That's great, James...now we'll be able to hear the equivalent of Mega Voices and DNC in the Mediastation's arranger section.

Ian

I'd love to hear one sound on any closed arranger or workstation that can compete with the best VST's available. I'm not talking about synthesizer emulations either, I mean real world instruments i.e. Grand Piano, Strings, Horns, Guitars, Choirs, Drums, Percussion, etc. If you're not finding a VST to be superior in sound chances are you're using free VST's which have limited capabilities, your monitoring system is sub par, or you've lost part of your hearing.

Take into consideration that high end VST sounds like East West Symphonic and Choirs utilize more RAM in a single sound than the entire sound set from any arranger. This allows for much longer samples, more velocity switching, and more multi-layer samples which yields far more realistic results.

So if you have a sound from your Roland, Korg, or Yamaha arranger or workstation that matches or rivals the best VST out there show me a link to a sound demo where I can hear it A/B'd side by side.

Unfortunately Mimik has limitations and does not reproduce all sound perfectly and be prepared to use tons of memory to clone even one sound let alone an entire keyboards sounds. Nice marketing hype though.

What bar are you referring to? Besides the Korg Oasys being a great synthesizer I haven't seen Korg set any bar within the last 20 years since the M1. Unless you count Yamaha conjuring up fancy names for multi sampling and and overcharging for dated technology setting a bar, Yamaha hasn't set any bars either since the DX7. Then again the DX7 didn't set any bar for sound as FM technology had already been available years prior, Yamaha just mass marketed it in a $2,000 instrument.

While you and others may buy into the hype of Mega Voices and Super Articulation, I know that's nothing more than marketing hype. I've been using multi sampled sounds with real time switching on my Fairlight since the 1980's. Fairlight truly set the bar when it came to an instrument that sounded great, was intuitive, and was upgradeable. When Roland, Korg, or Yamaha develops a system that is as intuitive, upgradeable, and has a sound quality that rivals 30 year old Fairlight technology, then perhaps they might be setting a bar. So far that hasn't happened yet.

I really get tired of all this. Want to sound like the real thing play the real thing.

Whatever you buy into, really doesn't matter...Yamaha and Korg make terrific arrangers, closed or not...they have set the bar high enough so that so called "superior" open arrangers like Mediastation, cannot play their styles correctly (as the hype has alluded to) without additional software and/or lots of tweaking...and we still haven't seen/heard any proof that they will in the near future, if at all.

As far as the Fairlight goes, it is not an arranger, so comparing it to modern arrangers, even a mid-range PSR-S910 is, more or less, rather silly.

Makes no difference to me how well or how awful the Mediastation does with Yamaha/Korg styles...it is not a competitor to the Tyros3 or PA2XPro, so I would like to see Mediastation have great success.

Ian

I think you will find that the Korg DNC is for right hand sounds only. (Just like Yamaha SA)
RX Technology is just a marketing name for the Korg sound engine

Apart from the very latest styles from Korg that use Guitar mode, both they and Roland styles convert quite well to other keyboards, unlike Yamaha Mega Voices. (Which are a pain in the backside, and so repetitive)

IMO both Korg and Roland styles leave Yamaha styles for dead, due to the fact that Yamaha styles are very song specific, and include everything including the kitchen sink. (My pet hate with styles, as I come from an organ background)

BTW all studios for a good number of years now use a minimum of 24 bit 96 KHz for their recordings, (Rather than the old and antiquated 16 bit 44 KHz (CD Quality) of previous years) so make sure your sound system can get the best from this level, otherwise you will be missing out on a lot. (You will find that most modern technology’s (Blu-Ray etc.) now use 24 bit sound as the norm)

Bill

Yes, we all are entitled to our opinion...I think Yamaha's are the best, and pretty well equalled by Korg in some genres...actually, both have their strengths and weaknesses...of course that's the beauty of choice...you don't like...you buy something else.

I come from a fairly extensive piano and organ background, so I like styles both full, and stripped down...it's very easy to do on any of today's arrangers.

Although I like factory styles, I prefer to edit them and give my arranger music it's own identity.

Ian

Wrong. EDS is Korgs sound Engine. RX technology is Korg's answer to Yamaha's Megavoice technology. If you listen to Korg styles you will hear that. Just like Yamaha Styles you will never get a Korg style sound good on a mediastation IMHO.




[This message has been edited by FransN (edited 04-27-2010).]

Just a reminder to Ian or anyone else that can help with this...Seems the thread got sidetracked after I posed the question.

Dennis