Here is a link to a brief introductory review of OAS 7.
Enjoy

Bill
http://www.jazzhooves.com/keyboardreviews/page15/page29/page29.html

Am I reading this right.....? The guy is an English player doing the review, but all the screenshots are in German.

Have the screens been translated to English, or do you have to learn German to operate this thing?!

To be honest, I didn't get a whole lot from this either, just seems like a bunch of basic editing controls that most other arrangers are capable of, too.

Given that the main improvement (I know there are a LOT of little things!) between a regular arranger and the OAS stuff is the VSTi's, what I would REALLY like to find out is, firstly, what is the latency of the system? Anybody that uses computers for VSTi's is all too aware of the compromise between horsepower and latency - the lower the latency, the fewer voices, or less complex synthesis you can use, before the 'crackles' set in.

Unfortunately, B4 is not a very good test of this, as it is VERY CPU efficient.... I used to run it quite successfully on my old G3 300MHz mac, now a doorstop for all practical purposes!

How about more up to date VSTi's like Ivory, or BFD, or DFH2? Streaming, multi-GB sized libraries are now pretty much the norm. Orchestral libraries like Vienna Soundcube and the like. After all, you are not going to buy a $10-20k Wersi, and load it up with HyperCanvas or Hypersonic. You will want to put some heavy duty stuff in there, and these have very high CPU demands, and disk streaming issues.

I would really like to know if OAS is up to these tasks. And I don't have time to learn German to find out!

I'm NOT trying to bust your (well, you know what organs!), I really AM interested in seeing whether these things can cope live with the demands that tax even a good fast modern computer. I use VSTi's extensively in the studio, and some of these modern ones are jaw-droppingly good. But they can be demanding on the hardware.

So is there anywhere (in English!) I can find out about the true power of the OAS system? Geek stuff, all that tech specs stuff.....

The language is selectable from the settings screen, the pictures in the review look like they have been lifted direct from the German manual.
The OAS instruments are normal computers inside, so any problems with VSTs will be the same as any PC computer.
The OAS software, Windows and all the standard samples (Including option packs) use about 600Mb of memory.
A lot of the processing for OAS is done by an OEM version of the Creamware 6 DSP cards (Pulsar 2) with scope ASIO drivers giving a default latency of 7ms. (Adjustable) http://www.creamware.com/index.php?submenu=products&seite=products&lang=en
All mixing, hardware connections and external in/Outs etc are done by a Wersi custom built programmable interface board.
As far as I can ascertain the VST Host is based on the VST Host produced by Steinberg.
OAS 7 adds multiple synthesis modules and so does not now have to rely on just samples. (All samples are still in a modified Creamware sts format)
The 6 editing features shown are specific to the voice, and are in addition to the standard editing features. As an example with the Piano one of the settings allows you to alter the hammer action, whereas the guitar has one for Fret noise adjustments etc.
Hope this helps

Bill

Thanks, Bill..... Glad you can get the screens in English!

Do they allow that Creamware Minimoog emulation on OAS? That's a big fat badass emulation! And it is supposed to run on the cards, NOT the computer CPU.

What generation of CPU will they support inside the Wersi? Can it handle Core-Duo or Quad-core Intels. All reports I've seen indicate they SCREAM at producing VSTi voices at low latencies....

Current instruments use AMD CPU, although of what socket type I do not know. My instrument uses a 2.8 GHz P4 and Motherboard, which I upgraded from the original P3. (You will need to contact Wersi or the US dealer www.wersimusic.com for more details)
I have used stand alone programs with OAS 6 (The Minimoog appears to be stand alone) and the Cubasis Host by downloading a separate ASIO Driver (Or using one of the other supplied drivers) for the stand alone program, (You may also need to install Midi Yoke to connect the Wersi internal Midi to the stand alone program, OAS 6 has assignable internal Midi connections because it uses Cubasis as the VST Host, however as the VST Host is now integrated in OAS 7 the operation may be different)
As above it will be best to contact Wersi to confirm. (Mark for the attention of Uli Wildhack, as he is one of the MD and also one of the main designers of the OAS system)
Hope this helps

Bill