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narf

There are things that I love about the OASYS that I don't have in the Kronos...larger screen, LED's around the knobs and sliders etc. At the same time, the Kronos' piano and EP's are just that much better plus the user sample bank functionality makes it superior to the O. I was wondering if it is possible to remove the OASYS brain and replace it with the Kronos brain and have it function normally. Any thoughts?
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TheWolf · Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 11:07 am Post subject:

Having read the thread »The Kronos Inner Workings - For the brave ones« and having snooped around the Kronos Linux myself a bit, I would say:

Theoretically? Yes, sure. They are based on the same OASYS idea and architecture, after all. And I imagine that the KRONOS development at Korg involved at some early point in time putting the new OASYS hardware card (what is called »Shark« in the thread mentioned above) of the future KRONOS into an existing OASYS chassis.

Practically? No, I don't think so. Not without having access to the source code of the EVA software driving this OASYS hardware card. According to the thread mentioned above, this one is hosting the DSPs, the screen and all the LEDs, buttons and sliders. You probably would need to make quite a few changes to this EVA software to allow for the differences between the OASYS and the KRONOS chassis.

X-Trade · Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 4:34 pm Post subject:

Well I think a full internal hardware transplant would be the only way forward. I've thought about this as I too prefer the OASYS visual look, amongst other things.

I'm not sure that the LEDs would still work but it may be possible if the code just happens to still be active.

It would be a big job, expensive too considering you need an OASYS in addition to the Kronos. And I'd dread to think about if you screw it up and lose both.
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Bald Eagle · Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 4:44 pm Post subject:

Couldn't you just mini them together and run the Knonos from the OASYS. I would think the control surface would map nicely although I don't know how the LED's would respond. Stick the O in the corner and out of the way. Of course its not quite as mobile then.

synthmechanix · Joined: 20 Sep 2013 Posts: 8 Location: Florida

What about an Intel Atom motherboard such as a Intel D945GCLF2D? It is similar to the Kronos D510MO motherboard. You can pickup D945GCLF2D for $30-$50 on ebay. I have a ide ssd as well as D945GCLF2D coming. If Korg would do an update to allow this board you would have sata and ide and less power drawn from the power supply like on the P4 MOBO. I also have Kronos discs and the Oasys v1.3.1 discs and the structure is very similar the Kronos has more linux tools then the Oasys etc. Theoretically what you guys are proposing may work. In general Korg would be doing us Oasys owners a outstanding favor to help the longevity of our investment. I for one bought my Oasys for $500 because Guitar Center said it needed $1500 in repair but only needed $250 in parts and someone like myself to dig into it. This is my only board and would like to keep it running for as long as possible. The shark board is basically the secondary mainboard as on the oasys only difference hardware wise is the Kronos uses one USB port and the Oasys has multiple connectors. I also bet that Korg has or had a Oasys running the Kronos kernal. Korg could have made an paid update for the Oasys to have some of the functionality of the Kronos. In general look at the CX-3 upgrade for the Kronos. Are telling me the Oasys couldn't benefit from it cause it surely could!

nitecrawler · Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:27 pm Post subject:

Tear up two keyboards to make one with capabilities and such of each? Sorry, that doesn't make sense to me when you could attach a couple of Midi cables and achieve much of the result you were looking for in the first place, and have two working keyboards instead of one. That would give you advantages that only one keyboard would not inherently have. My 2 cents. Wink

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kenackr · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2014 6:52 pm Post subject:

nitecrawler,

I believe that is exactly what Mike Conway is doing. Using the Oasys to run the Kronos. That's something I'd certainly like to know more about how to do, but I haven't decided to buy a Kronos yet, so probably not worth it for me to bother Mike about it yet.
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Charlie · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 9:35 am Post subject:

I've heard that at least the first versions of the Kronos OS were running on the Oasys. So it was possible for the Kronos alpha/beta OS. But I assume there had been several reasons why the Oasys didn't get the final Kronos OS. And I believe that these were not only "Let's sell more Kronos instead of supporting the Oasys". Wink

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SanderXpander · Platinum Member Joined: 29 Jul 2011 Posts: 7860

I believe Korg would have offered a (paid?) software or hardware upgrade if it were even remotely feasible. So I don't think it is. Appreciate your Oasys for what it is - still a Cadillac among instruments.
Midi-ing them together should help.

kenackr · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 8:55 pm Post subject:

Sander,

You may indeed be right about Korg might have offered a paid upgrade if it were remotely feasible.

