KETRON SD9 User Manual

KETRON SD9 PRO MANUAL, HINTS & TIPS (V 1.0)

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

Written by AJAM Inc. USA

In collaboration with KETRON Srl Italy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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.A

3.B

3.C

Number Topic Page

Accessing and using more voices from Random Access Memory 8

Playing 2 Lead Sounds / Voices at once (2nd Voice) 9

Using / Layering more than 2 sounds / Voice Edit 12

Playing up to 2 voices with the left hand 16

Changing the Sounds / Voices played by your left hand 18

Navigating the SD9 PRO 3

Playing in Full Keyboard mode 4

Sounds & Voices 6

Playing and using Sounds 6

How to change the 2nd voice 10

Other parameters that control the Lower Voices 18

Playing Left hand bass - Manual Bass 20

Saving your Keyboard Settings / Registrations 22

Recalling your Registrations / Song Settings 23

Adding harmony to your sounds / Voices 24

Assigning Harmony types to your lead sounds/Voices 25

Instantly double a lead voice 25

Adding Professional Effects to your voice as you play (Live Effects) 26

Assigning what gets affected by the Live Effects 27

List of favorite voices - Voice List 27

How to create your own Voice List 28

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

4.A

4.B

4.C

4.D

4.E

4.F

4.G

4.H

Variations

4.I

4.J

4.K

4.L

4.M

5.A

5.B

Vocal Harmonizer - Voicetron

5.C

5.D

6.A

6.B

STYLES 31

Selecting styles/beats & Arrangements 32

Various parts of the styles - explained 34

How to Select a style for a song 36

How to play and enjoy using styles 38

One Touch Settings & Variations 45

Voice to Arranger/Variations 46

Creating your own One Touch Settings 46

Style

(More or Less busy) 48

Modifying Styles (STYLE VIEW) 49

Unique Arranger Features 52

Adding & Syncing Arpeggios to Styles 61

Assembling your own style - Modeling 64

Creating a new Style & Beat 69

Microphone and Vocal Harmonizer (Voicetron) 75

Microphone Preset settings 76

Vocalizer Tips and Tricks 85

Using a Guitar and on board Stomp Boxes / Microphone 2 Input 85

Saving and Recalling Keyboard Settings / Song Settings / Registrations 88

Creating a Song Setup / Registration 88

Determining what a Song Setting/Registration saves/recalls and ignores 89

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6.C

Recalling your Song Set up/Registrations at the show/gig 92

7.A

Keyboard Controls & Settings

130

Audio and Midi RECORDING 95

Song and Phrase 95

Audio, Video and Multi Media Player 97

Using Audio Drums & Arranger with Midifiles (Drum Restyle) 100

Playlist 103

Placing my best tunes in one place (MY FOLDER) 108

Using MARKERS in Songs 109

Removing Lead Instrument Sounds from Songs (Lead Mute) 110

Adjusting Midi file Instrumentation with Volume Sliders on the panel

(Midi Mix)

Play Modes 114

MIDI Modes and Settings 120

Audio Editor (Wave Files) 123

Digital Copy of User manual 124

Set up / Preferences 125

Backup (Export entire system, Playlist, My Folder) 128

110

Output Assign (Assigning Drum, Bass or Chords to separate output Aux /

1/4 Note Tuning ( Arabic Settings) 136

Registration / Song settings and Controls 138

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Headphone)

Footswitches & Assigning them 132

External Video Monitor Setup 134

131

Congratulations on your purchase of the KETRON SD9 PRO Arranger & Player Electronic keyboard. Unlike any other keyboard that has gone before it, this multi-media musical work horse is the first in its class o f musical instruments to combine modern features you actually need and will use for and during your performances, such as

• High quality natural sounds which sound just like the instruments it emulates. Cl ose your e ye s a n d you

would think a musician playing say the sax was right there in front o f you

• A vast new library of Live audio Guitars and Live Audio drums which places before you ‘musicians ’ yo u

control right at your finger tips with in no vative tools such as Style Modelin g and Launc hPad with the capability to change the tonality of the audio elements in real time

• Loop Maker t aken to the next level with LaunchPad which provides style modeling and real time

sequencin g of midi and a udio elements which can be synchronized and used in li ve or studio performances

• A new Sample Editor that now provide s the means for you to utilize your own samples as instruments or

create your own drum sets which can in turn be used with styles/tracks or used to enhance Midifiles

• A simple and easy to use operating system which can easily be utilized through a very intuitive a nd wide

touch color screen

• Multi player capabilities with extensive control o ver audio, including the new Audio Multi Tracking featur e

• Four Playbox banks which now allow you to customize and store 999 of your favorite songs (Mp3, wave,

Midifiles) within each one.

…. all of this built into a very affordable package, and one that was designed by musicians and for musicians. Right out of the box, the SD9 PRO is ready for any artist, performer, studio engineer or entertainer to use on stage, at a place of worship, or in the studio – with incredible Audi o Drums, authentic live bass and backings suitable for almost any song, thanks to the vast library of professional sounds and rhythms and the flexibility to be able to control them all quickly in real t ime.

Depending on your purpose of purchasing the KETRON SD9 PRO, you can set it up for various PLAY MODES based on your needs (as a Pianist, Organist, Accordionist, Guitarist …etc) simply by pressing the MENU button on

the right side of the panel - and touching the PLAY M ODE to display the following screen from which you can select the play mode you’re intere sted in.

This PLAY MODE feature is discussed in more depth below under the MENU section in PLAY MODE Page 154.

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

1. GETTING AROUND THE SD9 PRO QUICKLY – NAVIGATION

Before we get started, let’s see how to set up the SD9 PRO by taking a look at the connections on the back (as shown in Fig. A. below). This will enable us to better understand how the SD9 PRO interacts with the outside world.

Fig. A.

Thanks to its clean design, the SD9 PRO has most of its connectors tugged away in the back, allowing it to easily interface with various optional devices. Let’s take a closer look at the back … from left to right.

• ON/OFF:- This is the power switch used to power the instrument on or off. Please note t hat once you turn

on the instrument, it may take about 30 second for it to completely boot up as it loads the various data needed for operation. Also, when you turn off the keybo ard, allow about 10 seconds for it to properly save all relevant material and power down. Do not disconnect power to the instrument while it is powered on or powering down!

• DC9V/4A:- Mains power supply socket. For proper functioning, connect only the supplied power adaptor

to the instrument (which is an automatic 110v ~ 240v adaptor). Warrantee could be voided if a different power adaptor is used!

• SUSTAIN:- Connect the optional KETRON sustain pedal to this jack. The Sustain pedal can be used to

play the piano or other Sounds (as on a standard piano), but can also be programmed to be used as a Rotor switch to switch the rotor Leslie organ speed between fast or slow when using Organ sounds, or to prevent the arranger from recognizing and changing chords whe n playing as a solo pianist (PIANIST MODE – Sustain Pedal turned on).

• USB:- Connect the SD9 Pro to a computer using a stand a rd USB printer cable. This port can be used for 2

purposes (which are discussed in more detail under “MIDI” on page 160):-

o MIDI IN/OUT:- Rather than using 2 standard 5 pin Midi DIN cables to connect to the MIDI IN1

(GM) and MIDI OUT port, the SD9 Pro is capable of communicating with external MIDI devices via the USB port using just one USB cable (when MENU – MIDI – USB MIDI is turned on). This facilitates using the sound engine of the SD9 Pro from Midi based software like Cubase or Cakewalk or Sonar … etc.

o DATA:- The SD9 pro can be connected to a computer via this port such that the contents of its

internal Solid State Drive (or op tional SSD drive if installed) can be mana ged via an external computer. This allows you to quickly and simply drag and drop files between the SD9 Pro and your computer’s storage devices (when MENU – MIDI – USB MIDI is turned off!)

o USB Pen Drives:- There are 3 USB ports located at the front – top of the panel (as shown in Fig.

B. below) for use with USB devices such as sticks, Pen drives, external Hard drives … etc

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

Fig. B.

• VOLUME:- Connect an optional KETRON Volume pedal to this connector. This pedal can be used to

control the entire volume of the keyboard as you perform, or it can be programmed to control only the volume of the style or the Player (when playing Audio, video or midifiles) – (MENU – CONTROLS – EXPR. PEDAL). It can also be programmed to act as a wha wha pedal to insert wha wha effects into say guitar sou nds (VOICE EDI T – PAGE 4 –WHA WHA MODE=PEDAL). More of this in the “MENUCONTROLS” section on page 172.

• FOOTSWITCH:- Connect the optional KETRON FS6 or FS13 Effects pedals to this multi-pin connector.

These pedals can be use to control many functions that exist in the SD9 P ro such as Start/Stop, Fill ins, Pdf Page change, voice change, vocalizer on/off, mic on/off, chord tonalities … etc. A complete list of these functions and how to program the effects pedals are under MENU – FOOTSWITCH on page 174.

• DVI:- Video monitor output to connect t he SD9 Pr o to an external TV screen or monitor. Using the

appropriate adaptor, you can connect the SD9 Pro to an external monitor with HDMI or VG A input jacks. You can also determine if all data shown on the SD9 Pro’s screen is projected onto the external monitor (MIRROR on) or only lyrics, pdf and data related to songs (MIRROR off). The details of this can be seen under MENU – VIDEO – MIRROR on page 176.

• MIDI PORTS:- T he various 5 pin DIN midi ports are used as follows (more in the MIDI section found on

page 160):-

o THRU:- This connector is used to pass onto another device all information received at the MIDI

IN (GM) jack. So if you daisy chain your instruments such that you have a controller connected to the SD9 Pro and another instrument connected to the SD9 Pro which you also want controlled from your controller, connect your controller’s MIDI OUT to the SD9 PRO’s MIDI IN 1 (GM) and then the other instrument’s MIDI IN to the MIDI THRU of the SD9 PRO. T his way, all data the SD9 PRO receives at it’s MIDI IN 1 GM is automatically passed (with non interference from the SD9 PRO) onto the next instrument in the Midi chain.

o OUT:- Connect the SD9 Pro’s MIDI out to another MIDI device (slave) you want the SD9 PRO

to control (master). Y ou can use thi s to get other sounds out of other sound modules or to control other musical devices from the SD9 PRO.

o IN2 (KEYB):- If you want to control the SD9 PRO from another MIDI controller and be able to

control/play with its internal styles and lead voices, connect the device’s MIDI OUT to the SD9 PRO’s MIDI IN2 (KEYB).

o IN1 (GM):- Use this to control the SD9 Pro from an exter nal Midi Sequencer program on a

computer or equivale nt . This gives you acces s to the entire Sound engine of the S D9 PRO.

