My MS hasn't arrived yet - but - I have made my purchase on the strength of the sound library and not the styles. I have a specific requirement for the band that I play with - styles are nice to have for me to have for when I just want to play at home but the main reason for the purchase is the sound library and the fact that I knwo Dom will keep on producing updates, new sounds and features - and I will not have to keep on spending thousands of pounds upgrading and changing boards. I don't believe that all kb owners have the requirements for styles, styles and more styles...yes a selection of very good ones is imporatnt but not the be all and end all of the reason for purchasing the kb. Just my opinion,
Mark

thats just the point. This is an arranger forum because the majority of users want arranger features on their keyboards. As a keyboard for studio/workstation and band playing use , i can see the immediate benefits of the mediastation right now as it is. But if this is being marketed as an arranger to arranger players then Dom needs to adapt his product and marketing accordingly. He has to focus on the benefits that this market values. Its not rocket science. Although you bought the media station as it is, there is still a niche market of arranger players that are just itching for Dom to demonstrate and develope the features they are interested in.It may well be that dom has done the maths and it is more profitable for him to develope the instrument along the lines of a studio/workstation instrument with the potential for arranger use but with more emphasis on the former.

I am not knocking the instrument or anyone that has purchased it. I think it has bags of potential for the arranger market.

Congratulations.


We will be in touch about your new MS.

Dear, Spalding4

This keyboard is workstation and arranger. All is in one.

We must only find what we need.


If you need arranger you can use it as arranger, with all good tips of arranger, even better.

How many of keyboards are having wav streaming and changing of tempo without cut of wav file on parts.

Explanation:

If I copy part of drum loop inside in styles. I use this loop at 120 bmp. Than I only change tempo to 140 bmp and drum loop is playing 140 bmp - faster. I can also use same loop for 80 bmp. Exactly I can do what I want. Same thing is with other complete part of song. You can play it as arranger. A lot of presentations are made there about this part.

I can agree that MS needs to develop. Because it is needs more functions as having other arrangers in midi styles.

We can play all what we want. Styles need only filling of our hands.

Sorry, I disagree vehemently on this point. Styles can be added post-production when the keyboard is in the field. If I remember correctly, Lionstracs were going to write a style conversion engine that would allow a user of the keyboard to pretty much dump all the styles from one of the "Brand" arrangers into the Mediastation, then map them to internal Giga sounds. (Domenick, please correct me if I'm wrong).

Domenick's main responsibility is to get as much value and technology into the board and release it into public domain. Since it is an "Open" platform, Sounds, Wav's, MP3's, Styles can all be added for each individual user. What is the point of keeping the keyboard in the factory until the styles are build and polished?

I actually applaud Lionstracs aggressive approach to this board. The business model took guts and was very risky, but after 2 years, I have to tell you, I am very interested in this board.

The concept of an Open system which won't be obsolete in 2-5 years is very sexy. You can buy Professional Styles anywhere or make your own, but can you program your own VST manager? NO!

You have to admit, this is fun talking about this board and the potential it holds.

Just my two or three cents..

Yes, you are right
The styles we insert after the OS installation, this mean that we are ablo to continue insert a new styles too.

Anyway, I will make you there happy too...
Give us some days more and then will be available another new 200-300 Styles package to load in the basic setup.

500 styles i think are enough...but we will continue, the MS users around seem that are help us a lot now.
The MS don' have limitation to load new styles and gategory.

regards

It sounds as if the mediastation does have extensive arranger features and styles.

I am just trying to find out the correct facts about the mediastation before we jump to conclusions and assume what it has and doesn’t have and do and doesn’t as far as arranger features and styles go.

What they probably don’t have is lots of arranger players, who own a mediastation, and who just use styles exclusively on their gigs.

Don’t get me wrong, constructive criticism is good for the mediastation but the criticism should be on the actual facts of the mediastation and not just assumptions.


What lionstrack needs to do is since this is an arranger forum, and arranger is just a percentage of what the mediastation can do, they should get the mediastation in the hands of a good arranger player to demonstrate how the mediastation can be valuable for a OMB.

Kbrkr,

THANK YOU! Finally a voice of reason.
I am glad to see that I am not the only one who sees that an arranger keyboard is not simply a “style collection!” That is only one of the many important parts that contribute to the whole. And while a big keyboard company may excel in one part, the sum of the “parts” that make up the Mediastation equals a “whole” workstation that easily surpasses everything currently on the market.

You hit the nail on the head when you said, “You can buy Professional Styles anywhere or make your own, but can you program your own VST manager? NO!”
Neither can you extend the length of style parts or memory allocated for styles, beyond the limits set by the manufacturer. Neither can you design Giga HD streaming in a keyboard that has not been designed for that. Neither can you include audio wave files or mp3’s in an arranger that is not capable of that. Nor independent time stretching and pitch shifting of real-time audio. Nor incorporate high quality sequencers such as “Rosegarden” or advanced audio editing like “Audacity”. Nor use a “Pro-Tools” like DAW such as “Ardour”. Nor play an arranger backed by an 8Gb all Giga Soundfont. Nor have professional quality 24bit XLR outputs, for the very highest fidelity. Nor full video editing, nor 8 band adjustable velocity curve, nor fully programmable and flexible internal audio and midi routing between all software modules and all hardware inputs and outputs like “Jack”.

Add to this the multitude of input/output options, the high quality controls, DVD burner, and the ability to connect any USB 2.0 or Firewire device that you would like to use. Also add the advantage of having all std computer connections: printer, monitor, ps2 keyboard and mouse etc…

“To the Genesis”, Thank you for being open minded, you were one of the few over the last year who would recognize the possibilities of the Mediastation. Even before I purchased one your posts made more sense to me than those just slamming Lionstracs. To answer your question about the styles, No they are not really, really bad. I am sorry if I gave that impression, but I wanted to give a very fair and balanced review. Some of the styles are very good, some are fair and could use a little improvement, but the collection is growing rapidly as you see in Domenik’s post above. And when our collection is as large as anyone’s they will still not be able to add all the other features that we will be using.

But you will probably notice that all the negative comments seem to be coming from those who have never experienced the Mediastation. That probably will continue, but it didn’t stop me from buying the Mediastation and it didn’t stop others. In the end everyone has to make up their own mind.

Richard

Hello Lionstracs
You may be interested in how Wersi are developing their Style system, and which may also give you some more ideas for styles on the Mediastation, it can be found in the new Wersi thread I have created.
Hope this helps

Bill
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/014461.html

Please don't get me wrong..... as I've stated elsewhere, I am NOT on a personal crusade against Lionstracs or Wersi, or anyone. I just wish to acknowledge a basic fact of the arranger world. As anyone who has read my thread about how many of us develop our own styles will see, it's not too many of us. In fact only a couple said they roll their own from scratch, and a few more said they convert and tweak, that's all.

From this, I am forced to come to the conclusion that only a small percentage want to take on the odious task of style development. A huge library of high quality built-in styles, and access to even more online seems to be the main criteria in purchasing, along with sound quality. Only recently, one of the main discussion topics here at SZ was the OOTB 'sound' of varying high-end arrangers, and how much most people disliked the thought that they would need to do ANYTHING other than unpack it and start to play.

THAT is the average arranger user, despite the fact he is willing to plunk down $4k plus for this ability.

I really DO applaud Domenik, and his quest for ever better capabilities, and I DO think that his is the future of keyboards. But I also feel that, in trying to combine the open ended software workstation with the arranger, he is prioritizing big letters WORKSTATION, little letters arranger.....

I, and many others here, already have computer-based VSTi's, and HD recorders, and would love to have something that allowed all that AND a great arranger capability. But not at the cost of a massive increase in workload to get the styles to work well, and develop them myself.

Time will tell, as more of these get into the hands of users, whether the style library that comes with them is as elevated as their price. I anxiously await some detailed reviews, and demos.

One concern I have is, how are the major manufacturers going to respond to their sales being scavenged by these new instruments, that will rely on THEIR copyrighted styles to get sales? Will we start to see encrypted file formats? Will we see a wave of litigation as the majors try to stem the tide powered by their own styles? Will the independent style creators FINALLY get to see some real profits for developing styles for these new creatures? Only time will tell. Maybe they are not concerned, yet, but they will be.... At least if Domenik gets his way!