Ok here we go, I have had the Lionstracs Mediastation for several weeks. I got the X-88 Pro Version; as I needed 88 keys, hammer action, the works. I had intended to wait a little longer till I was able to fully understand this keyboards vast potential and to have time to try and post some mp3’s. However since a rather active discussion has developed, I thought perhaps I should join in.

While I don’t have time to give a thorough review right now, I will try to give some preliminary observations that I have made so far.

Let me start by saying that the looks of this keyboard are very impressive, puts you in mind of a 747 cockpit panel. Lol. But while a little daunting at first , a quick look around reveals a well thought out and rather intuitive layout.

Located in the center of the keyboard directly above the keys are the transport controls for the two players. These players are currently able to play midi files, audio wave files, and mp3’s in 24 bit quality. Also you can crossfade between these players manually or automatically with one touch. But the most amazing feature of the Mediastation’s players are their ability to engage a powerful time stretching / pitch shifting engine and to, at the turn of a dial, speed up or slow down audio files without changing pitch and without degrading the sound quality. The opposite is also possible to change pitch without changing speed.

Next let me get to what I think is the Mediastation’s weak point. That is it’s style library. Now while I am very happy with my mediastation I also want to be forthright and objective in the info I give. I feel that the style library still has room for improvement and if that is your only consideration for the value of a keyboard, then the mediastation is probably not the keyboard that you should consider. But fortunately this is one area that has an easy solution in that Lionstracs has several people working now to create more styles. I have already downloaded 270 new styles in the few weeks I have had this keyboard. And when you also consider the fact that Mediastation styles can read standard midi files and incorporate audio wave files and giga samples then you began to see the possibilities that first attracted me to this keyboard. Oh did I mention that there is no limit on the length or file size of these style elements and wave files.

Now briefly on to the sounds as I’m running out of time tonight. The GM sound bank consists of the usual fare of some very good and some not so good GM sounds that I have found to be on most keyboards. It has some really nice strings, very lush; some very good brass patches. I especially like the “Night Sax Lions” and the “ Sax Duett Lions” patches.
The Giga sounds however are far from ordinary. For a piano solo the Bosendorfer 290 is a very popular sound that I also like, but I prefer the Steinway B1 with the arranger as it has less resonance and fits in well in the mix to my ears.

Ok I am definitely out of time now but I will try to post more tomorrow. I hope that my lack of writing skills doesn’t stand in the way of people receiving the information they need to decide for themselves if the mediastation is suited for their particular needs.

Sounds Cool!

I like the 747 analogy.

Regards,

Dennis
aka...TwoNuts

I will try to add a little more to the explanation of my take on the Lionstracs Mediastation. Let me describe the physical case. The build of this keyboard is extremely solid and very road worthy. I believe the housing is constructed of aluminum with nicely carved wooden end caps. The finish is silver in color and has a nice modern look. The labeling of all the controls is in large easy to read dark blue printing that contrasts very well and makes finding all the controls easy during live performance. The buttons are large and brightly lit dual color led silicon buttons. This is a big plus to me as I have tried keyboards with small gray buttons that simply blended into the background and were not appropriate at all for live performance.

To the left of the display are the arranger controls. No need for two button combinations when using the arranger because each style part has its own dedicated button: four intro’s, four fills, four endings, and four variations. It also has all of the usual functions that you would expect any good arranger to have plus a few extra that I have not even learned about yet. Remember these are preliminary observations as I am still a novice on this keyboard.

The “User Keys Pads” are a nice touch. You have eight buttons to which you can assign the audio wave of your choice such as a vocal phrase or a special effect. These are available for instant play at anytime.

The quality of the components in this keyboard seems very high. I was amazed to see how nice the sliders used for mixing volumes were. As anyone who has done audio engineer type work, mixing sound on a professional sound desk, knows that the larger the faders are the easier it is to mix sound on and when they have a good smooth feel it makes using them a lot more enjoyable. Well you won’t be disappointed with these faders! They have a high quality smooth action with just the right amount of resistance for accuracy. And they are very large over 3 inches from top to bottom; my Gem SK880 sliders measure only about 1 and ¾ inches long. My X-88 Pro has ten of these faders used for keyboard sounds and outputs as well as two more dedicated to XLR microphone inputs each with its own gain, mute, eq and effects control. Thank you Lionstracs I may even leave my Allen & Heath mixer at home. Lol. There is also one more fader beside the data entry wheel this fader operates different parameters based on the keyboard mode or the current contents of the screen.

Ok, I’ll stop there for now. I welcome your comments. Please let me know if this is useful or informative to anyone. I know that when I was researching the Mediastation I found that 3rd party information or comments were few and hard to come by. I would like to make the process easier for the next person.

Very useful and informative! Thank you, and I hope you will continue to post your observations as you become more and more familiar with the instrument.
It seems improvements have truly been made.
DonM

I'm impressed on this very good article.
Internal sounds are good also for me. I’m using same sax as you.
Also nice is internal piano with strings.
Sinth sounds are the best in original internal. But I use also from VSTs.
Basses are deep and good. s. In this moment I use guitars from NI KONTAKT. Also internal guitars are good. I made some modefications on this guitars.

