Official statement on the status and future of the OASYS

[SoulBe]

Well said Mike and let me add this:

Though I bought the Oasys about 8 month ago, I do not feel it was a wrong investment. I started with my fist DX7 in the 80íes, priced with about DM 4000, which is EURO 2000, but ... 25 years ago ... a lot of money. Playing as a live keyboarder I bought and sold a lot of gear, cos you had to stay up to date with your gear, coming up D 50, EMU Samplers, Ensoniq, Kurzweils´s VAST, Trinity, virtual analog things, portable Hammonds and and and...

When I look at the Oasys it contains most of these in one instrument and thats worth every cent I spent. Of course it is sad, that they don´t continue, but if I had spent the money to buy a high class synth with HDR, another with virtual analog engine, another with FM engine ..... to which price/ amount would I have come to?

SoulBe

[Davidb]

[After seeing the excelent work Korg made with the M3 eXpanded, many of us thought that, other things apart, the OASYS workstation warranted a Sequencer update as well.

I honestly think the "Roland Fantom-G" played a part at this time in korgs thinking, in that the M3 was good" but """""""look what Roland have releaased - Mouse, huge screen, Sequencer to Die-for, We need to respond to that"""" - and respond they did.

Hi Toni.

True.
I think you are right, IMHO, the picture you describe is very accurate.

Regards.

[Davidb]

I say the sequencer update is still possible as long as the officials at so called Korg R&D are willing to go along with half of what they've earned for the past five years.
Of course it'll be natural for them to say sorry than to say hold on to your breath. Korg won't go bankrupt for at least another decade and certainly the Oasys won't cause it to happen. Probably it's just a matter of how much funds Korg is willing to suppliment the salaries for those who are involved in the Oasys project. The real economic crisis happened last year and Korg had plenty of time for the past five years. The new manufacturing process won't be necessary to improve the sequencer update unless the touch screen is different from that of the M3.

Again, agreed with what you state above.

Besides the factors you rightly point out here, the "no communication" policy Korg has kept all this time regarding the OASYS has lead us to this point, IMHO.

As billysynth1 said, we all would want someone as "Open" as Stephen as a chairman for projects like the OASYS, but, alas, thats not the case.

As an owner of Oasys, I'd like to know what portion of the Oasys' price tag was reserved for the term *Open Architect* in a *legal* sense. It is unfortunate for me to say that what Korg advertised was the bait and switch tactic especially after reading the statement saying 'the Oasys project was carried out more by the enthusiasm than the economic thoughts ..' To put it another way, how much did I *really* pay for that *enthusiasm* premium out of the $8,000 price tag?

Thats something we wont be able to know, at this point.

As long as Dan confirms this is more Music Meyer than Korg speaking, however, Jerry´s words confirms in a way or another, IMHO, that the OASYS is a product meant and designed as a small niche Keyboard, meant to exist not too long, and they were aware of it.

Because of the way Korg advertised and marketed the OASYS ("Open" "Upgradable", etc), we were not.

I must confess that I was held on *captive* of the term *Open* for the past four years knowing that no major hardware change would be necessary any sooner than *none-Open* architect synthesizers like the M3.
Am I the only one who is exhibiting the abnormal behavioral symptom of Stockholm Syndrome?

Synergy.
Of course, you are not the only one in that line of reasoning and thinking.

As I posted before in this thread, even all those things could have been done differently to avoid all this upset to the OASYS users.
As an example, the M3 eXpanded upgrade could have come after Korg discontinuing the OASYS, not before. And this way the OASYS users would never have the idea or speculation of an upgraded sequencer, free libraries, etc, for the OASYS, and would see it in a different light, maybe.

[zolhof]

As long as Dan confirms this is more Music Meyer than Korg speaking, however, Jerry´s words confirms in a way or another, IMHO, that the OASYS is a product meant and designed as a small niche Keyboard, meant to exist not too long, and they were aware of it.

Because of the way Korg advertised and marketed the OASYS ("Open" "Upgradable", etc), we were not.

+1 !!!

I was reading all those replies, thinking exactly the same, thanks

it´s cool to be part of the elite, but I would prefer the oposite and have the "open" thing for more than 4 years.. I accept what happend (what else can I do?), but it´s too soon man, too soon.......

[Daz]

Thanks to Korg for posting some more of the "back story". I personally feel that it will help to move things along here, so we can all get back to business as normal.

Daz.

[lcmorley]

Thanks to Korg for posting some more of the "back story". I personally feel that it will help to move things along here, so we can all get back to business as normal.

Daz.

Too right Daz.

I think within the last 10 or so posts, people have been going round and round in circles.

We have a final answer from Korg, which is what we have been requesting for over a year now.

