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I have two fully expanded Oasys-88!!! I've purchased the first one in late summer of 2008 for the FULL price of over 12'000 Swiss Francs, which is more or less the same amount as 12'000 US Dollars, because the prices here in Switzerland (we are not a member of the EU) are much higher than on the rest of the planet. And later, I had the chance to buy a second-hand Oasys in mint condition, with all expansions and rarely used, for the low and good price of about a new Fantom-G8.

My "The Game Has Been Changed"-posts on this forum ( http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=58194 ), which have caused some furious reactions, can be interpreted as an expression of complete and extreme cynicism and mockery from my part towards KORG comming out from desperation and frustration, despite my honest happiness for all the young and talented musicians living in relative poverty who never had the chance to buy an Oasys, but will finally have a chance with the new Kronos, resp Oasys-II, which is an outstanding musical instrument that will "change the game" for Roland, Yamaha, Kurweil and all the others in a drastic way.

If you posess an Oasys, you know about the incredible quality of this musical instrument, which still surpasses everything else by miles and miles, except of course the Kronos. So if you have an Oasys, you know that Kronos will "change the game" and the standard of hardware synthesizers forever, which is a great thing for us musicians.

To all frustrated Oasys owners like myself: You still have more available voices with the synth engines on the Oasys than on the Kronos (apart from the missing SSD Streaming for SGX-1 (Piano) and EP-1 (E-Piano) and 2 new Drumsets).

And compare the Oasys and Kronos visually:
The Oasys design is a timeless piece of art, while the shiny Kronos with the shiny plastic side parts will be scratched and smudgy in a short time. So Kronos has a nice but very time bound design compared to the timeless (but heavy and large) Oasys design. The Oasys looks very good on stage and has the aura of a real instrument like a steinway. Just for fun: Imagine and compare the picture of J.Rudess behind his Oasys (on his especially designed Oasys stand) with J.Rudess behind the somewhat pimpy-looking Kronos, or do the same with Herbie Hancock....Which picture would you prefer?

The Oasys (just a few produced) will become a rarity in some years, (as maybe the legendary Yamaha DX-1?), while the Kronos will end like all the countless DX-7 today, which can be found on the second-hand market in bad conditions for a very low price...

(btw: I prefer the RH2 key action to RH3)

And of course YES, I strongly support (I even insist on) the position that KORG should give us some Oasys updates from the Kronos. I would even pay for them, as I did for all the other expansions !!! My feelings towards KORG are indeed very ambivalent but still hopeful...

But I will never buy a Kronos as long my two Oasys are still alive. Just combine (as I do) the Oasys with a Laptop ( i7 processor / 8GB Ram) or/and with an OpenLabs MiKo, or whatever else you prefer, and you will be able to use the outstanding Ivory-2 Pianos with over 77GB Samples and the incredible Scarbee Rhodes (or even better a real Rhodes Mark-I which I am fortunate to posess) and Omnisphere and Kontakt and Stylus and Battery and Addictive Drums ,and ,and, and, and ... together with your Oasys ... and this is really OPEN !!! (but of course without dynamic voice allocation)....so I am looking eagerly forward to the new and (for all registered users) FREE !!! Omnisphere Update on February 14 from the great SPECTRASONICS Team !!! KORG JAPAN should learn from them...but I still hope !

Good night and good luck...

Spectrasonic is a cool company - I agree! Very different support-philosophy ...

If one owns an Oasys ... it doesn't make too much sense to buy another one even when it's called Kronos ... exception: one plays on stage very often - then I'd prefer a lighter Oasys to carry around.

Charlie wrote: If one owns an Oasys ... it doesn't make too much sense to buy another one even when it's called Kronos ... exception: one plays on stage very often - then I'd prefer a lighter Oasys to carry around.

This was the reason why I've bought a second Oasys, to have one in my studio and one for the stage, rehearsal rooms, jam sessions, etc. But the Kronos-73 is a lightweight compared to the Oasys-88, so I think that it was probably a mistake to buy a second Oasys. On the other hand, I wouldn't be able to load my programming work from one instrument to the other like now, because this would work only from Oasys to Kronos, but unfortunately not vice versa. The problem is that since we have Kronos, the second-hand market value of the Oasys has decreased immensely. So it is a bad time to sell an Oasys, which is frustrating...And I could be wrong with my assessment that the Oasys will become a rarity like a DX1, it will maybe become a worthless piece of junk. So I spent too much money for a product that is dead in the eye of the manufacturer. Korg gives me the feeling of beeing a big loser. I will not forget...

