Would you like to see images of OpenStudioLive?see3D images

[BasariStudios]

+10...i wanna see pictures but under one condition, if you make the unit
CigarettessProof...see topic below:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=68451

Jokes aside, this is/will be a truly unique System, cant wait to have mine.

[rikkisbears]

+1

[vEddY]

My company Corcyra Global Ltd is no longer trading with Lionstracs and we offered all our customers who purchased a Groove X-R a refund. We also offered a free replacement of a new unit we are manufacturing and most customers have chosen the second option.

That sounds reasonable. Are we talking about a VSTi machine? I mean, I'm definitely on the market for one but... I'm very much stuck trying to forget the fact that Receptors are that expensive, that Vmachine is so half-usable, and Grooove X-R lacks iLok support and things like that.

All of the usage models so far are... half-usage models. That includes Open Labs's ideas.

I have a Vmachine @home, borrowed it from a local company... this thing is really, really good. Yes, it lacks polyphony (slow CPU), I don't know if there's a rackmount kit (which would be ok), you can't really layer sounds with it.... But the overall usage model is really great - pick your instrument, pick your sound, and play. Small LCD, MIDI IN, that's all you need.

What we need in that market is a product that:
- will be easy to use - Vmachine style, program up-down, bank up-down, instrument up-down, things like that
- will have enough CPU power to run some serious plugins (u-he Diva comes to mind)
- will have decent enough HDD subsystem to stream stuff like EW (which includes iLok support),
- can layer VSTi's for multi-type sounds
- will have a gr8 f'in sequencer
- will have a gr8 f'in sampler
- might have an arranger mode

If you're going for the 17" LCD touchscreen thing, that's cool, although it would be cool to have a rack-mountable unit with small LCD that you can easily use with a couple of buttons live. I mean, small LCD that would be able to display mode you're in, and bank-program-instrument type of data (Instrument OP-X, Bank A, Program 001). When you're in studio or home programming it, hook up a LCD and edit it to death.

Getting back to one of the things I mentioned before... Serious CPU. There's a whole bunch of plugins that can't really work decently with dual-core or things like AMD's triple core CPUs. I know you're shooting for certain price range, but... At least offer some models with stronger CPU's, preferrably Intel's.

Just my 2c.

[Rob Sherratt]

Front Panel View of Open Studio Live

Here's a preview of the front. The illustration is generated from the actual CAD drawings. The first cabinets and custom PCB's are in production now. Sharp is working on a full 3D render.



The two "combi" MIC inputs and the stereo headphone output on the front take two of the eight input and output channels. The other channels are on the rear panel. Four USB2 sockets on the front are intended for dongles and pen drives. There are four more USB2 sockets at the rear plus two USB3 sockets for connection to other devices.

Not everyone wants rack ears but they are dis-mountable for those who want a clean look for a product on your office table.

This is no "home theater" slouch. Inside the cabinet we have managed to cram a 400W quiet fan power supply, a triple core AMD Athlon X3 processor and motherboard, RADEON HD GPU, up to 16 GB RAM, 1TB hard disk and the slot loader DVD-RW drive you see in the picture. And it keeps pretty cool as well despite having a sealed case lid with no holes in it. If you find anyone else with a 2U high solution packing this amount of punch for musicians, based on a Windows 7 touch screen solution, do let me know?

The musical note symbol on the front panel doubles up as the HDD and power activity indicator. All input and output sockets are color coded in groups of 2 stereo pairs (or 4 mono), Red, Yellow Green, Blue. Volume may be individually set for single channels (left-right) or as a stereo pair (vol-pan). The multicolor display doubles up as a status indicator for volume adjustments, and then reverts to showing MIDI activity status when there is MIDI activity.

The main user interface is the 17 inch touch screen provided with Open Studio Live. Photos of the touch screen "in use", rear panel view and possible "sneek peek" inside the cabinet might come later if there is sufficient ongoing interest.

Our web site has just gone live but with minimal information currently. There is a phone number published if you want to call me in person!

http://www.openstudiolive.com

[Rob Sherratt]

One Time Discount Offer

This unit is a bit too costly to have a successful launch on something like Kickstarter. But we need a lot of cash (about 100,000 GBP) for the first bulk production run. So I'm prepared to offer a 20% discount off the retail price to the first 30 people who pre-order with a 40% (based on RP) deposit payable end Feb and 40% on delivery expected in April.

