Korg Forums

When I came new to this forum as someone interested in Kronos and its direct ancestor, the Oasys, one of the really skillful and helpful persons in here and over on his website was Peter Mahr.

I can hardly believe what I read now on Blogoasys:
http://blog.petermmahr.com/2011/01/31/k ... r/#respond

Whoever is responsible at Korg's email customer relations, should perhaps kick some butts. How stupid does company staff have to be, to lose such a resourceful 20 years power customer, running a great supportive website, for the sake of ignoring his emails instead of staying in nice contact???

I would think some more respect and attention would have been appropriate.
I just come from Roland and their non-existing direct online customer relations. I will ignore any company just coming close to the impression to give me similar experiences, and it does not matter to me at all, how interesting the technical specs of the Kronos are, if they are not backed by a well working communicative team: if that key feature is missing in our times, I cease to be interested in gear long before buying it.

Please someone from Korg contact Peter for good.
And perhaps also someone make clear enough here in the forums, that the Kronos is not planned as a sell and duck device with silent staff towards loyal customers soon as the deal is done.

Dont let me start telling you about this...

To make the story sort: He has not been the only one who has been ingnored, after leters and emails, by Korg.

Just ask some fellows over here.

But then I have even more questions:

- I understand that this moment in time may be difficult to handle for Korg: surprising people like me positively with a payable Kronos concept, while having a problem with Oasys owners: they will of course feel bad with their expensive gear in the present situation

- BUT: the main requested thing in such a situation is communicating, showing respect and concern, even if you don't yet have good answers for the Oasys user base.

LOTS of positive possibilities, from open letters about strategic decisions, over little extras for free, up to personal answers to emails (the Oasys user base isn't too big to handle): it's all about mutual respect.

Believe me, I as a possible future Kronos user will check this forum and this thread very aware of Korgs behaviour, not to bash, but to perceive how they relate to loyal customers. If they stay completely silent towards their Oasys users this would irritate me up to being a possible dealbreaker.

And I'm a potential Kronos buyer and not an Oasys owner.
I guess other possible Kronos buyers might have some thoughts about that too.
So from my view Korg should really waste a strategic thought or two on that issue, before neglecting an important part of their overall reputation for years to come! I mention that for good!

He's a customer with a self inflated ego who feel he's owed something by Korg. Personally, I feel he's just another OASYS user who feels that Korg owes him something for being an early adopter.

It's not right that he hasn't heard from Korg but then again, if his correspondence is like any of the posts here by angry OASYS owners, his emails may be hostile and ignorant and I wouldn't answer either. Based on the tone of his blog, they probably were.

What kinda cracked me up was, the last piece of Korg gear he's purchased in the last 5 years is a 9.99 app?!? Yah, Korg will really feel the pressure...

-Mc

Jim, I have to tell you that I love the OASYS community - Peter Mahr, Kevin Nolan, Charley, Keymaster, EJ, Sina, Sharp, Daz,...... - ALL of them. I feel the same about the Korg guys, Dan, Jerry, Brandon, etc., along with that magnificent freelancer, Stephen Kay. I mean, these are guys that I read about in Keyboard Magazine, Electronic Musician, Future Music and Sound On Sound, for many years. Here they all were on this forum, talking to guys like us!


The only thing I have to bitch about is the missing EXf, which was listed on the specs. My experience sensed "Open" meant that the source code was not fixed and that engines and parameters could be added by Korg. And, (apart from a new kind of EXf effect), they did!

The buyers that came later into the game, knew what they were getting. But, back in 2005, there was no STR-1, MOD-7, MS-20, PolySix, etc. I wouldn't even say that I was taking a chance - I was satisfied to have HD-1, AL-1 and CX-3. That's all there was and I knew better than to pipedream about future enhancements.

I saw the Peavey DPM series become Obsolete, though they promised otherwise. I saw Roland VariOS (also open) quickly fade away. Like a lot of others, I saw my Yamaha, Roland, Access Virus C and other synths get replaced every 2 years with a new makeover.

I got the OASYS 5½ years ago and it is still my #1 production board, supplemented with the Virus TI. I also got a shitload of enhancements for it. Imagine your computer staying on the cutting edge for that long; can you????? In fact, the OASYS will stay cutting edge relevant for at least a few more years. Think about that...

Sure technology catches up and allows for faster and cheaper. Kronos has most of the exact same screen displayes as OASYS. The build quality is nothing like the OASYS' metal chasis. There are less inputs, which is a big deal to me, since I have my Virus TI stereo patched in, along with vocals. The poly counts are mostly less - 140 voices for sampled/ROM sounds, instead of 172. 40, instead of 48 (STR-1, MS-20). Those of you running short on notes, know that this isn't an improvement.

BTW, Kronos isn't even out, yet. OASYS owners had a 6 year head start on great synths that the rest of the world will finally discover. Maybe one of the synth mags will finally review MOD-7!