Zmago

The Mediastation does sound interesting because of the open architecture format allowing the ability to further upgrade the keyboard without having to buy a new board. It is based on the same concept as the OpenLabs Neko.

What really holds me back from even considering a Mediastation is the lack of good quality sound demos. I also don't think the Neko has any Arranger ability although on their web site they talk about it having 'auto arrangement'.

When I think of a Mediastation or Neko I basically think of them as Workstations with the Mediastation having a smattering of arranger capability.

The other big gripe I have with both of them is their Companies lack of resolve to post professionally produced sound demos of their Boards. For the last couple years or so OpenLabs has showcased the Neko at NAMM but everytime the demonstrations have just been talking about its functions with NO audio demos whatsoever. And the sparse demos on their web site are mediocre at best. I for one would never purchase something from a Company who apparently has such a lack of confidence in their products sound producing capability that they won't even demo the sounds live such as at NAMM where they have the world as their audience. And maybe that is the main reason they DIDN'T do any sound demos at NAMM for fear of revealing the Neko's sub-par sounds to a watching world who would needless to say after having heard it would have nothing further to do with it or the company it represents. Instead the Neko and Mediastation are wrapped in a shroud of mystery with them trying to convince people of the Neko and Mediastations high technology appeal instead of the fundamental reason which should be the quality of sounds it has. All the features in the world don't mean diddly squat if it doesn't sound good.

They may sell some but in my opinion they need to change the way they market them [READ: let people 'hear' what they're capable of doing and expound on (in the case of the Mediastation) - its "Arranger" capability and integration in a professional live setting] before, in my opinion, they will reach a mass audience of people who will be fully convinced enough to purchase one.

Craig's experience with the Mediastation further bolsters the reason why Lionstrac doesn't want to do live sound or video demonstrations of the Mediastation. If they did then the cat would finally be out of the bag and their minimal appeal to a technology minded audience would suddenly be non-existent for lack of backing up their technology with professional quality sample based sounds for which and in reality a Keyboard's main function is made and used for. Apparently not according to OpenLabs and Lionstrac though.

Btw, the Mediastation has had a video presentation using Native Instruments B4 plug in. But that is a far cry from knowing how the actual sample based sounds on the Mediastation sound.

Someone just posted a thread about using Synthogy's Ivory with a Kawai MP4 as the Controller. The .mp3 sounded great but the fact of the matter is the Kawai is not the one producing the sound but on the contrary Synthogy's Ivory is. The Kawai is just the Controller. So who is the hero the Kawai or Synthogy's Ivory? Why Synthogy's Ivory of course. Nevertheless the Kawai MP4 and also Jim's ES4 has really good sounds of its own. Can we say that about the Lionstrac or Neko? So far the evidence is not forthcoming.

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 06-07-2006).]

I think that in order to appreciate the power of the mediastation, people have to expand their thinking of what a keyboard is.

We have been trained by the big three manufacturers to think of a keyboard in a very closed and limited way. So any advancement in keyboard technology like what the mediastation is doing would not be understood by the average person.

I said that to say that the main concept of the mediastation is not the sounds coming directly from the manufacturer (mediastation) but more importantly the high-quality third party sounds you can load and use in the mediastation.

The ability to load and use VSTs and other samples in the mediastation give creative and professional musicians who know what they are doing, lots of high-quality sound choices.

An online demo can not and does not tell the full story about the mediastation. So far, we have heard good reviews about the sound of the mediastation from some forum members. We have heard one negative encounter with the mediastation from one forum member (the same thing happens with other manufacturers).

If another long-time and reputable forum member, whose sound taste we know, gets to try out a good working mediastation in person for a few days and then gives an honest review, then that could really tell the real story about the media station and how it plays VSTs.

I can agree with all of you.

This keyboard is having a lot of possibilities. We must not look on keyboard only on way of sounds, like closed system. I’m doing with a lot of different sounds in this keyboard. I’m having every day some new idea for sounds. I can tell you that this is wonderful.

Nobody ever buy keyboard because of demo. But every one of us wants to test all parameters and sound quality personally. Here is very good professional audio card inside and that is very good for future.

This company is having first so big library of VIDEO and other DEMO presentation. So you can virtually look on keyboard every time. What is with virtually presentation of “big companies”?

Who is changing and refreshing web every day. Look on web side and you will see that this people are really taking care of customers.

If I need some information I send only e-mail and I receive information back very fast.

This system offers you new approach every day. Mediastation LIONSTRACS is controller for future.

Now that Steinberg (creators of VST) is owned by Yamaha, do you think Yamaha will ever come out with a keyboard that runs VST instruments?

I really do think open-architecture keyboards are the way of the future - that future just isn't quite here yet.

Yes I think that is needed time. But is not only VST in Linux is DSSI and Windows DXi and other similar programs as shareware.

Also here are developers who want develops good things (programs). We as users will be this who wants to have new things. This is opportunity for all software developers.

We are having more opportunities. That is point.