Cheers mike. I didnt know. Still need a better excuse to go to Boston though. Have you tried the Wersi in real life ? Whats your take on the discussion ?

sent Harmony Central an email as they stock Wersi,Ketron and korg and can do a direct comparrison. Will see what response if any i get

Hello Spalding
Sorry for not pointing out it was Boston in the UK. (About 100 miles I think)
Although I now live in Torquay, I am originally from the Black Country, (Right next door to you) and I can assure you that coming from there, I call a spade a spade, (Not some Politically correct rubbish) so don’t worry about saying what you feel about the sounds.
All the sounds I have posted have been just of the OAS 6 instruments, as most people want to hear what the instruments sound like, rather then what you can add.
If you listen to the demos from the Zip file, you will notice that a some say “Real” before them, the drums on these demos are a wav file recording, (Part of all OAS instruments) of a Real Drummer playing Real Drums, and then looped to create a style, so if they sound thin, try them on a different sound system, to see if you still get the same effect.
As far as the style makeup goes, if you read my previous posts, I have always said that the Wersi styles up to OAS 6 are weak.
There are as yet no official OAS 7 demos available, the ones on the Austrian Web site are there own, and recorded at such a low bit rate, that you would get just as good a sound on an old Harmonium. (Not withstanding the poor quality of the recordings)
OAS 7 is so different to OAS 6 in sound quality that a meaningful comparison would be like taking the difference between Tyros 1 and Tyros 2, doubling it, and then doubling it again.
Apart from the Mediastation, I and others have been able to make direct comparisons of the different boards at various keyboard Festivals, and this is what I base my personal opinions on. (To see my reports on the last 2 Festivals, just search Synth Zone for Blackpool and Caister)
I have included my final personal keyboard conclusion (Taken from the Blackpool Report) below.
Best Sound Quality; Wersi OAS 7
Best Styles; Yamaha Tyros 2
Best Mainstream Keyboard; Korg PA1X Pro
Most Disappointing; Roland E80 and Ketron SD5
Hope this clarifies a few things.

Bill

BTW I play a Wersi OAS 6 instrument, (originally it was running OAS 4) and although not perfect, none of the new boards, have come anywhere close, to make me consider changing.

Being a recording engineer I understand what you are stating but there is no way a 32 MB sample that is well recorded is going to blow away a 3 GB sample that is also well recorded. Don't get me wrong, I've recorded and sampled many sounds with just a few MB that are great but given the opportunity to record the same samples with longer sample times and higher sample rates will yield better results.

I think many people are missing the point when it comes to the Wersi, Lionstracs, and other open ended systems. These systems are exactly what you make them and can be as good as you want. If the drum sounds you heard from the Wersi were "thin and cheap" then you must not have heard the instrument in person. Listen to the GIGA library, AKAI Library, and drum sounds for the MPC3000 and MPC4000. Do you think those sounds are thin and cheap? These are the exact same sounds you can play on the Wersi or Mediastation. Try loading a GB of the best drum or keyboard sounds you've heard into your T2 or PA1X. That won't happen because its not possible but with the Wersi and Mediastation it is!

Personally it bothers me to see others post negative comments about instruments they've never seen or played in person. Just because a manufacturer can make a great online demo doesn't mean their instrument is better. Sure Yamaha, Roland, and Korg's demo's are often great but when I played these instruments in person they didn't make me want to sell my Wersi or Mediastation.

As I stated in a previous post I wish Wersi and Lionstracs would make better demo's but even at that MP3's are the worst way to show off a keyboards potential due to MP3's poor audio quality.

Hi Ensnareyou. First let me eat some humble pie .

I had listened only to the official Wersi demos from their website and from Abacus and have never heard a Wersi in person. If i have given that impression i apologise.

Second,if you read the article i posted you will see that making a great piano sound for example is more than just how well the raw data is sampled which is why a well sound engineered 32 megabyte sampled piano can sound better than a 3 Giga byte sampled piano. But thats your job so i wont pretend to tell you how its done.

