Today I played the new Korg Oasys 88 and thought I'd share my impressions of it for those who haven't yet seen one in person. The Oasys 88 looks wonderful, is built like a tank (Oasys 88 tips the scales at 71 lbs., the Oasys 76 is 57 lbs.), features a great feeling weighted action keyboard, and has a large 10.4 inch color touch screen that's sure to attract players to the Oasys like moths to a flame.

For those familiar with the Triton Pro and Triton Extreme most of the sounds will be very familiar to you but these sounds have been resampled with longer sample times and higher sample resolutions. The Acoustic guitars, bass guitars, strings, choirs, and piano sounds all use extensive multisampling. The Grand Piano utilizes 133 MB for the Stereo Piano and it sounds great! The Rhodes and other electric piano sounds were equally as good. The drum sounds were very impressive with 40 kits and over 1380 drum samples. Once again the drum kits will be familiar to Triton users but the Oasys drum sounds benefit from 24 bit resolution and higher sampling rates. Synth sounds abound and are the Oasys' forte.... from sparkly VS bell sounds, Minimoog basses, to cinematic style lush pads that make use of the Karma's evolving sound engine there seems to be no end to the number of great synth sounds the Oasys has. Synthesizer aficionados will love the Oasys.

The control surface is virtually identical to the Triton with the exception of the larger adjustable 10.4" TFT touch screen and the illuminated vector joystick for the Karma and VS sounds. Similar to the Triton, a ribbon controller and joystick with two assignable switches are present. Control buttons are laid out well and in addition there are 8 velocity sensitive pads that can be used to play drum sounds, samples, or chords. It was quite nice to be able to play drum sounds directly from the pads, this is especially useful when programming drum tracks rather than playing them from the weighted keyboard.

The list of features the Oasys has are numerous but here are some of the highlights:

313 MB of sound ROM is standard. The Oasys I played came with the EX-1 ROM and Drums expander and EX-2 Concert Grand Piano Expansion libraries which made the total sound ROM of the Oasys just over 600 MB. I believe all Oasys keyboards ship with the expansion libraries included.

Sampling and resampling capability with up to 512 MB of RAM. Future software upgrades are reported to greatly increase sampling RAM. The Oasys can import WAV, AIFF, AKAI S1000/S3000 files, and Korg format samples. Audio from the standard CD-RW drive can be directly sampled from the CD drive.

428 notes of polyphony. All sound engines, sequencer, disk recorder, and effects share the same processor so dependent upon how many FX, tracks, and sounds you utilize, polyphony can vary greatly. This is one of the major weaknesses of the Oasys but with over 400 notes of polyphony, I doubt its going to hinder many peoples decision to buy an Oasys.

HD-1 High Definition Sound Engine. This is the primary sound engine for the Oasys which features PCM samples with 24 bit resolution as well as Karma and Vector synthesis. Karma features one module in program mode and four modules in combination and sequencer mode. There are numerous real time controls for the Karma section as well. Polyphony for the HD-1 engine is set at 172 voices with 172 oscillators. 1664 user program memories can be stored along with 1792 combination programs and 152 drum kits.

CX-3 Tone Wheel Organ Modeling is standard. Features classic B3, Farfisa, and Vox type organ sounds as well as Leslie speaker modeling. Nine real time sliders are used for drawbar control. Polyphony for the organ section is 172 voices.

AL-1 Analog Modeling synthesizer. The AL-1 is a similar to the Korg MOSS board but has much improved sounds and features extensive filter, modulation, sync, and editing capabilities. Audio inputs can be routed and processed through the AL-1's sound engine as well as the effects section. Polyphony for the AL-1 synthesizer section is 84 voices.

16 track sequencer with extensive editing features. 200 songs can be stored, 400,000 events total.

16 track digital audio recorder with extensive editing features and automation. 300,000 audio events can be stored. WAV and AIFF files can be imported. Audio tracks can also be imported directly from CD.

Digital Mixing console with automation recall. Volume, Pan, EQ, Effects, Effects control busses, and Master EQ can all be stored and recalled. There are 12 insert effects with inline processing and stereo inputs and outputs, two master effects with stereo inputs and outputs. 185 types of effects are available including reverbs, delays, chorus, compression, limiting, EQ, and more. There are 8 knobs, 8 switches, 8 sliders, a master slider, and various Karma controller switches that are used to control the mixer functions.

10 audio outputs (stereo L/R and 8 individual 1/4" outputs), S/P DIF, and optional ADAT digital output.

4 audio inputs consisting of two 1/4" inputs, and two XLR-1/4" combination inputs with switchable phantom power. Audio inputs can be processed through the effects engine as well as the synth engine.

While the list of features the Oasys has are extensive and it sounds great, it does have several shortcomings for an instrument that costs $8,500. Here are a few things that concern me that may or may not concern other users:

1. There are only 4 audio inputs even though the Oasys can record 16 tracks of audio. For someone like me who likes to track live drums or multiple stereo miked live instruments at once, 4 inputs is a serious problem. I didn't see any expansion slot for additional audio inputs or outputs so I doubt this can be remedied.

