Ketron SD1: a new wonderful musical adventure is about to begin ...

STAT:
The [Stat] column shows the status for each track. Initially, the column is empty; this means that nothing has been
recorded. During recording, the display shows an arrow “>” indicating that each event will be recorded on the selected
track. When the recording stops, if at least one event has been recorded, the display will show an “i” (initialized track).
The initialization status is removed from the display only if the track is completely deleted. If a track is in the Mute
mode, the Status is ‘*’ (although the track contains data, it is not played back). If a track is in the Solo mode, the Status
is ‘s’ (during playback, only the Solo track plays).
FREE:
This indicates the percentage of memory available. (see DEFRAG function for memory optimization).
SYNCSTART:
It can be switched on/off by pressing the F6 function button. If SYNCSTART is [Off], the sequence (clock) starts moving
forward as soon as the recording begins, starting from the selected POSITION. If the first midi event falls in the PRE-
COUNT phase (see OPTIONS function), this will force the POSITION into the selected value. Instead, if SYNCSTART is [On],
the sequence starts moving forward only when the first event arrives. In this case the PRECOUNT is switched off.
Recording with the SYNCSTART switched on is very useful when you want to record an internal style on the sequencer.
In this case, recording begins only after the style has been switched on (START buttons, Fills buttons, Key Start, etc.).
RECORD:
Recording is switched on/off by pressing the F2 button. There are two recording modes: Overdub and Replace, which
can be selected from the OPTIONS menu.
Overdub: At every recording (run), the recorded events are mixed temporally to the events recorded during the
previous runs.
Replace: The new recorded data replace the previous ones.
HOW TO RECORD A SEQUENCE
There are various ways of recording a sequence starting from an empty sequencer (no initialized track). How to
load sequences from disks (midi files) and how to use the editing functions for already-recorded sequences are
topics that will be discussed in specific paragraphs. Before describing the recording procedure, here is some
general preliminary information about midi events and about how to deal with them (if you already have this
information, you can skip this sub-paragraph).
Midi Events: The sequencer is capable of recording and playing back events in the midi format. Every midi event
is represented by a small set of data. Each datum is normally called “byte” and contains coded “musical” information.
For example, every note that is transmitted to the sequencer is coded in a set of three bytes, so that
parameters such as timbre, volume, pan-pot, amount of reverb, expression, sustain, etc., are coded. In general,
every midi event is made up of 2 or 3 bytes; the first one indicates the type of event and is called STATUS, while
the other bytes are data and have different meanings depending on the STATUS.
STATUS Dati 1st 2nd
NOTE ON/OFF 2 bytes Note, Velocity
CONTROL CHANGE 2 bytes Type, Value
PROGRAM CHANGE 1 byte Program (timbre)
PITCH BEND 2 bytes Pitch value
AFTERTOUCH 1 byte Key pressure value
SYSTEM MESSAGES or EXCLUSIVE MESSAGES are particularly important; they are made up of a greater and variable
number of data. They contain information (type of effect, lyrics, sound parameters, etc.) in a format that is
typical to the instrument. System messages will be described in the MASTER TRACK paragraph.
MIDI CHANNEL: Every Note, Control, Program, Pitch bend, Aftertouch event is associated with information about
the midi channel to which the event is directed. There are 16 midi channels and, thanks to channeling feature,
16 different instruments can be made to play separately. Example. One normally says “The piano is playing on
channel 1”. This means that the change program relating to a piano timbre has been sent on channel 1; therefore,
all the notes sent on channel 1 will be played with the piano timbre and they will take up the controls (volume,
reverb, etc.) that were previously set for that specific channel. System messages (for example, exclusive
systems) are not associated with a midi channel; in the sequencer, they are memorized only on the MASTER
TRACK. In the NOTE events, the first of the two data bytes contains the note that was played, while the second
one contains information about the speed with which the key generating the note was pressed. The speed value
will determine the musical timbral response of the instrument; for example, many timbres will play at a higher
or lower volume depending on the speed of the note. In the CONTROL events, the first byte indicates the type
of control, for example, 7 for Volume, 10 for pan-pot, while the second byte normally expresses the amount of
control. A number of controls and related codes are given below (see midi implementation in the Instructions
Handbook for a more detailed list).
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