All customers who purchased a Groove X-R from Corcyra Global Ltd will receive an "Open Studio Live" exchange unit at no extra charge in April, despite it being a more powerful, more flexible, and more costly system to produce than the Groove X-R (yes the retail price will be more than the Groove X-R, especially since we ship a 17 inch touch screen and extra hardware and functionality for your money).

My usual unconditional money back guarantee applies for 1 one month after receiving the unit. Anyone pre-ordering may cancel their place in the queue at any time and receive a full refund.

At the moment, all you need do to pre-order is to email me your name and address and I will reply within 24 hours to confirm your position in the queue. Then during February you will receive the full specification brochure and be notified of the retail price. Then at the end of February when we are ready to commit the first production run, I will contact you for payment of 40% the retail price.

There are only 30 places in the queue on offer currently. Once the places are filled I will post an update here. If someone drops out then I will offer the place to the 31st, 32nd person etc that contacts me. You may not reserve a place in the queue by posting a message or sending me a PM on this forum, you will have to email me in person. The email address is "corcyraglobal AT gmail.com" without spaces and with an @ instead of AT

Please note that Corcyra Global Ltd is now trading as "Open Studio Live".

[Rob Sherratt]

Open Studio Live is also a VSTi Machine

Are we talking about a VSTi machine? I mean, I'm definitely on the market for one but... I'm very much stuck trying to forget the fact that Receptors are that expensive, that Vmachine is so half-usable, and Grooove X-R lacks iLok support and things like that.

Open Studio Live supports all application software and plug-ins and dongles that run successfully on Windows 7 64-bit, which is the OS pre-installed on the machine. We do not use Linux on the Open Studio Live system. So, obviously we not have to run a Windows emulator or solve Windows dongle integration issues encountered by other manufacturers who do ship Linux based systems. We make no system modifications to prevent 3rd party Windows 7 compatible software from being loaded by the user.

But yes, we provide multiple VSTHost engines (for synths) and VSTSlave engines (for effects) and anything that conforms to the VSTi specification will run, including iLok and other copy protection systems. Installed in one of the VSTHost engines is Sonic Projects' OP-X Pro II, pre-licensed for each customer. It is quite CPU hungry at times, but it runs very nicely on our Athlon X3 triple core processor up to the limits of its own polyphony.

DAW software such as Sonar and Cubase come with their own VSTi libraries which all run perfectly on Open Studio Live. Dennis (miden) will be providing users with installation and configuration support for Sonar which is his preferred DAW, and I will be providing users with installation and configuration support for Cubase which is my preferred DAW. Software support for those products will remain with the manufacturers of those products, we are not able to fix bugs in their software!

The most efficient software we ship is a licensed version of Linux Sampler for Windows with Fantasia, coupled with our 19 GB sound library developed by the owner and maestro of this forum (Sharp). When using this software e.g. from a very complex MIDI arrangement, I've been able to play over 300 notes of polyphony. I've configured the sampler with an upper limit of 512 notes of polyphony, but I haven't been able to generate that many concurrent notes to test it out. Maybe the limit is higher even that 512 notes, but higher settings gobble up RAM and will affect performance of other parts of the system unless the user expands beyond the 8 GB RAM that we ship as standard.

I can not make a promise that Open Studio Live with its 17 inch touch screen will be cheaper than a Receptor Pro because the parts we are using are more expensive, and because of the additional audio and I/O capabilities we provide on the rear panel.

[blinkofanI]

Hi Rob,
I'm more of a MainStage/Laptop user but if i can make a suggestion... I didn't see the back of your unit but if i was in the market for such a unit, i would really prefer my dongles to be on the back of the unit, so they're not easily reachable to a thief and less prone to be broken by the half-drunk guitar player who walks by my rack on stage. My .02

Blink

[Rob Sherratt]

Open Studio Live - Incorporating User Feedback

I'm more of a MainStage/Laptop user but if i can make a suggestion... I didn't see the back of your unit but if i was in the market for such a unit, i would really prefer my dongles to be on the back of the unit, so they're not easily reachable to a thief and less prone to be broken by the half-drunk guitar player who walks by my rack on stage. My .02

Hi Blink, thanks for your suggestion.

