Thanks, Al. Even your 'short version', coming from a actual user/pro musician, is more valuable to me than pages of 'specs'. I have a PA1xPro and a Triton but felt that the newer M3 technology, including Karma, would dramatically enhance my available sound palette. I doubt if I'd ever take it out of my little home studio. Glad you mentioned the release of new sound banks for it. That may still make it a contender.

Thanks again,

chas

chas, you did know that, if you have a Triton, the Karma engine is available in software from Karma-Labs, to run on a computer?

BTW, tried the M3, was very underwhelmed by it... flimsy knobs, VERY unreliable triggering off the pads, sounds that, other than in a Karma preset, were not what you would expect for being an entire generation away from the Triton.

I think I'm going to wait until the NEXT Korg generation, and keep using my Triton

Diki,

Have you tried the Fantom G? It is on my list, but I just can't seem to get to the music shop. That also has some mixed reviews. I was hoping they would include a really dynamite piano patch ala the Fantom-X or R-700sx.

It's on my list to audition.
Al

------------------
Al Giordano
http://www.arrangerworld.com


Korg Pa2xpro, Roland VK8-M, DW Collectors Series Drums, Roland TD-12 Vdrums, Roland SPD-S.

Diki, thanks. I was aware of the 'add-on' Karma package but just never really investigated it, don't know why. BTW, I love my Triton. In fact, despite it's age, I still prefer it for lots of stuff (like el. piano) over all my other synths (including Roland Sonicell, Motif ES). It just sounds fatter and somehow more playable to me. Probably just personal taste.

On the M3, I'll drive in for a listen, but I think you two guys may have just saved me a few bucks. My resolution this year was to not succumb to gearlustitis. Of course I may have to distance myself from the influence of Capt. Russ who seems to be starting a Noah's Ark for keyboards .

chas

Dan,
I wanted to e-mail you off list with a very important question on the M3/PA2. Looks like you don't have that otion on your profile.

Please e-mail me of list here.

Thanks,
Lee

My group works on the OASYS, so I'm not the one to contact about the M3 or the PA series. Your national Korg distributor should be able to help:
http://www.korg.co.jp/English/Distributors/

Best regards,

Dan

Yeah, chas... props to the old Triton. Still a contender, definitely my go to axe if I'm trying to sound 'radio'.

Plus, that Wurli patch, although nothing like a real one, is still deliciously playable

First, the Oasys is as a live as ever. It does not need a hardware upgrade, sorry folks you are dead wrong.

The Oasys knoks down any vst. synt on the market today. You make it, the o will do it better.

There will be an Os upgrade again, bigger than any other they have ever come up with.

And for those that keeps telling that the O is dead...If Korg did´nt say it, then it´s bullshit...and you know it.

The O will be even stronger than it already is. And Korg can build on it for years.
It´s Linux based...Means it is SO overpowered with what it only has today.

Having owned a Oasys I can say first hand it was by no means the mother of all workstations. As a real time performance synthesizer it was fantastic but the sequencer and audio recorder were a joke considering the relative cost of the Oasys. Korg could easily have fixed much of this with software updates but sadly that never happened. Instead Korg chose to dedicate software updates to new sound sets and a few bug fixes here and there. In a few years time you'd think Korg would have made the Oasys the powerstation it could have been but that never came to fruition.

Contrary to what you wrote the Oasys is hardly overpowered and would require a hardware upgrade in order for it to add extensive features that currently aren't present. While some software updates aren't CPU or RAM intensive certain functions are and would seriously hinder the Oasys without a hardware upgrade. That's true for any instrument that tries to run such CPU intense code be it Linux or Windows based. In the world of computer based software emulation there is no such thing as overpowered.

As for the Oasys knocking down any VST synth. Give the Sonic Core/Creamware products a listen running dedicated VST's. This combination is easily the most realistic emulation of analog instruments I've heard to date. The dynamic range and tone are second only to the analog synths they emulate. The same can't be said for most VST's.

There probably will be a new Oasys in the future but it won't be a software update for the existing Oasys. Korg will most likely introduce an entirely new system based on newer architecture rendering the old Oasys a rhelic although a usable one at that.




[This message has been edited by Ensnareyou (edited 09-24-2008).]

I see lots of talk about technical reasons for poor selling volumes and discontinuing Korg Oasys but in my opinion Oasys ended up like this not because of hardware of software, but because of its concept.

When it came out, it was marketed as studio-in-a-keyboard, so you wont need another keyboard, or DAW, or anything else from studio, to record your own song. But the problem was the following:

- the price was so high you had to sell your studio to get the Oasys

- those that didn't have studio of their own where not able to afford Oasys

- the ones that could afford it didn't need it's DAW capabilities because they already had (better) one in studio

- really the most intriguing part of the Oasys was Karma engine and multiple sound generation engines, almost everything else was kind of 'dead load'

So what actually happened, there was simply no market big enough for that kind of the concept of the keyboard. If you need a keyboard you will buy one, if you need studio you will build one, but no one buys the keyboard to have studio, or build studio to have keyboard.