Dany wrote:

Charlie wrote: If one owns an Oasys ... it doesn't make too much sense to buy another one even when it's called Kronos ... exception: one plays on stage very often - then I'd prefer a lighter Oasys to carry around.

This was the reason why I've bought a second Oasys, to have one in my studio and one for the stage, rehearsal rooms, jam sessions, etc. But the Kronos-73 is a lightweight compared to the Oasys-88, so I think that it was probably a mistake to buy a second Oasys. On the other hand, I wouldn't be able to load my programming work from one instrument to the other like now, because this would work only from Oasys to Kronos, but unfortunately not vice versa. The problem is that since we have Kronos, the second-hand market value of the Oasys has decreased immensely. So it is a bad time to sell an Oasys, which is frustrating...And I could be wrong with my assessment that the Oasys will become a rarity like a DX1, it will maybe become a worthless piece of junk. So I spent too much money for a product that is dead in the eye of the manufacturer. Korg gives me the feeling of beeing a big loser. I will not forget...

The only looser I see here it's Korg. They hadn't any respect. Sorry Korg but it's true.

OASYS will always be a prized possession, and I doubt it will be "worthless piece of junk" for a long time to come. Remember, (if I remember correctly) some 3300 OASYS workstations has been sold, and I think about 5 or 8000 was produced. That's quite a limited run, and rightfully so, with the amount of features and production costs and R&D payoffs.

Don't worry about your OASYS. It will always have great value in your heart

And indeed, we, the ones who were never able to afford such a beast, have given a second chance by the means of Kronos. It's a brilliant marketing move from Korg, one that will seriously endanger other workstation vendors, especially because of SSD streaming and proper seamless patch transition (Fantom sacrifices FX to do it, Kronos doesn't. Kurzweil also does it fairly well, but not in all situations, going from/to KB3 mode causes an interrupt). Those are the things they all need to look up to. Basically, Korg has produced a workstation after which all others will be judged extremely critically if they don't have gigabyte-sized ROMs, and/or sample streaming, and/or perfect seamless patch transition. Those are the things that really matter to a live performer.

The game is on. Let's see what will other vendors do. However, I doubt it will be anything exciting in case of Yamaha and Roland, so that leaves the only hope for something awe-inspiring to come from Kurzweil. IMHO.

As said one of my friends-Korg sold 3000 O users to buy 30-50 000 Kronos users.It's only business. May be.
But I cant understand-where are the Korg voice in all this hurricane of questions?
Or I'm reading wrong topics?

Charlie wrote:
If one owns an Oasys ... it doesn't make too much sense to buy another one even when it's called Kronos ...

True, Charlie.

-Korg sold 3000 O users to buy 30-50 000 Kronos users.
It's only business.

"Touché."

But I cant understand-where are the Korg voice in all this hurricane of questions?

Just guess.

From now on... In the Kronos section of the forums.

After all, It´s all business as you said.

The Oasys's value is what its worth to you....if that means buying 2 then you obviously see some value in buying another unit whether as a spare parts source or spare machine for gigging,there is some Value in what you thought was going to be further developed,I find it odd how some can now look at there oasys and think its worthless,Korg may have dropped it but doesn't mean you should stop using it,its almost as if this kronos has caused the Oasys to be non functional.....Its all psychological,kind of like Kronos has given Oasys Owners a mental block....Forget about Kronos and just use the Oasys.

For me irrespective of what Korg have done or lack of it in Respects to developments of the Oasys...at the moment the value of my Oasys is Priceless...I've never once considered selling it and I've had a love/Hate relationship with it over the Years,I have no plans to sell it,nor give a hoot about its secondhand value,Everytime I step into the Studio I feel priviliged and humble to own one and its given me some great inspiration and still does even in a studio full of other gear.

Had the Kronos been given a supercharged Sequencer,then I perhaps would have been really pissed,other than the New hardware,the Kronos has nothing to really offer me to be insulted or dwell on the demise of the Oasys whatsoever it has only heightened to me what a great instrument it is and still rivals the Kronos even 5 years on,so just how can you be so down on something that still stands up to new products,we should all be kind of used to the Idea that its been dropped by Korg by now.the trouble is with society and technology plays a large part in this is that we have become a throwaway mentatility yesterday is old and we're all seduced by the latest gadgets instead of embracing what we already have we are obsessed by thinking that the latest technology will give us some new level in our music,well it probably will for 5 minutes then the reality sets in and you become back to square one when something else catches your eye and reliase what you had was just as relevant if not more important

I kind of get the Feeling that this forum is going to be a never ending plethora of threads full of Jilted Oasys owners with a bug bear about it being dropped in favour of the Kronos,well as much as I'm racked off by it I shall long continue to switch on my Oasys and write music with it long after something else has superceded Kronos,so either sell the oasys and buy the Kronos or simply sit down and enjoy the Oasys and stop dweliing on the fact its no longer a current supported machine,I have studio full of equipment that have been dropped by Korg and others long time ago that still continues to thrive in my compositions some which cost several thousands of pounds.

