So...here the first promised video demo about the multiple ASIO host. http://www.lionstracs.com/demo/video/2008/MSMultipleASIOHost.wmv
only 53Mb WMV format

here now available on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlADLhdqffE


Please..don't need comment about the Audio quality take from the mic camera, this is only a video demo HOW the new MS OS 2.8 system work, the audio quality of the ASIO host you know really well and I don't need to prove it.

The demo here will display how on MS now is possible jump in realtime from ASIO host to ASIO Host, without load every time the new Vst Plugin.

The new MS OS 2.8 ( not Ubuntu) now work in this way:
We have edited the 8 available Prefromance keys under ASIO Patch mode ( still available for the performance too)
In each ASIO Patch by the file browser interface, is possible select the desidered ASIO Host.exe file and the Soundmap.txt file for display the all available ASIO sounds on the MS display Patch selector: http://www.lionstracs.com/demo/MSgui/asiopatchdemo.jpg

Each ASIO Patch will then SAVE the link of the ASIO host and sound MAP and when you will load it, just press the key F5: LOAD ASIO Host
After the ASIO Host is loaded, automatically the MS OS will connect the ASIO Audio OUTS to the FX Audio server Inputs and also switch the MIDI OUT of the Keyboard to the ASIO Patch selected. http://www.lionstracs.com/store/images/2008/jackmultiasio.jpg

You can see on the demo that the ASIO host is ready to play in less 2 seconds!

After one ASIO Patch is loaded and ready to play, we are available to recall the second ASIO Host.
Same system loading and then is ready to use it in realtime, instead to load every time one new VST and waiting untill is ready to use.

We have also two system possibility to use the VST engines:
1) IF is available ONLY the VST Plugins, then we can use a new VSTHost for each desidered VST.
2) IF is available the stand alone ASIO host, then is possible load it without use the VstHost.

After your all desidered ASIO Host are running, we are ready to play it and switch from ASIO host to Host in realtime.
Of course under COMBI mode, is possible mix up to 8 MIDI OUTS, it mean a mix of ASIO Host + GIGA sounds+ DSP GM sounds.

This system is like the Native Instruments KORE, BUT we use all HOST and we dont have to waiting for loadind the all VST/Sounds!
Here on MS now you can install all the sounds that you like (wine compatible), without Upgrade the whole keyboard just for some couple of kidding sounds..

The MS sounds engines now are organized in realtime switch under this system:
1) DSP ROM GM/GS= Play the all DSP GM Dream sounds
2) GIGA SOLO= loading one desidered GIGA file from the whole Giga Library
3) GIGA GM/GS= Play the all available GIGA sounds from the GM/GS GIGA soundbak
4) MS SYNTH= play the ADDSUBSYTH Linux engine
5) VST HOST= Play the VST Host in stand alone mode only for the single VST Plugins
6) ORGAN B4= Play the Native Intruments B4 II ASIO version
7) ASIO HOST 1-8= Play in realtime UP to 8 different ASIO Host.
8) MIDI OUTS= Play in realtime two more External Midi device by the two MIDi OUTS.

Some note:
For run multiple ASIO Host of course need a CPU power and a lot of RAM.More engine you open, more power and RAM will be used.
Anyway now we have open one new system how to play in realtime multiple ASIO Host, still a Dream for the windows OS.

Of course you there are able to manupulate some like this, but you can NEVER recall this all engine like one standard embedded system keyboards.
Every time you have to use the keyboard and Mouse, lose a lot of time just for loading/enalbe some sounds..
Look on the video how I can switch FAST for engine to engine, need more time for pressing the key than switch to engine.

Ok..I think you get the new generation idea..we will see now how MANY years you have to waiting untill the BIG can offer a little of this features.
Remember that the Future is ONLY under the PC system and NOT with the dated embedded CPU.
Melodyne is the new Future, MS is ready to play it.
Now you can start to criticize again...
Enjoy what you play...

[This message has been edited by LIONSTRACS (edited 11-07-2008).]

Great job Domenik! This demo definitely shows that the Mediastation can run multiple VST's with ease and that load times are extremely fast. Anyone who questions what an accomplishment this is just try switching back and forth in real time with that many VST's running on your PC using Windows and see what happens. This shows the MS can run these programs with ease and do so without problems.

As for sound quality... anyone who wonders what the Mediastation sounds like can listen to any of the demos of the VST's it can run and you'll get an idea of just how broad based the sound generation capabilities are. Of course VST's AREN'T required they only add to the Mediastation's factory sound library which is quite large.

Great work Lionstracs. Keep it up!

Now please get someone to create a few hundred killerstyles for mediastation...

