I watched the 30-minute unveiling demo with a good speaker system (what fun hi-speed web) and the Oasys looks and sounds like a one-stop combination of many keyboards in one package. It's impressive to see a new 300lb gorilla take the stage, but it's not devastatingly new technology IMHO. I think it's possible to do many similar things the Oasys does with other instruments and/or combinations of VSTi's. And most importantly, from what I heard I didn't think the sound of any of the Oasys synth engines; from hi-def to AL-1 analog to sampling to even the CX-3 which is Korg's very good clonewheel to the grand piano (whew!) sounded any better than the Motif ES 8. Really... nothing blew away quite as much as I expected/hoped and that's not just to join with the many nay-sayers of this keyboard on the web already. But it is cool having all this in one place. Where this instrument will reign is in the hop hop studios - heck it IS a total hip hop studio. If you have no other gear and WANT no other gear, this is for you. It's daring and innovative, but a bit specialized. Mega-priced synths haven't historically sold very well or lasted very long, but I hear that Korg intends to spin off less costlier products from the Oasis technology, so there's a certain practicality to it. And it'll stake nice bragging rights for whoever can afford it and make use of it.

So are music stores going to let every kid on the block mug this $8k+ thing up on the showroom floor?