• OUT (Right & Left):- Used to connect the SD9 PRO to a Sound system or equivalent. It is strongly

recommended you use both Left and Right outputs (stereo) to get the best s ound quality and take advantage of the built in effects. Using only one (mono) may not yield the same high quality results.

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

• HEADPHONE (AUX):- This connector is used to connect a good pair of headphones to the SD9 PRO. It

can also be programmed to be used as an additional output (AUXILARY) which can be programmed to be the output of just bass, drums, lead/right hand voices or other tracks per software upgrade.

• MICRO:- The dedicated microphones are described and used as follows (more details in the

MICROPONE section found in page 117:-

o OUT:- This is used to con nect the output of the microphone and vocal harmonizer to an external

mixer. This ensures total control of just the voice of the musician (e.g. using an external unit to add special effects to just the lead vocalist), while keeping t he voice out of the general mix of the instrument.

o GAIN:- This knob i s used to set the input/gain level of the signa l coming int o the MICRO

(1/4”/XLR) Combo input jack. A good starting point it to turn the knob completely anti-clockwise (0) and then turn ½ way up (line should be at the 12 o’clock position) to avoid feedback.

o COMBO MIC INPUT JACK:- Connect a dynamic microphone (either with XLR or ¼” jack) to

this connector.

o ¼” INPUT JACK:- Connect a line in (e.g. external music player or Ipad … etc) or a GUITAR

into this ¼” jack. If you connect a GUITAR, the SD9 Pro also has ‘stomp box’ editable guitar effects already built plus a guitar tuner for your electric or acoustic electric guitar to always be in tune (more under INPUT – MICRO2/GUITAR on page 125).

Navigating the SD9 PRO is v er y easy and can be done in a number of ways using these useful key buttons:-

1. TOUCH SCREEN:- The bright touch screen allows you to touch icons directly on the

screen. To access contents within folders, simply touch the folder twice (as you would double click on a mouse) to open it.

2. DATA/VALUE DIAL/WHEEL:- This wheel allows you to change the values of selected items.

So, if you touch a numeric icon on the screen (for an example), you can tur n this wheel to change its value quickly. You can also c hange the pages in certain screens (like style, voice etc).

3. EXIT button:- This button is very useful to get out of sub menus or folders and get back to the

main operating screen of the SD9 PRO during operation.

4. ENTER button:- This button is used to enter and display the content of folders in the screen or

to confirm operations on the screen such as pop up messages.

5. SAVE button:- Depending on which screen is being displayed, this button is used to SAVE

current settings, custom start u p, User styles, Registrations etc. This will be explained in details wit hin the manual below

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

2. PLAYING THE SD9 PRO - FULL KEYBOARD (PIANIST) & SPLIT (ARRANGER) MODES

When you turn on the SD9 PRO, it initially turns on in the SPLIT/ARRANGER MODE, where the key bed has a SPLIT POINT. To the left of the split point are the keys used to control the arranger or play separate LOWER voice(s), and the keys t o the right s ide are used to play Right/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 & SOFT PADS.

To assign a new split point on the keyboard, press and hol d down the SPLIT button o n the panel as shown above.

The current split po int will be displayed on the screen (right side) as shown be l ow:-

Fig. 1. Split point shown on display

While still holdin g down the SPLIT button, you c an now assign a new spl it point by pressing t he key on the key bed 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 (which will also be part of the right/lead voice) and it will

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

be displayed on the screen – right section where the split value is current ly being di s played. Release the SPLIT button once set as needed.

Tips:- If you don’t want a SPLIT point (while holding down the SPLIT button), you can also press the first key to

the left of the keyboard (E) and the entire keyboard will now be the lead/right voice.

The proper way however to ignore the split point would be to press the PIANIST button (left side of panel) and turn it on, or press the HOME/STYLE butto n to turn it off (HOME mode).

This button automatically removes the SPLIT point and the entire keyboard becomes one … (PIANIST MODE) with one voice/voices governed by the RIGHT/Lead voice selection. In this mode (PIANIST), you can then select a voice or voices and play through the entire keyboard – just as you would do on a regular keyboard. In the PIANIST mode, a musician can also play the arranger as a regular piano and still have the automatic accompaniment follow along as they play (the keyboard follows you and not the other way around). This is discussed in more detail below in section 4.J - PIANIST (page 68)

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

3. PLAYING SOUNDS ON THE KEYBOARD

Unlike any other keyboard you’ve come across, you will quickly realize that the SD9 PRO produces some of the best natural sounds for a keyboard i n its class. The new Stereo Grand Piano, new live violin, trumpets, and other natural ins truments come to life and ‘breath’ in your hands as you play them on t he SD9 PRO, proving once again, that KETRON has lived up to its motto of “Best Natural Sounds”. The AjamSonic version adds an additional 140 new professional voices. These can be accessed under the various USER VOICE sub groups.

2.A - PLAYING & USING SOUNDS (LEAD VOICES)

The SD9 PRO comes loaded with more than 600 voices. There are more than 350 preset voices (which are either individual or layered sounds as prepared by KETRON). Press the VOICE button on the SD9 PRO’s panel (right side) or to uch the curre nt voice displayed in the top right box on the scr een.

or touch =>

Fig. 2. Voice on panel Fig. 3. Voice touch on screen

The following screen will be disp layed….

Fig. 4. Voice Groups

As you can see , the right sid e 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 gr oup 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. If you cannot fi nd a voice you want, pre ss the voice group butto n once more (or press the ENTER/PAGE button below the wheel or turn the data wheel) to access the next page of voices in this same group. Once you find the voice you need, simpl y t ouch it on the left side of the screen and this becomes your new lead/right voice.

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2.B - PLAYING/LAYERING 2 VOICES TOGETHER (2nd VOICE)

You can instantly add an additional voice to your lead voice - which we call 2

VOICE. From the factory, each

lead voice already has an additional voice assigned to it which you can quickly turn on/off by simply pressing the

voice button on the pane l. The 2nd voice’s volume can be controlled by raising the corresponding 2nd Voice volume slider below it. Together with the RIGHT volume slider (for the lead/main voice) you c an adjust how you want both voices to sound relative to one another as each voice’s volume is independent of the other for the SD9 PRO.

Fig. 5. 2nd Voice button and slider Fig. 6. 2nd Voice Select

2.C - HOW TO CHANGE THE 2

VOICE OF ANY LEAD VOICE

Assuming you’re not satisfied with the factory’s 2 change the 2

voice of any lead voice and make it your own? There are 2 ways t o change the 2nd voice of each

voices that have been assigned to the lead voice, how do you

Preset/lead voice – one is quick and temporal, while the other method is permanent but requires you to go into the voice editor.

The first quick method is to simply touch the 2

voice box from the main screen as shown below in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7. Touch 2nd Voice icon on screen Fig. 8. Sound Selection for 2nd Voice

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

This will open up another screen (Fig. 8) showing the current 2nd voice and what voice group it belongs to. The appropriate 2

voice can then be selected (just as was down above for the lead voice) – by touching the voice gr oup to the right side of the screen and touching which of the 12 voices displayed to the left of the scree n you want to use. Remember you can always turn the data wheel or touch the voice group once more to access even more voices within this voice groups.

This method allows you to quickly change the 2

voice as you perform live - however, o nce you turn off the

keyboard, this setting will be lost.

To permanently edit the 2

voice and associate with any lead voice, you will have to go into the VOICE ED I TOR.

• From the voice selection screen, touch and hold the lead/main voice whose 2nd voice you want to edit for 2

seconds. A screen similar to this one b e low will be displayed that shows all the elements (individual voices) that make up this voice ( the vo ices used to create this lead voice you have selected will be turned ON as shown on the far left On/OFF column).

Fig. 9. 2nd Voice Edit Fig. 10. 2nd Voice Selection

• To select a new 2nd voice for this lead vo i ce, touch the curre nt voice in the 2nd Voice box (4th row) shown in

Fig. 9 above. A screen similar to Fig. 10 above will be displayed. This screen shows the current 2 that is being used for this lead voice (left side – Grand Piano) and t he voice group from wh ich this voice was selected (right side - PIANO).

• You can now select yo ur new 2nd voice for this lead voice (as was done in the quick set up above), simply

select the voice group (to the right) where you think your 2

voice resides, then select that 2nd voice (to the

left of the screen). If you do not see the voice you are looking for – turn the data wheel or press the ENTER/PAGE button to d isplay the next page of voices tha t exist in the current ca t egory/voice group. There are many pages of voices per voice group which you can access this way.

• When done, press the SAVE button (below the data wheel) to save your new USER VOICE and it’s

corresponding 2

voice (remember, you cannot over write the factory voices so whenever a 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 2

voice that was assigned to it by KETRON will still

be there, and not yours).

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voice

Fig. 11. Saving 2

 SAVE FACTORY:- This sav es your ne w voice in the USER VOICE location but with

the same factory name. You can also rename it in the next screen that pops up with the QUERTY keyboard.

 SAVE AS:- Opens a QUERTY keybo ard where you can name your new vo i ce and save

it by touching the ENTER button on the screen. Your new voice will now be saved (together with your matching 2

voice) as a USER VOICE.

 CANCEL:- Nothing is saved and you will be returned to t he previous GM VOICE

SELECT screen. You can press the EXIT button on the panel to get back to the Voice EDITOR screen and press EXIT again to get back to the voice selection screen. (The

EXIT button usually steps you out of functions the same way you came in … meaning as you go in deeper and deeper into functions or menus, you can use the EXIT button to step out in steps as well … very useful if you want to make a minor correction in a previous step but do not want to start all over!)

• To play this voice (with your new 2nd voice assigned to it):-

 Press the VOICE button once more to access the voices.  Touch USER on the bottom right side of the scr een (it comes on yellow). When you

touch any of the voice group buttons from here on, the voices displayed to the left of the screen will be the USER VOICES (not factory voices). To play the factory voices once more , this USER b utton must be off (not yellow).

 Touch the group to the right of the screen where your new voice resides (PIANO,

GUITAR). (Hint:- It will be the same group from which you started with above when you

wanted to create a new 2

voice for your lead voice). All the user voices in that group

will now be displayed to the left of the screen.

 Touch your new voice to the left of the screen and play.  To turn on the 2nd voice (just as you did for the factory voices), simply press the 2nd voice

button on the right side of the panel. Adjust its volume using the volume slider below it.