And you'll be on the top of things for a very very long time

The trouble is, whoever makes the styles won't know WHICH VST's the owner will have in... and creating a great style has as much to do with the sound as the performance (the two are inextricably linked).

I have said for a long time, Dom really needs to select a few of the best, and pre-install them, despite this adding to the cost (I am sure he can negotiate a bulk discount with many of the major makes of VSTi's). That way, his style creators can work with sounds that are the best available.

This should inspire them to create stuff that competes, and even exceeds the best that Yamaha, Korg, etc. can do. But until then, everything revolves around the OOTB sounds, which are not as good as a great VSTi...

This thing has SO much potential, but at least SOME of it needs to be realized at the factory, rather than it ALL being on our shoulders.

All the pieces seem in place, now. It's time to voice it and style it RIGHT...

I'll be first in line, Dom... (really!)

i think that what Dom has done with the Mediastation is genuinely remarkable. The workstation Market if they become aware of this machines capabilities should be very interested.Its certainly in the same league as th Miko and Neko from openlabs . It simply does not have the same level of pro musician endorsement. Dom have you tried donating an Mediastation to a high profile musician ?

Thanks guys!
here still a lot of work to make, software and hardware for the new MS models.
We lose a lot of time for porting the new OS under Linux Ubuntu, because the new AM3 Mainboard generation request a totally new OS and still some linux drivers have to be fixed from the manufacture.

Same here happen with the Qranger, now is totally changed again, full native QT4 because the old version Qt3 had a lot of issue, not compatible with the new OS.
All the styles that I have made, have to be rewritten again, because no more compatible with the new Qranger 2.3.
For that I don't have invested more resource for develope new styles, but now finally when I release the OS 2.8 we can start full working again.
The great feature of Qranger is the Editor, for sure can missing some complex arranger features BUT with qranger editor is really so easy to compose styles and songs.
Audya seem also really interesting is some features but I will then see how user friendly is the style editor interface and how you have to programming one style.

Please, do NOT compare the MS with the Openlabs..have really nothing to do.
They are only a PC assembly is a keyboard case, with the all standard available windows software that everyone can buy.
Running Reaper and play over some sounds is possible made with any PC.
Ask they if are able to running Forte sounds manager and Reaper at the same time..and also make some performace without use the PC keyboard and mouse.
The BIg difference on MS is the all embedded Linux software integrated and customized.
In the only MS OS musical part, we have developed about 560.000 linees of code, you can see here the main source code folder: http://www.lionstracs.com/demo/sourcecode.jpg

Stephen Fortner from musicplayer.com is waiting one MS for make the full review, when I release the OS with Ubuntu, Sthepen will be the first one to receive it.
I will also give one FREE sample to Frankie

Just let me complete the last stuff in the next weeks..
cheers

The NEKO and MIKO are nothing like the Mediastation. Open Labs products are essentially just a PC running Windows put into a shell with a music keyboard, QWERTY keyboard, LCD screen, and some real time knobs. Unfortunately the integration of these controls isn't great and its not very intuitive. Don't get me wrong, the Open Labs gear works just fine and sounds great but they aren't for the faint of heart.

The Mediastations integration of real time controls, its 24 BIT sound card, and the GUI in general are fantastic and with each update Dom keeps making it better and better. For anyone wanting a one keyboard solution to do sample playback, synthesis, VST playback, audio recording, video recording, and so much more, the Mediastation can't be beat. The sheer horsepower of this Linux based system hasn't even met its full potential yet.

Diki,

I'd like to know which embedded arranger or workstation keyboard manufactured today has OOTB sounds that can compete with the best VST's available today? The Mediastation and Wersi are the only two systems I know of that have factory sound libraries that exceed a Gigabyte and utilize sounds with several layers of multisamples. Sure you can load either of these systems with VST's but the factory sounds are already quite good so that isn't necessary. The VST's are just icing on the cake.

I don't care how good the new SA2 voices are from Yamaha, how great Roland's SRX and ARX expansion cards are, or how many multi-samples they claim to use, the best these manufacturers have to offer simply can't compete with multi gigabyte sampled sounds being played back direct from disk. Until Korg, Roland, Ketron, or Yamaha produce a product that can stream direct from disk and allow you to load any compatible VST you want with enough horsepower to run them all, they will always be several steps behind Lionstracs and Wersi.

Ensnareyou, it isn't whether a SOUND is as good in a VSTi or an embedded keyboard, it is whether a brilliant style has been written for that sound...

You know perfectly well that if you perform a part on one sound, it rarely sounds as good simply switched over to another. Dynamics, timbral content, envelope times, all of these get factored into your playing, subconsciously.

