding songs), BIRTHDAYS (where you store all songs and pictures which you play at birthday parties) … etc The creation and management of MY FOLDER is similar to PLAYLIST so need not be written all over. 5.
MARKER:‐ These are pointers used to set certain points within a song such that while playing that song, that you can instantly or eventually jump to certain parts of the song (e.g. verses, choruses … etc) without having to wait until the song is finished. Midi Programs like Cubase or Cakewalk can be used to create/insert the markers within the song. When you touch MARKER, these marker points are then displayed for you to select where (within the song) you would like to go to.
When the LEAD MUTE button is pressed while a MIDIFILE is playing, the lead/melody line is instantly turned off. This feature is great if you want to play along with a midifile, yet be the one to play the lead/song lines. o NB:‐ If this does not initially work for your Midifile, it means that the lead / melody line of your song is not on channel 4. In this case – Leave the LEAD MUTE on. Come to this Function screen and start changing the LEAD CHAN value.
File View:‐ When you touch this icon, the following screen will be displayed which allows you to select which files you want to be able to see once in any folder and to sort files in a particular way. This function is very useful especially when you have mixed files (e.g. wave, Midi, Mp3, Mp4 .. etc) within a folder and you want to display say only the midifiles within the folder (.mid). For this example, you would touch the MID box (check mark will appear inside).
or Display showing 5 lines/items KETRON SD7 Manual & Tutorial Display showing 12 lines/items 110
9. PLAY MODES Depending on what you want to use the SD7 for (sound source, keyboard, as an organist …), there are various play modes you can choose from to instantly set the keyboard up so that you simply play. Press the MENU button to display the following screen. Some of these have already been discussed in details above and so we will focus on those that have not yet been discussed.
the MIDI menu above, you can access and set up the midi channels to match the device you are connecting the SD7 to (see section 10 – Midi Mode Page 119) below for more on Midi setup. 2. ACCORD.STYLE:‐ This sets up the SD7 to be controlled from an external Midi Accordion such that the chords played on the accordion control the Automatic accompaniment (styles) of the SD7. It automatically configures the MIDI in channels for the right/lead (01), left/chords (02) and bass (03).
‐ MANUAL BASS: This function allows you to play the Bass manually in two different modes. Bass Only removes the bass from the automatic accompaniment allowing you to play it manually. Bass+ Chord also removes the chords leaving only the drum, allowing you to play a manual Bass solo accompanied only by the drum rhythm. The setting may be made directly on the Touch Screen. These two options may be used only if Manual Bass in the Style section is enabled.
Once more, let’s go through the functions available in this play mode. Note that these functions ‐ RIGHT VELO , LEFT VELO and LEFT DRUM are identical to the functions described above (in ACCORD. STYLE Mode). ‐ SUSTAIN: Select this function on the Touch Screen to adjust the Bass sustain value with the Dial. ‐ RIGHT PRESET: This function allows you to select the sound to assign to the accordion keyboard. To do this, simply touch the box to open the Voice selection page (Voice Select).
4. ORGAN:‐ This sets up the SD7 to be played just as an Organist would. Let’s go through the various functions available for the Organist in this mode – ‐ LEFT DRUM: This function allows you to play the part DRUM using Bass pedals. The function is activated (On) or disabled (Off) by instantly touching the specific panel on the Touch Screen. Displayed to the right is a field where you can choose the sounds to be assigned to the two layers of Bass dedicated buttons plus layer 2 on Chord dedicated buttons.
SUSTAIN: Select this function on the Touch Screen to adjust the Bass sustain value with the Dial. ‐ OCTAVE: Allows once of Bass section. selected by touch screen to adjust with the Dial sustain value You can save the settings made on this page. Press SAVE on the panel. The Pop Up box "SAVE ACCORDION SETTING" appears on the display on which you may save the settings by pressing SAVE or escape by selecting CANCEL.
10. MIDI MODES & SETTINGS MIDI (Musical Instruments Digital Interface) is a protocol by which musical instruments can communicate with one another, including the SD7 which has extensive Midi controls that can be configured from the MIDI menu.
‐ COMPUTER SEQUENCER: This mode allows you to connect your instrument to an external Software Sequencer or Computer (via the Midi In). Select this mode when you are playing a Midi file or sequences from a computer. This mode is very usefully for studios where the SD7 will work as an external sound module.
‐ MIDI PORT: Pressing this key opens a window to route the Midi ports as shown ‐ The window displays 3 devices on the instrument and the respective connections to the Midi In and Midi Out ports. Midi In 2 port is addressed exclusively to the Keyboard (Global). NB:‐ When there is a MIDI signal on the MIDI IN port, the EXIT button will flash to denote that the SD7 is receiving a MIDI signal .You can use this as a test to make sure there is MIDI data coming in through the MIDI IN2 port.
11. AUDIO EDITOR There is a built in Audio Editor that can be used to perform simple tasks on wave files such as creating loops, normalizing, adjusting the volume … etc. Prior to using the AUDIO EDITOR, you will have to first select a wave file otherwise you will get a warning message to do just that.
‐ LOOP: Allows you to assign Metadata Loop points on audio file so that when you press START, the song will play from the point set by WAVE START to the point set by WAVE STOP and loop all over automatically. 12. MANUAL (Digital Copy) A copy of the factory manual of the SD7 resides inside the SD7 and can be accessed by pressing the and then touching the MANUAL icon shown on the screen. The manual MENU button contains links that enable quick navigation between sections as you browse through.