 You can always go back and forth between the FACTORY VOICES (USER Voice

button off – not yellow) and the USER Voices (user voice button on – yellow) b y touching the USER voic e button then selecting which voi ce you want to use for your performance.

Voice

Tips:- The 2nd voice also has a new neat feature that allows certain parameters to be applied only to the 2nd voice

(independent of the lead voice). To access these parameters, touch the 2 seconds to display the following screen –

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voice icon on the screen for about 2

Fig. 12. 2

Voice Parameters

The following parameters that pertain to just the 2

voice can be edited in the new pop

up screen shown above in Fig. 12.

 TRANSPOSE:- Touch the transpose box and turn the data wheel to transpose ONLY the

voice. The lead voice will remain un transposed!

 REVERB:- Touch the corr esponding REVERB icon box and either turn the dial on the

screen or turn the data wheel to change its corresponding value. Again, these values are valid for the current selection and are lost once a new voice is selected. To change them permanently, refer to the perma nent solution above for editing the 2

voice on page 14

 CHORUS:- Touch the required Chorus box and either t urn the dia l on the screen or turn

the data wheel to change its corresponding value. Again, these values are valid for the current selection and are lost once a new voice is selected. To change them permanently, refer to the permanent solution above for editing the 2

voice on page 14.

2.D - LAYERING VOICES (PROGRAMMING VOICES)

Still not satisfied with only 2 voices to play/layer on the right hand and want to layer 3-4 voices at once? Despite all the voices found on the SD9 PRO, many want to be able to customize voices, layer with 2 or 3 voices, have 3 different voices with 3 different split points on the keyboard, have 3 voic es with each voice pl aying only when the keys are played soft, medium or hard, make changes and save as their own customized voice (USER VOICE) … etc. This is very easily done on the SD9 PRO, and at the touch of the scre en, you can instantly recal l your layered/edited voice and use them as you wish.

To start editing a voice, from the voice screen, touch and hold down for 2 seconds a voice you want to edit or layer or one that comes close to the voice you wish to create. This opens up the VOICE EDITO R. Your screen should look somet hing Fig. 13 below (in this case, the Lounge Tenor Sax was selected):-

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Fig. 13. Voice Edito r Page 1/6

The voice editor in the SD9 P RO is quit extensive but very intuitive and easy to use. Once this screen (first page of

6) is displayed you will notice the following:-

• 4 Rows of voices (with access to each one’s volume, reverb level, shift, tune, pan and chorus parameters).

You can also insert effects into either of the first 3 (lead vo ices) and select which effect type is used per voice selection.

• The first 3 rows represent the voices that can be layered to create a new voice. In this case, only 1 voice

was used (Lounge Tenor) to create the LOUNGE TENOR voice (it’s corresponding on/off icon is on –

red). By touc hing the ON/OFF icon to the left and next to ea ch voice, you can turn on/off the individual

voices you want to use/layer together. As yo u turn the voi ces ON, the parameter values (voice, volume, shift, tune …etc) associated with each voice turns black showing that this selected voice is now active so

you can cha nge them as you see needed.

 Tips:- Even when inactive (white) you can still edit parameters of a voice (touch the

parameter and turn the wheel to change its value), however the effects of these changes will only be heard if yo u turn this voice ON (by touching the On/Off icon to the le ft of the screen).

• The 4th row is t he 2nd voice tied to this lead/main voice. This is where you can change the 2nd voice of each

lead instrument and then later save as a USER VOICE of your own (as previously discussed above in page

14).

• To the RIGHT of this screen, you can also turn on/off effects that you want assoc ia te d with the individual

voices. The effect type is selected at the bottom. You can also assign effects that will be activated by the volume pedal (e.g. OVERDRIVE TO PEDAL) as shown above.

• SPLIT OCTAVE:- When this button is ON (yellow), if the PIANIST button is ON (in full keyboard mode)

the octave of the entire keyboard is shifted up 1 to compensate for the lack of the extra keys. If this button is OFF, then turning on the PIANIST button will have no effect on thi s sound.

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Fig. 14. Voice Editor p age 2/6

• Page 2/6 gives you access to the RANGE (split points within which the selected voice will be heard over

the keyboard), VELOCITY (how hard/soft a key is pressed before this element of this sound is heard – soft [0] to hard [127]), FIXED (if on, then regardless of how soft/hard a key is pressed, the sound will be heard at the same volume/tone which can be set by turning the data value wheel once highlighted), SUSTAIN (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).

 Tips:- Right he re, you can create a very ‘intell igent’ voice which dep ending on what area

of the keyboard you play, you will hear element/voice 1, element/voice 2, depending on how hard you play, yo u wi ll he ar ele ment/voice2, or element/voice 3 … and so on.

• Page 3/6 gives you access to set certain parameters of this voice (Portamento, modulation, pitch … etc)

which you can turn on/off by touching the rela ted icon.

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Fig. 15. Voice Editor page 3/6

Fig. 16. Voice Editor page 4/6

• Page 4/6 is a powerful page in this editor. It allows one to set the following (if say you are using all 3

voices to create this huge custom voice):-

 MORPH/ROTOR:- If you set Voice 1 as First and Voice 2 as Second, with the

Modulation wheel up, you will hear voice 1 but as you move the modulation wheel down, it now morphs into Voice 2 once completely down. You can also select the type of morph below the screen by touching the TYPE and selecting from (Rotor, Normal and Coupling) by turning the data wheel. Select what controller (in MODE) will be used to implement this effect (Joy stick – using the modulation wheel, Pedal – using the optional

volume pedal, Sust. Switch – using the optional sustain pedal, Aftertouch – pressing hard on the keybed).