2. There are only 8 individual audio outputs. I prefer to mixdown my music through a nice large format mixing console and with only 8 audio outputs, that simply isn't possible. Sure the Oasys has lots of great internal FX but I prefer to use many of my vintage outboard gear and FX devices when mixing down and forcing me to stay within the Oasys' environment is a major drawback. If an audio input and output expander was available it would make the Oasys much more attractive given its hefty price tag.

3. The sound engines, sequencer, disk recorder, and effects section share the same processor and polyphony is directly related to the processors use. What this means is that even though you have 428 notes of polyphony available, that number will greatly diminish once you start using multiple FX, audio tracks, and sound layers. I'm not sure what the actual usable polyphony is but I'd venture a guess it will get cut down to as much as half or one third when utilizing extensive FX, EQ, and audio tracks.

4. The Oasys can only play 16 timbres at once in combination mode. What's the point of having 428 notes of polyphony when the keyboard is limited to 16 timbres at once? I myself do film scores that utilize lush pads and lots of percussion which can easily exceed 16 sounds. Its downright stupid that an $8500 workstation is limited to 16 timbres.

5. The Oasys doesn't currently support MP3, MP4, Picture, DVIX, or Video files. Even my cheap $200 IPOD can play MP3 and picture files so why can't the Oasys?

6. The 10.4" color touch screen is very nice but the resolution isn't as good as it should be for a screen of this size. Sorry Korg but a 640x480 resolution on a 10.4" TFT screen isn't sufficient.

7. Many of the features of the Oasys should be accessible by simply pressing and holding a single button. For example.... the sequencer section should come up on the touch screen when you press the sequencer button, the sound selector should come up on screen when you press any of the sound buttons, etc. Right now the Oasys is setup for the user to access the majority of the features from the touch screen itself which is OK but I would like to see more integration between the touch screen, buttons, and real time controls. Perhaps Korg will fix this in a future software upgrade?

8. While the Oasys does feature many Karma patterns and drum patterns that could be considered arranger styles, the Oasys is not an arranger keyboard. For those who were expecting the Oasys to come with lots of styles and do one finger chords, this is not the keyboard for you!

Right now the only competition the Oasys has are the Wersi Abacus and the Lionstracs Mediastation MS-76 with each having their strengths and weaknesses. The Wersi and Lionstracs both have combination DVD/CD drives, support multiple VST's, MP3, MP4, DVIX, up to 3 GB of sample RAM, support GIGA files, and do arranger styles which the Oasys currently does not support. The Wersi and Lionstracs both allow the user to playback MP3, CD audio, styles, and drum loops and alter their tempo and pitch in real time. The Wersi has far more real time controls, an easier to use interface, and much better organ sounds than both the Oasys or Mediastation. The Wersi and Lionstracs both support 32+ tracks of audio and 32 tracks of sequencing, the Oasys is fixed at 16. The Wersi and Lionstracs use multiple cards for processing so polyphony does not suffer when you use lots of FX or do extensive audio, the Oasys shares it processor so polyphony suffers when the processor is taxed. The Oasys has the largest TFT color screen (10.4") but its screen resolution is the lowest, the Lionstracs Mediastation has the best resolution TFT with the Wersi screen not far behind. The Wersi has a built in audio system that sounds great, the Oasys and Lionstracs do not offer built in speakers. The Wersi loaded is around the same price as the Oasys, the Lionstracs fully Expanded is nearly half the price of the Oasys and Wersi. The sound quality of the Wersi, Lionstracs, and Oasys are all 24 bit and on par with one another so it really comes down to price, user interface, expandability, features, and sounds.

The Oasys is definitely a great concept and given time I'm sure it will improve but so will its competition. At this point I don't think its going to do well at $8500 but it could make a dent in the market if it were in the $5,500-$6,500 range. Its my understanding from reliable sources that Korg is price fixing the Oasys so that dealers must sell it for full retail which is simply wrong. If sales don't go as Korg expects then I'm certain we will see the Oasys selling for much less but don't expect an Oasys to ever be cheap.

While the Oasys is impressive, it doesn't do enough differently from my Wersi Abacus Duo or Lionstracs MS-76 for me to consider buying an Oasys right now. In fact my Wersi does more than the Oasys except for the Karma and Vector synthesis features. Wersi has a new OAS 7 software update coming out this month so at that point its features will far exceed those of the Oasys. Lionstracs is continually developing the MS-76's software so as the days go by the field of these super workstations is narrowing.

The Oasys is by no means a new idea but rather just a well packaged, sexier looking, better marketed, better funded one. If Wersi and Lionstracs had the marketing dollars that Korg does I'm not sure the Oasys would fair well in the market. For anyone seriously considering an Oasys I'd recommend they consider the Wersi or Lionstracs as well prior to buying the Oasys. No matter which of these keyboards you purchase, all are great instruments with open ended technology that will continually improve.