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#143068 - 06/07/06 03:03 PM Re: WERSI OAS demos
Spalding1 Offline
Member

Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 236
Loc: birmingham,england
sure Abacus. As soon as i get it and have had a chance to listen to it i will report back
_________________________
dont quit.......period

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#143069 - 06/07/06 11:40 PM Re: WERSI OAS demos
abacus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5345
Loc: English Riviera, UK
Craig
Thanks for that info.
The CD you mention was released about the middle of 2005, as a full CD rather then a demo, (He was using OAS 6) but as you say an impressive sound, however to my ears, possibly a little to impressive for UK ears which tend to go for a bit more laid back sound.

Spalding
Look forward to your report.
Enjoy Music.

Bill
_________________________
English Riviera:
Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).

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#143070 - 06/08/06 01:32 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
spalding Offline
Member

Registered: 09/29/04
Posts: 582
Loc: Birmingham
should get the cd in a few days so i promise i will report back.

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#143071 - 06/13/06 02:18 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
spalding Offline
Member

Registered: 09/29/04
Posts: 582
Loc: Birmingham
Ok i have the Wersi Demo CD. It arrived on saturday. I have just had and opportunity to listen to it.

My first impression of the physical design of the CD. it says " Curt Prina plays the new Wersi OAS Keyboard and Organs" English edition.Looks good but immediately it becomes apparent that this CD is not being marketed as an arranger promotional CD. This becomes even more apparent when you listen to the CD.

The inside cover tells you word for word what the presenter says before each piece is introduced but no mention of what instrument is being used. at the very end it says " Thank you for listening. With a WERSI -Abacus, Verona, Vegas Scala or Lourve in your homer- you'll always have a great time. Isnt Music Wonderful ?!!!"

So it is impossib;e to tell what instrument is being used for each demo.Its also not apparent what version OAS is being used. There are 26 demos in all.

First the styles.

If you are a fan of Ropmanian music, waltz's and classical orchestral pieces then you will like the styles. I dont like them at all. I hope these are not representative of the styles on the boards that an arranger player might own it would be hard to see how many of the styles could actually be used in an entertainment , oneman band type setting. certainly i understand why this instrument has such poor sales in the UK. You would have to replace most of the internal styles with more current and representative styles .

This might be an unfair critiscism mainly for the fact that you cannot tell from the CD what styles are being used or whether in fact ANY style was being used. I will come back to this point later.

The Sounds

Most of the sounds demonstrated were of classical instruments, trumpets,fugel horns, brass, classical guitar , pianos and eps, some 12 string guitars orchestral sounds , you get the idea.

They were to my ear ordinary and very inconsistant in that some of the solo sounds were very good particularly the clarinet and trumpet but within the "styles" they sounded almost casioish ( WEll i might aswell offend everyone whilst i am here). The drums to my ears sounded very weak and thin.

The guitars sounded poor in some demos and better in others but none sounded even close to the bench mark T2.

The Classical piano sounded ok but just ok.

There was nothing on the CD that would inspire me to do any further research into the Wersi family of musical instruments

But ....back to the point regarding styles that i alluded to earlier. a the very end of the CD is a good orchestral piece done on the WErsi Scala. Its sounds really good . Actually too good. When you read the commentary in the inside cover you learn that "I was asked to write a big band arrangement with the 4 most popular songs of that time. I did so - and it was recorded in Switzerland. This recording i burned on CD loaded it into my Scala and overdubbed the whole orchestra with my organ. A fantastic sound-this Big Band and my Wersi Scala"

I would have to ask further questions about this if i were a potential Wersi purchaser ( which i definately will not be). It seems to me that he recored "real "instruments and played along with the Wersi Scala which would explain why in the last piece in particular the sound was so good.

That got me thinking. There were some very big inconsitencies in the sounds of instruments that i was hearing in the "styles" and i could not quite figure out why certain brass instruments sounded great in one demo and then really poor in the next. Why one drum kit sounded almost paper thin in one demo and the full and rich in others particularly the last demo. The one recorded with a a real band ....

