Official statement on the status and future of the OASYS

Post by **Sharp** » Sat May 23, 2009 5:28 pm

Daz wrote:Conversely, I wonder if casual readers would be so aware of the extreme creative possibilities afforded by the Oasys ?

I think some of the people who actually own an OASYS don't even realise that

Regards
Sharp.

Trommis · Post by **Trommis** » Sat May 23, 2009 7:30 pm

I own an OASYS, and I am not ashamed to admit that I cannot use this instrument to it's full extent. The OASYS (in spite of it's shortcommings), still is one of the most versatile, keyboards ever made.

Post by **Sharp** » Sat May 23, 2009 7:43 pm

Trommis wrote:I own an OASYS, and I am not ashamed to admit that I cannot use this instrument to it's full extent. The OASYS (in spite of it's shortcommings), still is one of the most versatile, keyboards ever made.

And rightly so there is nothing to be ashamed about.
I only said what I did because I feel this thread has run long enough now and people need to move on and get over it.

We can moan about all the items raised in this thread forever and achieve nothing, or..... we can make the most of what we have and share the knowledge.

At the end of the day, Irish Acts / KORG Forums was founded as a community for people to help each other and for us to get the most out of our instruments. Not a place to complain and expect technical support. We certainly said everything that needed to be said that this point about the OASYS being discontinued, so I feel it's time to move on and get back to doing what we all do best. Which is being musicians talking part in a community helping each other.

Regards.
Sharp.

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Sat May 23, 2009 7:47 pm

Well said James !

rtucker55 · Post by **rtucker55** » Sat May 23, 2009 8:07 pm

While I agree with most of what is being said I still don't feel like the thread should be closed. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that you can unsubscribe to a particular thread or we also have the ability to just not read the thread if we don't want to.

I Do Not agree with trolls hanging around just to try and stir things up. Fortunately our moderators do a pretty good job of stopping this crap!

I do know that it takes some people longer than others to find closure/acceptance when a tragic event affects their life. I feel certain that the discontinuance of the Oasys has affected all owners to some degree.

I also believe that it does help the healing process just by being able to share/vent your feelings with others even if it is just a forum. I think it might be more beneficial to let folks get over this in their own way and time than it would to close this thread down.

Again, I don't know of anything that is forcing any of us to continue reading if we don't want to.

Regards,
Rick

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Sun May 24, 2009 11:33 pm

Reminder ... this thread is about the following :

jerrythek wrote:I'm posting this on behalf of Korg Inc:

There have been a lot of inquiries and dialog regarding the status of the OASYS, and we would like to explain the OASYS current status and future. It is true that OASYS production has now finished. A number of distributors still have stock and so sales continue, but you will see this situation change across different markets as time goes by.

We always knew we were creating a more limited-market product for a smaller group of discerning musicians (you!) and we are pleased to have been able to deliver you this elite music-making tool. You have a wonderful musical instrument with which to realize your personal expression, the finest we have ever developed.

We have recently released some system tweaks/bug fixes and have plans for some more ongoing sound support, like the new sounds we just released.

We constantly get ideas/suggestions/requests for more features for the OASYS, but we cannot promise that any of these can be delivered. The current world economic situation affects us all, and we have to adapt our plans and channel our resources to best navigate these uncertain waters. We are proud of the OASYS and all that we have achieved with it, and thank all of the users and owners who shared in our vision of this superlative keyboard.

As always, we will announce further support only when it becomes available.

Let's stick to that subject here please.

Thanks !

Daz.

Davidb · Post by **Davidb** » Mon May 25, 2009 11:00 pm

Ok, thanx Daz.

StephenKay wrote:
Davidb wrote:The "its discontinued" argument is not valid, IMO.
Why not? Discontinued is discontinued, as far as a company is concerned.

Well, sorry to insist (my last time, however, as we are not going anywhere with this

), but I still think the "its discontinued" argument is not valid in this regard, IMO.

AntonyB and I were talking about why Korg did not released a Sequencer Mode update untill now for the OASYS, and not why Korg will not be releasing a Sequencer update from now on; and saying the Sequencer was not updated till today with a Track View page, Piano Roll editor and enhanced Sysex editing, nor added Velocity Meters in Sequencer and Combi modes, as an example, its because the OASYS its now "discontinued", its not valid.
It is like saying the Function Button hasnt got a function adressed, because the OASYS its discontinued now.

And anyway; although it was not intended, lets following that argument just for a moment:
The OASYS recived the Karma 2.2 update and some Volumes from the M3 Xpanded once discontinued.
Why saying its pointless to adress the Sequencer now when other things were indeed coming to the OASYS?
In the end more expensive than Karma 2.2 and the Xpanded volumes, maybe; but pointless, I dont think so.

Thanx and regards.

weymouthfox · Post by **weymouthfox** » Tue May 26, 2009 1:10 am

Oasys users should have defiantly recieved at the very least the M3 Xpanded sequencer update as a priority considering how much we invested in Korgs vision.
We spent so much money on this thing and IMO have been short changed.

I only bought my Oasys a few months back, believing that there was alot more to come from it.
It was marketed as an open platform but only lasted 3 and a half years with not half the updates that I would have expected.

The discontinued argument is not valid at all.
Users have been asking for sequencer updates way before the M3 was ever released and Korg just ignored them and gave it to customers who invested less than a third of what we have paid. Its a right kick in the nuts!

I have spent around £17000/ $25000 on Korgs keyboards over the last 10 years and I feel so strongly about this matter that I may never buy Korg again.

Thats me done on this topic.

