Just musing ...

[JerryPH]

Linda's playing was never in question, she is great (I have a lot of respect for that gal), but something was definitely going on and you could tell she was frustrated and annoyed, she kept jabbing at the Ketron, making me think that something was going on there... in the end reached out and turned the rotary (volume?) dial down and kept playing.

I'm not being mean or negative... but she was definitely not a happy camper.

I hope we get a chance one day to find out.

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Linda's playing was never in question, she is great (I have a lot of respect for that gal), but something was definitely going on and you could tell she was frustrated and annoyed, she kept jabbing at the Ketron, making me think that something was going on there... in the end reached out and turned the rotary (volume?) dial down and kept playing.

I'm not being mean or negative... but she was definitely not a happy camper.

I hope we get a chance one day to find out.

Seems to me the pedals were not working (except for the stop pedal) and Linda was using the buttons on the module to change variations ...

 

[Thomas N]

I'm not sure I understand the point of this. I'm very familiar with Ketron arrangers, having owned one for a few years. This is the Ketron booth so obviously the focus is on their products.

But why the Proxima? Are those Proxima sounds on the right hand? Pretty basic stuff, a sax, some country guitars, etc. If they are not then the Proxima is nothing more than a Midi controller, which basically any Midi accordion can handle with ease. So just an easy introduction to the Proxima to show that it exists?

 

[Ventura]

Ketron/Solton has a unique position and loyal following that has
kept them in business for decades beyond most of their competition..

please bear in mind their origin was accordion-centered midi products
and moved more to keyboards that incorporated their "expanders" as
products a wider market could use. They tapped into something similar
to Wersi and Petosa having products priced in the stratosphere
by comparison to Roland or Korg expanders.. now Dexibell is knocking
on their product share door and having some success in that stratosphere.

the number of customers in that area are limited.. i certainly am not one
of them.. while i like and respect their products i would never throw that kind
of money into an expander or an intelligent keyboard that could at best
only marginally improve my overall sound.

they are using a proxima, i would suggest, because they cannot
use the Korg without making their competition look good, and what
other choice with a velocity keyboard and reasonably
good bellows sensitivity is there ? but they NEED to impress the
accordion-playing market that Ketron still has the missing
link you all need to sound good.. really good..

i hope Linda is able to wrestle this bear into submission in a hurry..
the window in which to WoW everyone is closing fast

 

[Thomas N]

Makes sense, Ventura.

It's been years but I used to watch Linda's videos on the BK-7M and the new Ketrons. She knows her way around those backing machines and had many helpful tutorials on them. It's not a matter of her not understanding how they work - I'm certain of that fact.

This demo was a disaster. I only watched maybe 40 seconds of each of the three linked videos but she was constantly mashing buttons, sometimes going back three or four times in the space of 5 seconds. Maybe it got better. Something somewhere went drastically wrong. Either she wasn't able to bring her own USB drive with all of her preferred settings and patterns and had to try to make it all work on the fly, or the Proxima had some issues somewhere. It basically was just a MIDI keyboard so I'm not sure what could go wrong there since it was receiving MIDI fine from the Ketron.

It's a shame it happened on a rather large stage for them. I'm not holding my breath on the release of the Proxima. Seems risky - at best.

 

[kep]

Are those Proxima sounds on the right hand?

I see only MIDI connection to the Event, not the audio output. SO, my guess everything is Ketron.

 

[JerryPH]

I'm not sure I understand the point of this. I'm very familiar with Ketron arrangers, having owned one for a few years. This is the Ketron booth so obviously the focus is on their products.

But why the Proxima? Are those Proxima sounds on the right hand? Pretty basic stuff, a sax, some country guitars, etc. If they are not then the Proxima is nothing more than a Midi controller, which basically any Midi accordion can handle with ease. So just an easy introduction to the Proxima to show that it exists?

I tend to think those are basic Ketron sounds. The way that Linda is using the Ktron unit is in it's very basic and easy mode, which is exactly what I would do walking in to a place with an unknown accordion and playing live. I'd also likely make some kind of demo of the event, likely using 2-30 short pieces and making many sound changes, each one different.