Diki,

Out of curiosity have you played a Wersi OAS instrument in person? I suspect not. Wersi's sounds in OAS 6 and OAS 7 are far superior to Yamaha, Roland, and Korg from what I've heard first hand. I own a Wersi Abacus Duo Pro, Lionstracs Mediastation, Korg Oasys, and numerous other keyboards and samplers so I can judge them side by side not from some online MP3 demos.

Sure Yamaha, Korg, and Roland have a few nice sounds here and there but the Wersi's sounds are almost all really, really good. I'm not talking about VST's used in the Wersi either, merely the Wersi stock sound library. Once you factor in the VST support and additional sounds then the Wersi is in a league by itself. Only the Lionstracs and Korg Oasys can even come close.

Yamaha and Roland may have had decades to develop sounds but using sounds that have short sample size along with low sample rates does not yield the best sound. If that were true there would be no need for streaming file VST's like GigaStudio or Kontakt. What the compressed bit rate technology does do is allow the manufacturer to have more sounds in a small amount of ROM which isn't necessarily better. Yamaha is very smart in how they sell their keyboards, they make a few really good sounds, use those as the "smoke and mirrors", then occupy the rest of the sound ROM with mediocre sounds. That approach works for Yamaha but Wersi doesn't stoop to that level. Doing so would make it nearly impossible for Wersi to sell an instrument like the Louvre that costs upwards of $70,000.00 or an Abacus that costs around $7,500.00. Think if Bentley, Ferrari, or Lamborghini did that with their cars, I'm sure few would sell and you'd have some really pissed off customers.

The unfortunate reality is not everyone can afford these instruments that represent the pinnacle of what is available today. That is why manufacturers like Yamaha mass market lesser cost instruments. This is after all a business and the niche of high end instruments is quite small and little competition exists. Korg is trying to see if the high end market will work with the Oasys but so far the Oasys sales aren't spectacular. Is that because its a bad instrument or that it doesn't sound great? Nope! It's just so expensive most people can't afford it. In time the Oasys's that do sell will help cover R&D costs for lower end instruments that will share some of the same Oasys technology. Rest assured Yamaha, Roland, and others will follow the lead of Wersi, Lionstracs, and Korgs Oasys and come out with open ended instruments. In time prices will drop and these types of keyboards will be cheaper but there will always be new technology that will supersede it and cost more.

In regard to "an arranger lives or dies by its styles".... I agree and disagree. If you are mass marketing a cheaper instrument aimed at the low to mid range end user who is most likely going to know little about how to develop or edit their own styles, that may apply. For someone like myself who rarely uses canned styles and is willing to edit and make my own styles, sounds, etc., I prefer a system that allows me nearly infinite possibilities. I know that many people feel the Tyros is a professional instrument but in my opinion it is far from it. Sure I could use it to play a gig but for production and recording work like I do, I'd be ridiculed if I tried to use a Tyros and its weak sounds. The Tyros 1 and 2 to me didn't rival my 9000 Pro that was fully loaded. Even with all the sound options in the 9000 Pro it wasn't in the same league as the Wersi, Lionstracs, or Oasys.