• Tips:- Set voice 1 to an organ (with a slow rotor speed), and set voice 2 to an

organ with a fast rotor speed. Now, whenever you select this voice, you can turn on the leslie rotor by morphing from the organ with the slow rotor speed into the organ with the fast rotor speed just by moving the modulation wheel from the down to the up position.

 WHA-WHA: – If checked, this element/voice will have the wha wha effect applied to it

if a volume pedal is plugged into the SD9 PRO. This volume pedal can then be used to manually turn on/off the wha-wha – great when editing guitar sounds and trying to emulate the wah wah effect of an electric guitar!

 HARMONY: – Adds the harmony t ype (shown in the TYPE box) to the so und with the

checked harmony box whenever t he harmony button on the panel is t urned on (described in more details below in section 2K – HARMONY on Page 28). This has brought about great harmonies for single or layered voices – depending on which of the 3 voices in this screen you want harmonized.

 VOICE MODE:- Touch this and turn the data wheel to select which voice mode is

appropriate for your new voi ce (e.g. Steel – where if 2 notes are played and you bend the pitch wheel, only the lowest note bends), Duet and Trio – harmony modes with 2 or 3 voices harmonically added to the lead voice etc.

 DOUBLE:- Sets the effect of the double function (down or up) when Double is activated

under KEYB . CONTROL below in Pa ge 29, Fig. 32.

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Fig. 17. Voice Editor page 5/6

• 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.

Fig. 18. Voice Editor page 6/6 Once you have created your new voice, simply press the SAVE button on the panel to display the following

options:-

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Fig. 19a. Saving User Voice

• SAVE:- Saves this new voice in the USER VOICE section with the same name as the factory voice.

• SAVE AS:- Allows you to name this new vo i ce and save in the USER VOICE section whe n you press

ENTER (after naming it).

• CANCEL:- Cancels all changes and reverts to the VOICE EDIT screen you just came from. If you press

the EXIT button on the panel, all settings are restored and the keyboard returns to the voice selection screen.

To over write the factory voice wit h your new voice, do not press the SAVE button when done. Instead, touch the FACTORY O VERWRITE icon on the screen – then confirm if you want to proceed or not.

Fig. 19b. Saving Fact ory Voice Fig. 19c. Saving Factory Voice

2.E - PLAYING 2 VOICES WITH YOUR LEFT HAND (LOW ER VOICES)

With the keyboard in SPLIT mode, you can also assign up to 2 separate voices and play them together or separately on the left side of the ke yboard as well. 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 yo ur SD9 PRO is displaying the default screen (screen it powers on with or similar. If not,

simply press EXIT repeatedly until you get there). Your screen should look like this:-

Fig. 20. Style selection screen Fig. 21. Style View screen

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• Touch the VIEW icon from this page to display the STYLE VIEW window – where all the

elements/musicians/tracks that make up the style are displayed with their corresponding values. This will include the LOW 1 (LOWER 1) and LOW 2 (LOWER 2) - 2 left man ual voic es as shown in the next screen.

In this example, the first LOWER VOI CE ( LOW1) is called SOFT, and the 2nd LOWER VOICE (LOW2) is called EL. PIANO1. This means that if the LOWER volume slider is up and you play any key to the left of the SPLIT point on the keybo ard, you wil l hear these 2 voices (depending on how they are set up in the LOWER mode – see section 2G, page 24 below).

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 t he number a nd changing it by turning the data wheel (+/- 12).

The column next to the OCTAVE values is the VOLUME col umn. Each LOWER/Left voice has a va lue whic h you can change by touching i t and adjusting using the data value wheel. The LOWER volume slider on the left front panel controls the general volume for both LOWER voices.

2.F - CHANGING THE SOUNDS/VOICES PLAYED WITH YOUR LEFT HAND.

You can change the voice(s) played on the left of the keyboard as follows:-

• Touch the voice inside the LOW1 box (to change the first left voice). The following screen will be

displayed s howing you the voice groups on the right and the voices on the left whe re the current LOWER1 voice is from.

Fig. 22. Lower Voice selection

• Touch the voice group where you believe the voice you want to assign to the left hand resides. The left side

of the screen will show the voices in this group. You can t urn the data wheel or press the ENTER/PAGE button to access more voices in this current group.

• Touch the voice you want to play with your left hand.

• Press EXIT to return to the STYLE VIEW PAGE.

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• If you want an additional LEFT Voice (LOWER2), touch the voice in the LOW2 box and pick a different

voice for it i n the next screen – just as you did for the first left voice. Press EXIT to return to the style view page.

• Play and ma ke sure this i s the voice you want to use in this par ticular scenario

• You can then save this voice within the current style b y pressing the SAVE button on the panel and savin g

as a USER STYLE. To make this permanent such t hat no matter what style you pick the LOWER VOCIES are not changed (LOCKED), from the STYLE VIEW page, touch LOWER to display the controls relevant to the LOWER VOICES

Fig. 23. Lower Voice Freeze

• Touch VOICE LOCK to freeze the lower voices such that these voices don’t change even when the styl es

are changed. Don’t forget t o save this under the CUSTOM START UP (when you press SAVE from the main screen) such that you don’t ha ve to repeat this process each time the unit is turned off and back on.

