danb wrote: "What an interesting product. I wonder if the user is able to load the systems by himself. Will there be an option of buying it without an os and then load it themselves? I don't know if you heard Lindows which is linux base system that they claim it will run many of Windows applications. If so, then it might be possible to load all applications that we already have like Cubase, B4, FM7, Reason."

Dan, it is not that easy as you might think:
a few problems:

- using Linux in the audio domain is that it requires careful setup and tuning to achieve dedicated-hardware-like latencies and performance.
- integration: lindows does not provide you with the applications that provide perfect integration of the Mediastations hardware buttons/audio/midi/mixer hardware with the operating system and graphical user interfaces.
- Lindows let you run some Windows applications on Linux thanks to Wine emulation technology. But the problem is that real time audio software is much harder to run than standard office software. So for now forget about taking Cubase SX and run it on Linux through Wine with the same performance / low latencies as on native Windows.
On the other hand it is easier to run VST plugins (see my previous posts) through this emulation layer since they often are really only a DLL that contains the DSP algorithms and an additional module that contains the GUI part.
But I do not like emulation too much, better to have native, recompiled applications, although as you know this takes some efforts thus does not come for free for the firms that want to port audio software to Linux.
Native Instruments produces indeed really cool audio software and perhaps could be persuaded to port some of their apps (eg the B4) to the Mediastation. This will only happen if they see a viable market in this field, eg first many mediastations are sold, second a chunk of these users want to buy their B4 plugin. Plus of course the easier it is for them to port the software to Linux the more probable that they will do it. As said the VST market is simply too big not to tap into, this means we certainly will try to make an easy to use porting layer available to make the Mediastation as flexible as possible. Just give us some time.

As for the price, I think if the mediastation is successful, Lionstracs will certainly build additional models with more affordable entry-level models.

TomTomSF wrote "Well, this really isn't the case. I'm sure we all realize this. So although your workstation may be a killer now, in a few years technology will have turned it into a quaint old-fashioned machine."

I don't think so, PC hardware's performance is increasing much faster than any other kind of electronic/DSP devices. Thanks of the modular concept of the mediastation, a combination of "off the shelf" PC components, additional audio/midi/mixer boards (which can in future replaced with more powerful ones) combined with ever evolving open source software the Mediastation will always remain on the bleeding edge.
You will be able to upgrade a few year old mediastation to a brand new one by simply swapping out a couple of boards (as said I'm only a software developer but I guess the authorized dealers/service centers could do that and the price would be much lower than buying a new model from scratch).

ailev wrote: "(e.g. if music database mentioned I will speak about metadata, ontology ..."
I'm not a arranger expert, but what do you mean with ontology, metadata etc ?
As for the arranger, it is a module implemented completely in software so it means that based on user feedback developers can improve it to suit all user's needs.
And being the Mediastation an open source platform, the style player/managing system/database can be improved even by skilled (software developers) users themselves. The result will be shared if it meets the required quality standards, the improvements can make it into the official mediastation software.
This is how the Linux development works. It is really a powerful model and has produced an OS that causes sleepless nights to directors and officials of the world's richest software company (aka Microsoft).
No one has applied that model in the keyboard market yet, but looking at history you can guess what kind of shockwaves it will send though the industry ;-)

ailev, Lionstracs is an italian company so I guess it would not make much sense to order one from the USA, there will be several european distributors where you can buy it without your mediastation travelling around the world a couple of times ;-)

cheers,
Benno