Let’s go through the various functions that can be accessed and set from this screen in more details. The top of the screen shows the current software (plus date it was released) and firmware versions and the serial number of the unit. ‐ Midifile FAST PLAY: This function starts the playback of Midifiles quicker than usual by reading the opening measures (which generally contain the data of the Controllers and other data) rapidly.
VOL: This is the virtual Volume knob of the metronome. Select this knob on the display and turn to adjust the metronome Volume or use the Dial. TIME SIGNATURE*/ (numerator)and TIME SIGNATURE/*(denominator) : The corresponding boxes to these are for setting the time signature (e.g. 4/4, 3/4 … etc). Simply touch each box and modify the value with the Dial. LINK/RUN MODE: This box may be set in one of four different modes in the same way.
‐ BUZZER: When this function is ON you will hear a "beep" when you touch the display. This confirms that you have touched a valid part of the touch screen. When this function is Off the "beep" is disabled. To save this setting press the SAVE button on the panel and then touch SAVE CUSTOM STARTUP. ‐ SHOW AUTO LYRIC: Automatically displays the associated lyrics with a song that is playing (if available). ‐ SYSTEM LANGUAGE: Allows you to set the language of your instrument.
‐ DISPLAY SKIN: As many devices of today, the SD7 allows you to modify the background display (SKIN). Touch this button to access a selection page with different SKINS suggested by KETRON: Once you select your new preference the following screen will be displayed ‐ Touch “OK” to confirm and reboot the SD7. The SD7 will now power on with the new display as selected.
14. KEYBOARD CONTROLS & SETTINGS Here is where you will find access to many parameters and settings that control the overall keyboard controls and settings. To access the CONTROLS page, press the MENU button touch the CONTROLS icon shown on the screen to display the following screen – and then Let’s take a closer look at the functions available and how they can be applied to our daily usage. ‐ GLOBAL: Allows you to tune the SD7 and modify Modulation sensitivity.
‐ POLARITY: This allows you to select the polarity of the pedal switch to use (Normal Open / Normal Closed) based on what type of volume pedal you are using. This also means you can now use volume pedals from other manufactures too and customize the SD7 to accept them. ‐ THRESHOLD: This adjusts the opening threshold of the pedal controller to be used. ‐ VELOCITY CURVE: This sets the keyboard dynamic response of SD7 (Soft, Medium, Hard, Fixed).
15. FOOTSWITCH CONTROL & SETTINGS These are certain controls you can program such that you control them with the optional FS6 or FS13 Effects Footswitch, thus freeing up your hands to simply play. You can for an example assign the Start/Stop to Switch #1, Sustain to Switch #2, Vocalizer on/off to switch #3, voice change to switch #4 .. etc and in this way, you can activate all these functions by pressing the corresponding switches and not lifting your hands off the keyboard to touch on the panel.
o o o When you see a function you want, touch it and it is automatically assigned to that switch (displayed right below it). Press EXIT to get back to the main footswitch page and repeat the above for the other switches you want to program. Please note that although the diagram shows the FS13, if programming the FS6, use just the first row of switches (1‐6) and ignore 7 – 13 at the bottom! When done (while still in the FOOTSWITCH page, press the SAVE button and touch SAVE to save the footswitch set.
16. EXTERNAL VIDEO MONITOR SETTINGS The SD7 is capable of displaying all the information displayed on the internal touch screen onto an external video monitor or TV (Mirror mode) or just lyrics/text and pictures – depending on which you prefer.
and center of the screen (as the cross is displayed). Once completed, the system will reboot automatically. NB:‐ You should calibrate the instrument as described above whenever you update your system or if the display no longer responds promptly when you touch it. ‐ LOAD IMAGE: Press this function to load a customized image on the instrument which you may use as a preset background of the display. This is also very useful for you to advertise your business (e.g.
17. ¼ NOTE TUNNING & ARRABIC SETTINGS The SD7 can be tuned for quarter note performances (which is very common in Arabic music and others from that part of the world). With such a scale, the SD7 is not limited and can be used to perform all kinds of music from all kinds of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
‐ KOMA ON / OFF: The Koma function is used to dynamically change the intonation of the scale while you are playing. This means that if the function is On, (yellow), when you press a note between C5 and B5 shown on the display, the note will be detuned by the default value of ‐ 50 cent, but you may also adjust this with the Dial. Press the same note again to remove the modification. ‐ RESET: Resets the original modes for the Arabic Set selected. ‐ ACTIVE/INACTIVE: Enables or disables the Arabic scale.
18. REGISTRATION SETTINGS AND CONTROLS As discussed above, Registrations are snap shot or keyboard settings that can be stored into memory locations in the SD7. You can save settings from footswitches, midi channels, voices, transposition values, styles, text files … etc – but you can also set up registrations such that some settings are not saved or ignored as you switch from one registration to another.
There are 2 columns displayed. The left column displays the 8 major functions while the right section displays the individual features within which can be saved and recalled within a registration (Yellow) or that will be ignored (blue). In the example above, in the GENERAL section, we see that the Transposer and Slider values/levels will be saved within the REGISTRATIONS, however the footswitch, Arabic and Control settings will be ignored.
KETRON s.r.l. Via Giuseppe Taliercio n. 7 60131 Ancona (Italy) Tel. +39 071 285771 Tel. +39 071 2857748 ketron@ketron.it www.ketron.
