Just like the E 80
Bebop

Who knows...? Perhaps Korg might have one day developed an arranger interface/software for the Oasys if it had really taken off...

What do you think, James? Would you like an arranger front end, with all those great Oasys sounds doing the styles?

That would have been something to behold... and Lord knows, with all these players willing to drop $5000+ on an Audya, $8000+ on a Wersi, there might actually have been a market for it

An OASYS with a full arranger section ? lol... man that would be sweet.

I certainly expect to see Arranger keyboards going that way in the future, but I also think KORG learned that just because they “can” build it doesn't mean they should. The OASYS is the perfect example of that. It contains something like 10 years development and far exceeds anything they have ever made before. But the 8K price tag prevented it from ever being a major success.

So I think KORG will always push technology but they will do so more carefully now after the OASYS and the final ideal price tag will define just how much technology goes into the product.

If you really want to dream, if KORG simply turn around an implement a version of KARMA on their next Arranger keyboard you can pretty much kiss goodbye to the competition there and then. To understand why I'm saying that people need to understand what KARMA is. To give a tiny example, one could load a simple 8 Beat Style and then move a Karma slider 1 millimetre to turn the style into something completely new.

Basically KARMA can give you almost unlimited combinations of new notes based on the pattern you loaded. So it's sort of like a never ending supply of styles. You can even tell KARMA never to repeat a pattern and it will keep on generating new note under under restrictions that make it feel more like a real player than a pattern.

Regards
James.

[This message has been edited by Irishacts (edited 08-03-2009).]

Thing is, have we all just become cheap sons of b*tches? If you look at the price of an OB8, or Memorymoog, or Jupiter8 when they were new, and adjusted for the devaluation of the dollar, truth is, we WERE paying $8000 for our TOTL synths back then...

Thing is, for our 8 grand, we got something that WAS groundbreaking, that DID sound amazing, not some half finished clunker that only plays SOME of the guitar chords and can't be edited, or has to be voiced from scratch..!

Build it right, they WILL come

BTW, I think that the Karma is great, but it is a totally different level of sophistication to alter an arpeggio on the fly compared to making a REAL piano part, or guitar part change around constantly, and still remain musical and genre specific. We still have a ways to go before the 'rules' of real players playing (voice leading, syncopation, harmonic alteration, etc.) are icorporated into the more machine like rules of Karma, IMO.

James,

I was also knocked out by the OASYS when I played it in the music store. Clean as a whistle with absolutely authentic sounding simulations of all the orchestral sounds.

Here's the thing. I called Korg the next day to inquire about it and they told me the M3 is a "scaled-down" version of the OASYS, with the same (or a similar) sound engine.

I did play the M3 months later and was VERY impressed with that also, but nothing like the OASYS.

What's your opinion on the two units. I could see me buying an M3 as a supplemental keyboard to an arranger.

Lucky

I think you answered your own question, Lucky... "...nothing like the Oasys"

Just because PARTS of an OS or voice generation system get trickled down to lower price level keyboards doesn't necessarily mean that the magic will come with it...

Hi Lucky2Bhere.



Technically that's stretching it a bit but I can see why they would say that. Under the hood they look very similar but at the heart they are two completely different engines that sound nothing alike. The OASYS can shape sounds in ways the M3 can't and overall the clarity is far superior due to it's abilities and the fact that it also runs off of uncompressed samples unlike the M3.

The effect engine in the OASYS is also way more advanced and it can run 11 Insert effects at the same time where the M3 can run 5. Also the OASYS has effects the M3 doesn't like the OVerb effect which is just pure silk.

The OASYS also has quite a number of different types of Synth Engines. It can even load Yamaha DX7 SysEX patches straight from the real DX7.



You really can't compare them. The OASYS simply does everything better and faster than the M3 in every way imaginable. So if you have the cash and need for an OASYS you can't go wrong there.

If not, then the alternative is pretty great too.

The M3 on it's own is a fantastic product that offers excellent value for money and comes jam packed with well over 600+MB of PCM data. You will have more sounds than you will know what to do with. It's an OASYS wannabe for sure so all in all it's a tidy and excellent product.

Regards
James

James,

Thanks for your explanation here. I sometimes don’t get really “clear” answers to my questions from Korg about their keyboards. I read what you wrote about the M3, so I’m still just as enthused about it, but, bottom line, I’m mega-enthusiastic about the Oasys. After reading this whole page, I can see it wasn’t my imagination when I thought it sounded better than anything on the market. Plus, it’s one beautiful instrument!
http://www.eastcoastmusic.com/dptkey.htm http://www.korg.com/oasys

Unfortunately, I then read these messages here that knocked me for a loop. Yes, you can still buy them, but I guess you‘ll be stuck for support!
http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=14642

P.S. I Googled the Oasys and found this among many others.

$1500???? http://www.adoos.in/post/6698548/sell_brand_new_korg_oasys_88_88key_workstation
http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/korg/?gclid=CM6BreKTjpwCFU1M5Qodq19jaA

Lucky

This really IS a wonderful instrument. Listen to those guitar sounds and the clarity on that flute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAp6iilofDc

"Korg Pa2XPro 76-key Arranger Keyboard.................$650.00 USD" ???????


There's something fishy here......