Thanks!

I wish it was made a little more obvious on the site (for dopes like myself).

The download link has expired already (2 days only) and I've now ordered it again.

Still "pending" after 1/2 an hour - certainly not "nearly" instant download (guess I'm just anxious to see it!!! - No patience!)

*Taps foot impatiently*

The Wersi and Lionstracs differ in that the Wersi comes standard with an enormous amount of high quality sounds as stock. In addition Wersi OAS 7 has several types of synthesis available (FM, Wavetable, Modeling) in addition to VST support, AKAI sample support, GM/GS sounds, and sampling. Both Wersi and Lionstracs support VST's so the user can load any particular VST they need into either system. Most VST's aren't free (some are quite expensive but well worth it), but they aren't required in order for the system to make sound. VST's simply expand your sound palette.

Lionstracs has recently added more stock sounds to the Mediastation and is also offering a new bundle of free GIGA sounds for the Mediastation owner. Its a great start but I'd like to see a sound library included that's comparable to Wersi's. The Mediastation has numerous sound sources such as sampling, synthesis, GM/GS sounds, and of course VST support. The Lionstracs supports far more VST's at one time than the Wersi.

The basic Wersi Abacus (about $7,500.00 USD) is far more expensive than the Standard Lionstracs Mediastation X-76 (about $3,500.00 USD). Of course Wersi and Lionstracs make more expensive versions (Abacus Duo Pro fully loaded is about $16,000.00 USD), Lionstracs X-88 Pro (around $6,900.00 USD). Wersi also offers the Ikarus, a lesser priced instrument but by no means cheap (around $5,500.00 USD). Which model is right for you depends on your requirements (61, 76, or 88 keys), what options you may need (expanded digital I/O, pedal board, RAM, etc.), and your budget.

Both the Wersi and Lionstracs offer the user possibilities that embedded type arranger/workstation just can't. Take this into consideration when considering the price of an open ended workstation.

Why is it that people believe the Lionstracs and Wersi require you to spend additional money on VST's to use them? The Wersi for example has more and better sounds that come stock than any arranger I know of. The fact it can play VST's is merely a bonus. VST's aren't required, they simply expand the sound palette.

Lionstracs stock sounds are quite good and you even get some free GIGA sounds as well. The new 4300 GIGA sound bank is one example. I'm sure Lionstracs will offer other free sounds in the future which will only enhance the product. When was the last time Yamaha, Roland, or Korg gave the user a free 4GB sound library? For that matter what keyboard does Yamaha, Roland, or Korg make than can play back 4GB worth of sounds? Even the Korg Oasys can't play a file larger than 2 GB.

Yamaha, Roland, and all the rest of the big players have had decades to develop sounds for their keyboards. One of the advantages of this (particularly as they started sound development WAY before RAM was plentiful) is a huge library of well developed sounds that don't take up huge amounts of memory. 4GB of sounds sounds like a hell of a lot, until you realize that maybe a GB of it is just for a piano sound, and so on....

The amount of RAM a sound takes up will help a sound get more realistic, no doubt about that, but especially for live use (that's what an arranger is all about, after all) it's all about the QUANTITY of good enough sounds, not how stellar a few can be.

Yamaha and Roland probably put more money into just sound development than Lionstracs or Wersi's entire R&D budget. The results are instruments, particularly at the top end of the line, that for live use are close to perfect, deep, rich pianos, expressive saxes and drumkits that POP!

Could they be a bit better....? Of course.
Is the difference worth the hassle...? If you like tweaking (not a lot of tweak-heads playing arrangers).
Is the difference worth the extra money they cost....? That's what the market is deciding.

Once again, don't get me wrong.... I think these things are the future. I am just not brave or rich enough to make them my present (Xmas or otherwise!).

An arranger lives and dies by it's styles. The sounds are just lagniappe. Witness how many bemoan the Technics line, who's sounds aren't up to contemporary comparison (mostly!) but are missed by all who used them for the styles, mostly...

Roland's sounds, in many categories, are not as good as Yamaha's. But the styles more than make up for it (if you like the Roland 'approach'). The T2 would sell much poorer if the styles weren't as good, despite how good the sounds are....

Anyone building an arranger, rather than a workstation, had better put kick-a$$ styles as priority number one..... No amount of Giga-quality sounds will make it sell if the styles don't inspire, and in large numbers....

Imagine how poorly the T2 would sell if it came with few good styles, and you were expected to develop or translate them yourself. At that point, you probably wouldn't care how good the sax sound was!

Hi Dikki
You have just made the case for a Wersi OAS instrument with the new Open Art Arranger software.

Bill

And as a humourous aside.....

...my first Download stopped at 57%

I'm now having to download AGAIN.....(!)


Wish me luck!

I've got the demo downlaod - if you are in the UK send me an email and I can send it on to you if you are having problems downloading - sure Domenik wouldn't mind - Mark
markjones01@sky.com

Cheers mate - I'll see how I go.

Is this CD just a compilation of all the video/sound demos found on the site???

Or, for the same money, I can buy a G70 AND a Tyros2..... (and a car!)

For me, the whole point of new technology is to do the same job (or better!) AT THE SAME PRICE (or lower!). I'm trying to make a living, here......

I already have a home system with a Mac and VSTi's that can do all the fancy stuff... Ivory, BFD, B4 etc., etc.. I use them, and my tricked out K2500 extensively for pre-production work and studio stuff. I just don't feel the need for a $10k keyboard to do the same stuff at the gig.

We're talking seriously diminishing returns, here.... Truth is, if you can't do it on a Tyros2, you probably can't do it, no matter what arranger you get.... The player is still 95% of the equation.