Jonesyboy, can we please have more impressions, or some sort of "review" of the Mediastation now pleeeeeeaseeeee???

Why not join the General Arranger chat and learn firsthand about the MS? Pretty soon there will be live videos.

See Other Members on the Camfrog General Arranger

Taike.....

exactly the GA chat Forum is really blossoming now....great info first hand...
I dont think you can get better info then from the Person that invented and designed it...

I suggest to Jonesysboy to waiting rewiev here untill he install the new MS ISO 1.3: http://www.lionstracs.com/store/msiso-13-p-124.html

Now we are able to edit and save all the sounds, GM, GIGA, VST...with the desidered volumes and controls, in this way we can levelling any sounds DSP engine with the GM/GS sounds too.
The problems was when we loading new VST or GIGA sounds, to many sounds are programmed with a different GAIN Volume without respect the 0dB Output volume.
Now after SAVED the Patch, we can switch from sounds to sounds engine without Volumes difference.

Some days more and will be ready to download the new GM GIGA soundbank V4, about 6800MB soundfonts and 1600 GIG Instruments.

The MS fun continue always in better...

This is really great.
New futures can make system more independent.

Saving function of volume and other main function of VST is really good.

About another 300 new styles are coming out soon...
Then we have a basic set of 600 styles...

The Mediastation is looking better all the time. And sounding better too.

I don't really like the long boot time but when it finally does boot up it makes it all worth it. The Piano, Elec. Piano, and Organ sounds are very very good thanks to Native Instruments B4 and the Giga Pianos. VSTi's are really the 'wave' of the future (no pun intended ). To have VSTi's internally in one keyboard eliminates the need for an external laptop and an additional master keyboard to accomplish the same thing that the Mediastation does. Kudos to Lionstracs for their innovative approach and design concept.

There is a bit of a problem I foresee down the road with the Mediastation though. The problem is this: The Mediastation has an AMD Sempron 64bit running @ 3.0GHz which is sufficient for running any number of VST software presently but five years from now it may not be enough to run the latest CPU intensive VST software that will be available then i.e. (in five or so years).

What is needed (in my opinion) is for Lionstracs to make the Mediastation's CPU upgradable and also the Motherboard. Since AMD and/or Intel use different Socket formations with each subsequent CPU model they release the Motherboard would need to be replaced too besides the CPU in most cases unless the socket is the same. For instance, I have an Intel Pentium 4 3.4-E GHz CPU (running @ 3.8 GHz speed ), and which utilizes a socket 478. But if I wanted to upgrade to, let's say, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor I would have to also upgrade to a new Motherboard which supports the Core 2 Duo processor i.e. a motherboard with a socket 775 architecture.

Can the Mediastation do this now? I don't think so, right? So if the Processor cannot be upgraded and/or the Motherboard also, the Mediastation may poop out in a few years when more and more CPU intensive VST and other software applications become available and the Mediastion's 'by then' obsolete Processor won't be powerful enough to keep up. So that is my only concern. Sure, the Mediastation is open source and upgradable, but to what degree? The CPU and Motherboard need to be upgradable also, not just other various aspects of the keyboard.

BTW, I could be missing something here. Maybe the CPU and Motherboard can 'already' be upgraded if a person so chooses. But from the info on the Lionstracs web site I did not get that impression at all.

Please advise one way or the other regarding this Domenick.

PS: The Processor i.e. the 'CPU' not the DSP chip {but DSP should be upgradable too, no?"} is the muscle to run the software of the keyboard. Five years from now a 3.0GHz AMD Sempron will be a wimpy obsolete processor on the verge of being put in a museum. Can we agree on this assessment?

So it makes sense for the Mediastation to have the ability to upgrade the CPU and/or Motherboard too. As well as the DSP chip also in my opinion.

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 11-27-2006).]

Mike,
I am no expert on cpu's and mainboards but I will answer what I can and maybe Dominek will give more info. First you mentioned the boot up time of the Mediastation. It takes mine about 1 min and 24 secs to completely boot up and begin playing. That doesn't seem that long to me as my windows xp notebook takes a little longer. What are the average boot times for other keyboards? Anyone care to time theirs and let us know?

I understand your question about the Mediastation's upgrade path, that is very important. In fact I would say its one of the Mediastation's strengths. Mine is the MS X-88 Pro it has an AMD Athalon 64 processor 3000+. That's a pretty powerful CPU to start out with. The Main board is a Epox EP-9HDAI Pro http://www.epox-europe.com/products/view.php?product_id=317
It is a 939 socket. The description says that the CPU can be upgraded to an AMD Athalon 64, 4 fx, 64 x2 up to 4800+ with 2.0 GT hypertransport technology.

Also since the Mediastations parts are mostly standard computer parts, It would stand to reason that the mainboard could also be upgraded if the need arrived. However, since Domenik has designed 12 custom daugther boards to drive the Mediastaion, perhaps he will offer more insight into the upgradeability.

Why could the MB and CPU not be upgraded - it is just like any other PC - As long as the format of the board is the same ie, AT or ATX then that is it - new MB/CPU and probably memory - that is it - Dom will correct me if I am wrong b ut the upgrade of the hardware really should not be an issue...
Hope this helps,
Regards
Mark

Motherboards last about 2 years before they become obsolete, and so Lionstracs like Wersi will be using a different Motherboard and CPU during its lifetime, (For instance over 6 years ago when Wersi released their OAS instruments, they used a Celeron 533Mhz CPU and 128Mb of PC133 Ram, the latest instruments use a Sempron 3500+ and 1Gb of DDR Ram, which earlier instruments can easily be upgraded to) and that is the beauty of am open system in that you can always keep upgrading both Hardware and Software without having to change the instrument.
Regarding VSTs, be careful as with some (Particularly the Free ones) as little as 2 or 3 used together will Max out your current CPU.
Hope this helps

Bill