Hi Magica, Ljubljana is a very pretty place and I'm sure it was the capital of Slovenia last time I visited!
Anyway enough from me replying to Mediastation postings, my fingers are starting to ache lol

the problem Dom is that all you have said about the mediastation works in theory but the reality of the product is not that attractive. I wish yoiu wel with the instrument an really want you to succeed. However i have yet to hear a great demo from the keyboard in aranger mode. The styles are poor. The sounds i am sorry to say are also poor.

An open system is an atractive proposition but the reality is that all the best soiunds in a keyboard from differnt manucaturers wont necessarily sound good together and the mediastaion is a prime example of that. In the demo you posted of work you did yourself and the midi styles that were done , the imbalance of the arranger sounds were obvious and it is clear that all the instruments needed to be eq'd to balance and work with each other as they interact. Thats precisely the problem with an open system ! Thats why even some of the cheaper closed models like Casio can sound better than a £3000 Mediastation because the manufactuerer has the control over the product to make sure that the sounds complement each other and that all the sounds coming through one sound system blend and the right sounds cut through the mix accordingly . That skill takes experience and a fair deal of sound synthesis knowhow. Thats part of the reason why it will be very hard to tempt people away from the proprietory based systems because whatever limitations the manaufacturer has placed within the instrument they make up for it with a great sounding instrument and thats all a good musician really wants. Thats why guitarist still love a guitar sound and why pianists still long for a realistic piano. Arrangers only need flexibility in terms of the style accompaniments that we use and the ease of use of the instrument. They can be purchased openly or converted and tweaked from any other manufacturer. Thats probably the main reason i believe that your product will struggle if you are intending to compete in the aranger market. How many times in your post have you said that the mediastation to sound good needs the user to understand the lynux system ? What does that tell you as a businessman about the greatest obstacle to the success of the instrument !!! Listen mate roland could not shift the G70 because the user had to fidle with the instrument too much to make it sound decent and they had a great loyal customer base to assist them. What makes you think you can in over new customers with the same faulty proposition.

arranger players want all the hard work done for them. the selection of sounds, the balancing of sounds, good choice of styles etc. We just want to play and make great music. Manfacturers like Korg, roland and Yamaha understand that. You are promoting the mediastaion on its unique selling point of being an open system. Have you asked the people on this board if that means anything at all to them ? I think you might be surprised by the answer.

I am not trying to pull your product down Dom i am simply trying to help you understan the market you are trying (very hard) to penetrate

Best wishes

Worth

My experience is different.

I had keyboard for 14 days and I played with the styles from my previous keyboard. This was GENESYS PRO. I had: KORG PA80, ROLAND G800, GEM SK760, KORG TRITON STUDIO 76, ROLAND XP80 PEAVEY DPM3 etc.

I was satisfied with all of them, but here I’m having freedom. This means me a lot. My audience wants every day more. Before we had enough to play with simple arranger, now if you play on toy you will not have them. Also you must be more than musician. This is reality.

Yes true is that you are playing with balanced keyboard on stage. Also one hit for next song. This is important. And on end this keyboard is having all in one hit. (One hit plays arranger, next hit play midi, next hit play mp3 of course with all new sounds every time.) This is freedom.

As abacus write may be are on demo side of LIONSTRACS old mp3s with arranger. On my keyboard are balanced.

Styles sounds better more realistic and had more power than other keyboards.

This are not keyboards for beginners, but on end they are play with one tip as for beginners. You can look on manual on web. I buy this thing because of easy manual and help on desk top. You must only press button help and all is possible to see on screen. (Every button)

Any way, I thing LIONSTRACS can learn something from this forum. I’m, for sure.

so where are the good demos with the balanced sounds and excellent styles ? Not midi files done by someone else.If you want to sell the instrument then sell it with sound not words.Its no good emphasising what the keyboard is capable of and its limitless expandability if it doesnt do the basic things right. I know you are passionate about the instrument but you really need to tune in to what your prospective customers are saying. £3000 is a lot to invest in an instrument that has the capability of sounding great but doesnt quite sound that great just at the moment.It doesnt matter if you think it sounds awesome if the potential buyers here on the forum do not. You cant convince them that their ears are faulty because it sounds great to you.I think that if you listened to some of the feedback on this forum and tiook them to redesign the mediastation in a product that did what it was promoted to do , you would have the major manufacturers really worried .

Hi, I´m a Lionstracs Mediastation MS76 user at some mounths. My experience with it is very nice. I use more the arranger mode. I can do some thing´s impossible in other Keybords. Some of my styles have maked with pure audio in drum´s ( MP3, not GM ) and giga sound´s acompainment in the same style. I can play a style completly independent from any GM or midi sound. In this case is my self style ( Not any company sound mark attached ). I recommend this Keyboard to people that want to have more dependence from the "Packed sound" in the ROM off tradicional Keyboard´s. Thanks to all !!

