Spalding,

You are absolutely right. I just checked the website. http://www.lionstracs.com/site/

And the exact wording is: "You will BUY only ONE time, you will Update the Mediastation OS FREE forever!"

My apologies for using the word "life" instead of the word "forever". Thank you for catching that.

No one knows what the future holds, but I think that Domenik has made his intentions clear, in that he plans to continue his support of the Mediastation. I understand your concerns about this philosophy as a business plan. It is extremely good for the consumer, but not extremely profitable for the company.

Being a business first, I think Lionstracs will make a lot of money from their hardware sales, they are also planning other related products besides keyboards(shhhhhh). But I also think that this is more than a business venture for Domenik. The Mediastation is his "baby", He conceived it and developed it to this point, with help of course, and he is not about to let it be put in a corner and forgotten. He is going to see it through to its full potential.

I have spoken with Domenik regularly for well over a year and have found him to be a man of his word. I certainly trust him more than the CEO of any other keyboard company. LOL, I don't even know any of the other CEO's. But I have keyboards from other companies sitting right here in my studio, that have buttons designed for future features that are still inoperative 10 years later. Maybe I should just be patient. lol

I took a leap of faith and purchased the top model Mediastation while so many SZ members posted negative comments. When you are making a big purchase like a high-end arranger you should be able to enjoy the moment and tell all your friends on synthzone, so that can be happy for you also. That is the sense of commraderie that we should be building here. But I kept the news to myself to keep from being ridiculed because of the atmosphere at that time.

So you'll have to excuse me if I get just a little "carried away", now that I feel completely validated in my choices. A lot of the members negative posts made it hard for me to make the right choice, a few members actually helped by asking questions and making comments on the positive aspects of the Mediastation. To those I say "thanks".

My goal is not to see a Mediastaion in every arranger players hands. I think there are many good arrangers and I want to see them all promoted here. I am, however, commited presenting information as accurately as I can so that other people like myself can see the full picture and make an informed buying decision. I want to maker it easier for the next person taking the same path that I have taken.

And you are especially correct with you statement, "If thats true then you do have indeed a very good bargain."

I think so too!

Richard

I can also say as MEDIASTATION USER that I'm having all updates for free.

Good is also support from LIONSTRACS about new things.

Richard.... will you post back here if and when the Mediastation comes with as many, and as good, styles that come in a Tyros2 or E80? I think that is the point at which it will take off and crush the competition.

Until then, I think I would rather have hundreds of great styles with a (relatively) mediocre sound engine, than a great sound engine and few great styles..... As I've said before, even the T2 would sell poorly if it came with as few good styles, and the users were expected to create or edit their own.

You want to sell a gazillion Mediastations, Domenik? Stop developing new features for a year. Spend your entire R&D budget on style development. Kick everyone's a$$ and THEN start back up on the new OS's.

Dikki....I gotta agree with ya there .....good advice.....great post!!

Diki
Don't worry..
Let my developers complete the new GIGA Linuxsampler 4.0 Gm/GS, unlimited voice with 127 Program X 127 GS variation, more than 16.000 GIG sounds in realtime, RAM/Disk Streaming.
Then we wil restart mapping the all styles under a 8Gb GIGA soundfonts in REALTIME, NO delay and latency to recall one sound.

december will be available the new sampler and al the MS user can download it for FREE and they dont have to Upgrade the board..( $$$) Wait when where available the dream T3...I like know how much $$$ you have to spend and how much $$$ will value your T2.

Then we start again to have fun around...

well if Dom is going to provide free os upgrades "forever" for then i seriously and genuinely wish him well with the media station sales. It gets really hard and expensive having to find brand new customers to generate profit and incredibly hard supporting existing "one time" customers with an open ended contract that has no profit and infinite developement costs.........

I dont doubt doms commitment to the mediastation project. I just hope he has really deep pockets

Hi Richard,
I gather the main info is in the stylemaking pak? ( which isn't free & I certainly don't have a hassle with that).
Before I would bother purchasing, I've actually got to try & find out if there is an actual distributer here in Australia.
Abacus mentioned a a store to me a while back, but haven't found Mediastation on their website as yet, so maybe it didn't happen? Don't like getting too excited about a keyboard & then find it's not readily available. ( We don't have a Wersi dealer here either as far as I know)
Worse still , sometimes our currency conversion rate makes keyboards very pricey.
Except for the fact that dealers here give reasonably good discounts, a lot of keyboards would be unaffordable for the average person.

It sounds like it's an amazing bit of gear.
I'll wait till hubby's in a really good mood before I start further checking. haa haa

best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by richard_shiflet:

Domenik..... did you READ my post?

I don't care HOW many new features the next OS has....

Styles, Styles. Styles........ That's all anyone cares about, first and foremost.

Until you have as many good styles OOTB as a T2 or E80, not many here care if a Mediastation streams, squirts or oozes samples from the hard drive. They care about how many kick-a$$ styles come with it.

You want to blow your customers away (and your competition)? Instead of promising new OSs on an ongoing basis, promise them 20 new slammin' styles a month.... FOREVER! And, unlike Yamaha, or Roland, etc., ACTUALLY KEEP YOUR PROMISE!

THAT's what arranger owners REALLY want......

Can any one who actually has a mediastation confirm whether the styles on the mediastation are really really bad?

It seems as if we are making assumptions that the mediastation’s styles are way way behind Roland, Yamaha, Gem, Ketron and Korg styles.

If the onboard styles would be a deal breaker for keyboard musicians looking for an arranger, then this only helps to give more support to those who have a negative view to arranger and to those who play them.

With the endless possibilities and the integration between one’s studio and live performance, and the future ability to import styles, I just can not see how onboard styles could prevent a performer from getting one.

If some persons (which I find hard to believe) are so dependant on factory styles for their performances rather than sounds, usability, playing and entertaining ability, then maybe those players may need to rethink their role as an OMB.

i hear you to the genesys but the fact remains that many OMB performers if not most do not depend upon their abilities in a studio to make a living. They make their money in front of customers and if they are any good then thats where they want to spend most of their productive time. Not endlesly tweaking imported styles that never sound as good as factory preset ones.

I am excited about the possibilities of the mediastation and genuinley look forward to the projects progress. But i suspect that most arranger owners arnt all that interested in the open ended features of the instrument as most of us do not use i estimste even 1/3 of our existing closed system instruments now .

Its ALL ABOUT THE SOUND. On paper the mediastation is outstanding as a technological wonder. But its needs to be available for peple to play. It needs very well developed styles at least equal to the big players. If there is software on the mediastation that can convert styles so that they sound as good as the proprietory system they were created on then i would like to see and hear a demo of that. It would probably help a lot of musicians here in their decision to purchase because seeing and hearing is believeing. Theorising and talking about posibilities creates interest but does not necessarly result in sales. People want to buy a finished polished product that is accesible and not one still in developement that is only available to try on purchase.

Dom has been told what his potnntial customers want by his potential customers. As a businessman he has been given a gift into the mindset of his customers and how to blow the aranger keyboard market apart. Lets see how he responds to clear unambiguous buying signals.