I suspect that the underlying problem might have been more of a manpower resource issue to do both at the same time or even in series.

A lot of us think of Korg as a big company, but in reality when you split them up into their international operations I think you find that the manpower is probably not there to handle such an effort and still be able to come up with new products too. It's a lot like "don't eat your seed corn for next year's crop".

But that is only my assumption and I could be wrong too.

The fact that there are approximately 3,000 Oasys units means that even if they came up with an upgrade and charged $1K each, they would gross a max of $30K and probably net only a max of $15 K total.

If one adds real world effects and starts boosting the price charged to $2K or higher, the number of units sold will start to drop and it might become clearer that ultimately there will never be a substantial profit.
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Kevin Nolan · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 10:14 pm Post subject:

OASYS was long since cancelled before Kronos came along. OASYS wasn't even mentioned in the launch of Kronos as its lineage - indicating that Korg saw OASYS as a commercial and/or brand failure never to be mentioned again.

I know that reads a little stark but I monitored Korg blurb at the time - as well as posts here by Korg personnel - and OASYS was utterly forgotten and banished from all discourse, promotion and communications.

Korg seemed even ashamed of OASYS - that's the impression they gave at the time - so there was never, ever going to be any kind of link between the two.

Even if that's exaggerating their sentiment, there is no doubt that they saw OASYS as a commercial and/or brand blight on their history, that any mention of OASYS in Kronos promotion would drag it down and wreck the Kronos brand.

OASYS does not exist in the psyche of Korg for quite some time now. They are _very_ selective when promoting and recounting their history in that regard.

A pity that those who once loved it should abandon it so blatantly and publicly at the time. Commerce is king I suppose!

Kevin.

kenackr · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:19 am Post subject:

Kevin,

I think you're right that it does seem a little harsh.

You are correct that very little was said about Oasys by Korg during the Kronos introduction and that seemed odd. I always chalked that up to 3 things:

1) Only 3000 units were sold, and that may have been a source of dissatisfaction for Korg (who only bought parts for that many), but what could you expect for an $8,000+ instrument in those days, when competition was selling at between $3K to $5K?

2) The project, (including r&d spanned close to 6 years), sold for 5 years (2005-2009) which is decent in our "gotta have a new thing now " world. I think Korg management felt it needed to project a "New" product for Kronos to the public as opposed to just an "improved" product from the Oasys.

3) I also feel that Korg management felt they needed to lower the price to boost volume (better parts buys in higher volume) and revenues (cheaper construction). The business decision then becomes one of relying heavily on reusing as much of the R&D that went into Oasys as possible while breaking ground with some new features like streaming.

I readily admit I have no inside information so it is pure conjecture on my part. I was, however, a musical instrument store owner until shortly before the Oasys started selling and got to have frank discussions with most of the manufacturers.

Many of the Korg personnel who were in the development process for Oasys felt very good about what they had produced, so I would not say that all of Korg felt embarrassed.

Last and perhaps least, there was an Oasys owners revolt on the Korg forums when it became clear that Oasys was indeed left in the dust and this was perhaps a cultural slap in the face to the Japanese owners which may have contributed to some resentment but again I really don't know.
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nitecrawler · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:22 am Post subject:

Kevin Nolan · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:23 pm Post subject:

I don't see why you either of you need to justify it on Korg's behalf. They didn't seem to care! We all know the reasons were economical and brand based.

But that's not the point. The point is, Korg purposely disassociated themselves from OASYS - something Korg chose to do.

That's fine, we're all OK with it and 'get it' - and sure it's all well in the past, and only a very small foot note in the history of musical instruments. But it should be acknowledged for what it is, as in the same way as we know that at one stage Boob Moog was not associated with his namesake brand (for whatever reason), or in the same way that when Yamaha talk today of their synth legacy, they do not include the analogue synths they developed.

If there is one issue worth discussion - it's Korg's values. If they can abandon such a pinnacle of effort so cheaply and readily, it calls into question their values, in my opinion. To me, OASYS was a great venture for Korg and should have celebrated it with the launch of Kronos - but they didn't see it that way, and that says something to me about their value system.

I still admire the company, but they did go down in my estimation a 'tad', the way they handled all of that.

As said, a foot note in the history of synthesis for sure, but lets be clear on what happened and not dilute it.

nitecrawler · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:24 am Post subject:

No Kevin. I'm afraid you miss the point. There was no upgradable path and that precipitated the "stonewalling". The system was touted as upgradable but in reality was not. Simple as that. End of story.
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