And I think that is the power of the mediastation and other open source keyboards.
It is for those who want and need tools that would help them be creative and have their own distinct sound.
It is not for the lazy musician and or closed minded people. The possibilities are plentiful with such a keyboard like the mediastation.

The demos do not do it justice. What they need to do is get a really good gigging musician, spend some time explaining to them the workings of the mediastation and have them create a demo for arranger players.

Maybe that would silence the negative talkers. But I would caution, an online demo should never be the deciding factor for a keyboard buyer regardless as to how good or bad the demos are. Nothing beats live in person interaction with a keyboard.

Another thing mediastation may want to consider is to start marketing the keyboard to pro creative musicians. The gigging musician, workstation users and producers and studio people. Ones with an open mind would see that the mediastation is more than an arranger or a romplayer it is a complete production and performance keyboard.

To the Genesys, Dom has had what he calls good musicians demoing the Mediastation and the live recordings are already there for downloading. There's the guy who plays nothing but organ sounds all the time and looks totally uninterested in what he is performing, then there's the new older bloke freaking out with the piano sounds trying his hardest to accompany some guy whose singing leaves much to be desired.
This is Mediastations way of promoting their product.
Now on the other hand there's the UK guy who plays on 2 demos if they are still available who actually shows you what can be achieved with a good sounding piano, I think it was the giga one.
People keep stating that the Mediastation is great for VST and Giga sounds which is true. However decent Giga libraries and VST's cost loads of money. Just how many people want to spend £3000 on the Mediastation then have to fork out loads more for quality sounds?
The internal styles are bad at the moment, the GM sounds are bad, the synth engine has some very good sounds, Giga piano was OK, B3 was very good and I think Dom may be putting B4 with it now, but other than that you've either got to buy Giga's and VST's or stick to the few free ones that work with Linux. Half of the free stuff I got with my Mediastation were demo versions or the typical free plugins anyone can download off the net.
It's like having a good master keyboard with a few internal sound modules linked to it and then there's the novel twin playback facility for wannabe DJ's.

Dear MR. CRAIG:

1: I Know some studio´s that have Samples and don´t have Mediastation.
2: I Know some keyboard´s player´s that don´t have Samples
3: I Know some alives player´s that have MS76 and samples too.

Personally I think the principal question is the love by the JOB that we are doing. If the player just wan´t to win money and don´t have love the Profission, it´s very hard to see the third option. But when we love really play the keyboard workstation machine, some times it´s the love to the Job that speak more high than simple play a instrument. In this case when the player´s by a keyboard is not just to show to friend´s, it´s the love by job.

Anyway you can by GIGA libraries and sound's at www.bestservice.de in Europe.

About the internal styles, at the moment, do you want to try internal audio styles ? It´s one of many news this year. Your MS76 that you send back to Lionstracs last year don´t have this styles and features. There are maked this year. Sow I can sure to you that in "The Moment" the styles don´t are the sames from last year. I can talk by myself experience. I Have one MS76. The time advance and the features too. Is not correct speak about the "Last Year" version. It´s not the current version.

Anyway, thanks to all.
Best Regard´s

Filipe Tomás
Native Language - Portuguese

Filipe , Dom and Liontracs and everyone else that is involved in this thread. Talk is cheap ! I dont like being called lazy. I work a 60 hour week. I am not a gigging musician i play PURELY FOR THE LOVE. I love playing and creating but not sound engineering !!! The vast majority of people that play arranger keyboards love playing !! Thats why they tend to buy styles rather than make them, thats why the buy keyboards where all the sound engineering has been done for them, Does anyone who works for Liontracs understand anything about MARKETING.

1st lesson

Dont call your prospective customers lazy. It pisses them off in a big way

2nd lesson

Listen to yopur customers !! Dont tell them what you want to give them , find out what they want from you !!

3rd lesson

Never pass of a prototype model to a customer that knows all you other customers and then critiscise them for sharing their purchasing experience with you.

Last lesson

Let the product sell itself !! Yamaha , Korg Roland etc dont send product managers on a board like this to brow beat people into likeing their product. Their products sound good out of the box ( with the one blip for Roland ) and the limitless expandability and creativity is INSPIRED IN THE CUSTOMER through the excellence of the product

NOT THE OTHGER WAY ROUND !!!!!


lESSON OVER.

"Never pass of a prototype model to a customer that knows all you other customers and then critiscise them for sharing their purchasing experience with you."

Should be "pass off" and " all your other"

Got me so worked up i cant even write english properly