FWIW, The audio I/O system is 24-bit, not 16-bit, and is a custom Korg design. The track count is determined solely in software, and not by the audio I/O.

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Product Manager, Korg R&D

[This message has been edited by Dan Phillips (edited 06-30-2008).]

I agree: it's reasonable to maintain some level of skepticism regarding endorsements.

On the other hand, to my knowledge, almost no-one has received an OASYS for free. Jordan Rudess, for instance, is on record as having sold a good amount of gear to afford his several OASYS keyboards. Even at an endorsee discount (which may not be as heavy as you'd imagine), the OASYS is not a casual purchase...and that's about the best real endorsement that a piece of gear can have.

Nice to see someone from the home office making an appearance...

Skepticism at marketing is an essential tool for survival in the US, Dan.. As I said, these artists' commitment to this instrument will be displayed in the next few years, as they continue to play it while newer, more powerful instruments come out.

And, while we have you here, how about some confirmation as to the Oasys's demise, and whether there is an Oasys MkII in the works, or has Korg bailed on the $8000+ keyboard market...?

It must definitely be hard to be making hardware items such as this in the days of software and multi-core computer CPU's

...and as also noted previously, some might say that a level of commitment has already been demonstrated by paying for the instrument with their own hard-earned cash!



I think you're savvy enough to not expect answers to questions about future product plans. :-)



The tricks are to make instruments with technically superior algorithms, resulting in noticeably better audio quality; to make those algorithms and their environment computationally efficient, so that the musician isn't significantly hampered by performance limitations; and to create sounds which use those algorithms and our hardware controllers to good musical effect. We are fortunate to have many good people working for Korg, and can make all of that happen.

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Product Manager, Korg R&D

Thanks for your input Dan. It is really good to see a Korg person here, so welcome.

I have to agree that its the products that artists PAY for that gives the recommendation, not that they get it for free.

I remember reading somewhere the story about Rudess and what he went through to get the Oasys which made me sit up and take notice of it, and research it for a replacement 'board. In the end it only came down to money.

It was even used in a couple of top ten hits (including a number one) out here with a band called Rogue Traders, and the keys guy from that band also bought one, it wasn't given to him.

People cannot, in my view, compare hardware instruments from a totally different era, GREAT as they are, to a modern DAW instrument like the Oasys. It is chalk and cheese.

It would be like comparing baseball teams (I cannot use cricket, 'cause you blokes over there probably don't know about that game!!!) from now to those in the 30's and 40's, both great in their era, but impossible to compare for a "which is better" contest as there are SO many variables.

Stephen Kay (in association with Korg) has come up with a super keyboard, (although he already did that with the Karma) even though I couldn't afford it.

One immediate legacy I can think of is the M3 series from Korg. As I said previously, I was a hair away from buying it over the PA2xpro.

Anyway, enough of that, again good to see you on board Dan and I hope you can frequent the forum in an on-going and regular way.

Cheers
Dennis

Well, on the whole, I'm not that concerned whether the guys at the top of the pyramid pay for their gear or not. Let's face it, Jorden Rudess is probably making enough to afford whatever he wants, discount or no...

But to compare hardware to software is pretty difficult, these days. The lead time on bringing a hardware keyboard to market is such that it always guarantees that it is a generation behind computers in sheer horsepower, not to mention the peripherals that seem to get changed on a monthly basis If you add that to the software innovations like Mega-triggering or rules-based sample triggering, that require massive HDs, streaming samples, and load times a fraction of any hardware system, and hybrid sound generation that is only limited by your soundcard (24/96, anyone?), you can see what a struggle it is to make a keyboard with even a fraction of a well-tuned computer system's capabilities...

But to get back to an earlier point... I can see the point in making a keyboard with highly adaptable sound generation capabilities, but let us not forget what these things are really needed for. It isn't the studio, where computers rule. It is for LIVE music making. As such, can ANYONE explain to me why on earth you try to put a DAW inside a live music keyboard?

Why waste the R&D money on shoe-horning a capability that, firstly, everybody with the money for an $8000+ keyboard already HAS a far better DAW if they need one, and secondly has virtually no use in a live keyboard (unless you plan on doing karaoke with it! ).

You want to put something into a live keyboard we can use? How about a sampler that loads up at TODAY'S computer speeds, not something that takes minutes (that we don't have to spare) to load up the generous RAM. Gigabytes of Ram are USELESS when they take minutes (if not hours) to load up. Scrap the DAW. Give us a sampler we can use...

OASYS HDR records polyphony strapped Virus TI




That would be the OASYS, which loads as fast as a Pentium 4, 2.8 gighz. I can load 700megs of samples (Karo Strings) from internal HD, in 30 seconds. Try that on any other hardware workstation/sampler. I've experienced the sample loading extreme, from slow Yamaha A5000 to fast E-MU E4 loads. The OASYS smokes them.

The fast sample loading is also good for Songs, with audio tracks. Also, those audio tracks can be opened up and put in any sample slot.

The OASYS OS and ROM samples boot up slightly faster than my Toshiba dual core laptop (about 90 seconds). No different than load times from people taking computers on tour.

It is "computer fast". Like a computer, I would recommend battery backup (that you can get at Best Buy, Fry's, etc.) in case of an outage. I don't play live, but if I did, I would get one.

Dan,

So you're saying the audio recorder and its track count aren't on a dedicated Korg PCI card in the Oasys and not 16 BIT? It's my understanding the audio card for the recorder is 16 BIT and all audio recordings are 16 BIT at 48K but the D/A outputs of the Oasys are 24 bit. Even Korg's literature states the audio recorder is 16 BIT at 48K (see link below). When did those specs change to 24 BIT at a higher sample rate?

If the audio and track count aren't fixed by the PCI card why would Korg claim the Oasys to be 24 BIT yet make the audio recorder 16 BIT and only 16 tracks? That makes absolutely no sense. Korg needs to update their information on the Oasys if the audio recorder is now true 24 BIT which I doubt that it is.
http://www.korg.com/gear/prod_info.asp?A_PROD_NO=OASYS

The operative word is "CAN" the question is if they ever will make that happen? So far that hasn't happened yet and it's the primary reason I got rid of my Oasys. The Oasys is a phenomenal synthesizer with incredible build quality but hardly what I'd call a complete workstation. The audio recorder and sequencer are lackluster at best and were afterthoughts in my opinion. Being that the Oasys is computer based Korg could easily have made a custom DAW/Sequencer combo that was similar to top brand competitors but they didn't. Why? Korg should have just sold the Oasys as a real time performance synthesizer which it is but I doubt many people would pay $8000.00 for that.

I owned an Oasys and Korg could have kept me as an Oasys user had they only updated the software to make it a viable workstation. That never happened and instead Korg chose to add new EXi banks rather than functionality. I saw the writing on the wall much like I did with Yamaha and the 9000 Pro so I moved on to greener pastures while the grass was still green. Now it seems the Oasys may be discontinued which most likely means little to no future software development. Only time will tell.

(duplicate post)

[This message has been edited by Dan Phillips (edited 06-30-2008).]