Korg Forums

[jimmythis]

I bought my Oasys from Guitar Center and walked out the door for about 5400. Mind you, this was a used Oasys that was returned by a customer.
Well, I am a Yamaha freak and thought I would try out the Oasys and see if Korg was any different. Damn thing. I wanna pull my hair out. Virtually no tutorials to speak of and navigating around this without knowing why this doesn't work and that doesn't work and trying to figure it out is taking the friggin fun out of this.

Don't get me wrong, I like the sounds of the Oasys and some of them are downright fat and awesome. There is just to much of a learning curve in this thing and it's the blind leading the blind here. I need what Yamaha did with the original Motif. 3 DVD's that explained the hell outta everything!

I'm returning mine and getting back to my roots with the Motif. Christ you would think for such a big beast they would have taken the time to make some online tutorials at least! What a bunch of lazy asses at Korg. Oh by the way, I was told by Guitar Center they will no longer be carrying the Oasys....period. G.C. can't move them. Wow, pinch me.

[jimmythis]

Hey Jimmy,

This is your conscience getting back to you. Love what you posted. Have you found the applause key on the Korg yet? Play that before ya box it back up!

[jhibshman]

Actually I think you may be the lazy ass Jimmythis!

Learning a flagship workstation like the OASYS takes a lot of work. I've personally owned mine for over two years now and I'm still figuring stuff out and I use it every single day. There are a lot of similarities between the O and other Korg keyboards that help one navigate around. You have awfully high expectations to think that you can turn the thing on and be an expert user in a matter of minutes when you are unfamiliar with Korg keyboards. Why don't you open the manual?

All of the posters here and over at Karmalab have done a great job of educating each other on how to use the O. As a matter of fact I would say that Stephen Kay and all of the people at Korg have gone out of their way to provide a level of support that you would never get from the people who developed the Motif, let alone any other piece of consumer electronics. These are the people that developed the thing answering your questions. That 's saying A LOT. You just have to participate, not act like an idiot, and be patient. Oh and BTW, there have been numerous tutorial videos and documents written over at Karmalab.

[danatkorg]

[silverdragonsound]

This is the exact reason why the Oasys gets a bad name. How hard did you look for tutorials? Did you check the ones on this site? Did you check out the ones on the Karma Forms? Did you open the manuals and use the suggestions in there? How about the DVD that is coming out?

I have been using the manual almost exclusively to teach myself. It has a learning curve similar to Motif ES, yes I owned one and had to figure it out. The difference to me is that the Oasys can do so much more and therefore there is so much more to learn. It actually is taking me a little less time to get around on the Oasys than it did with the Motif ES in terms of learning the basics like editing, layering, using the sequencer, sampler ect. The bottom line is you need to put something in to almost anything to get something out of it
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And there was this one time at band camp......

[MIDIguru]

Don't forget that the help button brings up useful instructions for just about any screen you may be in.

How many workstations can do this?
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OASYS 76 000362
M3 005909

[erikv]

I am at the moment deciding what my next synth will be, either an Oasys/M3 or Motif XS. Therefore I have been following the Korgforums here and at Karma-lab and also the Motif XS ones on Motifator. To be honest the high quality of the discussions on the Korgforums and the helpfull tips from Stephen Kay / Dan and many others have really helped me in my decision and I am planning to buy the Oasys at Christmas.

I would rather have a really helpfull community of experts that provide answers to my specific questions than have a 10 hour DVD that explains for 75% things that I already know.

Also you have the Virtual GUI online - so you could have been able to feel the ease of use (or not) of the GUI prior to your decision to buy an Oasys. Also you could have downloaded the Operations Guides for all products (I have read about 50% of them to help me in my decision) and find a lot of tutorials in there for the Korg products indeed.

[Drew FM]

Hmmm, 2 post. I'm ready to pass out from the stench of a troll monster.
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Create to enjoy, not to destroy

[Mike Conway]

[MartinHines]

[MartinHines]

[Mike Conway]

Martin, I soak in Palmolive before every shoot.

[Kontrol49]

[Kerzwhile]

Go figure!! You buy something from Guitar Center and your stuck!!! Why the hell cant you ask the "salesman" for a little help?? Oh thats right you got it from s**t center!! Sir, you just got rid of the best instrument on the planet because of incompetance!! Sorry to hear of your loss!!
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MY Weapons of choice: K2600X, Oasys88, PC3X, K2661, V-Synth, MotifESR, ZR-76, TS-12, VFX, EPS16+,ESQ-1, ESQ-1R, Emu Xtreme Lead, SCI Six Trak, HR-16, Kurzweil Mark 150 Baby Grand and 2 D1600's synced!!!
http://www.soundclick.com/members/default.cfm?member=kerzwhile

[Kevin Nolan]

Jimmithis -

Your frustration is understandable. I own many pieces of musical technology that have frustrated me. And it can be different instruments for different people. To date, I still have never, ever mastered the Roland R8 drum machine, even though it's got an absolutely fantastic sound. I could not, for love nor money, understand its bloody manual. I read it and re-read it but the thing never made sense to me. Over time I lost interest in it and though I never sell gear, I rarely use it. I have never mastered the Yamaha EX5, and believe it or not - the Nord Lead 2 or Korg Z1. The Nord Lead 2 is frustrating to me in the way it saves programs, and its interface rarely reflectys the sound so it drive me nuts -more so than other similar virtual analogue synths - why i don't really know but it bugs the hell out of me. For me the thing I hate the most is running out of memory locations. As soon as that happens, I stop creating new sounds for new pieces and it absolutely kills the creative process - for me - so I end up not exploring and using the instrument.

I also absolutely hate the unser intreface of Lexicon Reverbs - I own an LXP15 and MPX500 and even though they sound fantastic, I cannot get my head around their interface. But I felt the same about he SY77. It too drove me to distraction for over a year; but eventually I did begin to master it; and now I absolutely adore it.

Your frustration notwithstanding, I strongly suggest to you that you do not, under any circumstances, ditch the OASYS because you can't grasp it yet. I promise you it has depths that will stand the test of time, beyond the Motif, Triton and Fanthom. Like the SY77/SY99 ragne, its fairly unique and complex - that's why its tricky - but as indicated in the posts above, with the operational guide in PDF format, the Help button, Stephen Kays fantastic demos and Mike Conways pending video tutorial and then the willing help of Korg, this forum and Karma-Lab, you will get through the complexities.

As much as I agree and absolutely love Yamaha synthesizers for for their capabilities, the OASYS is equally worth it for the long run.

I strongly suggest that you either play around with it for a few more months, or actually do a few pieces of music on it from start to finish, and then see how you feel. I would strongly suspect you'd be more hesitant in selling it.

Kevin.