Korg Forums

Hi Korg people!

Is there any possibility that I can help Korg in developing (porting) Oasys PCI drivers to Linux?

I am not sure which email is best (support@korg.com, may be?) so I ask the comminity.

It's hardly believable that any user of this mighty card likes keeping dedicated old Win98 comp for this only purpose. In two days I am going to buy this card and I hope I can spend my time for programming its drivers.

Sure, Korg won't support it indefinitely long, but I think I can do it myself provided needed docs. What are the conditions? NDA, may be? No problems with intellectual property, seems to me. All functions are realized in custom DSPs so no secret algorithms are to be given to public. _I, as musician, want only the way to control these functions through PCI bus in my Linux comp_

(Financial loss? Zero, in my opinion. There remain too few OASYS cards on secondary market, as I judge on Ebay stats.)

citing Korg website about porting SynthKit to Windows:

http://www.korg.com/oasys_pci_faq_html/ ... nthkit.htm
Porting it to another operating system (such as Windows) would unfortunately be a major task, and is thus not possible at this time

So there are, people on these forums who can do it for their fun! Me, for example

Any suggestions? What can be done? Which is opinion of Korg company?

Let's discuss it in the best place for it - Korg forums, OASYS district
Sorry for (possible) too many words, I tried to describe the problem from all points of view.

Regards,
KPF
Korg Trinity V3 , Korg MR-1

KPF wrote:It's hardly believable that any user of this mighty card likes keeping dedicated old Win98 comp for this only purpose.

Personally, I'd suggest a Mac running OS9. Much nicer.

KPF wrote:In two days I am going to buy this card and I hope I can spend my time for programming its drivers.

It isn't just drivers that would have to be re-written, but the entire software package, including real-time code. At this time, it is not feasible. Please see our announcement about this from June 2002, copied below. I'm sorry to disappoint you.

Best regards,

Dan


* * *

Announcement re Windows 2000/XP and MacOSX

Dan Phillips <dan>
Wed Jun 5, 2002  8:42 am

Over the last year or so, a number of OASYS PCI users have
asked about support for Windows 2000/XP. We've responded that
Korg was investigating this possibility, and that we would
offer more information as soon as we could.

Before we come to the conclusions of those investigations, a
brief review of the product's history may be helpful.

OASYS PCI was first released in December 1999, with support
for MacOS 8-9. The retail price was $2,200; this was
considered high by some, but accurately reflected the cost of
producing the card. We released the Windows 95/98/Me version
at the same price in late August, 2000. (At the time,
virtually no professional audio hardware offered support for
Windows 2000.)

Due to slower than desired sales, we lowered the street price
of the OASYS PCI in early 2001 to approx. $999 (meaning that
we sold it below our cost), making the system much more
affordable to our users. Even so, we continued to support the
card with numerous additions and upgrades.

We released the free OASYS PCI Version 2 update for both
Windows and MacOS in May 2001. It added 14 new PCM playback
algorithms, hundreds of new Programs and Multis, and virtually
all of the sample data from the Triton's internal ROM and
Pianos/Classic Keyboards, Studio Essentials, and Future Loop
Construction PCM expansion boards.

Also around May of 2001, we started selling the card through
Guitar Center at a street price of $499, or about 22% of the
original retail price. Months later, Guitar Center was selling
the last of the OASYS PCI cards for $299 - about 13% of the
original price.

In October 2001, almost two years after the initial release of
the card, we released the 2.0.2 software update. At this time,
we also released a new, free physical modeling synth plug-in,
"PlectraChime."

During this time, a number of third-party developers began to
release synth and effects plug-ins for OASYS PCI. This
included commercial products from Harm Visser and John Bowen's
Zarg Music, as well as freeware products from Norsez, Jim
Corrigan, and Korg's own Brandon Daniel and Dan Phillips.

In spring of this year, Korg distributors acknowledged that
OASYS PCI was discontinued.

That brings us up to the present.

Korg has now concluded its investigations into the possibility
of Windows 2000/XP and MacOSX support for OASYS PCI. These
investigations have included both technical and practical
consideration of a wide variety of possibilities, including
all of the ideas suggested and discussed by the members of
this mailing list.

Ultimately, and with great regret, Korg has concluded that we
will not be able to add support for these new operating
systems.

Due to concerns regarding intellectual property, it is also
not possible for Korg to release any of the OASYS PCI driver
or application code into the public domain.

Korg will, however, continue to support OASYS PCI on all of
the platforms for which it was sold, including Windows 95, 98,
and ME, and MacOS 8 and 9. This means that you can still call
or send email to the support departments of Korg distributors
(such as Korg USA and Korg UK), and you can still order parts
from and have repairs made at Korg's service centers.

Korg will also continue to support SynthKit plug-in
developers, including signing up new developers. More info on
SynthKit is available here:

http://www.korg.com/oasys_pci_faq_html/ ... nthkit.htm

A number of developers continue to produce new synth and
effects plug-ins - many of them available as freeware. For
instance, Brandon Daniel has just released The Matrix, an
exceptionally powerful analog synth plug-in - and we have it
on good authority that Dan Phillips is readying a new release
of free effects plug-ins. A list of current developers is
available here:

http://www.korg.com/oasyspci_sounds_3rd_party.htm

We know that many OASYS PCI users may eventually wish to
update their main audio/MIDI computers to Windows XP or
MacOSX. For these users, we recommend a similar solution to
Gigasampler: when you upgrade to a new computer (as the new OS
will eventually demand), keep your current system and dedicate
it to running OASYS PCI. You can then treat OASYS PCI as an
external synth and effects processor, and continue to use all
of its great-sounding synths and effects.

We understand that this is not the best of all possible
outcomes, but we feel that it is important to give you an
honest and complete answer.

We are proud of what we accomplished with OASYS PCI from a
technical standpoint. While it certainly was not a commercial
success for us, it is one of the best-sounding, most flexible
synths and effects processors that Korg (or anyone else) has
ever made. We continue to use it in our own studios, and
sincerely expect that its phenomenal sounds will continue to
serve all of its users for many years to come.

Best regards,

Dan Phillips, Product Manager, Korg R&D
Jerry Kovarsky, Product Manager, Korg USA

Dan,
Thanks for so complete info!
It's really sad that this card went slow.

So there IS some proprietary software running these DSP to create such sound... I understand.

But... what if somebody tries to program the card from scratch by himself? New approach, new possibilities, new sound! I have some experience in programming short-reaction applications, so it can have some meaning... Such experimenting, however, looks too time-consuming, if not dangerous anyways it's better to use this time in music )

ok, i'll find Mac