We have 6 USB ports (4 x USB2 and 2 x USB3) on the rear panel so your needs are almost catered for already. But you've given me a great idea. I can make up an assembly to provide a pair of USB sockets inside the cabinet, and internal dongles may then be permanently installed by the user and the case lid locked down. I haven't added this feature to the design yet, but will do so before launch. Again, thank you for your creative input.

The MacBook and Mainstage is a great combination.

Some performers want more RAM memory than 8GB to be able to increase performance of HD recording and polyphony of sounds/ samples. Also there is a frequent need for MIDI and USB expansion and an external audio box of some kind, and this just adds clutter and unreliability to the stage presence when trying to use a laptop as the front end.

I wanted to use a separate touch screen "on stage" instead of keyboard and mouse, and I needed to be able to mount the touch screen right next to the keyboard without a laptop base getting in the way. Also it's nice to have a compact rack mountable base unit which includes the mixing desk and all the audio and digital I/O you'll ever need, so there is less clutter and less to connect up when time for your stage appearance is pressing. All my cabling is kept neat in a small 4U Gator trolley rack in which my 2U unit is mounted and protected. The 6U Gator trolley rack would have space for a 2U high stage amplifier as well.

In future I hope to be able to manufacture a sliding drawer for the Gator trolley rack in which the touch screen monitor can be safely stowed while you are in transit between venues. At the moment it is stuffed in-between some foam sheets, and I know I can do a better job than that!

I will make no more pretenses, I designed Open Studio Live for my own needs as a musician, and I will continue to enhance its capabilities to suit my own needs, as and when I can afford to do so. If another 10,000 people want to buy one from my company, well that's an added bonus and means my own goals will be delivered much faster than I could achieve by myself:-) Also as you can see above, I do listen to people's suggestions and if I can accommodate other people's needs for the capability of Open Studio Live, then I will do so when cash flow permits.

I just can not offer you a MacOS version. Unfortunately Apple would never license the OS to a third party product as you know. And there's the rub with MacOS. It's a beautiful environment and people love it. But it completely locks you in to Apple hardware and approved software, and of course that's restricting for some musicians like me, who want more freedom of choice than Apple permit.

I went down the Linux route for a time as some friends and customers of the Groove X-R will know. That was just too much freedom of choice even for me and it was almost impossible to guarantee reliability, and hence some of the problems Corcyra Global encountered as a distributor.

For me, Windows 7 64 bit is a very good middle ground compromise that gives a lot of freedom of choice in the software products that may be installed, in the hardware that may be used, and it is an extremely reliable and dependable OS, well-suited for on-stage use so long as automatic software updates and virus scanning are turned off first!. Also I love LinuxSampler, Fantasia and the sound library James (Sharp) developed for Corcyra Global, and the good news is that we have it all compiled, installed and working under Windows 7 64 bit, so last year's efforts have not been completely wasted.

The version of LinuxSampler we are distributing is the latest Windows 7 64 bit version, and we do this with a commercial license in which we pay a royalty to the LinuxSampler team of developers. A similar arrangement is in place with all other software providers, including usage of the complete Irish Acts sound/ sample library, and you know already how good Sharp's sounds are

[blinkofanI]

Hi Rob,
Cool, no problem. While we're talking Apple, one thing for sure: If i had emailed Apple to make a suggestion to their hardware, i don't think i would have received a reply like this!! That's one five-star rating for you. Good day.

Blink

[AFG Music]

thanks for votes and also thanks Rob for the first image.

-good design
-with external touch screen supplied as standard, it looks like a modern AKAI S6000, but with many many more options and space for samples and sounds.
-good choice for windows7 (best since Windows XP).
-One-Man Band is a good choice: why?
You can also create midi styles, with the program itself.
-good choice for linux-sampler (Fantasia works very well and has nice gui).
and linux sampler also has many possibilities.
-good hardware choices as we can read.
-soundset is very important. James is very good and sound expert and sound designer.
-USB ports inside with screwed lid is a nice idea,
but is the hard drive also easily accessible or not?

but knobs for effects , 3 or 4(just idea) . can you adjust on touch directly or Korg Nano for example?

