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rnbeatz · 23rd March 2006

I've only spent about 10 minutes on an Oasys a few months ago and was pretty closed minded to it because of the price. After reading up on it more and watching some of the clips at Korgs site yesterday I'm starting to get it.

I too understand both sides of the debate and hope Korg sells enough of them to justify future development and competition. I think they pretty much nailed it with the ergonomics of the Oasys. After that, it just sounds like any other good synth to me. I'm not a fan of Korgs PCM soundsets but the AL-1 and STR-1 do sound good though not in a class by themselves. A lot of the sound of the Oasys sound engines is software just like VST and AUs. People like to say soft synths sound thin but plugins are the same as a lot of what Korg is doing in the Oasys. IMO if you run one of the better softsynths through a good DA to an effects unit or digitally into a good effects unit with good DA conversion and program patches to that combination, it will sound just as good as anything you hear the Oasys and any other VA hardware synth do because it is the same approach.

What excites me about the Oasys is I know I could work really fast and be really productive on that machine, assuming it is stable. I have my Motif 8 with its build in Mackie Control set up with my computer, DAW, plugins and mpc pads arranged similarly. The Oasys brings all this together in one unit which is cool, but I don't think at this time the Oasys is worth 3K over what I spent when I don't see much if anything it can do that I can't unless you are looking for portability. When it comes to sample chopping and mangling, the Oasys doesn't look nearly as strong as what I have with Ableton and Battery, or what can be done with an MPC or MV8000, but that could change in a future update.

If I were starting from scratch or currently made more money from music then I would consider it just to not have to deal with getting and keeping everything talking to each other. I'm going to wait and see how Yamaha and Roland respond. I think there is plenty of room for a price drop but only if they sell and the competition competes.

23rd March 2006	#26
rnbeatz Gear nut Joined: Nov 2003 Location: SoCal Posts: 124	I've only spent about 10 minutes on an Oasys a few months ago and was pretty closed minded to it because of the price. After reading up on it more and watching some of the clips at Korgs site yesterday I'm starting to get it. I too understand both sides of the debate and hope Korg sells enough of them to justify future development and competition. I think they pretty much nailed it with the ergonomics of the Oasys. After that, it just sounds like any other good synth to me. I'm not a fan of Korgs PCM soundsets but the AL-1 and STR-1 do sound good though not in a class by themselves. A lot of the sound of the Oasys sound engines is software just like VST and AUs. People like to say soft synths sound thin but plugins are the same as a lot of what Korg is doing in the Oasys. IMO if you run one of the better softsynths through a good DA to an effects unit or digitally into a good effects unit with good DA conversion and program patches to that combination, it will sound just as good as anything you hear the Oasys and any other VA hardware synth do because it is the same approach. What excites me about the Oasys is I know I could work really fast and be really productive on that machine, assuming it is stable. I have my Motif 8 with its build in Mackie Control set up with my computer, DAW, plugins and mpc pads arranged similarly. The Oasys brings all this together in one unit which is cool, but I don't think at this time the Oasys is worth 3K over what I spent when I don't see much if anything it can do that I can't unless you are looking for portability. When it comes to sample chopping and mangling, the Oasys doesn't look nearly as strong as what I have with Ableton and Battery, or what can be done with an MPC or MV8000, but that could change in a future update. If I were starting from scratch or currently made more money from music then I would consider it just to not have to deal with getting and keeping everything talking to each other. I'm going to wait and see how Yamaha and Roland respond. I think there is plenty of room for a price drop but only if they sell and the competition competes.