Well, they get factored into the style, too. So it isn't, for me, about whether the piano sound is the ultimate best possible, or the drums, or the horns. That's all well and good for what YOU are playing, live. But it is also about the parts in the style. Without the style part and the sound being recorded together, all you EVER have, in effect, is TRANSLATED styles. Which, in my experience, rarely EVER sound as good as the original without extensive major modification.

Just take drums... Take the MIDI files that come with BFD, and use them on EZ Drummer's sound engine (or the other way round). Nowhere NEAR as good... the performance and the sound are ONE. Separate them, and you end up with something less than the sum of the parts.

So, without those VSTi's already preinstalled and the styles developed for them, you are always talking 'translated' styles. This is something the embedded arrangers do not do, much. The best of the ROM styles are developed for the very soundset they come with. The yin and the yang fit together. So, apologies, but I stand by my statement, and have the overall sound of the embedded' and MS style demos as all the proof I need.

Another thing to take into account, as you bring up the GB size of the MS's ROM (or OOTB) sounds is that, sorry, but GB does NOT express quality. Korg, Yamaha, Roland each put more money into sampling and developing sounds each year, and have done so for decades, than Lionstracs entire fiscal budget! This equates to sounds that are more coherent, and better balanced against each other, despite using a fraction of the RAM of the MS.

AND... they have styles developed by the best in the business to use them!

Dom gets it SO CLOSE, but doesn't finish the job (apparently, it's yours ) The only way to get better sounds as a whole than the embedded', you have to use VSTi's. But there are NO styles developed for those VSTi's, so back to square one.

The MS does seem to be better suited to being a WS, where the content isn't as vital to the value as an arranger, IMO, and the quality of the sounds alone reigns supreme. But this is an ARRANGER forum, and despite the embedded' lack of GB numbers for RAM, they almost undisputedly dominate the MS for overall quality of 'style and sound', which are a linked value system. Great style, lousy sound... lousy arranger. Great sound, lousy style... lousy arranger.

You MUST have both...

Diki..about the MS styles you are right, on MS still are missing the nice styles, BUT this don't mean that the MS don't have the arranger section, so..I think we still can talk on this forum.

What i MUST, is only SELL what the pro musician asking me: a powered keyboard able to play ton of sounds, support for VST and a good Sequencer integrated on the system, this is now the qranger.
We will then add this all new audio-midi styles too, don't worry.

Diki I know that you are really so smart (sometime boring but at the end..smart too.. )
may you reply and make me a list of the current GOOD sales arranger keyboards and one list of the all remain synths/WS keyboards?
I just will know from you the % of the arranger keyboards available to sell and the % of the synth/WS keyboards.

Roland seem had stopped the new arranger, Musikmesse reported the arranger field less than 2% worldwide..
I just like to know where I have more to investing for the software and for my sells..

I think you can help me to understand better..

I haven't the slightest concern whether an arranger sells well or not. Only that it do it's job. As you well know, my personal favorite is not the most popular, and definitely marketed the worst (of the majors), as shown by some who, after finally after three or four years, finally get to try one and really like it (maybe it's a good thing they went through the others first )...

But, for me, and I honestly believe the large majority of arranger users, the 'style/sound' gestalt is the thing that drives our desire to purchase. I've been saying, for EVER, that your keyboard is great in concept, groundbreaking, potentially limitless. BUT... it doesn't have the 'style/sound' thing together. It's got some great sounds. It's got some great styles. But what it doesn't have is a LARGE collection where BOTH are great.

And the whole thrust of 'you do it yourself' doesn't really acknowledge the main market for arrangers. VERY few do ANY of it themselves, yet alone the vast majority of it. Few people have even the skill to adequately re-voice a Yamaha style to work well on a Roland, yet alone the considerably higher skill needed to re-voice the Yamaha style to work well on a variety of user installed VSTi's.

For all the hullabaloo about OS features and layout, the VAST majority of arranger users expect to be absolutely blown away by the factory 'sound/style' combination. THEN, the adventurous few want to take it further.

You have tipped your hat almost exclusively at just those adventurous few... but left them with the task of even 'style/sound'-ing themselves just to equal the OOTB sound of arrangers far less expensive. That's a pretty big task...

Is the ANY chance you might just take a break from OS upgrade after upgrade, and take a crack at voicing and styling the MS to be competitive, rather than just outpacing all others on 'potential'?

Because most of us want 'potential' realized, rather than potential in our own hands, with far to go.

Sorry if I bore you, but I think I speak for many that would otherwise be climbing over each other to get to one of your keyboards..!