From paul@cometway.com Wed Jun 13 17:25:55 2012
Subject:Re: Something new (SV-1 RV)


I suppose it's not "new" in terms of unknown or breakthrough, but recently received a new SV-1 RV (73) from Sweetwater.

It a regular SV-1 just like the ones before except with reverse keys ("RH3 Keybed from Japan"), though they did apparently give it some different sound programs, including a few more splits.

** WARNING: I didn't buy this to do splits anyway, but splits are NOT user-programmable. in fact it seems that splits only exist on a few of the 8 "favorites" which means if you immediately replace one of them (like I did once I got the EP sound I wanted) the sound stored with that button (with the split) does not exist on one of the 36 presets accessible from the two sound selector knobs. I didn't back mine up, so I might try to get it from Korg.

Although the organ sounds/leslie effects aren't near as good as my Electro 2, I've been enjoying the electric pianos and strings quite a bit. It's got a solid feel as a complete instrument (including its own quirks and design compromises) and it really is an awesome sight.

This is the first and only instrument I've ever owned with a piano action keyboard, so it's hard to rate it against anything else, but I like it. The SV-1 has the potential be much better, and I can't understand why Korg put such mediocre organ sounds into it (a Korg X5 from the 90s has a better leslie sim IMHO), but it's got a lot there to like and I'm keeping it.

I think the electric pianos are wonderful with good variety (including a Pianet and EMI). The clavs seem just fine, but not as versatile as the Electro 2 -- I don't really play clavs so what do I know? The acoustic pianos are fantastic too, and there are enough different variations (including a really nice honky tonk) to find something you like. The organs are OK, but not enough of the "staple" B3 sounds, and some lost opportunities with layering where they could have allowed you to fade in a set of drawbars. Instead they use the layers to control key-click levels, which is relevant also, but less useful given what an organist really needs. I'll take the standard key-click amount, thanks. ;-) What's left are tons of great "other" sounds to choose from (across their 4 different sound libraries) including some fantastic Mellotron, choral and orchestra sounds.

The software editor that comes with it is a kinda 2nd rate. It looks nice, and works how you'd expect, but you can tell it's written in Java and just seems kind of slow. But it works well, and does allow you access to many additional parameters that don't have front-panel knobs. This isn't very nord-like, but it does afford me the opportunity to control things like the amount of delay regeneration, and edit tuning models. In summary, it's pretty deep for what looks like an electric piano.

Does anyone have any good SV-1 organ/otherwise sounds to share? -pc

On Jun 11, 2012, at 3:07 PM, hammond321 wrote: