I'm not going to put up a demo to get my point across. Of all the synthesizers on the market please find and post one other that has the MOD wheels at the TOP of the keyboard?

Al

so???
Is it for sale yet?
Where can I demo it?
Where can I buy it?
What is the price?

I think the problem of a company trying to appeal to the arranger and the workstation market is showing up here.
First and foremost in the mind of some one who uses an arranger is having a keyboard that is best suited for playing and live performance. As such, placements of certain buttons, nubs and sliders are crucial on an arranger. Sound editing and sequencing while good on an arranger are not the main focus for an arranger user.
On the other hand, a workstation is primarily used for production and composition of music. Getting the exact sound is very important for a workstation user. It is usually used in a studio or is a studio in its self. The ability to modify and change sounds and having a powerful sequencer and lots of memory is crucial. The placement of button are not that important on a workstation because it is not for live playing.

As both a live playing musician and a producer/composer, I would love! to get both types of keyboards in one. But I realize that by doing so one of the functions I.E arranger or workstation would suffer and thus tern off one of the potential markets. Also I know that would increase the price. It would be like getting a Motif and a Tiros together or a Triton and a PA80 together.

For an arranger, it seems as if having good real sounds onboard already is the way to go. Having too much programming may not be the best thing for an arranger. A workstation however, should be what the mediastation is trying to do.

Good luck guise!!
Concentrate on your marketing to get the product out.

I think the problem of a company trying to appeal to the arranger and the workstation market is showing up here.
First and foremost in the mind of some one who uses an arranger is having a keyboard that is best suited for playing and live performance. As such, placements of certain buttons, nubs and sliders are crucial on an arranger. Sound editing and sequencing while good on an arranger are not the main focus for an arranger user.
On the other hand, a workstation is primarily used for production and composition of music. Getting the exact sound is very important for a workstation user. It is usually used in a studio or is a studio in its self. The ability to modify and change sounds and having a powerful sequencer and lots of memory is crucial. The placement of button are not that important on a workstation because it is not for live playing.

As both a live playing musician and a producer/composer, I would love! to get both types of keyboards in one. But I realize that by doing so one of the functions I.E arranger or workstation would suffer and thus tern off one of the potential markets. Also I know that would increase the price. It would be like getting a Motif and a Tiros together or a Triton and a PA80 together.

For an arranger, it seems as if having good real sounds onboard already is the way to go. Having too much programming may not be the best thing for an arranger. A workstation however, should be what the mediastation is trying to do.

Good luck guise!!
Concentrate on your marketing to get the product out.

I just found some keyboards with the wheels at the TOP:

All the oberheim keyboards http://www.viscount-organs.com/frameset_oberheim_viscount.htm

yamaha Synth http://www.yamahasynth.com/pro/s90/index.html

generalmusic: Equinox 88/76, All promega...

Just for have one idea....give a lot more too..

regards

I forced myself not to post inside this thread. But, after a couple of days and after reading all the messages, I decided to post this one.

First of all, I have nothing to do with lionstracs. Moreover, I have no hided goals against or pro this company (to be honest, I ignored Lionstracs existence until their first message in this forum).

My previous messages haven't been accepted, and this is fine: each of us has its point of view. But, of course, I am free to express my thougths. Or, better, I have the right to express them, as long as they are not offensive nor rude.

That said, one thing is clear (to me) in this thread: what lionstracs is currently trying to sell is little more than a promise: only few demos available, very low in quality (I am not talking about MP3 quality, but about sound and styles quality); all we can see of the style player is three screenshots; all we can see of the sampler is ... nothing; now seems that they need people collaboration to build addictional sounds database...

And all these goods for $5000 (+ taxes) only. Really a best buy!

I understand that you invested 500.000 $ in this project, and that your investors are hungry about profits, but, maybe, you better wait to have something to show us before coming here saying "everything is good and perfect".

I think that the all-software approach will surely make lionstracs a winner. In the long run. But they have to show us something more: currently, we can only trust lionstracs regarding many megastation features.

BTW, domenik said that "End october you can find a mediastation to our ditributor in NY, USA, musicindustries corporation. Go there and listen what is a keyboard": so, is there a fellow Synthzone reader able to go there and see with its own eyes and touch with its own hands (please wash them before!)? This can really help us a lot.

Finally, surfing the net, I've encountered the Megastation ZF-EX, ZF-76 and ZF-88 (site says that you presented them at january 2002 NAMM). Looking at that board and at its features, seems that nothing has really changed (well, the color turned from black to metallic, and new model has much more knobs and buttons). So, can you explain us why these boards have been dismissed, and why you decided to rebuild everything from scratch?
The urls are these:
http://www.zflinux.com/press/lionstracsRelease.pdf
http://www.zflinux.com/customer.html#Lionstracs

Thanks in advance for any answer.

Riccardo

I think having the Mod wheels on the 'left' next to the Keys is more convenient but even if they are on top I think the Keyboardist could get accustomed to them being that way, ie., "on top". So instead of reaching over to the 'left' a few inches the Keyboardist would now have to reach 'up' a few inches. So in a sense it's 6 of 1, half dozen of the other. But I agree that on the left would be more 'convenient' just for the simple fact of not having to reach your arm up which I think takes a little more effort than gently moving the 'hand' to the left a few inches.

But regardless of MOD wheels if those sounds on the X76 don't improve 'substantially'
I think Lionstracs will have a white elephant on its hands imo. Those demos were really terrible. domenik, I would fire your sound engineer if I were you. I would have never put those demos on your site. But since you have done so, I for one (after I heard them) - "speaking of you domenik" would have pulled them faster than you could say Swiss Family Robinson. Putting those bad demos on your site was bad PR if you ask me.

Best regards,
Mike

Sprinkle salt on foot; Carefully insert foot in mouth! Thanks, and I humbly stand corrected.

HOWEVER, how do you play those keyboards when it's on the upper tier of a rack during a performance? That's a lot of reaching.

The point is; I would NOT buy a keyboard with that configuration. For me it's a show stopper. Maybe it works for you guys, but then again I'm just a spoiled little Brat!

Al

Speaking from a design standpoint, the only reason a manufacturer places the wheels at the top is when the instrument in question has an 88 note keybed (as in each of the examples given).

Placing the wheels at the left side of an 88 note keybed renders the instrument way too long to fit inside any case. There is also the general belief that an 88-note instrument is purchased primarily for it's pianistic appeal and that performance wheels, when provided at all, are more of a "bonus feature" to facilitate optimal use of non-piano-type sounds.

Thus, a compromise will generally be accepted by buyer's of 88 note synths/controllers. In the case of 61 or 76-key instruments however, these restrictions do not apply. Case in point; the Equinox series was mentioned in the above quoted topic. While the Equinox 88 did have the wheels at the top, for the reasons stated, the Equinox 76 did not; they were back over at the left side of the keyboard.

[This message has been edited by Chris A (edited 11-19-2003).]

Ya know, I should have responded earlier with this post. Now that things have heated up, it might appear I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here....I not!

Domenik,

I liked what I heard in the demos. Granted I'm speaking specifically about the sounds. I'm not going to come out and say, "that's the best BigBand style I've heard (it's not)." But there are some really nice sounds coming from those 96K & 128K .mp3's (the styles and strings are 96K, the guitars are 128K). Very dynamic, very open, good 3D image and still delicate when it needs to be (the flute wavering off). The waveforms looked very nice (using SoundForge 7), no clipping, no over-driving, you didn't push the levels (look at some of the other demos out there)(if you're interested). My first impression was, "That's pretty punchy for 96K." I would have thought for sure you were cranking the levels. Nope. There must be something to be said about the 116dB capability (even though we didn't get to hear all of it).

I liked what I heard, it sounds very promising. Keep moving forward........

mike

PS.