Let it lie, and enjoy your Oasys.

[Daz]

So far I've only commented on the discontinuation process, rather than the discontinuation itself. Primarily because I've been so busy, but also because I wanted to come to a conclusion after the mild shock had subsided

I am disappointed that we won't see any more development. Korg were producing some really superior stuff; the EXi's were way better IMO than other offerings from Korg or other manufacturers. It's a shame to see that gold mine close, it was a unique source for those that love their synths. I look forward to seeing/hearing more work from Korg R&D in future. Preferably running on my Mac !

I don't have the time to get into detail about lesser concerns, such as Program editting in multimode never being implemented. That was pretty daft for a synth of this calibre.

Daz.

[Rocness]

Sorry Daz I'll repost here.

[Rocness]

For me the saddest part is not the sequencer but no update to Karma is the real tragedy.
I don't know if Stephen can find a way to do anything more with out the help from korg.
As far as the sequence goes, if you had to you could use your favorite DAW but what about Karma. Let's face it Karma is going to grow it's a living breathing thing.It will hurt us all, the day we see Open Labs or another company have the benefits of updated karma technology wile Oasys users don't. I would hope that Korg inc.(Japan)would at least support Stephen Kay and the development of Karma into Oasys .I believe there's always away we just have to find it and be positive about it. What we need people are SOLUTIONS.

How about if Oasys users invested in a special Korg stock to help at least the development of Korg and Karma technolog.I'm not saying major updates to the Os
just for updated Karma if it where to be available.
May-be Korg can email all Oasys users about option to buy korg stock
and we can be proud to invest in a company that we know and Love.
I say ask not what your Oasys can do for you but what you can do for your Oasys.

Let's all get together and invest in Korg stock that way we can have a small say so in at least supporting any Karma updates.Is this possible
We need real world solutions or should we just die?

No update to Karma is the real Tragedy imagine the possibilities.


peace

P.s. Just got Mike Conway's Oasys DVD it's a must have, all Oasys owners need this. Thanks Mike

peace

[Daz]

Thanks for moving that comment into this thread, Rocness, much appreciated.

For everyone else, please continue to post all chat related to discontinuing the Oasys in this thread as you have been doing. Thank you !

Daz.

[danatkorg]

Jerry´s words confirms in a way or another, IMHO, that the OASYS is a product meant and designed as a small niche Keyboard,

This is true, but it does not imply the subsequent conclusion:

meant to exist not too long, and they were aware of it.

I am unfortunately constrained as to what I can and cannot say. I can't talk about un-announced projects or plans of any sort, past, present, or future.

I can, however, point to this part of the official statement: "...we have to adapt our plans and channel our resources to best navigate these uncertain waters." And as Jerry wrote, "we have been living through a very difficult and emotional time coming to these decisions." Plans and circumstances sometimes change even after hard work in good faith.

- Dan

[Daz]

Dan isn't allowed, for obvious reasons, to talk about the discontinuation process in any detail. I will take a liberty and fill in some of the gaps based on my own professional experience of making these kinds of decisions. For starters I seriously doubt that they just decided one day one last year to stop the project and that was it. I can imagine, based on my experience, that a whole bunch of different options to make the project viable were evaluated in some detail. There might have been an Oasys II proposal, a proposal to continue developing the software but not the hardware, and other variants on those themes that we can only imagine. Those proposals would have been backed by detailed estimates in terms of costs and engineering time, and presented to the management board or CFO to balance with the needs of the business. It would have been a fair amount of work.

So I don't think it's quite right to imagine that they just bailed out some time last year and didn't tell us

Equally, thinking about how frustrating it is going through that kind of process, only to find that it doesn't really pan out, I do feel some sympathy for the folks that really wanted to keep the project going in the spirit in which they'd started it. It was a very brave project in the first place, a little daring really, and I am glad I got a decent amount of goodies out of it before it got derailed.

2c,

Daz.

[zolhof]

can Korg tell us now what would be the actual purpose of the "function" button?

[Tiger789]

I honestly think the "Roland Fantom-G" played a part at this time in korgs thinking, in that the M3 was good" but """""""look what Roland have releaased - Mouse, huge screen, Sequencer to Die-for, We need to respond to that"""" - and respond they did.

Yep, agree.

And especially after the release of version 1.20 - the Fantom G sequenser is just amazing.


-Tiger

Guitarist / Classical pianist
Oslo, Norway
--------------------------------

Korg Oasys 88 - # 002113 + Karo Philh. Strings
Roland Fantom G6 + ARX-01
Yamaha Clavinova CVP-309PE

[Daz]

can Korg tell us now what would be the actual purpose of the "function" button?