Wersi need to do a number of things if they want to sell keyboards at least in the UK

1. They need to come up with a greater variety of styles if they want to promote the arranger function of they keyboards/organs
2. They need to create a promo video for arranger musicians and not for people who want to listen to classical songs
3. They need to clearly identify which instruments are being used on their demos specifically noting styles thgat used external sound support

I know this was not the kind of feedback that some were looking for. When i called the shop in Boston i told them what kind pof instrument i was interested in and told him i would be comparing it to the PA1X , T2 and G70. He said the Wersi would sound better than anything that was on the market today anbd said he would send the demo CD which true to his word he did.

Judging purely from this CD , Wersi have still a long way to go to be even considered competition to the big .

OK you can shoot the messenger now.

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#143072 - 06/13/06 02:28 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
spalding Offline
Member

Registered: 09/29/04
Posts: 582
Loc: Birmingham
Hi Abacus. Just re read you post and it is obvious that this was the CD you were refering to running on OAS version 2 or 3. Wersi should be quite worried that their only UK distributor is marketing their products on how it sounded 6 years ago !!!

From one sales person to another , thats just unforgiveable. This causes more harm to the Wersi image than rightly deserved.

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#143073 - 06/13/06 04:31 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
Ensnareyou Offline
Member

Registered: 03/31/02
Posts: 491
Loc: California
Spalding,

The Wersi Demo CD you heard was so old it in no way reflects what Wersi products sound like today. I believe the CD you received was a version 3 OAS demo, maybe even OAS 2. Wersi since then has come leaps and bounds so don't let that CD have you make a buying decision about Wersi. My suggestion would be to demo an OAS 7 Wersi product in person or at least hear an OAS 7 product on CD. You can also listen to demos on Claudia Hirschfelds website which will give you an idea of what Wersi sounds like. I believe the songs Claudia did were done using OAS 5 though.

I know many people on this forum say bad things about the sound of Wersi but how many of those that do really own a newer Wersi? I have an Abacus Duo Pro so speaking for myself I know exactly what a Wersi sounds like and believe me it sounds damned good!

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#143074 - 06/13/06 05:37 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
spalding Offline
Member

Registered: 09/29/04
Posts: 582
Loc: Birmingham
I accept that Ensareyou and i later qualified my post when i realised how old the CD was. But what can i do ? I have asked the UK distributor to give me something to help me understand why you and Abacus are convinced of the quality of the product and what do they give me ? a 6 year old product ?And did they genuinely think it would show the WErsi in a good light compared to the other boards out there ? Had they even listened to the CD themselves before giving it to me as a potential purchaser ?

Does Wersi actually want to sell any of their instruments ?

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#143075 - 06/13/06 06:26 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
Craig_UK Offline
Member

Registered: 11/23/04
Posts: 914
Loc: UK
I agree with you spalding about the demo CD's. The one I got was about a year old and would have been OAS 5 or maybe 6.
I have got to listen to the Ikarus though with OAS 7 in it as a good friend of mine has one, although he lives quite a few miles away. The sounds were excellent and the styles were pretty good. Things like the Tyros 2 sound totally different to the Wersi though. The Wersi has it's own sound which you either love or hate but you must see it and play it to either appreciate or hate it. The problem in the UK is that they only exist in a few places as we all know and they cost an arm and a leg.

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#143076 - 06/13/06 07:36 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
abacus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5345
Loc: English Riviera, UK
Hello Spalding
I was afraid they would send you that one, good in its day but things have moved on.
The inconsistencies stem from the fact that the early OAS 2/3 instruments only had about 50 Long Wave Sampled Sounds, (LWSS) the rest of the voices (Particularly the styles) were supplied by a Yamaha XG card. (The more substantial sounding drums were probably the real drums, which are recordings of a live drummer playing a real drum kit)
There is no comparison between OAS 2/3 and OAS 7; hopefully they will soon be posting some OAS 7 demos.
Until these are posted, please keep an open mind.
Enjoy whatever you play.

Bill
_________________________
English Riviera:
Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).

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#143077 - 06/13/06 10:17 AM Re: WERSI OAS demos
abacus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5345
Loc: English Riviera, UK
Hi
Here are some tunes on OAS 6 with the EQ settings I use, (Not the ones out of the box)
Air is the same as previously posted, but with my EQ settings.
Big Band I don’t think has been posted.
Moondance uses the GM voices.
Enjoy.

Bill
http://rapidshare.de/files/22974474/Air.wma.html http://rapidshare.de/files/22974674/Big_Band.wma.html http://rapidshare.de/files/22975073/Moondance.wma.html
_________________________
English Riviera:
Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).

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