As my wife always says whenever I consider buying the newest musical gear"What does it do that all your other gear doesn't apart from lower the bank balance".....Well after seeing the kronos I got that same GAS feeling then recalled my wifes voice in my head and you know what it actually did...nothing...well nothing new that commanded such a high outlay,I already have the vast majority of the technology in the Oasys,so its made me see the true value in my oasys

Whatever your feelings towards Korg and how its treated Oasys owners,they create superb instruments,Kronos is testiment to that in that its evolved from the Oasys so either move on and be happy with a new instrument or utilise and embrace what you have in the Oasys don't let these feelings of resentment towards Korgs politics and customer relations dampen your music enjoyment or put a dark cloud over your once awe inspired moments on the Oasys..

Kontrol, reading your sig I understand your wife's question ...

DavidB, it was pmm putting it that nicely. I merely quoted him.

Oooops... Sorry Charly.
My mistake.

Thank you Kontrol49 and to all of you who have responded! Of course Kontrol49, you are absolutely right with your whole statement! A musical instrument is finally just a tool to translate to the outside world, what you have to say as an artist and what is comming from your heart, your spirit and soul. The OASYS is the perfect "translator" to serve this purpose and this defines the REAL value of a musical instrument and this is the real reason why I've spent a lot of money, since the synth virus has infected me decades ago, because it serves a higher value. As a synth player you have to learn to cope with this tension between new technology and the purpose it serves for you as a musician. For example: The great Joe Zawinul always had his old M1 on the stage and he used it until his last day. I will keep both my "Oasyses" forever and despite all the discussions, we have finally to be thankful to KORG to provide such great "translators" for us artists....

PEACE

Dany wrote:To all frustrated Oasys owners like myself: You still have more available voices with the synth engines on the Oasys than on the Kronos (apart from the missing SSD Streaming for SGX-1 (Piano) and EP-1 (E-Piano) and 2 new Drumsets).

My statement above was wrong, as I've just learned from Dan Phillips on the Kronos section:

danatkorg wrote:...It's true that the max number of voices for some of the engines [on Kronos] is lower than on the OASYS. (Some, on the other hand, are higher.) However, there's a compensating factor: with the KRONOS, effects typically do not impinge on polyphony. For instance, on the OASYS you can play a max of 172 voices of HD-1, but if you use effects, that number will be reduced. Use lots of effects, and it can go down significantly. On the KRONOS, on the other hand, our informal tests (insert normal disclaimers here: all specs subject to change, etc.) show that we can use 14 Overbs (the most computationally expensive effect) without affecting polyphony at all. The 15th and 16th Overbs start to reduce polyphony, but that's really an extreme case.

Overbs are by far the most CPU-intensive effects on the KRONOS, btw. The "normal" reverbs are next in line at around 70% of the Overb. 16 instances of most normal effects - I just looked at choruses, reverse delays, overdrives, vocoders - don't even go over 30-40% of the available effects resources, leaving plenty of room for two sets of effects to coexist during Seamless Sound Transitions. (Btw - note that even the "basic" Stereo Chorus effect is still pretty full-featured, with 24 parameters including modulation, 2 bands of dedicated EQ, LFO sync, etc.) You can view all of this resource usage info in real-time on the Performance Meters page...

-

Dany wrote:But I will never buy a Kronos as long my two Oasys are still alive.

That's also the conclusion I reached not long after I had been given the specs, and talking about it some more with a friend who was debating whether to sell his 88 keys Oasys.

For me, the most compelling argument is why lose money on selling an Oasys second-hand when the only real gains of the Kronos are the pianos (however beautiful they sound).

However, for somebody who doesn't currently have an Oasys, the reverse is true i.e. I don't see the point of buying an Oasys second-hand when the Kronos offers more and for only a little bit more money. The used price of the Oasys would have to drop significantly for me to change my opinion on this.

IMHO you even loose some advantages when changing from an Oasys to a Kronos: the nice green lights, the tiltable and larger screen, an outstanding design ... and there are more than good enough solutions for pianos and epianos available!