Korg, Jerry, Dan, etc.

As a lot of you know, the U.S. R&D division takes it's orders from Japan, which does the actual manufacturing. I've seen Jerry, Dan, Brandon, etc. bend over backwards to try and deal with customers and mis-information.

What have they done for me, personally? Well, they asked if I wanted to be in their adverstising, along with others here! They put my name in Keyboard Magazine (one of my fave mags), put my bio on their website and linked to my indie film work!



Then, I said I wanted to make a tutorial DVD and what did they do? Stephen offered his website to market it from, Dan offered to proof watch it and Jerry said he would talk to Korg about covering production costs, so it could be included with every OASYS. Of course, I'm a capitalistic s.o.b. and wanted it on my site, yet these guys still threw their support up! Jerry linked to it from the KorgUSA site.

I and others here were asked if we wanted to be on the beta test team, and they took our input. In fact, so many things I wrote about came to be realized - Poly unison, Sample/audio input to synths, FM synth, a workstation with multi-gigs worth of ROM, 24 bit HDR recording, etc., etc. Granted, the last couple of things ended up in Kronos, I truly felt like I was being listened to.

As Kevin noted, Jerry, Dan and others made statements in the Sticky at the top of this forum. They were truly sorry about the sudden shift from Japan, which was knee-jerking to the falling economy. I can tell you, living in Las Vegas, where 1 in every 9 homes is foreclosed upon, I've been feeling it in a lot of ways from my convention work to the global market for indie movies, which has sagged terribly.

Anyway, the Korg guys tried to console OASYS owners with 4 banks of HD-1 programs and 1 program/1 combi bank of marvelous EXi sounds........and this was after the OASYS was discontinued! I believe the 700 FX presets were after that point, also.

I don't know some of the specific issues with folks, but I'm happy to say that Dan and Jerry are on my Facebook. I don't feel abandoned and my OASYS is a potent weapon as ever. My most recent composition being the KARO KUO unison orchestra song.


http://www.midnightsunent.com/KUOcomp.wav


A personal thanks, from me, to Jerry, Dan, Stephen and the rest for your support!

@ McHale

I agree with you, sometimes the way things are said tells more about the person then about the content.

McHale wrote: What kinda cracked me up was, the last piece of Korg gear he's purchased in the last 5 years is a 9.99 app?!? Yah, Korg will really feel the pressure...
-Mc

Lesekompetenz.

Peter

ps: I am an OASYS owner, therefore there was no real need for me to buy anything else.

And I don't mean to be a jerk here, but I've bought (and still have) way more Korg gear than he's ever owned. When do I get my own thread dedicated to me and my incoherent ramblings?

This thread is ridiculous...

McHale wrote:And I don't mean to be a jerk here, but I've bought (and still have) way more Korg gear than he's ever owned. When do I get my own thread dedicated to me and my incoherent ramblings?

This thread is ridiculous...

.... you got it already.

I apologize to put you in CC of the mails I sent to Korg, otherwise... you do not know what I was writing them.... hm, then you are posting about something you do not even have a clue. Whatever,....

McHale wrote:And I don't mean to be a jerk here, but I've bought (and still have) way more Korg gear than he's ever owned. When do I get my own thread dedicated to me and my incoherent ramblings?

This thread is ridiculous...

Oh, not so true that at all.
Peter's done quite a bit about the Oasys and promoted it very nicely.

Show us your similar website, WITH similar support?

Mike Conway wrote:What have they done for me, personally?[/b] Well, they asked if I wanted to be in their adverstising, along with others here!

That advertisment I remember very well.
It was also in their JAVA segment on the main Korg webpage.

All these quotes that streamed past and I was thinking "Who the hell are these guys? Never heard of them before" but it was eye catching to read "...what will I sell to get this?"(not direct quote) and that caught my own thoughts about it too.

Surprisingly only 1 demo sound - that eerie vocoder program Korg had on their webpage and a YouTube user "scoopicman" playing the theme from "Edward scissorhands" ultimately made me decide to get my O.

Sometimes it takes so little (in the positive direction)......

Mike Conway wrote:What have they done for me, personally?[/b] Well, they asked if I wanted to be in their adverstising, along with others here!

That advertisment I remember very well.
It was also in their JAVA segment on the main Korg webpage.

All these quotes that streamed past and I was thinking "Who the hell are these guys? Never heard of them before" but it was eye catching to read "...what will I sell to get this?"(not direct quote) and that caught my own thoughts about it too.

Surprisingly only 1 demo sound - that eerie vocoder program Korg had on their webpage and a YouTube user "scoopicman" playing the theme from "Edward scissorhands" ultimately made me decide to get my O.

Sometimes it takes so little (in the positive direction)......

Thanks, Hedegaard. The fact that you wrote it twice means a lot, also!

peter m. mahr wrote: hm, then you are posting about something you do not even have a clue. Whatever,....