StephenKay · Post by **StephenKay** » Tue May 26, 2009 1:55 am

Davidb wrote:AntonyB and I were talking about why Korg did not released a Sequencer Mode update untill now for the OASYS, and not why Korg will not be releasing a Sequencer update from now on; and saying the Sequencer was not updated till today with a Track View page, Piano Roll editor and enhanced Sysex editing, nor added Velocity Meters in Sequencer and Combi modes, as an example, its because the OASYS its now "discontinued", its not valid.

Comparing the OASYS to the M3 is not valid. They are a completely different code base. The fact that they put a piano roll in the M3 sequencer does not, in any way, mean they can take that work and add it to the OASYS. It's not at all that simple. It's a different code base, and a different platform. The work done on the M3 has to, for the most part, be done over on the OASYS. It's very different.

It is like saying the Function Button hasnt got a function adressed, because the OASYS its discontinued.

Actually, it has several functions for developers and internal use - just not for users. The fact that perhaps it *might* have had some use for users one day does not obligate Korg to hook it up to something now.

The OASYS recived the Karma 2.2 update and some Volumes from the M3 Xpanded once discontinued.
But why saying its pointless to adress the Sequencer now when other things were indeed coming to the OASYS?

Again, I'm not trying to be the "bad guy", but just to offer a different perspective.

First of all, those "other things" did not require any real engineering effort. I did the KARMA 2.2 update, they just had to put it in. And the extra sound banks came from the Voicing Department. The real issue is engineering resources.

Question: From Korg's viewpoint, what is the more logical course?

A. Take top engineers (which are the only ones capable of working on the sequencer) off of important future projects that will keep Korg alive and viable as a company (in these tough economic times), in order to release a sequencer update for a few thousand owners of a discontinued product.

B. Work on new products and attempt to stay in business. Ignore the OASYS Sequencer issue, perhaps permanently, with deep (and real) regret.

In the case of A) even if it was a paid update, any money received would not offset the more real loss of having top engineers unable to work on future products for a number of months, thereby delaying the release into the marketplace of those products. That is why, I'm sorry to say, I think it unlikely to ever happen.

rtucker55 · Post by **rtucker55** » Tue May 26, 2009 4:09 am

Stephen Thanks,

I really appreciated reading your explainations and some of the details. This kind of info can only come from someone who has lived this for many years and understands the inner workings at Korg.

I have to ask myself if I was in the shoes of someone at Korg that had to make strategic decisions that would keep my employees employed and keep the company competitive would I have done anything different concerning the O? Probably not...

All of your points are valid and make complete sense.

Yes, it is still sad but not just for the Oasys owners as it would be like losing a loved one for the people that have spent many years of their lives engineering and supporting the Oasys. Fortunately we are all intellegent human beings and realize that we must accept change and continue forward.

The Oasys owners still have one of the Best machines ever developed and we are indeed a very lucky bunch.

Again, a sincere Thanks for the explanation. It would be fun to hear a little more about that Function button sometime. This is just a rumour but, I heard that it controlled the lights in the washroom at Roland...

Best regards,
Rick

t_tangent · Post by **t_tangent** » Tue May 26, 2009 11:57 am

If only Korg had spent more on Genetic Cloning R & D, then they could have cloned the top engineers and OASYS' future would have been safe

And why stop there. Imagine what kind of workstation we would have with several Dan's and Stephen's, etc

Just trying to inject a little humour in here, as occassionally it does get a little depressing reading, so hope no one minds

OysterPearl · Post by **OysterPearl** » Tue May 26, 2009 11:58 am

Stephan,
I have great respect for you as a person and as a technology innovator.. A small suggestion and a request - please don't get into a defensive mode and especially to defect KORG on this subject. There are some strong view points around and it will be sad to see you getting in a conflict for no reason. It is not appropriate to guage user expectations and perceptions to company strategy and priorities. The company is set to fail if it cannot manage user expectations.
Have a great day - cheers!

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Tue May 26, 2009 2:32 pm

Huh ?

Stephen is being remarkably philosophical, given that Korg's discontinuation of the Oasys isn't great for sales of his Karma Oasys product.

My reading is that Stephen is not defending anything, he's just explaining in very practical terms what the original Korg statement meant.

Korg Inc statement :

The current world economic situation affects us all, and we have to adapt our plans and channel our resources to best navigate these uncertain waters.

- compare -

Stephen's comment

Question: From Korg's viewpoint, what is the more logical course?

A. Take top engineers (which are the only ones capable of working on the sequencer) off of important future projects that will keep Korg alive and viable as a company (in these tough economic times), in order to release a sequencer update for a few thousand owners of a discontinued product.

B. Work on new products and attempt to stay in business. Ignore the OASYS Sequencer issue, perhaps permanently, with deep (and real) regret.

It's not supposed to make us happy, but to stop us from getting unhappier as we wonder why those very desirable M3 features aren't coming our way. I'd love to see the M3's soundfont import in the Oasys, but it isn't going to happen.

Daz.

kenackr · Post by **kenackr** » Tue May 26, 2009 3:18 pm

Rick & Daz,

+1's

Daz, sorry I've been visiting other planets the last 10 years, but what is a soundfont?

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Tue May 26, 2009 3:50 pm

In the same way that the Oasys can import Akai S1000/S3000 format programs/multi-samples, the M3 can also import SoundFonts which are another proprietary program/multisample format. This format was devised a while ago by Emu/Creative Labs and has pretty wide support outside of just their products, so has become a kind of generic way of distributing samples. There is quite a lot of free and commercial material in the SF2 format and also quite a few tools to convert other proprietary formats to SF2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundFont

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Official statement on the status and future of the OASYS

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