[X-Trade]

Sounds like a great product, Rob.
I'm a little disappointed by the AMD processor though. I know Lionstracs also had AMD processors in their machines which is probably fine for linux, but I've always found the AMD Windows build to be a little unreliable. It's put me off products like this in the past.

I've seen plenty of blown up or overheated AMD processors but hardly ever an Intel one.
Have nothing against them conceptually, but in my personal experience they've always been slightly disappointing.

[AFG Music]

Sounds like a great product, Rob.
I'm a little disappointed by the AMD processor though. I know Lionstracs also had AMD processors in their machines which is probably fine for linux, but I've always found the AMD Windows build to be a little unreliable. It's put me off products like this in the past.

I've seen plenty of blown up or overheated AMD processors but hardly ever an Intel one.
Have nothing against them conceptually, but in my personal experience they've always been slightly disappointing.

are you sure on what you say about AMD. I think with good choice of hardware, they usually score not bad often and usually even better then expensive intel on the same Class.

You can see hundreds test resluts of them on the internet.

simple examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqBk0uHrxII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdPi4GPEI74

and this from 2010 with an honest answer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h14-9aeDyn4

[X-Trade]

Sounds like a great product, Rob.
I'm a little disappointed by the AMD processor though. I know Lionstracs also had AMD processors in their machines which is probably fine for linux, but I've always found the AMD Windows build to be a little unreliable. It's put me off products like this in the past.

I've seen plenty of blown up or overheated AMD processors but hardly ever an Intel one.
Have nothing against them conceptually, but in my personal experience they've always been slightly disappointing.

are you sure on what you say about AMD. I think with good choice of hardware, they usually score not bad often and usually even better then expensive intel on the same Class.

You can see hundreds test resluts of them on the internet.

Oh, the performance isn't bad. Yes, probably better value for money if you look purely at the performance. But I've just seen too many crashes and odd behaviour in Windows on AMD chips. I've also never seen an intel chip die. Having worked in a computer shop for quite a while, if it was an Intel chip we never even suspected it to be faulty - it never was the CPU.

As I say, only speaking from my personal experience.

[Sam CA]

Although I'm very happy with Receptor, but it's got limitations. Not every plug in is available for it. For some , you have to send in your receptor to San francisco, and they have to install it for you, which is a bummer. You can't easily upgrade the hardware..etc. You can only use it as a sound module, and not as an arranger....So all in all, Rob's project sounds very exciting.

[Rob Sherratt]

Open Studio Live - AMD e-series triple core Processor

Just a bit more info about the choice of the AMD triple core Athlon processor. There is a trade-off between raw CPU power in a 2U high case and the amount of cool air you have to blow through the cabinet to guarantee sufficient heat extraction. If you get that trade-off wrong you end up either with a very noisy product (due to the high speed case fan etc) or one that may overheat.

In the design of Open Studio Live I was looking for the most powerful CPU available which consumes a maximum of 45watts at full speed. The AMD X3 Athlon II e-series processors fit the bill and I do not think there is an Intel processor that comes close in processor throughput at a 45 watt heat rating. Also the AMD processor is a current flagship model which they will be uprating as time goes on. So I anticipate some faster models being available in the future, maybe even a quad core version at the same power dissipation 45w rating. And the motherboard is socket AM3+ so will be ready for that when it happens.

The issues of processor cooling, power supply and fan noise levels have consumed many weeks of my time to get what I hope is the right balance and an acceptably low level of fan noise. AFG has just given me some information of a new 450w low profile power supply on the market that is very quiet, and it's not too late for me to switch to use that one before volume manufacturing begins. It affects the rear panel layout slightly so please forgive me for delay in publishing rear panel pictures while I incorporate AFG's great suggestion.

As you can see, it's not too late to request specific features and alterations that will improve this product before volume manufacture gets underway, and I'm really grateful for everyone's help. I think I am going to release the design pictures showing the inside cabinet layout, my purpose in doing so to invite further feedback and good ideas that I may have missed