What's to know? The OASYS came out about 5 years ago, ran it's course and a new synth is out and OASYS users are crying fowl because they apparently don't want Korg to release a new synth. Sour grapes isn't too hard to figure out. It's one thing to state an opinion as most of the OASYS users have done. But it's another to go on and on and on and on ad nauseum about it and make threats that they're done buying Korg for ever and ever because someone expected the OASYS to be the best synth ever - for ever.

What am I missing?

I would think the thing that's a legitimate gripe is that Korg promised an expansion that they never delivered on, but they did provide more than they promised after it was discontinued.

The OASYS had more development and expansions for it than any other synth in Korg history. It's also STILL the most advanced workstation, bar none. You can continue to use it for a long, long time.

Life is short, it's time to move on.

Korg's OASYS was AND still is my favourite synthesizer. I paid quite a lot of money for it but it is worth it. I could have made millions by selling thousands of records, I did not and I do neither blame Korg or the Oasys, it is a lack of my skills. Nor am I "jealous" that other musicians get its successor for less then half the price. I always expected something like that, as the Oasys is a PC, although probably the most "sexy" looking, hiding the truth in such a perfet way, that I always had the feeling to play a "real instrument".

Do I need the Kronos? No. I have it already at home, nearly a year. I play the Oasys, the CP1 and could use my software sampler. I do not use the latter, as I prefer playing and working on the OASYS, proved by some tracks one could listen to. Only reason to get one would be if my Oasys - which hopefully will never happen - breaks.

Due to some of my postings and questions I received whether I could review the Kronos, I contacted those I had to contact. I was asking if it is possible to get access to a Kronos for a review, as soon as it is available. In my mails I did not write anything about Korg owing me something, or blaming them for not supporting OASYS anymore. There is a bit more "history" and currently again, but I cannot get into more details at the moment. Only thing of interest for you is - I did not blame or attack them for anything as you assumed.

On the other hand 1 + 1 = 2. What I mean by that? Usually developing "things" take a while and if you look into the discuntinuation story and the timepoint.... critical economic situation, do you remember? It was obviously not critical enough to develop Kronos. Not mentioned in my mails either. Just an addendum to the whole discussion. Again, and as stated above I am happy for all those musicians who can now afford an Oasys. From my point it is all about the lack of communication or let me say it straight, the ignorance. This is nothing out of a bad mood....

There should be no doubt, that some people working for one of the Korg "subsidiaries" (not sure whether this is the right term) are doing an excellent job. Dan, Jerry, Brandon, e.a. ... and I always appreciated there input, like Mike posted already. Same is true for Stephen.

I already suggested to make Dan the Korg Communication Manager , this will move Korg immediately into the year 2011.

McHale wrote:And I don't mean to be a jerk here, but I've bought (and still have) way more Korg gear than he's ever owned. When do I get my ...

Just for the record this is to date what I have bought and owned new from Korg since 1989,this doesn't include the countless other secondhand korg gear I have also bought Which would take my total tally of owned Korg pieces to date to 58

Korg 01w x2
Korg 01R/W
Korg ER1 Mk1*
Korg ER1 Mk2*
Korg EA MK1
Korg EA MK2
Korg Kaoss pad 1
Korg Kaoss pad 2*
Korg Kontrol 49 x2(Still have 1)
Korg K25
Korg Wavestation EX x2
Korg Wavestation A/D
Korg M1R
Korg M1 x2
Korg X5
Korg N264
Korg N5
Korg N1R*
Korg X2
Korg T3
Korg Trinity
Korg Trinity V3
Korg Prophecy
Korg Oasys*
Korg Triton Classic
korg Triton Extreme 76*
Korg Triton Rack x2(now only own 1)
Korg TR Rack
Korg Z1*
Korg MS2000BR
Korg D16XD*
Korg Padkontrol
Korg EMX-1
Korg Microkorg
Korg D1200
Korg Nanokey*
Korg SV1-73*

*indicates what I still own today


Yes I feel pissed about the Oasys and I've made my feelings known about it,my opinion like others who have invested a large amount of cash into Korg gear doesn't matter to a Large corporation,neither does it buy me any rights as to their intentions.

I've learnt a lesson in buying workstations,but I have no issues that have soured me into ever buying anything from Korg again,(as I have recently bought a brand new SV1-73)and no matter how I find a way to hate Korg for what they did with The Oasys I can't get away from the fact that they have created so many great instruments that I highly regard and will continue to do so.


However you see Peter's and the rest of the oasys owners opinions,its unfair to attack him over it ,it may seem egotistical but doesn't he have a right like anyone buying into a product to be dissapointed and air his views,yes its becoming a broken record around here now the Kronos has overshadowed it,but Peter didn't ask for the OP to start this thread so to grill him over a view on his own site is a little harsh.