2.G - OTHER PARAMETERS THAT CON TROL THE LOWER VOICE(S)

There are other parameters and functions that govern the Left/LOWER voices and other parts of the Arranger section (Drum, Bass, Chord, Drum Mixer, Lower and Pianist & Bassist), however i n this section of this manual, we will only focus on the LO WER (since we are referring to the LEFT voices). These can be accessed by touching the LOWER button on the screen as was done above:-

Fig. 24. Accessing Lower Voice features & Controls

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The following screen is now displayed showing you the different parameters that control the LEFT/LOWER voices:-

Fig. 25. Lower Voice Features and Controls

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]. Whe n on, if a styl e is not playing (stopped) or if you are just playing the

keyboard normally and the HOLD button is on, this voice will b e su stained (held). This is very useful especially if you have PAD/SYNTH or STRING voices on the LEFT side and you do not want a break between when you pla y/change chords on the left. In ord er to have a continuous voice, use thi s feature. To stop playing the voice, turn off the HOLD STOP on the appropriate LOWER voice or simply turn off the HOLD button.

• Hold Break:- The Lower voices are still heard when the style is quickly stopped using the Key Start/Key

Stop feature.

• Stop Mute:- When o n, the Left/LOWER voic es are not hea rd during rapid breaks (when Key Start and

Key stop are on and the left chord is played and release immediately or…. When only Key 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.H - PLAYING LEFT HAND BASS - MANUAL BASS

You can also play left ha d BASS on t he SD9 PRO, i.e. pla y ba ss lines manually on the left side with your left hand, while playing lead parts with a sepa r a te vo ic e 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.

Now when you play any no t es to the left of the SPLIT point, you will hear the bass (Bass instrument is determined by whatever style has been selected prior to this). So, you can now play a manual bass solo with your left hand. To change the bass instrument currently being used –

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

• From the main page, touch VIEW to enter the STYLE VIEW mode once more.

Fig. 26. Style View – Chan ging Bass

• Your screen should look similar to this one above. The bass box shows the current bass ins t rument being

used/heard.

• Touch the current bass instrument (in the example above, Synbas2) to display all the other bass sounds

within the BASS voice group. Remember you can turn the data wheel or press the ENTER/PAGE button to change the page and di s play other bass instruments. Once you find a bass sound you like, t ouch it to insert it into the bass box above.

• Press EXIT to return to the style view page and your new bas s should be in the bass box.

• You can also access other BASS parameters and functions by touching the BASS box on this screen above

(right side) to display the followin g functions:-

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 – described in more details above under 2H – Manual bass Page 24) or MANUAL (with you playing bass manually to the left side of the split point).

Let’s exploit the other features associated with the MANUAL Bass (which to change, simply touch and turn the data wheel):-

 LEVEL:- This is the volu me of the manual bass. Adjust according to the right volume so

as to get a good mix.

KETRON SD9 Manual & Tutorial

Fig. 27. Bass features

 SUSTAIN

• ON (1-63):- When you play a bass note, t he note get s sustained. The higher the

value, the longer the ba ss note gets sustained.

 Tips:- This is great when playing tu nes that have sustaine d or

linked bass notes e.g. some old Pop tunes. Also great if ending a song and you need that su stained ba s s not at the end. Use in conjunctio n wit h STYLE VIEW – LOWER – Lower+Bass = “ON” or Bass Hold + Lower.

• OFF:- When you play a bass note, there is not sustain and the note dies off as

soon as you release the key. This is great when p l aying tunes that have rapid or complex bass lines like Jazz or Latin (Merengue), where the individual bass notes must be heard but not split over into the next note!

 VOICE LOCK:- Turn this on (yellow) to freeze the current bass. Usually when a band is

performing, the bass player plays the same bass instrument for all songs. As such, use this feature to LOCK/FREEZE the bass instrument currently being used so that regardless of which style is later selected, the same bass instrument is retained throughout.

 OCTAVE:- Select the OCTAVE of the bass instrument. -1 is the default but for some

old Jazz tunes, you may want to set the OCTAVE at -2 (2 octaves lower).

 POLY:– allows you to play more than one bass note at a time.  MONO:– You can o nly 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 Arranger BASS feature, this is discus sed in more details below unde r “4j – Arranger Instrument

features” on page 64.

2.I – QUICKLY SAVING YOUR KEYBOARD SETTINGS (REGISTRATIONS) FOR FUTURE RECALL

All voices are now set but – how do you save this set up so you can instantly recall and use it in the future? Your keyboard is all set up. You have the LEFT voice(s) that you need. You have the perfect RIGHT/Lead voice that you need for a particular tune. You don’t have time to recreate this scenario at a show in front of your guests so what do you do? How do you save this setup for a particul ar song so that you can instantly recall it a t the touch of a button when you are ready to play? This is discussed in depth below under 7 – Keyboard settings/Registrations on Page

129, but we will give you a summary here.

• With the voices now all s et up the way you want, press the REGS button on the top right si de of the pane l

close to the data wheel to go to the REGISTRATION screen (current Bank 1).

• Press the SAVE button

• The following screen will now be displayed:-

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Fig. 28. Saving Registrations / Song set up

• Touch REGISTRATION (Registrations are Song / Keyboard Setups which you save and can instantly

recall for live or studio performances) – and it should turn yellow.