Last bit of humble pie. I listened again to the zip file Abacus kindly posted and listened hard to the styles labelled "Real" in particular the drum kits. They do sound much better than the stock kits but still only on par with what i can hear from the PA1X and the Ketron. Yamaha have always been weaker in the drum department.

I have read Abacus's reports on the Blackpool music festival and i read last years report too . I really appreciate the depth that abacus goes into with each report and respect his opinion. They just arnt always the same as mine but i accept he has actually heard them all live and i have not.

I have asked the Wersi dealer in Boston to send me a CD of the Wersi and they promised me that they would. I wont be driving to Boston from Birmingham on the strength of what i have heard so far but i promise i will report back when i have had a chance to hear the CD. I know its not the same as hearing the thing in person but the same can be said for any instrument. I am keen to hear something great from the Wersi camp .

I hope that no one has taken offence at my posts , ( i know you are cool with this Abacus) i know how personal an instrument is to a musician but if an honest opinion is asked for ,especially in a forum like this, thats exactly what will be given.

Anyway i have posted more in the last 6 days than i have in the last 6months so i will sit back and relax for a while until another intersting debate comes up

Best wishes

Worth

Hopefullyothers who have heard the Wersi or Mediastation in real life will chip in and sing its praises too.

No, not tried a wersi,it has a minimal market and so the reason for the high prices,the competition is getting closer in quality every time a new board is released,i believe they are very heavy,but also well made,mike

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[This message has been edited by LIONSTRACS (edited 06-23-2006).]

If the Mediastation is that damn good then why do they insist on putting shite sounds in it and demos on the web site all the time.
It's been almost a year since I had mine and no advancement in the sounds or styles has happened at all. Dom you promised me that the styles would be amazing by last December and you tried telling me that by having a refund I would be missing out on all of this marvellous technology, new sounds available, new styles with live audio etc, being able to load styles from any other keyboard manufacturer.......... I've missed out on nothing at all.
It really makes my arse laugh reading all of this tripe about 3gb piano sample sounds being better than anyone elses. I have heard the 3gb in the Mediastation and it is nothing special. The Tyros 2 piano is also nothing special until you edit it.
The size of the samples makes no difference if the quality isn't there to match it.
I'd rather have small quality usable samples anyday than gigantic ones with no quality that just take up bags of hard drive space.
I've said it before on here, the Mediastation has bags of potential for studio and recording use but it is certainly NOT an arranger keyboard and never will be.
As for it's looks, it's quite heavy, the key action was reasonable very similar to a FATAR master kayboard, wobbly sliders and cheap rubber push buttons that remind me of my calculator and Dom thinks the T2 is a plastic toy. It's sad when someone has to moan about the looks of other keyboards and still has to have a go at me just because he sold me a bag of shit.
Do you see the likes of Yamaha, Roland and Korg on here stating oh deary me the Tyros 2 looks all plasticy? of course you don't because they have better things to do with their time like consentrating on good marketing and providing customers with quality machines that work - you should try it Dom.
I only use VST and Giga along with the likes of cubase, reason, pro tools, cakewalk and loads of others for doing professional backing tracks. There's no way you can use a style in any arranger keyboard that can match the song 100% so I simply create a song from scratch. VST and Giga are just other resources available to me, they are not the best thing since sliced bread though.
Each to their own at the end of the day, make music on whatever you've got and love it

Hello Spalding
Let us know what demo CD they send you, as I was only aware of the one done by Curt Prina in 2000, when the instruments first came out and were running OAS 2 or 3.
If it is an OAS 7 demo disc, then I will have to get on to Harmony Music, as they were supposed to be sending a copy to all members when it was released.
Hope you enjoy.

Bill

Hi Abacus.
When I rang Wersi for a demo DVD/CD at the back end of last year they sent me a full CD by Stephan Weiler called The Solitaire. It's very good and he is playing on the Scala organ.
I'm not sure what OAS is in use and the CD doesn't have a date on it but it sounds impressive enough to me. He's a very good player, German/Austrian I guess with the name.