Please see this link I really never see a Keyboard like this one in my life. http://www.openlabs.com/products/product_info-neko64.Gen2.htm

Really is all you need to be completed music studio.

Let know what you have to said about it.

Sack

Hmm...
Looks like either a PC with a keyboard bolted on or a keyboard with a PC inside.

Either way, $6,000 seems a little steep.

It looks similar to the Korg Oasys to me.
http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/korg/

Hello Sack
The concept is not new, however due to advancing computer technology pure software based system keyboards will become the norm. (In 5 years from now the Hardware Arranger that we know today, will not exist, you will just buy a keyboard which has a display and button layout that you like, and then load in the instruments you require).
It was first bought together in the middle 90s when Steinberg introduced the VST Host, which allowed manufactures to have a common interface for there software instruments. (This being purely for computers at the time)
In 2000 Wersi introduced the Abacus keyboard with its OAS system, which in its simplest form, built the PC into the keyboard, and developed a program that connected all the keyboard controls to the computer, they then added a software arranger so that for all intents and purposes, it operated just like a normal Hardware Arranger Keyboard.
As it was a computer, Wersi installed Steinberg’s Cubasis VST sequencer (With its VST Host) which meant for the first time you were not tied to what the manufacture gave you, but could choose what you wanted.
As like all computer systems the Wersi has been updated over the years with new features and sounds added etc. (Current version is OAS 7 which includes its own VST Host)
Over the last 2 years or so, other manufactures have followed, such as Lionstracs, Korg etc, however apart from Lionstracs they have all had one thing in common, in that they were expensive, fortunately as they could easily be updated, (As any computer) mainly by software, in the long term they actually work out cheaper.
Hope the above helps, and look for a rash of products like these, over the next few years.

Bill

I've been following the Neko for years now. You can buy an entry level unit for $2600.00, the price of a G70, Tyros2, or Px1pro.

What really interested me is this section of the literature:

"Clone Hardware: When equipped with the Clone Hardware option, NeKo is able to clone any electronic keyboard or hardware sound module. It can literally sample the entire sound library of the hardware product complete with after-touch and effects, thereby in a sense turning it into a softsynth, automatically. With fully assignable banks of faders, knobs, buttons and a 15" color touch-screen, you can recreate the controls of the hardware product that you have just sampled, making the cloning process complete."

Wow, I could go rent a Korg Oasys, then sample the entire keyboard into the Neko?

Yikes, what a monster.

Hi,

don't be much tempted by all this automatism.

Sampling and Programs are made, in a professional way, by professionals musicians. It's hard to get a good sound sampling again an already sampled sound: if it's not natural the first how can you get it working after the second sampling ??

It seems to me like a ad: buy this and you have everything. But to me it's hard to believe, I found more consistent Korg Oasys project, that at least offer a musical approach with lots of inspiring and original sounds, controllers, Karma, whatever.
After playing it, it's hard (really hard) to me understand how Neko can sound the same.

Just my thought.

Cheers.

I have always determined the "pros" can sample , much, much better than any individual that I know...Multi sampling is an art that we just can't do with our sampling workstations..Sure you can sample a novelty sound[car horn],,,but let me hear your piano samples, or your guitar samples.... Leave the sampling to the experts with the real facility to sample...

Bill,you are probably right about the future of keyboards. What i don,t understand is ,pc,s now are so fast,powerful and inexpensive and yet Wersi boards are SO expensive, the Ikarus is around £4000 ie $7000 and the abacus around £4800 ie,$8400 (that is the price in uk)i agree that you can update them, but if we were to say you can pay $1500 for the latest pc, that still means you are paying $5500 for the keyboard + technology, this is the reason other companies are doing the same idea with a cheaper price tag and as production increases prices may fall even more especially if the big firms go in this direction.Mike

Hi Nardon
I agree, Wersi are expensive when you look at the price of computers today, but I still think there worth every penny/Euro/Dollar.
Unfortunately Wersi are paying the price of being first, for the reasons below.
1. Wersi were one of if not the first, to bring this idea to market in 2000, (Although development started in the late nineties) and the only Operating System that was suitable at the time was from Microsoft, (Apple was a closed system and Linux was to primitive at this stage) and so they have to pay Bill Gates his License fee. (To maintain compatibility of the instrument, you have to stick with the OS you first chose)
2. Compared to today, the computers of 2000 were not very powerful at all, and so Wersi had to use a separate processing card, (OEM version of the Creamware Pulsar) to be able to achieve the results required, and these cards (2 were eventually required) were about £500 apiece, the very latest instruments use just 1 card based on Creamware's latest technology, and so now only costs £600 instead of £1000.
As modern computers get more powerful, then Wersi are working to get all the processing done by the CPU, so they will be able to dispense with the cards completely.
3. Research and Development costs a lot of money, which the big manufactures can easily recoup by shifting loads of instruments, (So they don’t need to make such a large profit on each instrument) Wersi being a small company don’t have this luxury and so have to charge more to recoup the cost.
By the way Wersi prices have not risen for a long time, in spite of all the new software advancements that have been incorporated.

Bill

Bill, I am not knocking Wersi for their quality ,I imagine with the workforce that they have they can only produce X amount a year and so sell accordingly, and so the reason for the high price .Wersi do have an established name, but the product they sell now is a quality board with international sounds, which is the way the other manufacturers are starting to go. Lets just suppose that Yamaha brought out the 9000ABC pro new model and was pc based,and at half the price of Ikarus the pro,s would buy it (possibly) and carried on making the psr systems for the home market.the sound quality gap between the pro boards is narrowing. Technics dealership held rigid to their prices even though they made good boards and look what happened to them,Mike

[This message has been edited by nardoni2002 (edited 01-27-2006).]