• Now touch SAVE AS to give your current setting a name using the next screen’s QUERTY keybed …

Fig. 29. Naming Registrations / Song set up

and touch ENTER to save your song/keyboard set up with the new name.

• You can now change the se t 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. Note that even though you have created a setting for a song, as you perform, you can always overwrite this setting instantly as you change voices, tempo, styles on t he fly. The settings wi ll still be in memory, unless you save and o verwrite them.

2.J - QUICKLY RECALLING YOUR SETTINGS (REGISTRATIONS) AT A SHOW OR PERFORMANCE

Now that you have created many instant s etups you can instantly recall (right hand, left hand, bass voices … etc), how do you recall them once you get to your gig as you won’t have time to set the keyboard up for each song again?

• Press the REGS (Registration) button found on the top right side of the panel to access the

REGISTRATION screen which looks something like this:-

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Fig. 30. Registrations in Banks

• As you can see from the screen above, you have 4 banks of registrations/set ups and each bank can hold

1024 single registrations or song set ups. BANK1 is the default where your current registration will reside (unless you changed it), so if BANK 1 is not already on (yellow), touc h it, or touch the bank whe re you want to retrieve your registrati on or song setting.

• The center of the screen will now display your registrations along with some that were already put here by

the factory. Scroll down (using the data wheel) to highlight your registration you want to load and p ress

ENTER or touch it twice (double click) to load it. Your settings will be loaded immediately (left hand, right hand, manual bass [if applicable], style … etc ) and you can then play the song the se tting was

initially created for.

2.K - INSTANTLY ADDING HARMONY TO YOUR SOUNDS/VOICES

You can instantly add harmony to your voices by pressing the HARMONY button on the bottom right panel of the SD9 PRO.

Once you do this, play a chord with your left hand and the n play sounds with your right. You will notice that as you play, the SD9 PRO will generate harmony notes to supplement the notes you play, based on the chords played by your left hand. The harmony type used can be selected by pressing and holding down the HARMONY button for 2 seconds to display the various ha rmony type s which you can scroll through by turning the data wheel a nd selecting by touching the harmony type on the screen.

The most efficient way to utilize this feature is to be in SPLIT/ARRANGER MODE (STYLE button should be ON, PIANIST button OFF). When you play lead voices to the RIGHT of the split po int, harmonies are instantly added to these voices based on the chords to play to the LEFT of the split point of the keyboard.

SELECTING HARMONY TYPES:- By pre s s ing and holding down the HARMONY button (as mentioned above), the screen will display the various harmony types to choose from.

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Fig. 31. Adding Harmony notes to lead voices

Touch the harmony type you want (or turn the data wheel to reveal even more). Now play a chord to the left and a lead voice to the right and listen to how the SD9 PRO instantly adds harmony to your lead voice.

2.L - 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 Fig 16 (Screen Page 4/6) on page 19.

Please note that these harmonies referred to above, are for the voices you play on the keyboard and not what you sing through the microphone (VOCAL HARMONIES). VOCAL HARMONIES are covered below (6.B VOICETRON – Page 121).

2.M - INSTANTLY DOUBLE A LEAD VOICE (DOUBLE) – ADD A NO TE ABOVE/BELOW YOURS

Ever play a brass instrument on a regular keyboard and notice how ‘thin’ it sounds compared to the real thing? To do so properly, you would have to play with both hands where one hand would play an octave higher than the other so as to create the same sound as a live band would. On an arranger keyboard (such as the SD9 PRO), this becomes a little tricky especially since your left hand is u sually focused on playing chords. To accomplish thi s , the DOUBLE icon on the SD9 PRO takes care of this drawback instantly. To access this, press the KEYB. CONTROL (Keyboard Control) button to display the following screen shown below in Fig. 32.

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Fig. 32. Doubling Lead Voice notes

• In order to illustrate this better, for this example, press the VOICE button and s elect the BRASS group.

Now touch t he BRASS SECTION voice on the screen.

• Play it with your right hand (single notes only). Great sound s but ….

• Now come back into the KEYB. CONTROL and touch the DOUBLE icon to turn it on (it will turn yellow)

and play again. The note you play plus a note lower in octave should both be heard at the same time as you play the single notes. The value of the OCTAVE (up or down) is set in the SOUND EDITOR (Page 4/6 as shown in Fig. 16 above).

• Other features found in this screen are:-

 PORTAMENTO:- Notes will slide up and down depending on the last note played.  AFTERTOUCH: - Turns on/off the aft ertouch (what happens when you press down a

little harder on a key).

2.N - ADDING EFFEC TS TO YOUR LEAD VOICE

You can now add or chain up to 4 individual effects to the lead voice and control the parameters in real time, leaving the effects applied to the other parts of the keyboard unaltered. To access the effects screen, press the KEYB. CONTROL button on the right side of the panel to display the following screen (as initially shown above) –

Touch EFX ON (turns yellow) to turn on the ef fects and apply them to your lead voic e . The signal is routed from the first effect stomp box (Distor tion) to the last effect stomp box (De la y). By touching each of the boxes, preset effect types dedicated to that box will be displayed on a list at the center of the screen and you can choose which

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Fig. 33. Adding Effec ts ju s t t o lead voice(s)

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